Quote from Ticketwatcher:
Trading is risk taking.
Of that there can be no doubt. No one should ever misconstrue that fact. However, what is risk? How is risk defined? How does risk get identified? Can the identified risk be mitigated sufficiently to allow for a professional endeavor on a long-term basis? How does one qualitatively measure risk?
What's
risk to one, might be par for the course
process for another. Can we assume that all risk is the same? Probably not - and on that basis, I proffer that one can indeed make a living as a full-time trader, as many do.
Quote from Ticketwatcher:
I have never met ANYONE in person who makes their living trading or gambling or any other risk taking which is considered as high risk as those two endeavors.
Gambling is not Trading, when approached properly. Trading can be no different than gambling, when placed in the wrong hands. I personally know of people who do trade for a living, directly out of their home offices. I also know of a man who was able to get out of the restaurant business, based solely on his performance as a trader over a four (4) year period. He sold his restaurant and has been trading full-time for about two (2) years now at my last check.
I guess working from home like this makes us less likely to go out and meet people one-on-one, but they are out there.
Quote from Ticketwatcher:
In my younger days, I was a sports gambler. I have not gambled illegally or legally for that matter since the mid eighties, but the fictional portryals of professional gamblers have always captured my imagination.
I think they make for good Hollywood scripts, too!
Quote from Ticketwatcher:
I have been a profitable trader out of my home for more than a decade.
That's a long time in this business - congrats on the decade of freedom!
Quote from Ticketwatcher:
The role models that I have followed have been in films. Without giving too much information, my undergraduate degree is more or less in cinema.
That's very interesting. I know the people from all walks of life get into trading, but I've never met anyone from that industry before engaged in full-time trading.
Quote from Ticketwatcher:
My role models in risk taking include the James Caan character in Michael Mann's movie Thief. That is one of the great overlooked films of the eighties. The Tangerine Dream sound track playing to shots of that Cadillac Eldorado are the definition of edgy coolness. His best bud is Willie Nelson and the girl he gets is Tuesday Weld.
Man, you are picking up vibes and inspiration in places that I would have never even dreamed to look! Wow!
Quote from Ticketwatcher:
That is the perfect trader to me, left brained appearing on the outside but ALL RIGHT BRAINED on the inside.
Probably the best personality configuration that I can think of, but I never thought of that personality type for trading purposes. On the surface, one might think that only left brained people would do better in trading. To me, I think it takes a whole lot of the right brain, in order to foster the daring necessary to develop trading ideas that others might never arrange in their own mind - those that you create on your own and then after, using more of the left brain to control the execution side.
Very interesting post!
