Having trouble focusing at my day job

[Standard Oil]

OP,

Listen to me carefully.

When you have the security of a job trading is easy. When you have no security and your counting on each trade for your sole source of income things change dramatically.

Analytical skill is only a part of being a successful trader. It takes years of experience and a very controlled and self aware mind to be a successful trader.

You are years away from this and you need to get real with yourself fast.

Keep your job and stop dreaming about playing in the NFL just because your having a few good months in high school Varsity.

 

[tradethetrade]

This thread is over. The answer is here.

Quote from Standard Oil:

OP,

Listen to me carefully.

When you have the security of a job trading is easy. When you have no security and your counting on each trade for your sole source of income things change dramatically.

Analytical skill is only a part of being a successful trader. It takes years of experience and a very controlled and self aware mind to be a successful trader.

You are years away from this and you need to get real with yourself fast.

Keep your job and stop dreaming about playing in the NFL just because your having a few good months in high school Varsity.

 

[MandelbrotSet]

Quote from brazilianwonder:

This thread is over. The answer is here.

Standard Oil did give a five star post when he said this ...

Quote from Standard Oil:

Analytical skill is only a part of being a successful trader. It takes years of experience and a very controlled and self aware mind to be a successful trader.

... didn't he.

I kinda like the comment about "the NFL and high school varsity" too ... you all know they don't allow kids to play in the NFL until they've grown into men, right?

That's because they'll break their bodies into so much bone and muscle.

 

[TraderZones]

Quote from Smart Money:

This is real, and is not bragging.

I'm a swing trader. I have a day job, and at night I do my analysis. I've been getting good at T.A., and a couple weeks ago, I had a "Eureka Moment" for a set-up for swing trades. I have back-tested it and it works better than my greatest expectations. At face value, it seems sound too. I've only been using it a couple of weeks, but it's been spot on, and I've been making good money.

OK, here's where I'm having trouble. Whether I actually do "make it big" or fall flat on my face, I'm having trouble living and working in the now. I believe wholeheartedly that in a couple years (plus or minus), I'll be able to retire while I'm still kind of young....Ok...middle aged.

I can't seem to get any work done now. I'm obsessing over this, and I've viewing what I do in my day job as so trivial that I'm not doing the best job that I can for my clients.

Any recommendations for staying focused? I'm going to get fired or something and I just can't afford that right now.

SM

Try this on for size: the most likely reality is:

1) your eureka will turn out to be a dud (few traders ever become longterm lucrative), but you have not yet found out why yet

2) you lose your job and manage to lose a lot of money trading because of one of the many things you did not foresee in your analysis

3) you are on unemployment, fruitlessly searching for another job along with the other longterm unemployed...

4) you have bruises all over, from kicking yourself because you wish you could return to the moment of this post, and never had made this decision in the first place.

 

[AmbushHillbilly]

Quote from Smart Money:

This is real, and is not bragging.

I'm a swing trader...

..Any recommendations for staying focused?..

SM

I feel your pain, SM.

Give some thought about whether you're feeling a healthy passion for trading, for learning something new, and realizing new talents;

Or are you obsessing over how you'll have no more day job, no boss, and work in your jammies.

The former is healthy, normal, and critical to trading success.

The latter is certainly normal, but neither healthy or successful.

That you asked the question is a postive sign.

I would suggest you lay out a detailed plan for success. Set some short, medium and longer-term goals for yourself, as an earlier poster suggested. Something as simple as not to consider anything trading related before 9pm. If you catch yourself violating (and you will), stop and refocus. The discipline involved will be a great aid in your trading.

And from personal experience take any timeline you arrive at and multiply by at least pi (3.14159). In trading, and most of life, that adjusted estimate is usually more accurate.

 

[saliva]

It proves to me that you have a reading comprehension of an idiot. Just where the hell did I tell "a guy to quit his job because of a few weeks of successful trading"? On the contrary. I was implying that it's more like a pipe dream that he needs to avoid when I wrote "[T]his sounds more like those who give into countless fantasies before buying a lottery ticket. But what can ya do? It's part of the human nature."

Quote from NeoRio1:

You're telling a guy to quit his job because of a few weeks of successful trading? You think someone can figure out whether to stick with a trading system after a two week vacation from work?

You have got to be joking. Why don't you just tell the guy you want him to lose his job and you're a big enough idiot to think a two week trading period is enough time to judge a trading system.

 

[maxpi]

I was going to make it as a trader "next month" for many years... meanwhile it destroyed my work life and marriage... so far I don't miss either one WIN =Work is Nonprofit... when you are sure your trading scheme will work for you, quit the frigging job...

 

[CET]

What we have here is the typical case of premature excitation. This can be cured by a deer in the headlights trade where a small loss is allowed to become a big loss or mr. market gives a nice gap down on bad news on a position. If you are swing trading there is even less reason to quit the job until you have had good results for a long time.

 

[Smart Money]

Quote from dowhit:

You should quit your job. Right now. Today. Walk in this morning and say "I quit!".

Then start trading. I have faith in you. You can do it.

(That's what you want to hear, right?)

Honestly, no. I think I got more out of the "reality check" responses. Someone characterized what I'm feeling as childish and they may be spot on. This may not work forever, but it looks like it from here and perhaps I hate my job enough to indulge in the fantasy of quitting. I don't know. But I think its unhealthy.

My main deal is that I'm starting with so little capital that if you calculate the number of times that the money would have to double for me to finally walk out on my job, its a long stretch of time, even if I am doubling pretty fast. If I was a single guy, maybe I'd quit earlier, but there are other factors at play here.

Follow this: Imagine that I do have the silver bullet, as I believe I have. It is very plausible that my silver bullet won't work at some point in the future. And I don't know when that will be. So my best course of action...my optimal course of action...is to keep turning the money until my silver bullet doesn't work. Pulling money out would be self-defeating....because my living expenses would be such a tax on the money's ability to double that I could run out of time before the funds are big enough to live off the interest. So logically, I need to keep my day job until I have enough to quit...and until then, never touch my trading funds. Thats the plan.

Maybe I did need to be "scared straight". Even if this thing is working well. I can tell you though...its a head trip, and maybe the Grist of an entirely new thread.

SM

 

[Smart Money]

Hey, After reading the rest of the responses, I do want to clear the air about a couple of things. I've been hanging around this website for 5 years now. I started coming here because I was interested in the very insightful dialogue in the economics forum. I also do investment real estate, and I was a permabull in that...some of you guys might remember that.

But being here for so long has poisoned my mind. I did start trading, and I've been doing it a while now. Not quite a year, but I have hundreds of trades under my belt now and I'm still here. I've experienced drawdowns, and I've moved ahead. My account is about where I started with, but I've learned a hell of a lot.

I do understand risk, and mitigating risk. I know not to put my eggs in one basket. And I never invest in anything that can have an unlimited loss...like Shorting. Heck, the closests I get to that is trading short ETFs, and I don't even do that on margin.

Yes, two weeks ago, I discovered something new. I back tested it graphically first, and then I started to implement it. Though it's still fresh, it was good enough to motivate me to learn computer backtesting just to tweak it. I recognize that my method will make mistakes, but it back tests and works well so far. I know it may some day stop working.

I say this because I wanted to clarify that I'm real, this is a real problem that I'm dealing with and that my day dreams are somewhat rooted in reality...enough to shake my core being. I'm not a noob off the street, but I'm not a seasoned veteran either. Perhaps I've just removed my training wheels and I can really go somewhere now. This week I had the best week I've ever had since I started trading. Its probably small time compared to most of you, but it is the percentages that I'm focusing on...they are decent.

If this keeps working long enough (a big "if") I'm also wondering how the sudden accumulation of money would affect some friendships that are very precious to me. The only thing I can think of is to someday run a private investment fund for my closest friends. I'd have left this town long ago to be a professional trader if it weren't for my friends. I'm interested in knowing how some of you guys that did find the holy grail handled the strain on your friendships? PM me if you like...this is messing with me a little bit as I would mourn the loss of friendships that have endured for decades if that came to pass.

Thanks to all for your helpful advice. I won't be quitting my job anytime soon and I think the advice to limit my daylight hours dedicated to trading is a real good one. I appreciated the reality check that I could lose it all if I don't watch my ass. Good or bad advice, I have more to mull over.

SM