Are you STILL excited/happy with being a daytrader as the day you first started?

Desperate
And Salary

and daytrading doesn't mix.

I've seen way too many daytraders who try to "learn" the markets for over 5 years and are still nowhere.

Just imagine how much money they did not earn in those 5 years if they were working as a lawyer $70-100k a year.
Thats $500k


Many people even become addicted to this and never actually make a dime.

The gambling feature in trading is, Many people think they will become profitable just right around the corner, Or they are very close.

This is what daytrading does, lets you think you are so close to profitability yet you are not even close at all.

So you waste 3,4,5,6,7 years chasing the dream that will never materialize.

Just lost your best earning years where you can make Managing director after 7 years of work.


I can count the profitable traders on this board on my hand.

DAYTRADING is not even a big/consistent of an earner as a Lawyer or doctor.

INVESTING a sum of money can take you over the top, but daytrading won't. No big hedge fund manager daytrades.



There is very little edge in daytrading from a computer.

Be on the floor if you want to take trading as a CAREER!

--- Btw I'm very happy as a trader.
I just don't daytrade, Trade longer term.
 
Volk,

You must think, you are up against the best in the world, with advanced systems/models, teams of people, millions to invest, and not to mention information you will never have trading alone at home. Chances are you will fail....You might make some good cash, but in the long run, you will lose it. I use to think you could make loads of money day trading, but in the end, the odds will win.

Try to take in what these people have to say (Not people in your same situation), and realize this is not easy.

If you have to borrow money from your mom to trade, this game is not for you.

There is no edge, you never have an edge. Look at the long term, not the short.

"The house(Market) always wins. Play long enough, you never change the stakes. The house takes you. Unless, when that perfect hand comes along, you bet big, then you take the house"

Even though I think the The Efficient Market Hypothesis is BS, it's still very hard to win over the long run.


-Kastro
 
Quote from volkl23:

This has been on my mind a lot recently. I am seriously considering taking the plunge and becoming a full-time daytrader. My gains have been modest, but atleast I'm still in the black. I am having difficulty understanding why I want to become a daytrader. The money can be nice and the action can be exciting at times (but can be rather boring when I follow my rules to the 't').

I'm sort of in a quadary. I graduated from a top-10 university and was planning to go to law school until I was bitten by the trading bug. I just hope if I pick trading as a career, it won't be short-lived for whatever reasons.

So fellow traders... what were your original motivations on becoming a daytrader. Has your drive waned since? Are you still happy with this "career"? How long have you been in it?

Thanks everyone!
More...

Its great and I enjoy the butt kicking, ass whipping that I give to all those so called "gurus," and it gets better everyday. By the way, you can be a great trader, and be completely dumbass about the internals of the market, as I have proved.

It's a hard grind: 12-15 hours per day trying to figure out what the market wants to do.

Quote from NoiseTrader:

This is one of the best self-guided courses on reading price action, pretty much exclusively devoted to reading price action...

http://trend-dynamics.com/TD_Products_Self_Guided.htm

http://street-noise.net/articles/
More...
 
Quote from Kastro_316:

Volk,

You must think, you are up against the best in the world, with advanced systems/models, teams of people, millions to invest, and not to mention information you will never have trading alone at home. Chances are you will fail....You might make some good cash, but in the long run, you will lose it. I use to think you could make loads of money day trading, but in the end, the odds will win.

Try to take in what these people have to say (Not people in your same situation), and realize this is not easy.

If you have to borrow money from your mom to trade, this game is not for you.

There is no edge, you never have an edge. Look at the long term, not the short.

"The house(Market) always wins. Play long enough, you never change the stakes. The house takes you. Unless, when that perfect hand comes along, you bet big, then you take the house"

Even though I think the The Efficient Market Hypothesis is BS, it's still very hard to win over the long run.


-Kastro
More...

Kastro,

I have been thinking along the same lines for the reasons NOT to trade. I am pretty sure there is a high likelihood that I will eventually fail, but I know I would have a bad case of the "would, coulda, shoulda" if I didn't atleast try it. After a year (or two), I can atleast say I gave it a shot and that trading is not for me.
 
Thanks Kastro, I will definetely give it my all! I will definetely periodically update my sentiments on how I feel about trading. I still have a lot to learn and look forward to this exciting journey!
 
Quote from coolweb:

Desperate
And Salary

and daytrading doesn't mix.

I've seen way too many daytraders who try to "learn" the markets for over 5 years and are still nowhere.

Just imagine how much money they did not earn in those 5 years if they were working as a lawyer $70-100k a year.
Thats $500k


Many people even become addicted to this and never actually make a dime.

The gambling feature in trading is, Many people think they will become profitable just right around the corner, Or they are very close.

This is what daytrading does, lets you think you are so close to profitability yet you are not even close at all.

So you waste 3,4,5,6,7 years chasing the dream that will never materialize.

Just lost your best earning years where you can make Managing director after 7 years of work.


I can count the profitable traders on this board on my hand.

........
More...


Volk, now that you have decided to become a trader, don't take the above quote lightly! read it...re-read it and then read it again to balance out the rest...

Having a little better realistic idea along the way provides you with a sort of a safety net if you will!...

You will appreciate this down the road imo!

Good Luck..
 
Kastro and coolweb,

You 2 have taken me from lurker status to a registered user!

You two are so negative that it kills me. I know A LOT of traders that make a good living trading. And most of them are sitting at home or in prop firms. As for me, I share a small office with 3 other traders. We share the expense of a t1 line, a dsl back up, and rent. Plus it gets us out of the house (we all have children). We have all been trader for over 5 years and each have made 6 figures every year. We use AOL AIM to talk to another 6 or 7 traders that we know to give each other ideas or any breaking news. They are very profitable as well.

I came to elitetrader to get some advice on a forex broker, but find the "career trader" forum very interesting. I have read numerous posts from traders claiming that "I can count the number of profitable traders on one hand." Well, that just proves you don't know a lot of traders!

People claim that you don't have an edge sitting at home on your computer. That you can't compete with the quants with their Phd's and supercomputers and zillions of dollars. But I'm here to tell you that you do have an edge. And its the one thing that every successful trader I have ever met has. And that edge is:

DISCIPLINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That is what separates the winners from the losers. The traders that make money every day versus the trader that has a career ending trade.

Trust me, no Phd can teach you discipline. There are a lot of those guys that will never make it as traders, even with a their brain power. Those guys are using computers to find the "holy grail" of trading. Good luck.

I trade about 1 million shares per month, about 50,000 per day. I trade mostly in 2500 share lots of NYSE stocks. I monitor about 150 stocks very closely using a pretty simple MACD system. I also use trade-ideas to give me ideas on other stocks (not a plug for trade-ideas, I just think its an amazing service). I keep NO positions overnight.

My key is that if a position doesn't workout right away I get out: Discipline!! I can always get back in.

"Live to play another day" is my motto.

Like I said, I find this forum very interesting and will do some follow ups. I welcome everyones comments.

Well, the question to this thread is "Are you still happy being a trader?" I can honestly say "yes"!!! I treat it as a job. Get up, get to the office, look at my charts and read briefing.com and IBD.

Anyway, enough for now. Thanks again for pulling me out of being a lurker!!

Sandy
 
Quote from sandy1:

Kastro and coolweb,

You 2 have taken me from lurker status to a registered user!

You two are so negative that it kills me. I know A LOT of traders that make a good living trading. And most of them are sitting at home or in prop firms. As for me, I share a small office with 3 other traders. We share the expense of a t1 line, a dsl back up, and rent. Plus it gets us out of the house (we all have children). We have all been trader for over 5 years and each have made 6 figures every year. We use AOL AIM to talk to another 6 or 7 traders that we know to give each other ideas or any breaking news. They are very profitable as well.

I came to elitetrader to get some advice on a forex broker, but find the "career trader" forum very interesting. I have read numerous posts from traders claiming that "I can count the number of profitable traders on one hand." Well, that just proves you don't know a lot of traders!

People claim that you don't have an edge sitting at home on your computer. That you can't compete with the quants with their Phd's and supercomputers and zillions of dollars. But I'm here to tell you that you do have an edge. And its the one thing that every successful trader I have ever met has. And that edge is:

DISCIPLINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That is what separates the winners from the losers. The traders that make money every day versus the trader that has a career ending trade.

Trust me, no Phd can teach you discipline. There are a lot of those guys that will never make it as traders, even with a their brain power. Those guys are using computers to find the "holy grail" of trading. Good luck.

I trade about 1 million shares per month, about 50,000 per day. I trade mostly in 2500 share lots of NYSE stocks. I monitor about 150 stocks very closely using a pretty simple MACD system. I also use trade-ideas to give me ideas on other stocks (not a plug for trade-ideas, I just think its an amazing service). I keep NO positions overnight.

My key is that if a position doesn't workout right away I get out: Discipline!! I can always get back in.

"Live to play another day" is my motto.

Like I said, I find this forum very interesting and will do some follow ups. I welcome everyones comments.

Well, the question to this thread is "Are you still happy being a trader?" I can honestly say "yes"!!! I treat it as a job. Get up, get to the office, look at my charts and read briefing.com and IBD.

Anyway, enough for now. Thanks again for pulling me out of being a lurker!!

Sandy
More...

Nice first post Sandy, good stuff in that post. :) Wish you continued success in your trading.
 
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