Do you rely on your trading to put food on the table?

Do you rely on your trading to put food on the table?

  • Total voters
    68
  • Poll closed .
I am not going to look this up or anything, but I highly suspect that those who think "it's impossible to need money and trade" are the same posters who disparage paper trading as 'unrealistic.' They don't get the connection between the imbuing paper trading with the importance it very much deserves, nor do they get the concept of how to keep your head when the shit flies. I dunno. Could be wrong. But I'm not gonna look.
 
If your a successful short term trader your drinking champagne , if not your on benefits , there's very little inbetween , if you want 50k a year this is just about the hardest way , but if you want to be a billionaire it's not such a bad idea, or broke for that matter.
It's human insecurity , if I have modest expectations then I deserve and probably will achieve , trading ( short term ) ain't like that.
 
I don't trade for a living yet, I am still prototyping my system. However, I admit this is the end goal. Mining information on this site suggests one needs only about 200K in capital to trade, plus 6 months living wage in savings. This ironically fits the model I am developing perfectly. Not to disrespect people I know, but I know a couple of them who have reached retirement age and are trying to learn to trade, making the most basic mistakes. I recognize them because I'm made those mistakes over the past couple of years though on a small scale, and I am young (well not that young). You don't want to be that guy that is 65 plus trying to learn to trade, but not to discourage anyone, it is possible. I feel trading is like breaking a code. There are definable mathematical consequences to most actions, though I am not in any way advocating automation. Automation seems absurd to me. Right now, it seems I can make 12 percent a year income on capital during drawdown (this does not include unrealized losses). But my methodology accounts for 5 or 10 year cycles, this is a problem I admit with someone at retirement age. I will start a new thread based on this in part about how much income does one actually need to improve or secure a standard of living.
 
maximumpossiblesuffering said:
No because I suck at short term trading and have a high paying job. Even If I could scalp profitably and reliably make six figures per year, I would end up getting bored with it.

Low transaction frequency day and swing trading profitability is easier to reach and is less intensive than scalping, but even with top hedge fund returns of say 40%, I would need at least $250,000 in an account for "only" 100k per year. Even then, some if not most years, my income would be less. Basically, as a job replacement, I would really want a $600,000 plus in my trading account and a good track record along with it.

For now, I intend to develop my trading skills and track record in my spare time. Hopefully, by the time I have reached my account goals, I will have the trading track record to justify focusing on trading for a living. Although I would still persue temporary or part time contracts because I love what I do currently and have specific plans to persue other high earning and interesting opportunities.
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trading is not intellectually satisfying though the money is good for the effort put in.
i would not trade if i could earn money doing something else.Trading is useless to society you neither providing a service or adding value to anything:there is no reason why market gives you money
 
padutrader said:
Trading is useless to society you neither providing a service or adding value to anything:there is no reason why market gives you money
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Traders provide extremely important services to the economy: We provide liquidity, we are the counter parties to producers, pension funds, farmers, manufacturers who have to hedge their prices, currencies.... without traders, society as we see it won't be able to function.

So, don't tell me we are good for nothing.
 
The answer is both yes and no. Yes, trading is my only job since 2010 and provides the bulk of my income since 2010. No, I don't need much of that income to put food on the table since I live a very simple life so I trade for the challenge not for money.
 
destriero said:
Why would you have a 401(k)? It's employer sponsored, pre-tax contribution. You just cannot help yourself with this utter BS? How big is your trailer?
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what happened to his trading business where he buys all his employees 500k houses and pays them over 100k a year?
 
ironchef said:
Traders provide extremely important services to the economy: We provide liquidity, we are the counter parties to producers, pension funds, farmers, manufacturers who have to hedge their prices, currencies.... without traders, society as we see it won't be able to function.

So, don't tell me we are good for nothing.
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Traders (retail & professional at the exchanges) provides a lot more than liquidity for those involved in the markets including for the government...

Traders with families to support are providing for their needs...housing, food, education and so many things that I do not have time to mention in this post.

The prior poster name padutrader that states that trading is not intellectually satisfying along with stating its useless doesn't know or just ignorant...most likely he'll never get it.

Last time I saw someone say that was a "school teacher" jumping in a debate between traders at a dinner party. One of the traders looked at the teacher (soon to be retired) and reminded her that its "traders" footprints on that pension plan that she'll soon be collecting for the remainder of her life. The same pension plan that will help support her child that just entered college.

She then stated its her savings in the bank, her hard earned money that's paying for her child's education without understanding what the bank does with the money in the markets and her lack of understanding where the money comes from by the government that matched her deposits into her kid's college fund.

Simply, without traders...it all comes to a stop.

wrbtrader
 
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