For full-time off-floor traders who mainly trade their own account, just out of curiosity - what do you call yourself or tell people when they ask you "what do you do for a living"? Here is a partial list of some of the more common titles I have heard: Daytrader - descriptive, but more and more associated with degenerate gambler. Hedgefund manager - impressive, but unless you are really managing money from institutions or off shore millionaires - it seems kind of phony. Speculator - the average person won't know what you are talking about. But, if it was good enough for Jesse Livermore..... President of my own trading company - most think import/export Trader - if you live in Chicago or NY most think you are a floor trader. other?...... This is not the most important post in the ET forum, but compared to some of the others it is certainly not the silliest either. So, what do you call yourself? Any suggestions?
Kidding, of course. I prefer to be called a speculator and I agree that it sounds sort of quaint these days, but I like it.
I usually just tell people, when they ask,that I trade commodities. Daytrader...probably wouldn't have such a negative connotation if it hadn't been for that lunatic trader in Atlanta, a few years back. Because of him, daytraders were getting a lot of attention, and the press profiled every daytrader as some kind of degenerate. IMHO
how about topic- What do you call yourself after you lost all your money(or big chunk of them)))))))))))?
Man, how the times have changed. 3 years ago you tell someone you're a daytrader and they say "Wow - I bet you make $10,000 a day!" Now you tell 'em you're a daytrader and first thing out of their mouths is , "Really? Can you make any money out of that?" and they look at you like you're wearing bellbottoms have a John Travolta T-shirt on. When asked I just tell 'em either securities trader or futures trader, depending which ones I traded that particular day.