Lifestyle trader choice - tough decision

I work in the corporate world.

You will enjoy the new friendships you make but you will also meet and have to possibly work with people you do not like.

Are you good with dealing with all sorts of people? If you are ,you will thrive in the corporate world if you are not you will fail or be mediocre at best.

Be ready to do things you dont like to do. The boss will give direction and you will need to obey though you may disagree.

I assume you are good and enjoy speaking in front of large groups of people on a regular basis.

Once you get into the grind of things you will find after a year or two that even when on vacation you will need to take calls and answer emails. I have not taken more than 4 straight days off in 3 years- my choosing because I hate the catchup that follows from taking time off.

Dealing and working with people is the biggest challenge and reward.
 
Take the job. Give it a shot and if it works out great. If it's not for you, you have every right to quit 6 months from now, just as they could let you go at any time. Then you can go back to doing what you do now.

Don't think for a second in a corporate type environment that you owe them anything other than your full attention while working. Taking a job is not a minimum two year contract, uless it is, in which case you need some sort of buy out worked in should they decide to fire you. Just know that 99% of these people do not have your best interests at hear, they have theirs. With that said, you need to play by the same rules.
 
great advice, guys. i want to thank you all for it. i'm leaning towards going for it for a bunch of the reasons you mentioned.

i guess it really all come to down to what i value most. i also think we only have one life to live so we should go for it in life. that leaves me thinking that we should always be happy and not give in to the almighty buck to sacrifice our personal happiness, but at the same time these opportunities may not come around all that often in life, and we should give them a shot if we get them, cause we might regret not taking them later.

if my personal happiness suffers dramatically, i like your ideas that i shouldn't feel too guilty about quitting the position early and going back to what i'm doing now. i think the company would understand, but i probably shouldn't care much about that anyway. i don't think its a formal "two year" contract or anything, but theres obviously an expectation of me staying awhile. whatever - theyre very successful and will move on quite easily without me.

obviously, the amazing thing would be if i actually enjoy some aspects of working for a larger company again. that would solve all my problems. so, i think im gonna do it.

thanks again, guys. guess i gotta buy some new slacks :eek:
 
I would draw a line in the sand NOW as to when you will quit if you do not enjoy it. It will not get better.

I suggest 3 / 6 months in.
 
Quote from cmdtytrdr:



"I'm someone who loves my freedom and enjoy vacationing frequently. The trade-off is I can make a shi*load of $ if this position works out.

Serious replies, please. Thanks. How bad is it to go back to the grind, once you've been out for so long?
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If you are planning to do it for the money, then DO NOT do it. If you are successful like you said in your trading, believe me that you do it for the passion of trading...the money follows you....that is why you are successful.
 
Quote from Compulsive:

If you are planning to do it for the money, then DO NOT do it. If you are successful like you said in your trading, believe me that you do it for the passion of trading...the money follows you....that is why you are successful.
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Best advice so far :cool:
 
I can only speak for myself. My people person skills were marginal at best when I was part of the so called working world.

After ten years of trading out of my home, I am fairly certain that I could not rustle up enough people person skills to even last a week.

But I am closer to sixty than fifty and that is certainly a big factor.
 
Quote from cmdtytrdr:

I'm trying to think of the decision rationally, in terms of a dollar trade off for a brutal lifestyle compared to what I have now. There is the potential to make enough to retire in an amazing way in 4-5 years if i do well, versus having an already pretty great income now. But im greedy like most, and this is a great opportunity where i'll have a lot of AUM.

The problem is the decision can't be made completely rationally since having an annoying lifestyle for a few years, when you're relatively young can really suck.

I'm wondering if it's worth it. Would I look back in twenty years and be happy that I was miserable for a few years, but could then do whatever the fuc* i wanted.

Wondering what others would do in my position. Am i being too greedy? Should i just be happy with my personal freedom and lets say $1m a year now, or should i suck it up for a few years and try to really make serious money, where i could whatever i wanted after w my life?

I know it's a good problem to have but I'm struggling with it. Thanks for any advice. Would love to hear from other successful pro traders who are doing the prop thing or trading from home and loving it.

Also, am I making this out to be worse than it really is and will i adjust pretty easily to the corporate grind after a couple months? (my suspicion is that I won't honestly, since I tried it a while back and pretty much hated it. But maybe i'm just overly pessimistic cause I'm so used to what I've had for a while.)
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Money doesn't buy happiness.

If you're making decent $$$ now why go to a corporate grind with politics and give up the freedom you have. IMO you can't put a price tag on the freedom trading allows. I've been gone 13 years from the corporate world and would never go back and in that time I had a couple lean years trading but the good years make it so worthwhile.
 
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