Can you keep sanity day trading?

Most people go into day trading without a business mindset as they don't stop to think what their competitive advantage is going to be. As @digitalnomad mentioned, a good mindset will do you no good if you do not have an edge. Also, one should have two pots of money before going "full time". One for living expenses and one for trading capital. When I left my job to focus on trading and building my tech a little over six months ago, I had enough savings in addition to my trading capital so that the same amount of money as when I was employed could continue flowing into the family checking account twice a month. No stress and the only sacrifice is to my personal savings account.
 
Unfortunetly having a day job can be just as stressful as being a business owner and the day job may sometimes have more devasting results...

Gotta keep it all in perspective because it really depends upon the day job.

For example, I've seen people work 15 - 18 years at a job, nearing their retirement and the company start having serious financial problems and then go belly up (bankrupt) just prior to their retirement...no retirement...sudden change in plan about how they'll live the rest of their life.

The stress that last few years can be overwhelming. Then there's those on Wall Street with a white collar jobs, wonderful health/dental benefits, insurance to take care of their families and something horrible happens in the markets...people kill themselves as in commit suicide...anybody remember the financial crisis of 2008 - 2010 ???

Others carry on as if its just something that's part of the job or part of life...shit happens and they quickly move on to something else. Those people are able to manage the life and get on with living.

I've seen a friend that's a farmer in the U.S. lose his farm, file for bankruptcy, wife took the kids and left him because he didn't have a plan B & went into deep depression from being hounded by creditors. Now he's on the verge of losing his home...

All because of the current trade wars between the United States and other countries.

Another example, I remember growing up and people saying the only "safe/guarantee certainty from a job" is to get a government job...hearing those words while growing up in France, United States and later residing in Canada.

In Canada...even a government job wasn't safe and very stressful because of the pay problems with the flawed Pheonix System (computer system) that cost employees 615 million dollars of their pay checks and in some estimates over a billion dollars...very similar to going to work and knowing you won't be pay. It took several years for government employees to get financial relief from not getting pay but in those several years...some lost their homes, couldn't feed their families, quit their job and filed civil lawsuits.

In the United States...there's the stress from a government shut down and there's the Farmer strikes in France.

Simply, a day job does not guarantee certainty and you got to always be prepare with a plan B along with having resources to manage extreme stressful situations.Those that survive stressful situations with their day job...some will be more prepare with a plan B just in case it happens again.

It doesn't matter what day job someone has and it doesn't matter what type of a trader that someone is...some can handle the stressful situation while others can not when shit hits the fan.

Regardless to all of the above, retail traders are in more vulnerable income situations that raises the stress level to abnormal levels because most get involved in retail trading when they are not suitable to be a retail trader.

Yet, people dream the big life of money and independence while underestimating or not prepare for the stress that comes with it. It shouldn't be that way but it is...its life.

Today you're healthy...tomorrow you can come down with an illness (e.g. cancer) that kills you or you can get hit by a car or suddenly have a heart attack or have a major stroke or get murder even though you had a great day job or you were a top retail trader.

Trust me, life is unpredictable with tons of uncertainty.

wrbtrader

Yeah life is uncertain and stressful, I'm not arguing that a day job makes all of that go away. What I'm saying is that trading/running a small business adds to that stress because those things add more uncertainty into your life.
 
I'm not sure about his trading, but I believe he knows a thing or two about insanity :)

upload_2019-2-5_12-57-19.png
 
I'm looking up his trades and not quite able to line them up. Do you think his trading statement time is based on Sydney, Australia time? Why would a guy sitting in SD be using a broker out of there? Is that routine for forex

pays no taxes .
 
...

"They’ve lost their families and their sanity. They’ve experienced such psychological and emotional suffering from their journey to profitability that they are forever blessed and cursed from that journey."

I was screwed up before starting to trade, just didn't know it, LOL, but I do agree that EVERYONE changes in some fashion cause of all the time we put ourselves into this career. I don't know how it is for those who have tried and failed and returned to doing work they most likely did not want to return. I hate manual trading from first trade I ever did to testing systems even today, so automation is like heaven as I have zero stress.

Trading/scalping I believe is inverse to what most people do not understand, my opinions, takes less time to learn longer term trading and holding months/years and can make much much more than scalping/day trading-just ask Buffet and Trout. you need to learn/memorize far greater amount of information to make so much less per trade plus the fees to trade are insanely greater, R to R much smaller in intraday. And most new people coming to play with us are as dumb as a post thinking this is going to be easy. Well, it is easier to ride a horse if you done it several years and keep profiting.

We all have egos and as years pass, most go away and just content to come and go through life to do what we think makes us happier, isn't that blue skies? We were all young once, and we all said things for the times we lived, now older, I have forgotten who I was over forty years ago.
 
Just because its hard for him, does not mean its hard for somebody else.
I think if someone asks this kind of question, that is the only appropriate honest response. I would say that if it's easy for someone, it means they are doing it the wrong way, imho. The only exception may be someone who found a great mentor early (or a relative in the business). Still, it is very hard way to make easy money and most people would be better off chasing other opportunities.
 
I'm not sure about his trading, but I believe he knows a thing or two about insanity :)

View attachment 197593

"live trader and educator" from 2017. Not a great performance record if he blew out accounts and his life savings as he said, within two years. It'd be far more convincing if he had a record of trading for five years or more with consistency without having to be an "educator"/vendor.
 
Unfortunetly having a day job can be just as stressful as being a business owner and the day job may sometimes have more devasting results...

Gotta keep it all in perspective because it really depends upon the day job.

For example, I've seen people work 15 - 18 years at a job, nearing their retirement and the company start having serious financial problems and then go belly up (bankrupt) just prior to their retirement...no retirement...sudden change in plan about how they'll live the rest of their life.

The stress that last few years can be overwhelming. Then there's those on Wall Street with a white collar jobs, wonderful health/dental benefits, insurance to take care of their families and something horrible happens in the markets...people kill themselves as in commit suicide...anybody remember the financial crisis of 2008 - 2010 ???

Others carry on as if its just something that's part of the job or part of life...shit happens and they quickly move on to something else. Those people are able to manage the life and get on with living.

I've seen a friend that's a farmer in the U.S. lose his farm, file for bankruptcy, wife took the kids and left him because he didn't have a plan B & went into deep depression from being hounded by creditors. Now he's on the verge of losing his home...

All because of the current trade wars between the United States and other countries.

Another example, I remember growing up and people saying the only "safe/guarantee certainty from a job" is to get a government job...hearing those words while growing up in France, United States and later residing in Canada.

In Canada...even a government job wasn't safe and very stressful because of the pay problems with the flawed Pheonix System (computer system) that cost employees 615 million dollars of their pay checks and in some estimates over a billion dollars...very similar to going to work and knowing you won't be pay. It took several years for government employees to get financial relief from not getting pay but in those several years...some lost their homes, couldn't feed their families, quit their job and filed civil lawsuits.

In the United States...there's the stress from a government shut down and there's the Farmer strikes in France.

Simply, a day job does not guarantee certainty and you got to always be prepare with a plan B along with having resources to manage extreme stressful situations.Those that survive stressful situations with their day job...some will be more prepare with a plan B just in case it happens again.

It doesn't matter what day job someone has and it doesn't matter what type of a trader that someone is...some can handle the stressful situation while others can not when shit hits the fan.

Regardless to all of the above, retail traders are in more vulnerable income situations that raises the stress level to abnormal levels because most get involved in retail trading when they are not suitable to be a retail trader.

Yet, people dream the big life of money and independence while underestimating or not prepare for the stress that comes with it. It shouldn't be that way but it is...its life.

Today you're healthy...tomorrow you can come down with an illness (e.g. cancer) that kills you or you can get hit by a car or suddenly have a heart attack or have a major stroke or get murder even though you had a great day job or you were a top retail trader.

Trust me, life is unpredictable with tons of uncertainty.

wrbtrader
¨
Even though the true certainty in a "regular job" is far from 100%, people tend to view it as such, and hence valuing it (too) highly.

My own personal anecdote here would be my mother. Throughout my upbringing, she was always emphasizing how important it would be for more to get a degree and a stable job. Meanwhile, she kept working as a school teacher at the same place in the town I grew up through multiple generations of colleagues.

The end result for her: Perpetually low wages, failing marriage, depression. She always keeps whining about how little money she has. Excessive loyalty to her public sector employer hasn't exactly paid off.

The end result for me: Despite not finalizing my degree I made several times her wage every month in my day job. Quit that now and doing consultancy a few hours a week and still being paid several times what she's being paid right before retirement. And, I get to do lots of fun things in most of my week which is spare time, including trading.

The thing that made me jump out of the hamster wheel mentality was realizing I am in fact always unsafe, no matter what. I actually keep the same example as you: I can get cancer or be hit by a car and die tomorrow. Meanwhile, good Swedish safety nets encourage risk taking since we will not be completely screwed from receiving help in case we fail.
 
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