Giving up on my dream of trading for a living

[Businessman]

Whoever selling that idea/dream profession should be put in jail.

Im not sure how many people fall for it and quit the day job. Very few i would guess.

I just like the OP, first tried full time trading, when i found myself between jobs. It is easy to get sucked in with all the free time on your hands, you feel like you are working..

 

[SimpleMeLike]

Im not sure how many people fall for it and quit the day job. Very few i would guess.

I just like the OP, first tried full time trading, when i found myself between jobs. It is easy to get sucked in with all the free time on your hands, you feel like you are working..

Hello Businessman,

I definitely understand the allure of wanting to trading full time for living.

However, obtaining a professional, fun, high paying, consistent career/job is the upmost first priority before attempting to day trade or swing trade.

 

[TheDawn]

I have a huge hole in my resume, which I have no idea how I will explain my way out of for future employers.

Tell them you took some time off to support your other half which is what you did. You said it yourself:

A: My wife (then girlfriend) got a good job opportunity on the other side of the country, which would have required me to leave my job if I wanted to go with her.

Your other significant half was starting out a new business and you decided to support her and take on more responsibilities. It's very honorable what you did.

If you wanted to give them an answer that reflects more of your trading endeavour, you can tell them you decided to start a business venture and it didn't work out which is also true. Full-time trading is running a business. And it didn't work out so now you are going back to working full-time. This is completely reasonable. People do it all the time especially now with Covid with all those great resignations with people quitting to do their own stuff. I wish them all the success but I won't be surprised if there would also be a lot of people returning back to working full-time in the corporate world which is desperately looking for people right now. Every single time I go on the highway, you have no idea how many "We are Hiring Now!!" billboards, HUGE billboards that I pass by. So you shouldn't have a lot of difficulties finding a full-time job now actually.

So I felt it might be helpful to some newcomers here if a “losing trader” shared their experience with newcomers to the financial markets.

Don't ever think of yourself as a "losing trader". Think of yourself as a professional trader who is raising trading capital right now. Professional trading firms, brokerages, banks do this all the time. We just don't hear about it. It's only us retail traders. When we work in a day job and trade in our spare time that we are labeled "traders who couldn't make it" or "losing traders" and yet none of those Big House investment houses, or brokerages trade with their own money; they openly solicit for trading capital, so should they be called "traders who couldn't make it" or "losing traders"? And in reality, those brokerage houses make hundreds of millions of dollars of losses, even billions of dollars of losses and yet they are still perceived as BIG successful trading houses. LOL

 

[TheDawn]

I have no idea what HR departments look for now, god only knows what woke-ism now demands... but I'd fill that hole with the post you just wrote.

The same as any employers have always wanted, somebody who is sincere, honest, motivated and willing to work hard with a positive attitude. I find OP is a bit lucky in that the unemployment rate is so low at 3.5% with companies desperately looking for people to work for them nowadays. The OP should really start to send out resumes right now if he's serious about going back to the corporate world. If the rate rises any further and we really go into recession, it would be much harder for OP to land in a full-time job.

 

[vanzandt]

The same as any employers have always wanted, somebody who is sincere, honest, motivated and willing to work hard with a positive attitude. I find OP is a bit lucky in that the unemployment rate is so low at 3.5% with companies desperately looking for people to work for them nowadays. The OP should really start to send out resumes right now if he's serious about going back to the corporate world. If the rate rises any further and we really go into recession, it would be much harder for OP to land in a full-time job.

Well yeah, of course they do. That's the old-school part.

I only threw that in (and lets not derail the thread going off on a tangent, but...) I feel sorry for ya'll, because beyond all of that, any entry into a career that is actually worth a hoot... they are gonna want your Twitter account, FB account, ET account, etc etc.
And those will be sifted thru with a fine tooth comb.

Every word you have ever written, with who knows who deciding if what you said fits (their) accepted norm.

One off color remark made in the last 20 years, and there goes your chances of landing the job.
But I could be wrong.
Doubt it though.
Welcome to our brave new world.

 

[Businessman]

And in reality, those brokerage houses make hundreds of millions of dollars of losses, even billions of dollars of losses and yet they are still perceived as BIG successful trading houses. LOL

One big difference is those big firms employ people. Home traders are self employed and don't typically employ anyone.

I only mention this because someone asked me during an interview once if i employed anyone during the time i said i was 'running my trading business'

A self employed plumber might not employ anyone, but does have clients/customers.

A home based trader, neither employs anyone or has clients.. So trading on your own from home is not seen as a real business by most people.

 

[TheDawn]

One big difference is those big firms employ people. Home traders are self employed and don't typically employ anyone.

Not true. I know traders who employ accountants to prepare their taxes, lawyers to help them file lawsuits against brokers who handled their trades inappropriately (there have been quite a few cases of individual traders who went against IB and won) and etc.

I only mention this because someone asked me during an interview once if i employed anyone during the time i said i was 'running my trading business'

You should've said "I run an investment management business". One thing that I learned from working in the corporate world is that it's not what you do that they want to hear, it's the title of what you do that they want to hear. You can do whatever but if you are able to polish it up in a language that they understand, they will eat it up.

So trading on your own from home is not seen as a real business by most people.

That's the problem and that's their problem, not ours. We just need to tell them what they can understand and there is no problem.

 

[TheDawn]

Well yeah, of course they do. That's the old-school part.

I only threw that in (and lets not derail the thread going off on a tangent, but...) I feel sorry for ya'll, because beyond all of that, any entry into a career that is actually worth a hoot... they are gonna want your Twitter account, FB account, ET account, etc etc.
And those will be sifted thru with a fine tooth comb.

Every word you have ever written, with who knows who deciding if what you said fits (their) accepted norm.

One off color remark made in the last 20 years, and there goes your chances of landing the job.
But I could be wrong.
Doubt it though.
Welcome to our brave new world.

Nah it's not that bad. Whatever social media account that you have is your private business and they don't have the right to ask those from you. If they insist then that's not a company that you want to work for anyway. However they can look you up on social media and see what you say and how you behave in your leisure time; that is something anybody can do because those are public information. So if you have a social media account and choose to publish your viewpoints and activities using these accounts, then you won't be able to control whether and how they will use the information that they obtained from your social media accounts in their hiring process. So being discreet is the key.

 

[Mo06]

"This is a difficult thread for me to write..."

Just been reading the thread, some good answers.

My take on your situation is this - take a break from trading, maybe a year, the markets will always be there (unless the war mongers continue pushing us towards WW III).

No shame in doing this.

 

[Nobert]

the markets will always be there (unless the war mongers continue pushing us towards WW III).