Should I trade full time???

Discussion in 'Professional Trading' started by trader07, Aug 21, 2007.

Should I quit my day job and trade full time?

Poll closed Aug 31, 2007.
  1. Yes

    25 vote(s)
    35.7%
  2. No

    44 vote(s)
    62.9%
  1. I'm in the exact same scenario as you are. Salary is almost a duplicate.

    However, I seem to have enough time to trade, and I am essentially making 120% of my normal income trading, which is a nice overall income. But I've been debating doing it full time because I'm sick of working for the Man.

    Most likely, I'll simply keep doing what I'm doing and retire around 45 and then just trade. The big thing for me is the benefits (health, 401k, etc.) Those are rather expensive if you're a full time trader.
     
    #31     Aug 24, 2007
  2. vectors101

    vectors101 Guest

    Contraryr to what these brokers who tell you to quit your job and trade full time,,they know you will trade more more commission for them..you don't need to trade full time in this market or game to make money in you acccount.

    They are more like amway reps who tell doctors and dentist to quit their job to become amway millionaires. I've haverne't of a doctor or dentist quiting their profession or anyone making 100k in regular to trade thge market full time as a trader. why

    This market is all about risk whether you are long or short. The problem with trading, unless you have system. some days it's not to tradeable at all and waste of time watch the flat market.

    This isn't a cushy job with gauranteed income and benefits.
     
    #32     Aug 24, 2007
  3. DHOHHI

    DHOHHI

    I took a 3 month leave under the FMLA, traded well and asked for an extended 3 months as a personal leave. After 6 months I was doing well and then left my corporate job. The time to get your feet wet trading full time was well worth it to me.
     
    #33     Aug 24, 2007
  4. If you got the skills your current salary+bonus pales in comparison.

    Worst risk ever is not taking any.

    Take some time off, test your skills, if you got it as an independent trader you will not only increase your salary but your freedom.

    Anek
     
    #34     Aug 24, 2007
  5. I read the thread.

    There is good news and bad news.

    The financial situation is as follows and you did not figure this out.

    Your 600k that returns 60% can support the 200K salary by using 333K of that plus 10% (33K) totalling 366K. The remainder (234K) will grow for the future .

    Or you can use you trading account to produce the 200K by dedicating 50K of the 150K you now have. The remainder (100K) can be used to grow capital for the future.

    So you can recalculate the proper mix. To avoid the 10% penalty on the first mentioned you do a two step process which only took me 7 months to get cleared through the IRS.

    The 60% in investing is not too swift nor is the 400% in trading as annual performance when compared to what is offered.

    Now the bad news.

    Investing and trading under the circumstances you created is a good avocation only. I do not see a way for you to deal with your memory and the necessary shielding that is required for you to no longer use your first mental recourses during trading situations in real time. You have so much baggage at this point, that there is an extreme problem set that you have acknowledged which you would have to circumvent all of the time.

    It is very difficult to build a "wall" around a large mental volume when you are trying to do something new (meaning trade or invest to support your family) as in creating a trading and investing routine full time.

    Having 4 times the investing and trading capital you need is not the issue. The 15 years you spent creating the mental condition you are in is a nearly insurmountable problem.

    People can do compromises. Your children may still be going to public schools and you and your family may be seriously deprived with respect to quality time spent together. Yielding to a bonus income decision is a tough decision to have made.

    You need to do several workarounds on contemporary issues that do not get put on the table the first five or ten go arounds.

    You did not follow any sort of critical path or thinking in the past. It is easy to zoom back and see where the more accomplished stepping off points would have been. More important is to deal with the near term down side acquisitions (mentally) and get those surrounded to make an attempt to reposition yourself.

    Your path to full time trading has to become an "overlap path".

    You are saddled with fear and anxiety as SOP for trading. That is a constant and a fixed cost you will always be paying.

    you must eliminate the money part of the situation as a starter.

    this is done by continuing apace and noting when you have investment and trading prifits that exceed your professional income. That point being resched you go up to the flight deck and check the steam pressure on the takeoff sling. you will note that you have multiyears salary available as the "steam pressure".

    This means you can look for the high sign from the deck crew (your family and especially kids in prep school or college). If you get it, it means that they are willing to live with your fear and anxiety as you go full time and begin to have what some people call "freedom" and what I call "taking responsibility" for the obligations of a full time trader.

    You will come to understand how, for your orientation, FEAR and ANXIETY have become capitalized.

    By overlapping until your salary is actually covered by investment and trading income, you get to see your mind go through some repairwork that begins today. your objective mentally is to build a shield from your "first recourse" mental set of responses. They have to be built around with some sort of different set of recourses that are associated with being a successful full time trader. There are many bad books on this.

    In summary, NO.
     
    #35     Aug 24, 2007
  6. clacy

    clacy

    I am not trading full time, but hope to some day. Just my opinion, but I would hold out a little longer.

    Whatever you're doing, it seems to be working and there is nothing wrong with that.

    At your current rate, you should have a pretty significant amount of money in 1-2 years, which would take much of the pressure off of you.
     
    #36     Aug 24, 2007
  7. lindq

    lindq

    Don't confuse brains with a bull market.

    The bull market of 98-2000 convinced a lot of highly paid employees to quit their jobs, only to get killed when the market changed.

    Your trading success in the past two years may have absolutely nothing to do with a changing market environment going forward.

    Couple that with a major psychological change in needing to support a family from your trading income, and you need to be very careful in cutting lose from the regular income you have now.
     
    #37     Aug 24, 2007
  8. lassic

    lassic


    finally, someone brought that up
     
    #38     Aug 24, 2007
  9. Tarder07, I agree with cutten's comments. You stated you have been trading on and off for 15 years then your comment "But thinking about reaching for my dreams"

    I just find it strange that if its your dream then you have not made the jump yet given your success with trading.

    Be careful what you wish for (and why you wish such things)

    I gave up a similar salary and succeed or fail I would do it again. :)

    Best of luck
     
    #39     Aug 24, 2007
  10. I think some of the comments in here are ludicrous, those similar to:

    -- what the hell, go for it.

    -- screw the kids, play with the money.

    Remember, many of those here on ET who claim success are more likely breaking even or papertrading.

    Have you any idea how much you will have to earn just to REPLACE your salary, bonus & benefits? And how hard it is to keep it up?? For 10 years, such as at a job.

    Everyone thinks that the concept of 95% of leveraged traders doesn't apply to them. There is a 95% chance they are wrong.

    I think those who stare at the screen all day as "fulltime" daytraders are mostly time wasters. I trade once per day, long - short - flat on the markets I follow, with my own premarket signal. I do not find it exciting to spend 4-8 hours a day staring at charts, especially getting up at 2am to forex trade. And the slippage, commission, makes it VERY difficult to regularly pull great profits from the market. Few scalpers seem to stay wildly profitable for long periods of time.
     
    #40     Aug 24, 2007