"Day trading is a resume killer". I've seen this statement a few times on various threads, but I don't know what it is exactly about day trading that makes it a resume killer. Does this statement apply to all day traders, or only those in certain situations (e.g. day trading on your own from home, from a firm in which you do or do not have to supply your own capital)?
if your a successful trader.. meaning your making a real profit why would you need to look for a job... its a resume killer when you show up to some wage monkey position showing that you wasted 5 years of your life looking at a computer screen and have nothing to show for it... its gonna kill your chances because a losing trader is a loser period if your a successful trader with a proven record many funds would be more then willing to pay for your services
Day trading itself does not kill a resume. It's how you position that job and how you explain what you did that can kill the resume. It's like anything else that can kill a resume - presentation is everything. For example, it's very easy to explain that you ran your own business managing assets, expenses, etc. If done properly, that could look impressive.
And here's a great example of poor presentation. Would you hire someone that talked about their career the past 5 years like this? Not many would.
A lot of people resent it when someone escapes a "regular job" and they are still stuck in it. And they have lots of crazy rationalizations about how they are contributing to society while traders are just leeching. LOL. What? You don't have a two hour commute everyday? You don't spend 80 hours a week in the office?
80 hours is just a job, career people do 100, c'mon The last place I worked was getting rid of the daytraders that were trying to trade from the office. One machinist hired in and tried to get permission to daytrade during the work hours, he was outta there right quick. There were some succesful traders, they would talk about trading at the drop of a hat but they managed their trades entirely on their own time, they seemed to be tolerated. In 1987 I worked with a guy that lost everything, he was useless all that year and more useless after the crash. I was trying to get some technical work done with the guy all year and could not get his attention long enough to get much done, he was on the phone with his broker all the time. It sucked, it really did, eventually we just went ahead with the project without him and he was the project manager!! I think most employers have had experiences with traders that aren't doing their jobs. If you hire in they probably assume you are there for a grubstake only and when you get started trading you will just drop the work like a bad habit and just trade until they fire you. They rank daytraders with people that download porn during work probably. I did know one guy that daytraded fulltime for 2 years and then got a job. He told me that, on the job, so I assume he had it on his resume. The place would hire anybody that would work cheap enough though, for a real job, in a real company, that is looking for squeaky clean and no outside distractions, daytrading is going to hinder any chance of getting a job.
If you spend six months (or maybe even upto a year) giving it a try and fail thats ok. Nothing wrong with that you took a risk. Projects get canned in the buisness world all the time. But to spend two years (or even five) and lose money months on end (even if you are break even you are losing big oppurtunity costs), shows your employer that you lack good sense. Most likely they will think you are not interested in the corporate world (except as a last resort) and perhaps you are a compulsive gambler type.
I get this ALL the time. I get nothing but resentment and in the second breathe I usually get, "Will you trade my money?" It's pretty funny, "I hate you but I will love you if you make me that kind of money."
Why would "daytrading" placed on a resume be helpful for any real-life work position? Think about it.