When to call it quits

Discussion in 'Professional Trading' started by saxon22, Apr 1, 2009.

  1. spindr0

    spindr0

    Life has a knack of being perverse and throwing nasty sliders at you. So my 2 cents is stay the course. Keep the day job. Accrue pension years. Pay down debt. Amass a nest egg. Then trade full time when you're absolutely sure that you can hang in there financially if trading doesn't provide enough.

    It's not the alluring sexy rock star trader answer that you want to hear but it's the way to protect yourself and your family.
     
    #21     Apr 1, 2009


  2. Well, I only trade when I am off from work and can be in front or around my PC for the whole day. The difference is I cannot do it 5 days a week, week after week. So it could be argued that I have done it full time.
     
    #22     Apr 1, 2009

  3. That pension comes with one string attached - another 20 years of work, stress, and being surrounded by morons. Is it worth it? Not to me. :D
     
    #23     Apr 1, 2009
  4. LOL :D

    Try this one on for size:

    1. All debts paid off.
    2. 1 Year's worth of salary in the bank.
    3. Consistently making ... 5 to 10 times what you currently make as measured on a monthly basis.


    I think that's pretty good criteria for telling them exactly what they can do with their J.O.B. :p
     
    #24     Apr 1, 2009
  5. That would take 10 years of working. :eek:
     
    #25     Apr 1, 2009
  6. @ Pa(b)st Prime

    For me you got it backwards. The job IS in the way. If I had the capital to break way now, I would. its not just about the money, though the money is great, but its about the game and enjoying what you do and enjoying the fruits of that love....
     
    #26     Apr 1, 2009
  7. Miguel, so you left a job trading for someone else so you could trade on your own.

    Sounds reasonable to me, you already have the experience and were obviously successful if you are certain they'd take you back just cause you ask.
     
    #27     Apr 1, 2009
  8. Trading in itself is about risk. It is about managing risk, but more importantly before you can manage risk, you have to be psychologically prepared to handle whatever risk that you are taking on. But in another sense beyond the risk invoved in the trading, it could be argued that leaving a comfortable profession to trade for a living is the greatest risk of all.

    For me, I knew that I was ready to make this a career on the basis of my life experience and my age at the time. Eleven years ago when I left my profession and started trading for a living, I was 46 years old. My house was paid for, my pension was vested and I could starting drawing the pension and the health benefits when I was 55. I was well capitalized and planned to use less than 20 per cent of my available capital to day trade equities.

    Leaving a profession that you spent over 20 years in, and knowing that you can never re-enter that profession at the level of pay, benefits, and job security that you are leaving is quite sobering.

    But even though leaving that profession to trade for a living was a big risk, I was absolutely positive that it was the right move. I was prepared to practice what my five years or so of very profitable trading experience had taught me, and I was fully prepared to accept whatever were the consequences of my decision.

    I now have my pension and do not really need to trade to get by as I have some other income streams, but I still dearly love to trade.

    I rarely take more than a week off, and when I do I really look forward to getting back to the daily rhythms and routine of trading.

    My senior year of high school I worked four hours a night 5 days a week and 4 hours on Saturday grinding welds in a small factory. It was physically demanding, dirty, sweaty work. This work experience served as even more motivation for me to get an education and establish myself in a profession.

    But it also made me appreciate the opporunities trading have afforded me as well. I have the opportunity to earn in a few minutes what it takes many a week of physical labor to earn. I know that I am fortunate to have taken what I have worked very hard for, what I have earned, the deserved fruits of my labors and be able to put those along with my wits to profitably trade as a way of making a living and accumulating more capital.

    I cannot nor I would ever try to tell someone when to make the decision to trade for a living.

    I can only offer up my story as you asked.
     
    #28     Apr 1, 2009
  9. No one that has ever posted at ET has left trading.

    Some have done quite well.

    Others have had to trade living out of cardboard boxes under the bridge, but none have actually thrown in the towel.
     
    #29     Apr 2, 2009
  10. Letting go of a steady semi well paying job (for NYC that is) with a pension is not easy especially for somebody who is over 40. I am vested,I will still have health insurance through my wife and the bills could be covered with her salary alone (and income from my other ventures). The capital is there and the track record as well. However, the time issue does get in the way.
    My work happens during market hours and while my superiors are not the brightest bulbs in a shed, I am getting uncomfortably close sometimes.
    Also I have had days where I was able to wrestle away in a day my job's monthly gross salary.
    While I do enjoy my job, I am uneasy about putting in the hours working for the man and having opportunities slip.
    On one side i would like to keep my job, but then on the other side I would like to give trading its proper chance.


    Still on th fence. :)
     
    #30     Apr 19, 2009