the answer is NO! you have big responsibilities. day trading job is really hard, you will not be able to have any respectable income for at least 1 year. this is a very tough & demanding job. you will not be able to do it well if you worry about morgate, children's foods & clothes-expenses.
same situation here. have to call compliance dept to get approval for each trade. therefore, can't really trade too often.
Keep the job - one thing that hasn't been mentioned is health insurance. I assume that you have a family health insurance plan through work. This will be gone when you day trade, so expect another $800 to $1000 monthly bill on top of your $3000 burn rate. It is idiotic to not have health insurance for your family, so it's a necessary expense. $50k is way uncercapitalized, so make yourself a goal of getting to $500k before you even consider quitting your job. If you can't meet this goal in 3-5 years, then you have no business daytrading full time. If you have a sound strategy that has a definite edge, taking $50k to $500k in 5 years should not be a problem and prove that you are making the right decision.
hi all I'm back again, since my last post till now, i'm able to generate 40% gain. But I'm still below 100k in capital. I'm wanted to move to full time trading, but still thinking whether should i wait to reach 100k in capital first, just to be safe...
Question: Are you sure your system(s) will work in all markets and all conditions? Can you explain your drawdowns? Even 100k seems awful lean to me. Plus, how will you ever save for retirement?
The answer is no, reading about your situation. I think you need at least 100 k not to say twice that to trade comfortably, unless you really have mastered trading. I'm thinking of going fulltime myself in the near future, but I'm still undercapitalised. At this moment I trade from 5 am CET to 8:30 am eur/usd and hang seng (that is first session till 6:30 am) then I go to my dayjob and start again at 5:15 pm till 8:30 pm trading eur/usd and NQ or ES. I really learned a lot over the last few months and it's going really great. I'm really enjoying myself, although getting up in the morning is quite hard Theoretically I could go fulltime now seeing my results over the last month, but I prefer to wait at least a few more months untill I'm well capitalised. All my trades are done percentage wise on my capital, so my chances of surviving on what I make improve as my starting capital goes up. At this moment I don't live of my capital. But I will take out half of my profits each month if I go fulltime. Your cost are more or less fixed. So if you have a bigger capital they mean a lesser percentage of that. It's really that simple. Also one of the think I found out is if I'm more relaxed my results definitly seem to improve. More capital => less stress => better results => more chance of survival. It's simple like that.
BTW, the US market is open from me till 10pm. I deliberatly stopped trading it till the close, this has vastly improved my results and has made me more relax: I still have a kind of evening where I can turn my mind of of trading en enjoy some other things and interact with people I like. I used to be a kind of workaholic. Tuesday one of my friends came over from another town and instead of working we went to eat something and had a drink after. This is something you have to do from time to time: you have to enjoy the fruits of your labour, that makes you more relaxed ... although I put in more hours than before, I try to enjoy life more during the hours I'm not trading, life is more than just work work work. One more thing, you really have to talk this through very well with your wife, either your mariage will fail, or your trading will fail, if not both. Explain her what you want to achieve and cut it up in realistic pieces and goals you will try to reach before moving on to the next step. She doensn't really have to know all the detailed stuff but she has to get a kind of general idea what trading is about. Lot's of people are, wellmeaningly, worried when someone they know wants to start daytrading. Show her your results each month, if they are consistantly profitable and/or sees you are working hard on this and improving she will support you.
Thanks for your advice, yes, i'm actually showing her my proft every month, now it seems that she's has changed her mind, just that i'm still undercapitalised, hopefully i reach 100k soon, but i just hope to go fulltime now, rather than later, kind of impatient, but risky, hmmm
How much do you think you can generate on a monthly basis from the 100k you have? How is your performance now on a monthly basis? Also, how much do you have in savings? is it enough to support your family for maybe 6-12 months with it alone? I'm with the other guys in that 100k is quite small for you. I'd say have 250k at least and when you have a track record of averaging 6-8k a month (conservative numbers) consistently, then consider full time. otherwise, keep your job. it's not that bad. The grass is always greener until you get there.
if ever there was an impatient person around, it must be me. My daytime job really sucks, you have no idea (there is a good reason for that, long story, I got an illnes and can't work in my previous industry anymore) so all I want is to start trading fulltime. Experience learned me that's just the stupid thing to do right now ... better have some patience and start of in optimal circumstances. There is going to be enough pressure on you allready as it is, no need to make it even harder. don't only show the results to your wife, also try to explain a bit what it entails ... and that there are ups and downs, so she just doesnt get scared to death if you are just having a bad week. Explain to here this can happen, tell her now about riskmanagement, position sizing, she may only understand half of it but at least she will know you are serious about this ...