For me trading is one of the most diffisult intelectual challanges in the world. As Elder sais: the sharpest minds and the deepest pokets are there. You compete with them also. It seems to be like the scientific discoveries.
Yeah don't listen to the people giving advice for free go pay $5000-$25000 or more for Swift trade to tell you the same things. You too can have your picture taken and posted on the internet in a random thread by a spammer.
I'm pretty sure port's being sarcastic. In fact, I have had quite a chuckle at his 3 or 4 posts. I could be way off though.
Well could be. I just get suspicious of someone with low post count pimping a trading site/service, etc. If it's all in jest then...lol
Gratitude, I am in a similar situation as you. I have a passion for trading, but I didn't figure this out until much later in life. Even though I work in the industry my role does not provide a great deal of spare time to trade during the day. So here are some things that I am doing to work around this challenge until I have created enough risk-free cash flow to replace my income, and have a substantial trading account. Swing/position trade stocks and options on a weekly time frame. Research is conducted in the evenings, and weekends. Swing trade foreign currency in the evening Sunday through Thursday. Figure out what you want out of trading, and then work towards that goal, but don't risk what you have right now as that is the ultimate bad trade. Lyfegrd
It's very difficult to give decent advice to you, like someone said allready it's all about how much you really want this. The rational thing to do would be to stay at your current job. However life is not totally about doing all about taking rational decisions. Don't underestimate on the other hand the time and amount of effort you are going to have to put into this. Furthermore you will find out there is little correlation between the latter and results. You can put in two years of hard work into this without any garantueed results. I also found out there is little correlation between intelligence and results in trading (I've got an IQ of somewhere around 135-140, this didn't help me much, people on the trading floor say: 'the more clever you are, the harder it is', some of the greatest floor traders have hardly any formal education). It can very frustrating to say the least when you are trying to find your own method that suits you in the road to become consistantly profitable. (I even have a profitable method that just drove me crazy because it required me to sit in front of a screen very concentrated with only two or three trades in 7 hours time which lead me in turn to start trading undisciplined). As some people pointed out too, this can be a really lonely business which outside people hardly understand. In your case this means giving up a lot for a rather uncertain future. But then again life is not totally about certainties.
Working 80 hours a week with significant travel while your kids are growing up is a sweet spot? Not in my books.
Disagree strongly. Trading isn't gone from anyone who has the determination and the desire combined with the aptitude. That's not everyone, I admit, but you won't know until you try. Professional basketball might be gone for you. I am very surprised to see this comment coming from Jack Hershey! You got good advice here. Just don't put $50K in an account and try to start scalping. Start slow, swing trade, get a feel, lose small when you lose, analyze your trades, come back with a better plan, and repeat.
Many of the posts on this thread are from disheartened money losing traders who sit at home with IB accounts. You cant make money like that, its not going to happen for you. Those Dan Zanger days are long gone and wont be back. You need to get out to a prop firm where you will be mentored into the realm of real trading. While some people on here dont like Swift trading because they couldnt make it, why not ask guys like Sven who made over a million dollars last year at the firm. The stories of guys going into Swift with nothing and coming out millionaires years later is very real. It does happen. http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=83837&perpage=6&pagenumber=874 Swift trading is one of the most reputable outfits out there and their offices are the best equipped. Look it up on Google. This isnt a fly by night bucket shop, but a place where dreams are made.