Should I trade full time???

rateesquad · Aug 24, 2007

140K plus bonus. Hmmm.....dont know what will happen if you trade on your own.

Plus that health insurance and other benefits from work VS> nothing.

Well, stay at the job otherwise you will die from boredom, at your house, the wife and kids will drive you crazy.

trader07 · Aug 27, 2007

Thanks for the comment.

Quote from aidaweb01:

This is a good post, interesting to see lots of differant views. I believe people should follow their dreams by taking controlled risks.

It seems trader07 has the skills to trade in his current environment and therefore should be able to migrate those skills when he goes full-time.

My view - ensure you can give this a go for 1 year wthout having to worry about making profits (so whatever cash you need to support your current lifestyle and financial commitments on top of your current trading account). Then simply give it a go. Don't change much as you can clearly trade (eg if you don't watch the open at the moment, don't watch the open when you go full-time) - go play with the kids instead. If you are going to try a new strategy that requires you to monitor the open, then use your new freedom to develop this strategy in a low risk way, for example using a smaller position size. You'll soon know if full-time works for you and if this is the dream you expected.

Good luck and remember - most of the worlds traders would love to be in the dilemma you currently find yourself in.
More...

trader07 · Aug 27, 2007

Very interesting. I am 45 and in the same situation. I think it is time to do my thing instead of "the man's"...

Quote from Ivanovich:

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.
More...

trader07 · Aug 27, 2007

Agreed.

Quote from Anekdoten:

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
More...

trader07 · Aug 27, 2007

Thanks.

Quote from jack hershey:

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.
More...

trader07 · Aug 27, 2007

All excellent comments. People very polarized like I said before. Decided to stay the current course until I have built up a bigger capital base or until I can't take "the man" anymore whichever comes first! Thanks again.

Log in or Sign up

Should I trade full time???

Should I quit my day job and trade full time?

Yes

No

rateesquad

trader07

trader07

trader07

trader07

trader07