Haha! Classic.
Is active trading a viable job for an individual?
- Thread starter BYoung
- Start date
Haha! Classic.
Interesting Suggestion --- Do you feel that knowing that you will posting your trades in a Public Journal has an effect on actually making or not making a trade?
I tend to find it makes one think more carefully/deeply because it's like someone constantly looking over your shoulder watching your every actions.
I will check out the current one that you have running now. In what way do you find it "therapeutic". Do you find yourself getting stale or careless and actually need "someone constantly looking over your shoulder" for a while to keep you sharp?
Well trading is time consuming and intense at times, also boring in as much as it for me is rinse & repeat, so a journal brings in a slightly different flavour, adds a bit of zest with feedback at times and just makes one think outside the square. Just another element to add. We are social creatures and trading can be lonely, it all goes into the pot.
A lot of people blow up because they had no edge and were too levered to begin with. Overstating the stability of correlations and assuming they were truly diversified thus overestimating how much leverage the strat can tolerate, or in a market that happened to be going the same direction as their strategy. You can make a living out of this if you're smaller than institutions cause you can afford to look at stuff that wouldn't move the needle for them cause of higher fixed costs. But, ironically, you need enough capital to begin with -- you can't replace that with leverage for consistent returns. Any time you place a trade, you're joining a poker game with highly paid pros. If you don't know who the sucker on the other side is, you're the sucker.
I recommend this book. It's data-based arguments about entrepreneurship, of which trading is a subset. TLDR, author concludes biggest driver of success for any small business is cheap capital and an edge: https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300113310/illusions-entrepreneurship
I make a fraction of what I would make doing the same thing under formal employment. But my returns are higher because of an unlimited mandate and lower size restrictions, and the freedom to control my time and decisions, for me, is worth it.
I recommend this book. It's data-based arguments about entrepreneurship, of which trading is a subset. TLDR, author concludes biggest driver of success for any small business is cheap capital and an edge: https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300113310/illusions-entrepreneurship
I make a fraction of what I would make doing the same thing under formal employment. But my returns are higher because of an unlimited mandate and lower size restrictions, and the freedom to control my time and decisions, for me, is worth it.
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This is an issue too. Get extracurriculars. Social sports, learn new things in a social setting, volunteer.
By and large for me, running a journal, besides the fact I'm an ET member and wish to contribute at times something worthwhile, is really to prove to naysayers trading by retail backyard sitting in pyjamas with cat sitting on lap traders can be profitable.