Did you read his post? He said he has ZERO trading experience and then added very little money. So there is nothing "new" for him to learn. He is a clean slate. Therefore, since he is NEW and has NO money AND he lives in TX, I would highly suggest he work his way into energy. He'll thank me later.
online pro poker player for 7 years, age 28, no education or work history. Thanks for any feedback Maverick.
Well, if you have the money, go to school. This will pay either way no matter what you decided to do. Texas A&M, UT, UH all have excellent energy programs. You'll have a job at graduation. You can probably play poker while you are going to school if you are still making money at it.
Going back to college is definitely the backup plan. I appreciate the honesty. Didn't realize just how bad of shape prop trading is in these days.
Look, here is how I look at it. There are still people selling buggy whips. Sure, probably at an antique store, but they are selling them. There was a time early on if you got in early there was so much free money in daytrading. And after the free money was gone, there was easy money. After the easy money, there was opportunistic money. After that came the risk money. It's just a business cycle. Of course there are plenty of people making money trading stocks, but the easy money is gone. Ideally the advice I would give to any young person is to "get in early" at something. Anything. Hell invent it if you have to. Just get in early. That is where the fat margins are. When something has been commoditized it comes down to who can stay alive on razor thin margins. That's usually the deepest pockets with the largest infrastructure. Think Walmart. If you have your whole life ahead of you, don't waste it chasing yesterday's opportunity. Try to get ahead of the curve. Get yourself an education, learn as much as you can about the world, work your ass off, protect your reputation and your credit with your life and look ahead. You are sitting in the middle of a lot of opportunity down there. It would be a shame to waste it. A wise person once told me, "stand in the intersection of opportunity and wait to get hit".
Same exact thing happened with poker. There was a time when I could make $300k/year easily. That time is long past and the edges keep getting smaller. Now I have to work my ass of to make $100k/year but there's no telling how long that will last. I definitely hear what you're saying about getting in early on the next big thing. Gonna start diverting a little more of my time to find what that is. Thanks a lot for the insight!
I know, fair point. But I guess my point was is that he needs to learn how to trade first and foremost. The instrument is secondary.. Telling a new guy that there are a bunch of people people pulling in seven figures is a bit misleading, and kind of is along the same mentality of "trade futures you can make a ton b/c of leverage" meme.. The last thing he needs is to put the cart in front of the horse.. My advice is to him is to get a free platform (ie. ninjatrader) get a live data feed, and put in hours upon hours of screen time until he gets used to losing, learning in the process.. That was he can get a feel for what kind of strategy fits his personality, etc.. Then if he can become consitantly profitable, understand the psychology of winning on a sim vs winning with real $$ (which is something that is very often overlooked IMO) and make the adjustments.
Yes he has to start somewhere and that IS my point. If he IS going to start, don't you think he should start somewhere where the forward market in trader p&l is in contango? I mean, if he is totally green he might as well start today building a foundation of knowledge and experience in something that has far greater potential then flipping shares. Again, I'm not saying he or anyone else can't make money in shares, it's about opportunity cost. I pointed out the 7 figure trader because THAT guy does not exist at Bright Trading. Or at WTS. Or at Swift or any other equity bucket shop where a guy is dropping a deposit. There are actually guys in their late 20's and early 30's pulling down 5, 10, 15 million in energy. I would LOVE to see where that is even happening in the equity space. I use those numbers to show where the forward curve is. I'm just trying to get this guy to understand that the real money that is made in this business is not from guys getting sloppy seconds 10 years after a market peak. But rather getting into the "next big thing". And to make the decision easier for him, starting salaries in the space are close to 6 figures vs wiring 30k to Don Bright. The numbers DO matter.
^^always good advice Mav. I looked into it after you mentioned it. To be honest I had not even thought of that route. Energy Finance at UH looks really interesting., and I'm a Texan, so the tuition is not bad at all.