Quote from Splat:
To the OP: This topic has been covered many times in many different threads on this site.
But let me say that you made a good decision by staying in your job. As you discovered you basically have two choices -
1) Quit your job and work at it and try to become successful at trading and potentially risk failure and loss and then possibly have to start again to rebuild your career.
2) Work at it whilst in your job and spend your free time trying to be successful in trading. This choice is very disheartening when you see other people you see and may know trading successfully but let me tell you that if you stick at it and commit to it 100% and NOT give up no matter what happens, you will succeed.
I also chose the latter path ten years ago and it has been hard but I also stuck to it. I saw and made friends with lots of people along the way who had given up their jobs and become moderately successful at discretionary trading. It was disheartening to see that they had become successful at something I could not master or be willing to take the plunge for. If you have a family - wife and kids - that demands time like I do then it makes it even more difficult. Your job may also become demanding at times you may have to be prepared to put in long hours to do work projects for long periods - many months - without being able to spend any time on trading research.
But there is reward at the end of the long and windy roller coaster! Just wanted to say that I recently have developed five completely mechanical swing systems that each give annual returns of greater than 90%. However to get to this stage you have to invest a LOT time, effort and money. For instance you may need to spend money to buy market data and development tools. As an example, I recently forked out $5K to buy complete stock data (current+historical+delisted) so that I could test my systems.
Wish you luck!
Quote from uesr33:
That is what they all do: to make you believe they are nice guys and are they are so nice that they are helping you for free! when you are hooked then they will tell you if you want more , their price is....
This is thousand years old marketing technique, nothing new, but it has worked so well for thousands of years so these people continue to use this "trick".
another technique is to provide fake testimonies. just look at all these fake guru/mentor services, do they not all using these two old tricks to lure the newbie traders?
Quote from Crowsfeet:
For the record...I have worked with the Spread Professor, and can report having a very good experience. His training is far to advanced for someone just starting out in the markets. I have been in the business for over 15 years now and was able to easily verify his credentials. I agree with you that there are a lot of people that prey on guys looking to do whatever it takes to make it as a professional trader. But every now and then you will come across a true Gem like The Spread Professor that is looking to give back or pay it forward to guys like you and me.
Quote from uesr33:
Looks like bone is preying on our newbie engineer who is not even a beginner trader
Quote from bone:
Let me state for the record that the OP and myself had a private conversation three weeks ago, the result of which was my determination that he did not have an adequate experience level for me to do him any good. I do not and have not taken virgin traders as clients. As another client stated in a post elsewhere, my techniques are somewhat advanced and are best exploited by an experienced trader. Again, I turn down alot more interested parties than I eventually end up taking on as a client. OP is just one case in point.