Thanks Georgii for your words. You are right, and I agree. It might not work out the way I've hoped, but at least I'll know. And I'm not too happy taking money out either, but situation called for it. Prop firm thing is a good idea, but I need my current job as a backup. Hope you are wishing me luck.
The fact that you are already withdrawing money for reasons other than your personal bills concerns me. This could become a bad habit that will end up biting you in the azz. Please show restraint when withdrawing money to help people around you. Just bcuz you are having a good run lately doesn't mean u can't suffer a big drawdown. Remember: Past performance is NOT a guarantee of future performance...... ** Try to pay back as much of that high interest loan as quickly as possible, I would recommend paying back at least 40-50 percent of that loan principal back ASAP ......if U can.
We all 'might' get lucky of course, what I'm talking about is what is most likely to happen to you given what I've seen happen countless times plus my own experiences. Luck won't carry you far, that's the problem. I can wish you all of it in the world, but wouldn't you rather be doing something that works based on probabilities rather than luck? Otherwise buy yourself a lottery ticket. By the way, I did advise that you join a remote prop firm, the kind where you can trade from home or work (as long as you're not firewalled of course). That should be no different from what you are doing at the moment, although if I were your employer I'd be pretty pissed off that you were doing something so demanding on my time. I know you don't want to hear me say these things, but your situation is asking for a problem: 1. You have a high interest loan that you are bound to repay, or face serious damage to your credit rating that can financially cripple you for years. 2. You have a job and you're stealing time from your employer to day trade. This won't be a good thing when you are found out, you may even be violating the law if you're working for a financial firm. 3. You are not able to give this the focus you need to be competitive. You're competing against people who are monitoring the market constantly. You're constantly being forced to choose between your job and your trading business. 4. You are putting enormous pressure on yourself to make this work, interfering with your decision making and overall psychological well being. I'm all for taking risks that are defined and intelligent. I can't, in all honesty, say that what you're doing is intelligent risk taking. Maybe it's sexy, it gives you a thrill or something, or maybe you're desperate to make it work (name me a trader who wasn't at one point). But it is not a reasonable business plan, when you think it over. Yeah I know, you've heard it many times over, and you're going to be the exception who will make headlines in the WSJ. But why set yourself up for failure at the outset? Even if you get lucky, are you going to be able to keep your profits for long? There are lots of stories of people who've made huge money by rolling it big, then inevitably they give it back. With the benefit of hindsight you can say 'why surely, when I've made $XXXXXXXX, I'll stop trading", but that's not how it works in real time. Anyway it sounds like no matter what people tell you here you're going to keep doing what you're doing. By all means go ahead, and I do wish you the following: that you realize, before you do any serious and in my view completely unnecessary, uncalled for damage to yourself, that you're not on a path that will help you reach your long term goals, and that you reassess and come up with a better plan.
wabu, have you looked at the tax implications of your loan? I am not sure, but you may not be able to deduct the interest on your loan against your trading gains. you may not even be able to deduct it against your w2 income. if that's the case then your hurdle rate becomes like 30%ish. secondly, I am sure you have a plan to ensure you will pay those loans off. you mentioned a career in finance (where they are letting you study for the CFA). two things derail such careers: going to jail for fraud and declaring bankruptcy. If you are a good risk manager you should understand the risk/benefit of these two scenarios, if not already accounted/addressed them.
500 for tires? No man just go to the junk yard and buy used ones! Also look for the cheapest mechanics (or make friends with mechanics), on Kijiji. Us Aspiring traders have to have tight budgets! @wabu27
Day 5: Beginning of day: $41585.77 End of day: $41472.74 P/L: ($113.03); -0.27% Horrible trading day today. Started the day off very well with DUST but gave out all my gains throughout the day. Poked around in AAPL, NFLX, and DUST. Trading just didn't go for me today. Multiple times I would sell and it would immediately go up... small losses added up and in the end finished negative. Giving myself 2 stars for todays trading. I was busy with work so couldn't stare at my charts as much as I would have wanted to, but still doesnt give an excuse for poor entry/exits. Made couple impulse trades today because I made good gains earlier in the day (had something to fall back to) but did not think I would end up negative for the day. Wow, such a bummer. Glad the loss wasn't too big but still very disappointed in how I scalped most of the trades today.
@Iwilldoit Yea ended up just replacing 2 tires. Going to just leave the rest in my bank cause I got my first interest payment on my loans coming up this month. Haha yea too tight of a budget @newwurldmn no i just give everything to a tax guy and he takes care of it. Yea, that might be the case but I wasn't counting on the interest payments to offset some of my tax obligations. 30% is very high, but (call me crazy) I think I could make 30% a month. If not, even 200% a year? I don't think that's too hard. It might just be my amateur side talking big but yes those are the returns I'm expecting. But if the markets dull as it is now, it might be a little harder than I thought.
If you can earn 30% in a month, maybe you want to quit while you are ahead. The worst thing that happens to a trader is that they are in a drawdown and their capital gets pulled. On the upside it's all about percentage returns but on the downside it's about dollar losses and it gets a lot harder to earn back when you have your line pulled. And I will wager that if you drop 5k, you will panic and pay off your loan leaving you with the unenviable task of having to earn 100% on your remaining capital.
I was going to say that if you can earn 30% per month, maybe you should be applying to Goldman Sachs for one of the world's top trading jobs, because their highly professionally trained, experienced, world experts can't. But then I realised this guy's so deluded that he might actually take it seriously. Anyway, it's time for me to unsubscribe from this bullsh!t thread and trouble you no further.
Don't be so modest: 30% a month? You probably recall Schizo posted every single trade in REAL TIME not long ago for at least about two months, and he made more than $5000 a month by trading only ONE contract ES. It is reasonable to trade one ES with a capital of $2500 (for experienced trader), so in this sense, he made 200% a month consistently. And more remarkable it is all in REAL TIME posting. Haha. how about your 30% compared to that.