Sounds like "Trading for Living" is not for you. If you are not entrepreneurial, willing to take a risk for a reward then why bother all you will do is stress yourself out, lose your hard earned money and end up with a bad experience. Beyond financial there are quality of life rewards that come with trading eg you are location independent, out on the West Coast markets close by 1:00 pm, Hawaii even earlier. Questions you are asking imply you are looking to be convinced, if you were passionate about trading, you would be convincing the nay sayers around you. You are right given the state of the economy employers are looking for people with current work experiences, not someone who has been out of the employment pool a year, two or three and given the credit crisis, market fragmentation, central bank interventions and HFTs future promises to be even more uncertain for traders.
Those of us who are trading for a living are...trading for a living. One of my friends makes her living teaching, another makes his living doing yard work, another makes her living running a small retail business, another makes his living working at Wal-Mart. What's the difference how you make a living when there's no certainty in life except for the knowledge that our lives in these bodies will end after several decades, best case. I'm not sure why you think the cash flow is unstable. My decision to trade for living was based on a plan that provided a stable minimum cash flow, a minimum that has quite a bit of cushion in case there's a dry spell in the market environment. Also perplexed by how you could go broke in a matter of minutes? My trading account is but a fraction of total liquid capital and I'm pretty sure brokers liquidate positions rather quickly if an unrealized loss reaches a level that violates margin requirements. My plan B: There's a Wal-Mart nearby that seems to be hiring regularly
plan b, if you are a gambler you will always come up with another stash, even if it means you have to get a job for a while
Any chance Jack of sharing with us a chart of the moves, and the approximate timing, of the cliff currently scheduled? As I recall, you shared a similar chart of the anticipated moves a few years that was uncannily accurate. I'm starting to wonder if we'll ever see the "point 3" of what you've referred to as a depression channel and instead we see new highs (since point 1) that would preclude one from drawing a downward sloping channel at this time. When do you anticipate this cliff? -river
Trading for a living, as in paying the bills, is not even half the battle. Someone who truly trades for a living is ever mineful of a future retirement and at least for me, continually building up my IRAs through trading is an integral part of the game. And after all, the greatest wealth creating tool is the tax free compounding of your capital over time. It always boggles my mind how few traders have even set up a retirement account to trade.
Good point. My IRAs were established when I was a part time trader long ago and had earned income from other sources. I assume though if you claimed trader status that would give you income that could be used for an IRA. But I also assume in that case you would be liable for paying self employment taxes (social security) on those earnings which can be onerous.