How much income do you need from trading?
- Thread starter eaglefeather
- Start date
Happiness is not about lambo, it is about freedom: freedom from worry about tomorrow because of money; freedom to do whatever you enjoy; freedom to buy what you want, live where you want but choose not to because ....
This depends on your account size. $18k for basic life stuff is somewhere around $70 per trading day. Learn how to trade well and learn how to sell puts (if you want) and you will find yourself making far more than $1500 a month. But don't focus on the "rent" or other physical objects. As soon as you think you can trade to "get" X amount, to buy that nice Y, you will lose money. Trade for the love of trading or be prepared to lose to those who love trading. Don't give them your money. Trade smart. Good luck.
Most people here don't understand what you talk about as they are still in the stadium of trying to become profitable. In that stadium it is all about making money to survive. If ever they arrive at the point they can choose between more money or more quality of life they will understand. But most will never reach that point...
this ^
To that point, it does appear anything that can give you an edge does help (like paying less in capital gains taxes).
Hey I'm new. I saw this post and had alarm bells in my head "this guy was me 3 years ago".
If you NEED an income from trading you're going to fail. The psychological pressure will kill you. You need to master trading when you've got a separate and stable income source. Once you've mastered it and trading becomes supplementary to that it can than transition into your main income source.
It is a very very stressful thing to embark on a trading career when its your only source of income. From your post, it sounds like you're not only looking to replace your current income but also improve your circumstances... This is not unreasonable; it is the dream of every trader! But it will take YEARS.
I did it twice and failed. And I had to borrow money from my mother and then get back to work. TWICE.
To succeed at trading you need to be ok with losing. And when mortgage, marriage and quality of life are on the line it can't work, you'll be crippled with fear and not take any trades; or take bad ones. Its a bloody psychological nightmare; don't do it.
Learn to trade while you have a stable income; when the money doesn't matter. go part-time in your job if you can. Take a leave of absence. Trade a daily or 4H chart on Forex in your evenings after your day job, and let them run for days.
And do it with real money. Because paper trading teaches you nothing. You need to feel the fear of losing your own money. Because this is what makes trading hard and stressful and stops you from pulling the trigger on good trades then pulling it on bad ones. You need to feel the fear with every trade, but also be ok with the fear if you know what I mean.
If you NEED an income from trading you're going to fail. The psychological pressure will kill you. You need to master trading when you've got a separate and stable income source. Once you've mastered it and trading becomes supplementary to that it can than transition into your main income source.
It is a very very stressful thing to embark on a trading career when its your only source of income. From your post, it sounds like you're not only looking to replace your current income but also improve your circumstances... This is not unreasonable; it is the dream of every trader! But it will take YEARS.
I did it twice and failed. And I had to borrow money from my mother and then get back to work. TWICE.
To succeed at trading you need to be ok with losing. And when mortgage, marriage and quality of life are on the line it can't work, you'll be crippled with fear and not take any trades; or take bad ones. Its a bloody psychological nightmare; don't do it.
Learn to trade while you have a stable income; when the money doesn't matter. go part-time in your job if you can. Take a leave of absence. Trade a daily or 4H chart on Forex in your evenings after your day job, and let them run for days.
And do it with real money. Because paper trading teaches you nothing. You need to feel the fear of losing your own money. Because this is what makes trading hard and stressful and stops you from pulling the trigger on good trades then pulling it on bad ones. You need to feel the fear with every trade, but also be ok with the fear if you know what I mean.
Then I would've been dead 12 years ago, and each year from then til now. Jeez. Another one.
Exactly what I said in an earlier thread today: the people who think you can't trade if you 'need' the money, and the same whispy souls (like this guy, below ↓↓↓) who demean paper trading as having no/little value.
Trading takes guts -- and if you don't have the guts to engage with a simulation, you're certainly not going to have the guts when a trade goes against you and the mortgage is on the line. Welcome, to real life.
(No one said it would be easy.)
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Oh sorry, are you 12 years old and fell out of your mother's C**T making money trading?
Dude. He has a very good point. Don't belittle it because he is succeeding.