Lets say you have a son in High School who's 18, starting his last year until graduation. He has a few hobbies (mostly computer related), and rather than being with "Friends" he enjoys his own company. One day after coming home from school, you notice he brings home a book about day trading. You know he know's little about the markets in general and you thought that he wanted to be a computer programmer or some other career in technology. At diner that night, you bring up the book he brought home from school. He says: "Well dad, you know with all these jobs going overseas, I dont think my chances are that great anymore. He opens his book "Trading for a living" and reads a passage from pg 48: We wake up in the bed each morning, eat the same breakfast and drive to work down the same road. We see the same dull faces in the office, and shuffle papers on our old desks. We drive home, watch the same dumb shows on tv, have a beer, and go to sleep in the same bed. We repeat this routine day after day, month after month, year after year. It feels like a life sentence without parole.What is there to look forward to? Perhaps a brief vacation next year? We'll buy a package deal, fly to Paris, get off the bus with the rest of the group, and spend 15 minutes infront of the Triumphal Arch and half an hour going up the Eiffel Tower. Then back home, back to the old routine. Most people live in a deep invisable groove. No need to think, make decisions, feel the raw edge of life. The routine feels comfortable, but deathly boring. And then you open a trading account and punch in an order to buy 500 shares of intel. Anyone with a few thousand dollars can escape the routine and find excitement in the markets. Suddenly the world is in living color! Intel ticks up half a point-- you check quotes, run out for a news paper and tune in for the latest updates. Intel is up a point! Should you sell and take profits, buy more and double up? Your heart is pounding--you feel alive!. Now its up three points, you multiply that by the number of shares and realize that your profits after just a few hours are close to your weekly salary. You start calculating %'age returns. If you keep trading like this, what a fortune you'll have by Christmas!. Suddenly you raise your eyes from the calculator and see that intel has dropped two points. Your stomach is tied in a knot, your face pushes into the screen, you hunch over compressing your lungs, reducing the amount of blood to the brain. You are flooded with anxiety, like a trapped animal. You are hurting, but you're alive! and besides, programming is something I do as a hobby. I want to be a trader like you , it sounds so much more exciting!" What would you tell him (if BOTH you and your wife are traders)? 1. Get a real job 2. You tell him "I dont want you to wind up like your mother and I" (Even though you and your wife have been making 6 g's a day on average for the past 4 years and just tell him that to discourage him for being a trader) 3. Go for it son!, you can make more $$ in ONE DAY than most people make in a month!, and you become his mentor. 4. You ignore/ change the subject What would you tell him (if JUST you were a trader?)? 1. Get a real job 2. I dont want you to gamble away your life 3. You ignore/ change the subject 4. You show him some things, but tell him to do good in school after which you give him 10-25k to set up his own account. - nathan
intc doesn't goes up a full point intraday anymore...explain him things have changed dramatically'n'there's no easy peasy money to be made no more.
I would tell him, there is nothing wrong with giving it a try, and if it doesn't work out, he can still go to college a year later. Education-wise it should be faster and cheaper than a 4-5 years college stay for 60-80 K. Papertrade, blow 5K, papertrade more, blow another 5 K, repeat the process a few times, he is still way below 60K... You said he likes to be left alone and programming, so he looks like a good candidate for a lonely and boring job as trading from home....
let him learn writing some script, then start him on some strategy and make him back testing, back testing until he has some positive result, who know he may be able to ebay his script for living.
I am a 25 yrs old trader in a prop. shop, so I guess my opinion can reflect your son's mind more closely. You cannot really control what your son wants to do as he is a grown-up. You should also leave him some room to do whatever he wants even though it may not be good to him from your perspective. There is no use to stop him from trading as he can trade behind your back, so don't make him lie to or hate you. Beside, you can monitor his initial learning curve to prevent the potential of debt. It will not be convincing to talk him out of trading because he sees what you and your wife do everyday with success. Most likely he will focus to the pros when you discuss the pros and cons with him as most newbies tend to do. Guide him as much as you can about trading, but do not let him do bad at school. For a young guy like him, getting some job experience and a more solid career path is important. That means preparing at University to work at Top-tier i-bank internship. Who knows? maybe your son is a born-trader
Why not get some type of education, learn on the way, then give it a shot. If it does not work out, he always has his education to fall back on rather than failing at trading then thinking "Great, not only have I failed at trading, but now I have nothing" -Kastro
If he's meant to be a successful trader, he's going to do it with our without your help. The question you need to answer for yourself is if you want your son to resent you for opposing him doing something that he might be passionate about. With that said, don't give him any money to get setup. He won't be able to distill the necessary lessons of the market until it's his own dough. Just be prepared to help him out if he has a false start - of course, don't let him know this ahead of time. Also, his skipping college is tantamount to trading with scared money - it WILL affect his trading because his fallback options are either completely absent or unappealing. But, taking a year off to check out daytrading sounds reasonable - and if he makes good money - then he'll be able to look at things pretty clearly.
id encourage, cajole, beat, anything to encourage him to get an education. whatever it takes to get him into school. the market is going nowhere. literally. it will still be there in 4 years. this way - if trading doesnt work out - hes got some options in addition to " do you want fries with that". and likely the experience of school will be good for him and make him a more rounded person. if computers are his thing or business - then focus on that in school and you have a lot more options in trading as well. firms are killing for algo programmers. "daytrading" is dead and getting deader and short of another market bubble - this aint likely to get any better. so unless you have some capital to trade in longer timeframes (overnight) - there are not a lot of options in my opinion. if he is hell bent on trading - mbe you could give him capital to open a currency account and he can trade evenings or participate in some capacity. or trade the summers or whatever. ive been in this business for a long time. 30+ years. worked in trading shops all over us, canada, europe, australia and of over probably 1000 traders ive met - i only know a handful that are still in the game today and of those - most are limping along. ive still yet to see a daytrader make consistent profits (ie 250k plus a year for 5 years) - but lots on these boards will tell you otherwise!! if he is still refusing to listen to any common sense - which most of us would do at that ripe age - a summer in a bucket shop: swift or the like would likely set him straight. this is a tough gig best!!