Over 90% of the people who attempt to earn a living from trading fail in this endeavor. If you are one of the 90%, what will you do next, especially if you spent several years trying to become a successful trader, but failed? Here's how I see it, and it doesn't look good: Your resume won't look so great -- who wants to hire someone who failed at a mult-year endeavor? Saying that you lost 100% of your trading capital (or more) doesn't look so good. Also, unless a top-tier investment bank gave you a shot a trading, the name of your last employer won't impress anyone except lower tier shops. Your network of contacts through your trading coworkers probably won't be so great either, because 90% of them are in the same boat as you. What job could you possibly get next? You most likely won't get a trading position at a top tier firm, as you don't have a successful track record. How many failed at trading, but was able to land a job with a top-tier investment bank afterwards? Very few I suspect. Less than 5%, and that's only because they had a stellar background before trying to trade for a living. How many failed at trading and ended up taking a less than desirable job to pay the bills? Over 85% is my guess.
It's a risk we all take, if you are not willing to take that risk, you shouldn't be trading. It's anyone that tries to be self employed, they risk everything to do it on their own. It's risks we take for rewards, sometimes it doesn't work out. If you spend several years at trading, to one day blow it all, there is something wrong. Perhaps a person got cocky and started feeling overconfident and blow it all on a few trades. Maybe systems stop working, but if you have been trading for several years, I'd assume you'd have enough capital to save up for a year or two to be able to adjust to new things. Regardless, it's a risk we all take, failure is a part of the game, if someone fails, they move on. We all regret things in life, our goal should be that we try to have as few regrets in life as possible. I'm not one of the 90%, but I'm not yet the 5 or 10%. I am fortunate to have youth on my side, so I can take risks. If I do this for 2 or 3 years and things go bad, I can always go back to school with student loans and work a job, my sister's husband owns an electrical business, he'd pay me 8 dollars an hour, which I could deal with. I have backup plans. Everyone should have a backup plan. If your trading is going well you should possibly be saving your money, not spending it, preparing for the worst. I have several other investsments that I started before I persued trading so that even if I blew all my money, I still have something to fall back on. I can't imagine many other 19 year olds saying that they are preparing for 10 to 20 years down the road, but I am. If you fail, you should have accepted the fact you will more than likely lose all your money. I accept the risk every day, and I have backups incase. Figured i'd chime in to help anyone that recently got in this game. EVERYONE should have a backup plan. Especially considering the failure rate is so high, you'd be stupid if you didn't have a plan, and that is fact.
If I think I might fail, I have already failed myself. Good think I have a good education and good contacts to fall back on or I would not be able to say these type of quotes Take care, -Kastro
Get your mother or a relative to set up a fully legal dummy paper corporation. If your mother is Chief Executive it should be styled in her maiden name. You need to be technically an employee of this corporation while you're jacking away your time failing at trading. After your trading stops and you apply for a job, this corporation's chief executive is your referee. If the corporation actually does a bit of something then all the better. Consider use of an appropriate commercial address. Bottom line: keep it all strictly legal.
I always have back up plans. Not only am I thinking about going back to where I used to work, but even if I need one in the future, I have a job lined up. My cousin owns a grocery store, and he would gladly pay me 10 dollars an hour plus benefits.
Why start trading full time if your not sure you can do it? Find a job that free's up a few week days so you can trade part time; or work 2nd shift. The only thing you have control over is risk, and at times we have less control over that even. Learn how to play higher % trades and don't get stupid if the trade goes against you.
I have a real job. Trading is my hobby. I took a chunk of my savings and started trading it. I don't scalp, but I make about 5 trades a day during work that take a few moments to enter. If I fail, I'll simply keep doing what I'm doing now - which is a pretty nice job in Puerto Rico. If I succeed, I'll quit this job around age 45 and live happily ever after.
I think you're being a bit dramatic.. Its not like you spend 10 years trying to become a succesfull trader. You give it a couple years and if your not making any progress you're probably running really low on funds and realize you need to get a job at that point. If you have a degree then you can always get a job somwhere even though you lost a couple years of experience (not a big deal). If you dont have a degree, then you get a crappy job somewhere..the same as what you would have been doing have you not attempted trading. Thats all. What about all those people that attempt to start some sort of business and fail..its not like there life is over. Relax.