I am thinking about going back to working evenings because I am on the west coast and finish around 12:30 and am very bored. I read somewhere recently that a very high percentage of people with high income jobs have gone through savings and foreclosed on homes because they refuse to take a job they feel is "beneath" them.
I still run my business - call it "consulting", but i work for myself outta my home-office.... - I have 2 separate stations, one for biz & one for trading, but I trade many days off the smaller set-up. ... when my business is real strong, I only trade from like 6:30 am to 8:30 or 9:30 am pst on the left coast, but I can check in on positions. when biz is kinda slow, i trade market hours & work after while listening to internut radio shows. prior to 2000, i did both FT & i have two kids & other biz interests - burnout is mofo, and i got toasted! Having a job/biz takes a load of fear outta trading. I work alot of afternoons & weekends, which is great. I am just wrapping up for today at 6:15 pm - tomorrow, i get up at 4:30 am, drive to L.A. (1.5 hrs) & take pictures of properties & look them over when the sun comes up... take me 2 hrs in L.A. and I'm back home after the 1.5 hr trip back... that's 5-6 hrs and I'll work when I get home; I'm back before noon - no traffi cearly on sundays - if i go a weekday, the whole day is shot! If I wake up earlier, I'll leave earlier & be back earlier provided the sun cooperates. friday I had a great day... I got 2 jobs in and bid on another, & I have 2 other bids out already - the smaller assignment i got on friday pays 1/2 what I made trading on friday - I used to think "shit, why do I keep the biz open??? what a coward!" but you know what, I still like my biz & its pretty easy after 25 years and I have 2 kids in college next semester & if they don't go to law school or find a job when the graduate, they can have my biz & let me work part-time. Instead of getting spun about working, I try to be grateful that I can do both. I like to trade opening gaps & some friends & I have our own trading room/site - they are all over the world & have different approaches & time frames and its social too, which is cool. and for those who aren't bored to tears already, i tried doing both full-tilt boogie for a few years & I don't think its a good idea. If you have a job that is non-trading hours and pretty stress-less; that's probably okey, but trading 6.5 to 9 hrs a day & working 16 hrs a day, just is a bad idea for any length of time. maybe you would consider swing trading first & concentrating on your job & building up a financial buffer. whatever you do, spend at least as much time reviewing & critiquing your trades as you did setting them up. good luck -
Here is my story Started 3 years ago - invested before that but never made any significant amount before even in the roaring 90's I begged and borrowed 30k to start prepared by studying books reading blogs but didn't really have a strategy-can you say confused and dazed? One good thing I learned was not to blow up so I kept positions small as I learned but discipline is a bitch- more than strategy this is where u need to focus 1 year. Lost many times biggest loss was $1600 4 losses of over $1000. Took loans on credit cards etc to stay above 25$ k Down about 16k for that year 2 year learnt from past mistakes followed strategy more-developed just one core strategy but still discipline was a keyboggest loss $1400 biggest gainer $3200 see where ian going? Year 3 current paid back loans etc took up full time job as a tech doing installs make bout 45k$ from that trade only from 6 am to about 9 am each day my off days r during week so I can tradefull time this way there is no pressure to make X amount for bills - but my goals r to make 500each week average about 25k each year- consistencyand discipline r my goals since my strategy is ok I would not want u to be discouraged by the95%failure rate - just don't think bout itcongentrate on what u got to do- enjoy trading for it's own- to me learning to trade has many arms to it- strategy. Personality psychology etc r some of them Reason I started doing the fullyime job is it allows the account to grow instead of taking money out for bill - in 2-3 years I can quit the job plus it's flexible and not a slave driver kinda job two days off during the week is good too I had to look long and hard to get this but now I don't have to lose sleep and can continue what I love doing
I love EOD systems. I've written profitable intraday systems, but nothing, I repeat, nothing beats the pleasure of being able to "trade" with a minimal amount of effort. The truth be told if you were to compare my intraday systems with my EOD, the EOD made much larger risk adjusted profits. Trading just takes a strategy with a statistically probable chance of success. Finding that edge takes a few years, though, and I certainly don't condone my style for a beginner. Anyway....
Oh indeed! BTW, why can't you take care of Marlo Stanfied and his homies, Chris and Snoop? I thought you were the best in the biz?
SERIOUSLY.... LITERALLY..... R-O-F-L to the OP .. ive established a residential real estate appraisal business that nets me 2-3k per week. I can do this by letting trainees go out in the field to do the legwork. I can stay home and just review their work before it is sent out to clients for 50% of the fee. That being said, making 100-150k per year makes for a more than comfortable life for a single male 20's, even while living in NYC .... however, to get to that next level im going to rely on trading the open, some pairs trading, and some MOC's. PS: trading is not profitable yet. But i thinks it more due to my novice skills and experience, and not running another business
I make over 150K a year in NYC and I still live a pretty shitty life. This isn't by choice -- apartments are expensive (still), taxes are ridiculous, and the city doesn't really lend itself to cheap socializing. Don't feed this crap to new dreamers. They need to know that the NYC life is far worse than middle class laziness in a city like Austin, TX or Sacramento, CA.
i apologize if i made it sound like a great life ... but you what i mean ... theres confortable in midtown west and then theres confortable on the upper east side
Ah, no problem. I was in a lounge of my graduate school about 2 years ago talking to some fresh graduates who'd never had any real jobs and they were excited about making $70,000. I told them they'd live like 3rd worlders unless they made at least $300,000. They came back to me a month or so ago and told me I was right. NY Times printed an article recently about asking the homeless to pay 50% of their income to the shelters and they balked and cried, but no one is telling these ass-hat politicians that it's not ok for middle class people to pay 50%. Rents aren't going down that fast, I can tell you that.