Quote from tradertony76:
By the way, to go back to elit's original post.
Be aware you are most likely in for the most difficult journey of your life.
I also got interested back in 2001, while working in IT. I spent a few years reading everything I could find and dabbling around with charts and making small stock trades.
I'll share a bit of my journey from IT to trading with you.
In 2004, I decided to pursue trading full time. So I wasnt just dont trading, I also enrolled in a masters program in "financial markets", so that I could learn more and meet folks in the industry.
In mid-2006 I decided since I could not get into trading firms anywhere I would start doing simulated trading on my own.
I'm now in my third month of simulated trading, and was finally fortunate enough to get picked up by a prop house who is letting me do my practice trading using their facilities now.
My reflections are this is so much more difficult than IT its not even funny. I love it, but its grueling.
In IT, no matter how you perform, you get a paycheck at the end of the week.
In trading, not so. You keep what you kill so to speak, and if you end down, well, then your worse off than where you started.
And no matter how good you are, you will go through losing periods that make you question what you are doing.
After three months at this, I have not turned the corner towards profitability yet. You will likely go through this, and that makes you question your choice about trading even more.
Getting profitable means trading every day, and taking detailed notes as to what worked and what didnt and eventually developing a system or a set of discretionary trading setups that have positive expectation in the long run. This takes time, and if you are not training under someone who has figured out a trick to being profitable can take very long, and will be impossible for a lot of people who try. The months/years you spend doing this, you will have no income coming in.
In a "decent" IT job in the USA, you'll probably bring in $60,000-$120,000 / year depending on what you do. And good companies also will give you 5% of your salary into retirement, 401K matching, health care, and AD&D insurance.
Compare this to trading. If you trade prop, they will put you on sims first, then let you trade real money, but just enough size to cover your business expenses plus a little more(You might bring in the equivalent of $15,000-$20,000 USD annually on your learners stake). Then, once you earn the right to trade large enough to make some decent money, you'll probably be bringing in what you made in IT, but get NO BENEFITS.
This is IF you are one of the few who come around the corner and become profitable.
Of course, if you are consistently profitable, you can do much, much better for yourself than you could in IT. If you are independent, you will build your account and if you are prop, you will get authorization to trade larger and larger size.
So yes, the benefits are there, but just keep in mind what the heck you are getting yourself into.
I'd be lying if at least once a week, the thought "what have I gone and done ?!?!?" doesnt echo in my head as I sit on the sims not making money when I used to make a good living in IT.
To get to where I'm at, I had to quit my job, sell my house and eventually move in with family so that I could slash my expenses enough to give trading a real shot.
So, I do not mean to discourage. In fact I'm happier now in my job than I have been in any IT role I've been on. But I just wanted to give you some insights from someone who's done what you're trying.
Best of luck,
-T
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