Yeah we went to the doctors this time. LOL. I asked her.."Is it mine?" LOL. BOY did I get a dirty look.
My father was a grain trader who would bring home charts for me off the old DTN machines. I'd love to sit in his office and watch the yellow numbers tick. After that I worked on the floor for brokers and locals and then left to go into education. I started trading again a couple of years ago to supplement my income and i trade my account plus a handful of spec accounts for friends and family. I primarily enjoy the challenge and second income as a way to build my family's security.
Trading is imo the perfect job. I like money, freedom, full control over how I spend my day, the feeling of complete responsibility over my own success or failure. I hate commuting, having a boss, dealing with coworkers and office politics, doing boring or unfulfilling work on somebody else's schedule... basically the whole "work experience." Trading honestly does not feel like work or a job to me, even with all the difficulties, learning curve and psychological crap you go through, it's more like a hobby.
At first, it was the easy money. Watching a friend of mine when I was 17 and very impressionable make $800 in about 4 minutes completly blew my head off. I didn't even know things like day trading event existed. He taught me the basics, and I was off. Now it's more about the freedom. No 'job', no one to answer to, complete responsibility.
I was a sports gambler before I was ever a trader. I was no professional but I turned a lot of action. Strangely, I got into sports gambling when I read a book by Larry Merchant who is known for being an announcer on HBO Boxing. He wrote a book called the National Football Lottery. The revelation for me in that book was that it laid out "technicals" to bet on. He charted which lines were more apt cover or not cover. I thought most people simply bet on their opinion of the team which was charged with a lot of emotion. There is a lot of similarity in sports betting. You take a position. Betting against the "public" is not a bad philosophy which is similar to being a contrarian. Betting favorites is similar to being bullish while betting dogs is similar to shorting. There is a lot of psychology involved as well as money management. I NEVER bet Monday Night Football as I saw it as the trap it always seemed to be. All of Sunday's losers doubled or tripled up trying to get "even" for the week in much the same way many traders who are down for the day, go into to the afternoon making unwise trades because they want to get "even". I have little respect for Jim Kramer. In his early days on CNBC before he went full time tv, he used to brag how much he learned betting on greyhounds at a dog track. I could never understand how that applied much to trading. A lot of you may know that he also bragged using his air time to pump and then dump. But he has become what all losing sports gamblers eventually gravitate to, and this a tout. In his case he doesn't charge, but performs the same service, offers other people advice on how to part with their money.
Before i ever knew what a day trader was i hated the fact that my future was so simple and so uncontrollable. All my friends in college would always instinctively utter get a degree, get a job, get a house, get a family. It's like they were zombies programed to think the way colleges and corporations wanted them to think. The main things that have gotten me where i am is that before i ever started studying the market i always believed that i had an uncanny ability to become really good at anything i put my mind too. I loved competition and some people hated me for how competitive i was. At time's i wish i wasn't so competitive because i often compete against myself. Along with that i also thought it was almost criminal to have people get in the way of your own success and take your own profits. During a boring business class a substitute teacher came in and started talking about this stock market thing. I can't even remember what he said about it but once i got back to my apartment i started studying the market ferociously and never stopped. It was truly love at first sight/study because in my opinion trading in the stock market fit every aspect of my being. At first i never even knew why i had loved the intense study, focus and ability to sculpt whatever i wanted to out of the market but as time went on i began to understand that i was born to do this.
I was tired of the 9-5 b.s. Worked as a realtor here in Miami yrs ago(thank god I left then!). Always wanted to work on Wall Street but realized that would never materialize since I never finished college. Then I noticed how some people were making really good money day trading with the other benefits: working your own hours don't have to take orders from some asshole boss create my own destiny without blaming someone else if I fail I dont see myself doing anything else in this life... I LOVE MY CAREER !!!! Started out swing trading stocks for 2%-10% pops. Then I discovered ES futures....and I can definitely say its less stress for me to follow one dog's(ES) walking trail than it is trying to track over a thousand(stocks).