I can be home to watch my daughter grow up, instead of rotting in an friggin' office 8 hrs a day then spending 2 more in traffic. The money's nice, but nothing beats being with your kids.
My choice was the rat race, but it's true, trading is good for a laugh every day. For some reason, this always makes me laugh: Let's say I have a small limit order on the NYSE at the inside ask (or bid), and I would really like it executed, because the price is about to turn. All I have to do is wait for an up- (or down-) tick on the ES chart and hit cancel. That gives me an instant fill within a couple of seconds. Works every time.
exactly ... my daughter's almost 4, and I'm eternally grateful that I've been able to be with her and her mom 24/7 since birth instead of some office job... I haven't worn a tie in 8 years - and I don't even miss it at all, the staff meetings, the corporate politics, putting up with all the bs .. freedom is priceless aloha, ken
The fascination with applying scientific know how to trading made me decide in the first place to switch from academic en high-tech research to the field of quantitative finance. And now, the prospect of becoming an independent (quant) trader, along with all the advantages of not being a corporate slave, is very enticing.
I really hate those f**king companys. So watching their stocks collapsed is very entertaining. Shorting their stocks and making profits are even more exciting! The f**king Peter L**ch said shorting and futures had no constructive meaning to the society. It p**sed me off so I had thrown away his book.
This sure is one of the things I love most about trading. Being able to break through new fields of research on the subject everyday again kills any chance for boredom. Everyday you can have another scientific breakthrough. Systems development, scalping strategy development, swing strategies, no matter what you want to look at, you have enough material to work on for a lifetime... It's fantastic! Other reasons: - Spatial Freedom. I can be anywhere, anytime. Well, almost, anyway. - Financial Freedom. No dependence on BHP - Investment strategies and other crap. Since it's my job, I'm better than any broker or advisor out there, I can manage my own money. - No boss. No one to answer to. No fear of downsizing, redundancy, no fear of anything. - I can make money no matter what the market is doing. The world's up? Whole world down? I'm making money. - The bank manager remembers my name, but doesn't try to sell me investments (!) - My money doesn't rot away under inflation in some savings account. - I don't feed the banks or other evil institutions. - I'm good to the environment (no everyday commuting) - I might live longer (no everyday commuting) - No everyday commuting means my sports car lives longer (less mileage) - I don't have to invest much into home security. Yeah, I'm there most of the time, anyway. - If I had a pair of really horrible, ugly duck-slippers, I could wear them at work. - I can wear my birthday suit at work, too. - New challenges everyday. It never gets boring. - Competition. The more the better. And I'm one of the 3% that make it. Haha. - I have turned my beloved favorite hobby and obsession into my profession. I will never have to work a day in my life. - It's a game, and it's a great game. Particularly short-term trading is more fun than any computer game you can buy nowadays. - I have full responsibility for my actions, and no one else! The same goes for my credit! I get 100% credit for what I do. No boss, no BS. - There's no reports, no bosses up-or-downgrading you, no marks, no grades, no maybe's, if's and what's. No CV, no evaluations, no BS. There's nothing that counts but cold, hard facts, and that's your performance. - In no other job in the world can performance be so unmistakably quantified. - Every few days you have another adrenalin rush because you think you found the holy grail. It doesn't last long, but it still works. This applies mainly for beginners, anyway. - I can laugh at random walk theorists and make mouths at them (very mature). - I can smile at all the people (almost anybody) who think that you can't make money day trading. - As a result thereof I'm considered a genius by anybody who doesn't know what trading is about. - As a result of that result people talk about it and females are attracted to me. - If a female gets too attracted, I can escape, because of the spatial freedom factor (see, now it all starts coming together!) - I can make money for my relatives and make my whole family wealthier (well, hopefully, anyway) - I can show off lots of pretty charts and indicators on my multiple monitors and everybody is confused by and amazed at it (most of which I will probably remove once the market opens, anyway) - If I do have one or multiple females, I can have those females near me while I'm working. This can be very inspiring, depending on the particular female. - You can hang around on ET without having to be a troll. - If you're NOT profitable, you can still celebrate yourself as a great guru, make up holy-grail-systems, sell them as expensive ebooks and make lots of money. - If you ARE profitable, you can do the same thing and make even more money. You can open a day trading university and become head professor. - If you ARE profitable, and DON'T want to become a GURU, you can still make money, just by being profitable. This is just the beginning. But let's just leave with that. I'm going shopping now ~Scientist
======================================= Partly in recognition of the Wall Street Journal; gold rush [spike] of the 1980's helped also.