Advice for an Old Man’s Son

O

OldDad

I am not a trader. Just a grizzled old guy looking to help my son get a shot at being like you guys.

He just turned 27 and seeing the writing on the company wall, he told me had to go independent and was reading everything he can get and putting away his cash to trade and invest. Even selling his house, downsizing, cutting expense to the bone. Hard worker. Computer savvy. Good kid, just unfortunately born on the wrong side of the tracks.

My question for those of you that remember starting with nothing:

If you had one piece of advice or route to try that would help get a working toenail in this game, what would it be?

Thank you!

OldDad
 
oh no. you don't want him to be like 'you guys'... because 99% of 'you guys' can't make a living from this.

yes it may sounds very strange how come these guys come here talking a big game but only 1% is making a living? but that is the hard truth.

he should brush up the resume and go find another job. there is no excuse in today's job market.

and keep saving/investing... the next few years will be very good environment for that as we are in the middle of a long bull market.
 
Tell him to watch this video. If he can learn what these guys do, how they think, the words and language they use, their ideas, and read their stories he will know how traders think.

This is the real problem with most of the traders today (Dozu888's 99%). They never bothered to learn what actual traders do.

They spend all their time trying to figure it out on their own, and yet end up knowing less than the guys that sat in this room for a couple hours with a real CBOT local. Time has passed but it's the same game it's always been. Tell him I said good luck!

p.s. thanks ETJ for posting this vid
 
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Real Money said:
They spend all their time trying to figure it out on their own, and yet end up knowing less than the guys that sat in this room for a couple hours with a real CBOT local. Time has passed but it's the same game it's always been. Tell him I said good luck!
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I beg to differ. Most of the pit trading is now extinct and, I'm afraid to say, that a lot of those pit traders have failed to adapt to electronic trading. Those who have made the transition have not replicated the same success as they've enjoyed in the pit. These are different times and to stick to old-school mantras will not help.
 
Don't give up work to "trade full time" because that won't end well without prior evidence of ability to do so. If he wants to give it a shot he needs to do so while maintaining another job.

Generally he should be able to trade evening/night time while keeping a day job (and perhaps even reduce hours a bit from a full work week).

Unless you already have of money (at least a million, hence meaning a tiny percentage return scales a lot so you can afford to underperform passive investing), trading is one of the hardest things you can do to make a living as @dozu888 points out. Yes, there are people who systematically do much better than passive investing, but they are in a clear minority. The natural assumption of anyone with great confidence is that they will be "the one" of course.
 
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schizo said:
Most of the pit trading is now extinct and, I'm afraid to say, that a lot of those pit traders have failed to adapt to electronic trading.
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Yea, this is exactly my point. You can't even talk about what the guy in that video is saying. Instead you just talk trash about pit traders.....what a joke.

Those guys were LEGENDS in the pit. They traded 1000 lot calendars, 500 lot, 600 lot, 100 lots outright in long bonds kid.

What do you know about that level of trading? Fuck all that's what.

You probably don't even know what a rate calendar is!
 
Real Money said:
Yea, this is exactly my point. You can't even talk about what the guy in that video is saying. Instead you just talk trash about pit traders.....what a joke.

Those guys were LEGENDS in the pit. They traded 1000 lot calendars, 500 lot, 600 lot, 100 lots outright in long bonds kid.

What do you know about that level of trading? Fuck all that's what.

You probably don't even know what a rate calendar is!
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how did we get here lol... OP asked a question, and the answer is 1% makes enough for a living therefore he should just forget it.

your LEGENDS have nothing to do with nothing.. the 1% success rate doesn't change.
 
OldDad said:
I am not a trader. Just a grizzled old guy looking to help my son get a shot at being like you guys.

He just turned 27 and seeing the writing on the company wall, he told me had to go independent and was reading everything he can get and putting away his cash to trade and invest. Even selling his house, downsizing, cutting expense to the bone. Hard worker. Computer savvy. Good kid, just unfortunately born on the wrong side of the tracks.

My question for those of you that remember starting with nothing:

If you had one piece of advice or route to try that would help get a working toenail in this game, what would it be?

Thank you!

OldDad
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If you started out with very little capital (e.g. <$50K), your chance of making it trading for a living is likely the same as wanting to play in the NBA as a professional. Furthermore, to succeed, he needs to be passionate because passions keep us going when the odds are against us and on days, months, years when nothing seemed to work.

There is a different path, takes longer but with a much higher probability of success:

I had a day job for years, saved and invested part of my salary, at the same time learned to invest/trade by reading lots of books on investing/trading, on how the market functioned and how to evaluate companies. One day, I quit my day job, worked part time and traded part time. Then 10 years ago went full time. Now, my trading profits >> my old salary.

The analogy to this approach is you emulate the professional traders who trade OPM but draw a salary. You day job provide the "salary" to cushion the down days.

Unfortunately, most young people are impatient and do not have the perseverance to go this route.

Good luck and best wishes to you and your son.
 
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