I think sandybestdog's comment about a making a decent living for honest work is valid. I believe he is talking about the PRINCIPLE of the whole thing. Is that correct, SBD? It seems to me that way back in the 1960's, when I was about 10 years old, one man could work at one honest job and make enough money to feed, clothe and house himself, his wife and his children. I must say I was a kid then but that is the impression I have and I think it is correct. I am cheering for you, sandybestdog. I think all that you are doing will serve you as you proceed through life. I don't have a big fat trading account to validate my statement but I can sleep at night with the choices I have made. I traded ES for about 6 months with my own money and learned a lot. I had to stop because I had retired and was attempting to learn trading and live off of trading at the same time. I did not blow up and I learned a LOT. Risk management especially. BTW Both of my parents were dead before I was 21. If I COULD live at my parents right now, I WOULD. If I was in a position to do that I could have saved a sh*tload of money to trade with that way. I worked for the same employer for 21 years. One thing that really jumps out at me about futures contract trading is that it really IS speculation. You make money for getting it right, NOT for LABOR. Now any employment looks to me like labor. Whether I am being paid to dig ditches or be an attorney or teacher, I am exchanging brawn or brain power for money...
You seem like a smart guy Sandy, consider finding another similar paying job and ditch the car, then work on your businesses or education or trading. It's also questionable whether the propfirm is really there to help or slowly bleed you of your money.
Your post was so depressing. I did the part-time jobs for trading, but it NEVER works out. It's just to exhausting and tiring. I tried taking contracts, delivering pizza, working retail, whatever. It just doesn't work. I finally gave up and tried to get a job on Wall St. I think best bet is to save, save, save and live at your girlfriend's house or parents. Wash, rinse, repeat until it happens. My story: 1996 - Summer job, data entry, $6/hr 1998 - Fresh out of high school, got a job writing software, got paid $7/hr to rewrite firmware. I actually did not care that I was getting paid $7, I was in love with the idea that I could wrote code and make money. 1999 - Freshman in college, got internship, made $14/hr in Silicon Valley. 2000 - Made $23/hr, writing software in Seattle (internship) 2001 - Sacramento, making $21/hr writing software 2002- unemployed, but got college degree completed 2003 - Made $54,000 a year in Austin, software, TX, quit job, tried to start company, went broke 2003-2004 - Worked at a dating service, made $75,000/yr, in California. Started day trading on the job. 2004 - Laid off, no $, had a condo. Started mobile phone software company, sold some games, but only covered 2 mortgage payments before game stopped selling. 2005 - Lived at casino playing poker, then got job at a casino, yearly take was $80,000 2005 - Dad gets stroke, i lose it, go broke again. Manage to get severance pay, took it all to day trading firm. Lost it all, went bust. 2006 - Sold condo, had 50k savings. Moved to NYC to find a job near trading. Salary is $92,000 2007 - Firm (hedge fund) goes under, broke, working for a university, making $52,000. Start taking classes at the school, but am living paycheck to paycheck after all expenses 2008 - Got new job again, hedge fund, salary is $170,000 [1], barely survived lay-offs. Paying tuition since I am not at university. Bank account: $1300. It's all I have after this roller coaster -- paying tuition out of pocket. I'm overweight now, have some problems, and am bordering on failure again. My best bet right now is holding onto my job. I have 0 debt, though. So, while my salary has gone up over time, I have made nothing and have succeeded at nothing and feel like I have this dark secret of failure. So, I am not a winner either. Only difference now is that I have a job near trading; however, no idea whether job will last. Hoping my bonus will cover the final payment on tuition for my graduate degree. [1] Yes, I lied to get this job. I had the qualifications and get great reviews. But I watched how some crooked recruiters on Wall St. got people jobs, lifted their tactics, and tried it. I think what saved me was that I took an exam on the interview and got a bunch of questions right that no one else who interviewed got. I couldn't even afford the suit for the interview.
One more thing: Don't go to a prop firm and -stay- there unless you see someone else making money and they've thrown a few crumbs your way on how to make money. I did this, lost $. Also, a lot of the successful traders there also went bust when NYSE switched to hybrid.
THE BEST PART TIME JOB: INTERNATIONAL PRODUCER/DJ. Tour on the weekends. 1000 per show. Travel the world on United or Virgin Air. Hotel (4Stars) Airfair, Drive (limo) all paid for. Free bar/club tab, plenty of pussy, all in a "nights" work. Recession/Depression will increase GIG's world wide as people take to heavy drugs and drinking to deal with the end of the world. (09 bookings have trippled all ready) Tracks sell on Itunes, Djdownload, Beatport, easy Money there. Plenty of Press in the Dance Music Mags. to help push song onto the consumer. Might have to sleep Sunday all day, just to catch up with your TimeZone and prepare the brain for the Week of trading. It works for me in the Private Equity World, I'm sure it would work for a trader.
How to answer questions, what to change on the resume, the canned responses to questions, etc. It actually does not pay to be truthful on the resume. If you have to explain too many things, etc. Yet, you also have to be aware of what keywords to put. One thing I have going for me that others don't, though: I have a damn good education from known schools. I had to pay for that, though. I imagine I'd have more savings if not for school.
To the poster who replied: "if you're one of those little guys working part time...blah blah blah you suck" Don't ever kick the little guy, he recovers much faster and can have his foot in your arse crack sooner than you can say NASDAQ My buddy (20yrs of age) took his meager savings of 4.5k and drove it up to 39k... hows that? no degree. goes to community college. works part time. AND to Stefan... keep up the work bro. use your stops... scalping is for sissies! ride the full trend as much as possible. goodluck.