I thought I would post this out of curiosity, because I am sure other people on ET have been in similar situations... I am currently a small business owner who is not making enough money. I have been slowly killing off my clients to transition myself into the "working world" or "trading world". It is impossible to keep my business running while trading full time, as I wouldnt have enough time to dedicate to trading since running my business takes quite a bit of effort. I am am not worried about risk capital, but more about draining capital through month to month living expenses while being a pre-profit trader (please save the advice on trading prop, becoming profitable, time frames for success, etc). What kind of flexible jobs have other people worked to make a minimal income while learning to trade full time? I live on the west coast, so due to market hours I have a little more flexibility. Thanks for the input. Just curious about what others have done for work..
You have to trade part time or swing trade using eod data untill you build up enough money to trade full time. my suggestion is atleast 100,000 that you can afford to lose. Other choice is work night time but you will be too tired to trade. Other advantage of trading part-time untill u build enough equity is you would gain experience while risking less money, and if it doesnt work out you got someting else to fall back on. This worked for me. My job didnt have flexible hours so those were the only options.
I have a small consulting business that I used to work all the time. Post 9/11 all the business dried up and I found myself at home and took up investing to supplant the lost income. To be honest, unless you have a job that doesn't require you to work at times that conflict with the market, I don't think its easily doable. Maybe a part time weekend job would help. The larger question in my mind is why would you need a part time job if you are trading? Have you tried any of the trading simulators out there? Get yourself to the point where you are pretty sure you will be profitable before quitting the business if you can. Maybe I just got lucky. I found myself devoting more and more time to my stocks, and basically what little business was left wound down naturally. I've made at least more than I ever made running the business every year so far. There are days I win big and days I lose big. Note that I'm doing what seems to be called swing trading where I'll load a position and hold it up to 18 months or so (thats the longest so far). I was lucky I didn't bail out of my first few positions until I'd made significant profits. If I'd gotten scared and dumped instead of doubling up, I'd not be here now.
Basically your saying the current small business you own is not flexible enough for you to keep it as a sideline job whenever nor are you willing to let someone else manage it for you while you trade fulltime??? It would help a little to know what that small business is so that its removed from any suggestion list. Regardless, to the type of job you decide is appropriate to do as a sideline support to your trading... It should occur prior or after trading hours and that doesn't involve a long commute... Preferrably a job with some benefits (medical and dental). Here are a list of jobs I've read here at EliteTrader.com that others do while they are part-time or full-time trader: * Bartender * Tennis Instructor * Health Club Manager * UPS Driver * Architect * Grocery Store Clerk * Security Guard (store) * Airport Valet * Airport Security * Tax Accountant * Private Language Tutor (German) * Internet Business There's others but the above are ones off the top of my head. Due to your west coast time slot...you have some flexibility that allows you to work a full-time job that you clock off before mid-night... Allowing for a decent night of sleep before the market opens in the morning. By the way, it's normal for new traders or traders with debts to work another job while they trade because of the security (financial support) until their trading profits gets to the point of consistency to allow for him/her to quit the other job or reduce the number of hours working at the other job. Mark (a.k.a. NihabaAshi) Japanese Candlestick term
Supporting yourself while trading pre-profit? i.e: Supporting yourself while being a loser? malaka, You have a serious problem. You don't have the foggiest notion how long your "pre-profit" period may last. Count on at least 10 years. An additional safety factor may not be unwise. Hope this helps.
I work as an Engineer 11 p.m. to 8 a.m. and trade during the day. I think the only way I would leave my career is if I had 800k - 1M in tax free municipal bonds.