Wow, I did not expect such a response, especially since I'm so new to the site. Thank you all.
Pension Admin, this sounds like a similar track as myself.
Quote from Pension_Admin:
I traded at Swift Trade back in 2002. I didn't last. So I have now switched to a career in accounting.
Trading is still my passion and I am looking for the day where I could become a profitable trader.
PA
I prop traded for awhile and was always on the brink; some good months some bad, never a blowup or breakout month to push me in either direction. A few odd bartending jobs (had to be nights so I could trade during the day) during the summer when things were slow.
Finally some issues from my personal life wouldn't allow for me to keep just getting by and needed some immediate financial stability. So, now I'm doing back office operations at a brokerage firm (licensed with 7,66,55,3) while taking MBA classes.
A review of my trades shows I was more profitable than I thought, with one exception - I made good money (relatively speaking, not enough to wow anyone) most mornings then found I would churn and keep trading to hit the share volume needed to get the next highest tier of commission discount.
The goal now is to get the MBA/CPA, open a small accounting practice that will hopefully give me some stability financially while still having the freedom to trade 2-3 hours each day.