BD,
Thanks for the words. I am 25 and feel like I am entering where you began those 5 or so years ago. I've been trading on and off since I was 18 or so, but always held jobs, because I never had enough money to strictly devote to maintaining my lifestyle (not the cheapest) + be fully capitilized to trade.
I have reached that stage now, and with that hard work being accomplished , the hard part begins.
I know just what you mean. If you go into a field and know ABC leads to results, you can practice and execute ABC. In trading this ABC is ambigious to say the least. I used ABC to reach the state I need to try to trade for a living, yet the ABC doesn't exist into the field I a now entering
I think the only way to go in the game is to set apart those living expenses for as long as you can, this way your trading results will not result in catastrophic failure of your lifestyle.
I hate corporate life, but I need to know, I have to and must know that i gave this is a real, legitimate, tangible try. That is where I am.
I'm hopeful and scared at the same time.
I am reminded of rounders. The John Tuturo character. He had been in the game for along time, doing it full time. always managing to support his family, etc. Yet he never went for the big one, he never strived to get rich quick. He loved the game, but was always thinking about surviving in it. As I remember he was always ridiculed by the new and the high rollers.
Still he managed to play the game he loved and survive.
I think for me that is all I want. If I am able to achieve infinite riches, so bet it. If I am able to achieve a life where I can wake up in the morning and go take a walk, climb a mountain, or just chill out and have a beer, rather then knowing I am going in to play that horribly draining game of corporate politics, I'll be happy.
Your post has ben very insightful. I am looking very hard at future hedges in case this doesn't work out right. I will always trading and if it doesn't work, I will switch over to investing.
I still think serious long term money can be made (there was a post on this earlier) about pouring all your research and smarts into finding new technology and companies looking to exploit them. Heavily invest in these companies, using your DD and research and intuition to guide you, and maybe you can become rich off that.
I know a few goldbugs who have made enough over the last few years to retire comfortably, even maintaining a small yield on their money, they could live without doing any investing.
These were investors though. They saw the opportunity and they jumped in, bet the farm as it was. Betting the farm always seems like a good idea on an investment vs a trade.
Thank you for your posting. Lot of negativity on ET, but the positive supportive responses have me hopeful this will still continue to be a place of great insight and knowledge gained.
I may be 5 years younger then you are, but I think about the things you are thinking about now, and it scares me daily.
I ignored a college education so I could go out and work at 18 in IT and achieve the material things I wanted. I know now I must complete my education and try to keep something on the side to hedge against the result you and so many others have.
Maybe all that rah rah rhetoric is not applicable to trading, but I think it may be applicable to other things in life. If you were to take 5 years and dedicate it to plumbing, I'm sure you would be a 6 figure plumbers, or maybe a 7 figure plumber business owner.
So go out there and kick ass. If all that positive never failure always win shit doesn't apply to trading as you see it, it will apply to other more translucent careers.
Keep us updated, and thank you for your words