Need Advice

Funny you should say that. I was thinking the same thing that trading is a battlefield and we can get emotionally beaten up at times. So having a job unrelated to the markets is a different setting altogether with a different kind of stress. Maybe a whole lot less? Bows and Arrows don;t always work, waving the white flag will do too :).
 
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Don't know if you could do this...Just a pipe dream. Very Feng Shui...Have your trading location be in small room surrounded by many trees (pines, fruit, nuts) and bushes. Have beautiful landscaping by the house. Your trading at home becomes the relaxing respite for the day...No dragon slaying there. The client is work and as such he/she directs your movement...But if allowed, see if Skype can be brought into the picture. Have your meetings at your house. I have a feeling landscaping and trading will become more and more important for our psyche. Don't know your situation...Just thinking how some people trade...Some locked in the room (no distractions), their coffee (maybe a dog or cat)...But no outside disturbance. Birds singing, your daughter playing may help with the mental side of planning your trades...Just an idea. Cabin111
 
trader99 said:
Leading a double life
===============

Just had another good trading in the morning.

I feel like I lead a double life. Thanks to my timezone, I get up early and do my exercises. Then trade. Then go to work. On good days, I make in one hour what I make an entire day consulting onsite. On other days, it's down or flat. Just need to keep up the positive momentum. Hopefully over the long run, the positives significantly outweigh the negatives.

When I'm onsite at a client's office and working, I feel like I have been transported to another place. Trading was a battlefield with volatility. Slaying the dragons.
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No. Trading is very easy when you know what you are doing, why you are doing, and how you are doing. It is more boredom then slaying.
 
trader99 said:
Hey Guys,

I need your collective wisdom and advice on this. I've been on ET on/off for years. As some of you might know, 2015 was my breakthrough. Finally became net profitable.
While I was net profitable, the amount was very small compared to my corporate salary. It's more like a nice yearend bonus.

This was all because I was doing it part-time while holding down a very nice corporate job in the tech industry. So no pressure to make money all the time and all the associated benefits(both psychologically and monetarily that goes with that).

So, I got laid off from a tech company a few months ago. And I've been trading a little in the morning in between recruiters calling, interviewing, vacationing, and some side gigs I'm doing.

I have two strategies. In my daytrading strategies, I can average a few hundred bucks a day easily. $100-$500. Without being too aggressive. Of course, there are down days too.

On my longer term trades, it has been disastrous! Holding on to losers for too long on large size on one account. But on another account, my long term trades are good(riding a good trend). I know it's a bit schizo. Long story. On my good(meaning net profitable though still somewhat volatile) long trading account, I recently got margin on it through Robinhood. So now I can swing pretty large amount of capital. I was thinking maybe I should be more aggressive on that longer term account? But I don't want to lose money like the other longer term account that has been decimated. Not sure how best to proceed..

I guess I haven't quite figure out this longer term thing yet. While the daytrading is steady, the profits are small. I'm not banking big like in my volatile swing trading account. I'm not sure how to scale it up without erasing that steady small profits. Meaning if I put on a lot of shares/futures contracts I'm sure the equity curve will not be as steady & smooth given the psychological element of holding large positions.

I'm very hesitant to do this full-time, because even at $100-$500/day it's still SIGNIFICANTLY below my corporate job salary in the tech sector.

Should I be MORE AGGRESSIVE in my daytrading and try to get above $1k+ daily? If I do that then I'll be above my corporate salary though there's no guarantee to I'll be able to do that everyday.

Or should I just try to lock in another corporate job again and forget this fantasy of full-time trading? For a brief moment, I thought maybe if I was more aggressive in my daytrading then perhaps I can do this fulltime and escape the corporate job all together. Is that just a fantasy? For guys who have been in this shoe, please respond. Or should I just continue to trade on the side again and slowly compound that pot?

Since I have time now(unemployed) to weigh these options, I like to know your take on this. Actually my daytrading is now more than my unemployment benefits. haha. And my good swing trading account is occasionally more than my old corporate job's monthly salary.

My ideal setup would be to be for my daytrading to be $500-$1k+ a day.
For my longer-term swing trading account to capture good moves(10pts+) a month. I have enough capital on that account where a 10p+ move would be a significant profit.

I'm not sure I can do that everyday for my daytrading account. I'm not sure if I can do that every month on my swing trading account. I know there are no guarantees...

thank you in advance!

trader99
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Timothy Sykes and other day traders try to shoot for a $500.00 per day goal. If you do that each trading day, you can expect to make six figures atleast! That is what they say. They probably are right about it too. I do not see any reason for the day traders to lie on that issue.
You are probably, a way better trader than I am. Not everyone can be a day trader. Position trading can give you larger gains but, you do have large drawdowns too. By being a day trader, you have to settle for smaller gains but, smaller drawdowns on the plus side.
 
smallfil said:
Timothy Sykes and other day traders try to shoot for a $500.00 per day goal. If you do that each trading day, you can expect to make six figures atleast! That is what they say. They probably are right about it too. I do not see any reason for the day traders to lie on that issue.
You are probably, a way better trader than I am. Not everyone can be a day trader. Position trading can give you larger gains but, you do have large drawdowns too. By being a day trader, you have to settle for smaller gains but, smaller drawdowns on the plus side.
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I know what you are saying. The problem is that people assume that they will get a fixed amount of $$ trading every day. The distribution of P&L is never uniform. There's a lot of variances(on the plus and minus side).

For now, it's better for me to have the stability of a consulting job plus side trading as a bonus.

Even if I make 6 figures trading on the side(as in the example above), it's still too risky to go full-time. IMHO. Because that's a lot of stress and variability. Whereas in most tech jobs(or analytics consulting), one can easily make over low 6 figures. I know there's risk in a job with layoffs, etc. I've been through a few in Corporate America. Or consulting assignments ending. Been through those too. But my point is if you show up and do what's required of you then that payment is secured while it lasts.

Best analogy is like a portfolio. A job/consulting is like bond that pays fixed but high interest every 2 weeks. Trading on the side is like stock or futures in your portfolio that has higher variance but also higher returns.

Better to have both instruments in your "career portfolio." The bonds for stability and peace of mind. Trading on the side for the upside.

trader99
 
trader99 said:
I know what you are saying. The problem is that people assume that they will get a fixed amount of $$ trading every day. The distribution of P&L is never uniform. There's a lot of variances(on the plus and minus side).

For now, it's better for me to have the stability of a consulting job plus side trading as a bonus.

Even if I make 6 figures trading on the side(as in the example above), it's still too risky to go full-time. IMHO. Because that's a lot of stress and variability. Whereas in most tech jobs(or analytics consulting), one can easily make over low 6 figures. I know there's risk in a job with layoffs, etc. I've been through a few in Corporate America. Or consulting assignments ending. Been through those too. But my point is if you show up and do what's required of you then that payment is secured while it lasts.

Best analogy is like a portfolio. A job/consulting is like bond that pays fixed but high interest every 2 weeks. Trading on the side is like stock or futures in your portfolio that has higher variance but also higher returns.

Better to have both instruments in your "career portfolio." The bonds for stability and peace of mind. Trading on the side for the upside.

trader99
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Keep your job and trade part time. That is the best way for you in my opinion. Later on, if you are able to trade for larger profits then, you can revisit and maybe, change your mind.
 
smallfil said:
Keep your job and trade part time. That is the best way for you in my opinion. Later on, if you are able to trade for larger profits then, you can revisit and maybe, change your mind.
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Agreed. If I ever get to make $4K-$5K/day then obviously I would change my mind about trading full-time. I'm not there yet... :)
 
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