Hey Joe! What are your thoughts about trading as partners? Do you have any thoughts about sharing a trading office with other guys? Trading is a stressful business. When you are in a trade, your money is at risk, and you repeatedly face the possibility of losing substantial amounts of trading capital. If you are a novice trader, the stress is even greater, since you have not yet learned to trade consistently, and losing significant amounts of trading capital is the norm, not the exception. Managing stress is a key to trading success, and maintaining a social support network may be an important way of managing this stress. Therefore, sharing an office with other traders could prove to be beneficial as long as you do not let their way of trading mess up your own way of trading. Ultimately in my opinion, trading is an individual occupation. Successful traders make what they learn to be their own. You have to wrap your personality around your trading. I have never personally known of a trading partnership that was successful. I have known of one where research was done by one or more traders, but the actual trading was done by one and only one trader. That trader had the final say about every trade taken. Split decisions are a no-no in trading. That being said, we can recognize that an interpersonal relationship can be worthwhile when it results in emotional support for you. However, it's a problem when the relationship actually causes stress, as is the case in so many attempted trading partnerships, even those of husband and wife. For example, suppose your spouse is not supportive of your trading plans, and frequently greets you at the end of the trading day with, "How much did you lose today?" or "I wish you would give this up and go back to your regular job." Such comments produce even more stress. There are those who claim that one of the best ways to build support for your trading is to form a set of relationships with others who share your trading interests. This is what drives traders to newsgroups and forums. I can only speak for myself here when I say that I never felt a need for that kind of support. However, if you do need that kind of support, weigh carefully what you absorb from such groups. Forums and the like are notorious for being haunted by wannabe traders who will spout off about all they know, when in fact the really know nothing much at all. All too many participants are there solely for the freebies they hope to acquire, while really having nothing themselves to offer of any value. Joe Ross