Is Trading Right for Me or Should I Stick with Poker?

Invest the same number of hours learning to trade, that you invested learning to play poker. Then when you know how, you'll also have an appreciation of your own personal +EV as a trader. You'll be in a good position to decide which you like better, at that time and place in your life: trading or poker.
 
Quote from richrf:

Stick with poker. It is a more honest game. :-)

yeah definitely stick with something you're good at. why risk into stock mkt when already making a good living out of what you like. the chances are you'll fail at stocks and in worst case scenario, it'll drag down your poker psyche along with it. You don't wanna be one of those thousands of young college kids taking a chance at poker b/c you can't find a decent job(I couldn't believe how so many college students want to become a professional poker player......hilarious)
 
I don't think anyone told you this, but you need to rent the DVD "Casino." I actually know Lefty Rosenthall well (Robert Deniro played his part), and he will tell you in the beginning of the movie that Vegas is for suckers. The odds are ALWAYS in the house's favor. If you win on a consistent basis, they'll get rid of you before you can blink.

If you want to "gamble," there's better ways to do it... Best of "luck" to you.:)
 
Quote from The Tripster:

I'm curious to hear how the responses will be different asking this in a trading forum vs. the ones that are posted on poker forums. I've been playing poker for about 4-5 years and have made good money from it while going to a good college; around $275K-$325K. I have an interest in the markets and I should naturallly be able to progress into becoming a good trader because of the similarities in the pyschological side of both of them. I graduate with a Finance major this semester and I'm at the turning point in deciding if I should just stick with poker or become a trader. I've gotten offers from top tier prop trading firms. I have also opened up an account at Tradestation and trade the e-mini S&P and NASDAQ with some minor success and I enjoy doing it. In terms of compensation in both, I would expect to make between 200K-400K a year in poker playing ~30 hours a week, and obv no idea in trading (in terms of profit splits). Other factors that I'm debating are how I would rather be in a social environment vs. at home just playing poker or trading. The negative to that is how I have to have set hours plus a boss and can't take off whenever I want to do random things. The freedom of playing poker is a huge factor for me because I'm not used to being in any other type of environment. I had an internship last year and enjoyed it, and I didn't mind the set schedule, but considering that was for only 3 months vs. a full time job might change my mind. Based on these set of facts, do you think I should stick with poker or give trading at a good firm a shot?

You stick with poker and you'll be broke sooner than later. It's a sucker's game especially when you go to Vegas. If you win in Vegas get out fast. I mean fast! It won't last. I know. I have a family member who cannot go into ANY casino in Vegas because he KNOWS how to break the roulette wheel. He's also a Ph.D who teaches probabilities. He was "asked" not to come back... You're better off with penny stocks imo. It would better for your health to trade stocks... Good luck!
 
Quote from LEAPup:

You stick with poker and you'll be broke sooner than later. It's a sucker's game especially when you go to Vegas. If you win in Vegas get out fast. I mean fast! It won't last. I know. I have a family member who cannot go into ANY casino in Vegas because he KNOWS how to break the roulette wheel. He's also a Ph.D who teaches probabilities. He was "asked" not to come back... You're better off with penny stocks imo. It would better for your health to trade stocks... Good luck!


LEAPup, you couldnt be more wrong!!! If he's good at making money at poker then he obviously knows his stuff...... With poker, its mostly money mgmt and psychology, very much like trading.

If your good at something and making real good money at it, why change???

If it isnt broke....dont fix it !!!!!
 
Quote from Joab:

Trading is a CAREER for life and should be approached with that mind set.

If you can see yourself playing poker for the rest of your life day in and day out then just do that if not then try trading and see if you like what it offers.

This is key. I know there is no way I would ever be content just playing poker for the rest of my life. I would have to go into other opprotunities later on in life. Most likely real estate or other investments. I enjoy finance so I could never really leave the field as a whole.

Also, I play almost exclusively online. The political environment is a factor in what my winrate is. If McCain won the election, I would go into trading in a heartbeat because of the policies he wants to put in place. Obama is at least not against poker. Realistically, I could see myself playing poker for a max of 10 years before getting really bored of it.

Also, I know most people will call bs on me, and I really don't care. The responses I get on here are vastly different compared to responses on poker forums. Ironically, I know 2 people that made around 600K-800K playing poker a year that pretty much completely quit to go into trading at top firms and most people on the forums believed they did the right thing by switching into trading.
 
Quote from sammybea:

Conversely, most people can't find even a slim number of traders who are successful over time. Its not that poker players have better skills than traders, but to be successful in trading takes FAR more than just to have to certain inherent skills.

The only people who truly win will always be the house (the casino and the prop firm owners)

I think this is partially because top traders tend to hang ouch with each other to learn more stuff from each other. I know a group of hedge fund owners/prop firm owners that have a poker game every so often just to converse about the markets and their upcoming plans for their own firms.

Same is true for poker players. Most that I know talk with each other about strategy all the time.
 
Quote from thedewar:

play poker fulltime study markets, then slowly make a transition pending on how successful you become...

200k+ a year is more than alot of traders will make...

in reality you'll just need to gauge how much you think you could make trading based on position size and trading strategy then compare that to what you can make playing poker....

however your earnings can also be compounded trading.... and possibly more readily than they would playing poker...

personally i'd try and balance both if you're only working 30h a week playing poker

Part of this problem is that I would take a job at a top tier trading firm. Most people would agree that by taking this type of job, I would be able to learn things alot quicker vs. by myself. I've heard on hear that people would give their left nut to work at some of these firms, and I feel like it would be a waste to just go on my own vs. taking a job at one of those firms.
 
Quote from MGJ:

Invest the same number of hours learning to trade, that you invested learning to play poker. Then when you know how, you'll also have an appreciation of your own personal +EV as a trader. You'll be in a good position to decide which you like better, at that time and place in your life: trading or poker.

The problem with this is that I think it would take alot more hours of learning trading compared to what I did in poker to come out with the same hourly rate. I think there is a steeper learning curve in trading than in poker. Maybe I am wrong as the Turtle traders only had 2 weeks of training and some of them did exceptionally well that could follow the systems to a tee. The same is true in poker. I could teach anyone to make $15-25 an hour in 2 weeks if they actually listened to me completely.
 
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