Good point. This thread did take on the "tell me if I should do it" tone, but of course I do not expect anyone to make this decision for me. I know myself and I know that I want it enough to go for it and make it on the small scale (at first). Still, I am grateful to everyone who chose to share their opinion. It is a major transition and it is interesting to hear how other people made the leap and how to they feel about it.
Fear of quitting day job...
- Thread starter Bullverine
- Start date
Good point. This thread did take on the "tell me if I should do it" tone, but of course I do not expect anyone to make this decision for me. I know myself and I know that I want it enough to go for it and make it on the small scale (at first). Still, I am grateful to everyone who chose to share their opinion. It is a major transition and it is interesting to hear how other people made the leap and how to they feel about it.
that's your conscience telling you to keep your day job.
traders are gamblers by nature. fear has nothing to do with taking risk. the risk is the attraction. the only fear we have is losing, because it pisses us off so much that we were beaten, or wrong. we could care less what we lost, or the loss of security. all we care about is getting back into the game, and we'll throw everything we have into the pot to get back to even.
and anyone who tells you otherwise is not a trader.
my advice:
listen to your fear. you'll just end up poorer and hating on yourself for not listening to your gut telling you now this is a bad idea.
traders are gamblers by nature. fear has nothing to do with taking risk. the risk is the attraction. the only fear we have is losing, because it pisses us off so much that we were beaten, or wrong. we could care less what we lost, or the loss of security. all we care about is getting back into the game, and we'll throw everything we have into the pot to get back to even.
and anyone who tells you otherwise is not a trader.
my advice:
listen to your fear. you'll just end up poorer and hating on yourself for not listening to your gut telling you now this is a bad idea.
Fear of losing? not so sure, I reckon that could be a source of a psychological blockage to trading effectively, the old chestnut of cutting winners and letting losers run.
Certainly fear of losing big and losing big because of a lack of self discipline and failure to observe your own risk control.
Forget the technical analysis, the fundamental analysis, market knowledge, if you take trades based on moon phases or "outer Mongolian - flying Gann lines in the air", and all of that stuff, if you don't know your own psychological reactions.
Reactions to being wrong about a price movement (no matter how certain you were your analysis was correct - totally the wrong attitude BTW), or being able to allow a winning trade to develop to it's natural conclusion. If you don't know you can handle this, then forget the whole deal. If you don't get your psychology right first then all the rest of it is meaningless and yeah, the chances are you will lose the ranch. Trading IS a tough business and you need to be mentally tough, yet flexible to survive - in more ways than you probably realize.
And yeah, I am aware that I've just contradicted myself, I'm allowed to be wrong it's no big deal, unless I allow it to be.
Also I'm sure that I put a caveat in there somewhere that you should have a fair amount of part time experience and be consistent to even consider going full time.
I sincerely hope my babbling helps.
Certainly fear of losing big and losing big because of a lack of self discipline and failure to observe your own risk control.
Forget the technical analysis, the fundamental analysis, market knowledge, if you take trades based on moon phases or "outer Mongolian - flying Gann lines in the air", and all of that stuff, if you don't know your own psychological reactions.
Reactions to being wrong about a price movement (no matter how certain you were your analysis was correct - totally the wrong attitude BTW), or being able to allow a winning trade to develop to it's natural conclusion. If you don't know you can handle this, then forget the whole deal. If you don't get your psychology right first then all the rest of it is meaningless and yeah, the chances are you will lose the ranch. Trading IS a tough business and you need to be mentally tough, yet flexible to survive - in more ways than you probably realize.
And yeah, I am aware that I've just contradicted myself, I'm allowed to be wrong it's no big deal, unless I allow it to be.
Also I'm sure that I put a caveat in there somewhere that you should have a fair amount of part time experience and be consistent to even consider going full time.
I sincerely hope my babbling helps.
ALWAYS KEEP YOUR DAY JOB. IT IS YOUR INSURANCE POLICY.
Trading without a day job is like playing Russian roulette were the previous person just shot themselves. That doesn't mean that there isn't another bullet left in the gun.
Anyway you wouldn't drive a car without an insurance would you, no matter how careful a driver you may be?
You will find that if you have a job, you tend to trade the correct amount. If you trade all the time you will tend to over trade.
Anyway, how will you cope with another down-turn in the market, at least you have a fighting chance if you have a 9-5 or 7-11 job.
Bullverine (good handle BTW I just got that),
I'd hazard a guess that your fear comes from having a healthy fear or rather respect for what the market is capable of doing to you, if you go in naively and unprepared.
This is perfectly right and normal, it's a good thing that should prevent carelessness.
I think I understand where you're coming from. If you don't have to support a family now, then now is the time to do it. Once the credit card and mortgage repayments start mounting that's it you've lost your window of opportunity.
PS. with regard to gambling;
Gambling is a venture void of calculation, Speculation conversely has calculation as it's very basis.
I'd hazard a guess that your fear comes from having a healthy fear or rather respect for what the market is capable of doing to you, if you go in naively and unprepared.
This is perfectly right and normal, it's a good thing that should prevent carelessness.
I think I understand where you're coming from. If you don't have to support a family now, then now is the time to do it. Once the credit card and mortgage repayments start mounting that's it you've lost your window of opportunity.
PS. with regard to gambling;
Gambling is a venture void of calculation, Speculation conversely has calculation as it's very basis.
Yeah agree, why take advise on trading from someone who doesn't even get the concept of shorting?!?
:eek:Moving from Tech to Trading?
http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/04/0229217
http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/04/0229217
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keep your job and start swingtrading.
daytrading in a bullmarket is suicide
soon daily ranges will contract to 2005-2006 levels, which is average 5-8 ES points daily only
In 2009 until now, the amount of people complaining about low volume is getting bigger everyday, even though volume is 2x more then 2005-2006.
People have come accustomed to 2008 volume levels.
I have seen this on ET and MarketWatch. They will be crushed when volume really dwindles down.
Do you want to be like those persons?
There is no reason for the low volume not to continue!
If you go daytrading, in 6 months you will complain about algo-bots, HFT, low volume, the PPT, the FED propping up markets etc. like all other failed traders on ET.
You will blame everybody except yourself for failure to recognize the market has changed from bear to bull.
wait until another crash
daytrading in a bullmarket is suicide
soon daily ranges will contract to 2005-2006 levels, which is average 5-8 ES points daily only
In 2009 until now, the amount of people complaining about low volume is getting bigger everyday, even though volume is 2x more then 2005-2006.
People have come accustomed to 2008 volume levels.
I have seen this on ET and MarketWatch. They will be crushed when volume really dwindles down.
Do you want to be like those persons?
There is no reason for the low volume not to continue!
If you go daytrading, in 6 months you will complain about algo-bots, HFT, low volume, the PPT, the FED propping up markets etc. like all other failed traders on ET.
You will blame everybody except yourself for failure to recognize the market has changed from bear to bull.
wait until another crash