Quote from learninglisted:
Most importantly, I think you misunderstand my emotions in all this. I was pissed off when he told me, a natural enough reaction when someone who is unknowledgeable on the topic at hand states that you will fail at something. And I am motivated to prove him wrong by being successful at this. HOWEVER, as I mentioned earlier, I am NOT going to allow those feelings affect my trading, i.e. by taking risks I normally wouldn't or going into every day with an "I'll show him" attitude. To do so would be lunacy.
Okay, I'll take your word for it. This wasn't the topic of your thread, but I since I already brought it up: it's still my opinion that someone who was
truly certain that somebody else's opinion of them/their activities would not affect them would not even bring the subject up.
I know you probably have an answer to this, too. However, I would ask you to hold off from replying, for the moment to switch off the brain's automatic defensive-reply generator, and really ask yourself --
really ask yourself --
am I bothered by his comments?
You don't have to tell
me, but unless you can honestly answer "no" to this to yourself, and truly
feel that that is the true answer, then I submit you, and thus, your trading, will be negatively affected by the meaning
you attach* to your FIL's opinions. (*Remember, others' opinions have no
intrinsic power to affect us, only that which we give them.)
If a year is not adequate time, in your opinion, all I can say is that many ETers on this board have stated in other posts that that was the length of their learning curve. It also comes down to what amount of money you're talking about - if your lifestyle demands half a million dollars a year in income, then no, I don't think I can do that within ten months. If I can make it to next June with more money than I started with and am trading between 500-1000 shares per trade using my strategies, I will consider the situation worth it to pursue for another year.
A year may or may not be long enough. If I were you, I wouldn't put too much stock (read: any) into the estimates of learning curve length given by others on ET. It's my firm belief that the vast majority are lying (ie, they are not profitable, but pretend that they are, and quote "took me about a year" cos it "sounds" long enough.)
You're right, it is just my opinion that a year isn't long enough. Just know that it's an opinion formed by having grown up in a "market family" and from dozens and dozens of stories about various (would-be) traders passed on to me by relatives and friends.
Forgive my bluntness again, you don't specifically state it, but I gather that you consider being slightly over break even in a year's time rather ho-hum. I would say if you achieve that you've done smashingly well; a year, in my books, being scarcely long enough to learn the rudiments, let alone the all important process of refining them.
As for the capitalization, if I hardly tap into the leverage or am extremely cautious when I do, and make small but steady gains that increase my capital contribution amount which leads to proportionally greater buying power, what's wrong with that? Isn't this what the prop trading model is all about?
In short, no.
I'm guessing the "prop trading model" that you're referring to is of the put-your-$20k-down-professional-customer variety (the one where everyone knows someone who the "guy sitting next to me has made 6 figures the past five years"). What
that model is "all about" is "teaching" (or else influencing) you to trade methods that have you generating commissions big enough to make an insurance salesman blush. There's exactly one daytrading strategy that I'm aware of (although I guess there might be a couple others) that requires anywhere near the amount of leverage a prop firm will give you, and
it hit 90% on the Stochastics band a couple of years ago. (The fact that they advertise this as one of their "advantages" and "benefits" is rather telling, I think.)
"Being capitalized", at least as I understand it, is "having enough capital" to tide you over through losing streaks without the remainder becoming "scared capital", which never (according to legend) trades well.
It's my opinion that the market doesn't take too kindly to people trying to make a living from it even when they are in the best of cicumstances. Sizing you up again, I see an anxious (and willing and able to tell about it) father in law, a thus far patient wife and mother-to-be (but we all know how patience is influenced by bank accounts, time and new born babies), and the subtle but dangerous influences of "prop firm" culture all to contend with. Those are, needless to say, hardly ideal circumstances.
Well, that's my take on it.
But I will offer this interesting "paradox". If you are to make a go and success of this trading thing, it's precisely opinions like mine, your father in law's and those of the Icemen and Scientists of the world that you must learn to ignore.
All the best.
. I'm also lazy so I need to be kicked in the rear to advance - now it depends on the psychology of the person. This can also be taken as a test for searching for real motivation and capacity. I would do it only if I am prepared enough. Preparation is the key between success and failure. Precipitation is a bad idea. If time's preparation is your ennemy for any reason you should reconsider your decision by either differing or changing completely your decision. 
