Personal Advice

One of the great things about elitetrader is that you can get some really sound advice from people that have been in your shoes. However there seems to be so many people that come on these threads and post extremely negative and bitter things that are totally off topic, you just have to ignore the "noise" and just pay attention to the positive posts.

I did what you are thinking about almost 15 years ago and I dont ever regret it. My plan was like yours, if I couldnt make trading work for me, I would go back to previous life in a year.

So many ups and downs along the way, but it was all worth it.

Now is the perfect time for you to take the risk, you have to take the risk to get anywhere in life.

If you go the prop shop route, go with a firm who has a good reputation over the years, you'll find what you're looking for here on elite trader if you do the research, and filter out the "noise". I wouldnt give them more than 10k of your money, as it wont be insured. you should be able to get 100-200k in buying power for that, make sure to negotiate the per shares cost and profit spilts, inquire at a few solid firms so that you have some leverage.

If you save more and go retail you'll need prob at least 30k because if you fall below 25k then you cant daytrade anymore. Im partial to IB as I think they are the best out there for retail accounts. And your money is safe.

I have a prop account and a retail account and find them both usefull for different needs.

I would say go for it, you may kick yourself in 20 years if your still stuck in that boring job and look back and regret never taking the risk.

If you do go for it, the best advice I can give you is always, always, 100% of the time set a stop before you enter a trade, always know your risk before entering any trade.

Best of luck :)
 
Quote from thetradergator:

I've read many of the threads on here for the past few weeks and thought I'd ask for some advice. I'm a 26 year old Equity Research Compliance Officer, and fed up with working the 9-5 (more like 730-530) corporate job. I have thought about giving it up and trading full time for the past year now. I even had 2-3 phone conversations with a guy from SMB last year about trading with them, but it just wasn't the right time. Now, I have gotten married and have a little more capital under my belt. My wife makes decent money ($75k-$80k), and I have about $20k in capital to put up to trade. I also have the Series 7 (and 9/10, 24, 63, 87 and CMT levels I and II) and have been practicing day trading on a simulator that uses real past data feeds (I know it's not the same, but that's the best option I have at the moment). Unfortunately, with working for a full service FINRA broker/dealer and being in equity research Compliance, my personal trading is very restricted. Commissions are $34.95 each way and I have to hold most stocks for 30+ days. This has not allowed me to practice my preferred intraday strategy with real money, but I do well with what I can do. I am strictly a technical trader and have done a lot of self-study over the past 4 years. I do not consider myself a novice.

My question for you all is this, with my background and situation, do you think I should put up my $20k with some prop firm that will leverage me up 5-10 times or wait until I can raise some more capital and just do retail at Interactive Brokers with PTD 4:1 leverage? I am not really interested in these training firms that charge thousands for a course and then may give you firm capital to trade with. I just want to trade. If I do it for a year or two with my wife helping to support us and lose it all, well then I am confident I can go back into Compliance with my licenses still not expired and resume my depressing, boring career. I am very entrepreneurial and want to control my life, not have it controlled by some company.

Is it crazy to think a person can make $40-50k a year starting out with $20k capital? With $100k in BP, making 1% a week doesn't seem unreasonable, but I know 40%-50% annual returns take some serious skill. Any help you can give me to help make this a reality will be greatly appreciated.
More...

There is no reason for you to quit your job. If you think your job is tough you will crash and burn as a retail or firm trader-bankruptcy and lost years of your life.

It sounds like you have no real trading experience, so you will have to start now. If you can't teach yourself finance and trading, consider signing up for courses at a university. If you do everything correct, you can expect to be a potentially profitably trader as early as this December. IMO you won't get there any faster. If you think you can, you'll just disappoint yourself and lose more time.

Everyone wrecks their first account. In futures and forex, it's often the first week. So, if you deposit all of your savings, you will have no second chance. Open a futures account and deposit $1k+. Futures and forex offers 100 times leverage and higher, sometimes 400 times. Stocks are only 4 times.

Do not attempt automated trading until you are a profitable trader. Many view automation as a better way because you can have statistics going back for years, however anyone who went through this will tell you it is extremely tough. Don't convince yourself otherwise, you will just cost months of your life. Start with learning discretionary trading, futures and or forex. Start another thread asking how to do discretionary thread and become familiar with one of the three or four most popular ways. PM me if you'd like my suggestions.

Unless if you can live on your own without income for over a year, quitting your job will just be too risky. Don't forget, most wish they had a job instead of quitting to do something else. If you don't like trading, you'll have a job to go back to too.

Bottom line - you have the will, but it will be a very long road. I think quitting your job will just make you very depressed when things don't go well, which is what happens to everyone. Why not find another job and use your other time preparing for a full time trading career in 2015? Maybe this is too long for you, but think that once you reach that milestone you won't ever need to work again in your life. 3 years is a great offer.
 
Quote from itrader63:

One of the great things about elitetrader is that you can get some really sound advice from people that have been in your shoes. However there seems to be so many people that come on these threads and post extremely negative and bitter things that are totally off topic, you just have to ignore the "noise" and just pay attention to the positive posts.

I did what you are thinking about almost 15 years ago and I dont ever regret it. My plan was like yours, if I couldnt make trading work for me, I would go back to previous life in a year.

So many ups and downs along the way, but it was all worth it.

Now is the perfect time for you to take the risk, you have to take the risk to get anywhere in life.

If you go the prop shop route, go with a firm who has a good reputation over the years, you'll find what you're looking for here on elite trader if you do the research, and filter out the "noise". I wouldnt give them more than 10k of your money, as it wont be insured. you should be able to get 100-200k in buying power for that, make sure to negotiate the per shares cost and profit spilts, inquire at a few solid firms so that you have some leverage.

If you save more and go retail you'll need prob at least 30k because if you fall below 25k then you cant daytrade anymore. Im partial to IB as I think they are the best out there for retail accounts. And your money is safe.

I have a prop account and a retail account and find them both usefull for different needs.

I would say go for it, you may kick yourself in 20 years if your still stuck in that boring job and look back and regret never taking the risk.

If you do go for it, the best advice I can give you is always, always, 100% of the time set a stop before you enter a trade, always know your risk before entering any trade.

Best of luck :)
More...

Thanks for the encouragement. Only putting up $10k instead of $20k is a valid point. The biggest issue for me with a prop firm is finding one that is reputable. I know the competition is fierce and they will promise the world, but I want my money to be safe, even if I end up paying a little more on commissions/fees.

I'm also well aware of the money management side. I blew up two Forex accounts when I first started trading, and that was the best $2000 I ever spent since I now focus more on the risk side than the reward.
 
Quote from tenthousandmen:

There is no reason for you to quit your job. If you think your job is tough you will crash and burn as a retail or firm trader-bankruptcy and lost years of your life.

It sounds like you have no real trading experience, so you will have to start now. If you can't teach yourself finance and trading, consider signing up for courses at a university. If you do everything correct, you can expect to be a potentially profitably trader as early as this December. IMO you won't get there any faster. If you think you can, you'll just disappoint yourself and lose more time.

Everyone wrecks their first account. In futures and forex, it's often the first week. So, if you deposit all of your savings, you will have no second chance. Open a futures account and deposit $1k+. Futures and forex offers 100 times leverage and higher, sometimes 400 times. Stocks are only 4 times.

Do not attempt automated trading until you are a profitable trader. Many view automation as a better way because you can have statistics going back for years, however anyone who went through this will tell you it is extremely tough. Don't convince yourself otherwise, you will just cost months of your life. Start with learning discretionary trading, futures and or forex. Start another thread asking how to do discretionary thread and become familiar with one of the three or four most popular ways. PM me if you'd like my suggestions.

Unless if you can live on your own without income for over a year, quitting your job will just be too risky. Don't forget, most wish they had a job instead of quitting to do something else. If you don't like trading, you'll have a job to go back to too.

Bottom line - you have the will, but it will be a very long road. I think quitting your job will just make you very depressed when things don't go well, which is what happens to everyone. Why not find another job and use your other time preparing for a full time trading career in 2015? Maybe this is too long for you, but think that once you reach that milestone you won't ever need to work again in your life. 3 years is a great offer.
More...

I don't want to quit because I think my job is tough. I want to quit and trade because I enjoy trading and hate working for a big company in a highly regulated industry with a ton of personal trading restrictions. I'm not afraid of hard work or else I wouldn't be in the role I'm in at 26. I also have a business degree from a good school and four years of trading experience, so I'm not coming into this dumb. I have traded Forex and stocks, blew up two Forex accounts like you said everyone does at the beginning, and now have been profitable for the past couple of years in both stocks and Forex. I've tried the automated route, building systems myself and trying to program Expert Advisors, but I would strictly be trading equities on a discretionary basis if I did it full time. Like I said, I'd rather fail now than go through life wondering what would have happened if I tried. I don't plan to fail though, which is why I'm not jumping right into this. I want to make sure I'm set up to succeed.
 
Quote from thetradergator:

Is it crazy to think a person can make $40-50k a year starting out with $20k capital?
More...

Pretty much, yes. I would discourage you from doing it right now, since I don`t think you`re ready.

Pursuing a career as a day trader because you are tired of 9-5 as the sole reason is not very smart and you will probably not find day trading as fulfilling as you think.

You live in the U.S., right? Shitty job market? How easy will it be to get back in the work force if this fails?

I encourage you to pursue your dream of leaving the man behind, but make sure you do it the smart way and have the odds on your side.

What if you work one year longer and save up more capital both from work and trading profits?

Is it possible for you to trade Asian markets or the U.S. open?

You need to think about this long-term and plan for long-term success. Quitting your day job now because you are desperate to get away from your boss is understandable, but not a very smart choice in my opinion.

Good luck!
 
Quote from Laissez Faire:

Pretty much, yes. I would discourage you from doing it right now, since I don`t think you`re ready.

Pursuing a career as a day trader because you are tired of 9-5 as the sole reason is not very smart and you will probably not find day trading as fulfilling as you think.

You live in the U.S., right? Shitty job market? How easy will it be to get back in the work force if this fails?

I encourage you to pursue your dream of leaving the man behind, but make sure you do it the smart way and have the odds on your side.

What if you work one year longer and save up more capital both from work and trading profits?

Is it possible for you to trade Asian markets or the U.S. open?

You need to think about this long-term and plan for long-term success. Quitting your day job now because you are desperate to get away from your boss is understandable, but not a very smart choice in my opinion.

Good luck!
More...

Thanks for the advice. Unfortunately, I'm very restricted from trading at my firm. My equities account has to be at my firm, so I'm paying the "employee discount" price of $34.95 per trade which kills any chance of short term trading. I also have material non-public information on several stocks so I don't trade those names. I do trade Forex in the Asian market sometimes on an intraday basis, but I usually find there's not much liquidity out there compared with the Europe/US sessions so the moves aren't as volatile.

I would also wait at least six months before quitting to raise some more money, and I have stock options that become fully vested if I stay through the end of the year.
 
Don't give up your day job...


Quote from thetradergator:

I've read many of the threads on here for the past few weeks and thought I'd ask for some advice. I'm a 26 year old Equity Research Compliance Officer, and fed up with working the 9-5 (more like 730-530) corporate job. I have thought about giving it up and trading full time for the past year now. I even had 2-3 phone conversations with a guy from SMB last year about trading with them, but it just wasn't the right time. Now, I have gotten married and have a little more capital under my belt. My wife makes decent money ($75k-$80k), and I have about $20k in capital to put up to trade. I also have the Series 7 (and 9/10, 24, 63, 87 and CMT levels I and II) and have been practicing day trading on a simulator that uses real past data feeds (I know it's not the same, but that's the best option I have at the moment). Unfortunately, with working for a full service FINRA broker/dealer and being in equity research Compliance, my personal trading is very restricted. Commissions are $34.95 each way and I have to hold most stocks for 30+ days. This has not allowed me to practice my preferred intraday strategy with real money, but I do well with what I can do. I am strictly a technical trader and have done a lot of self-study over the past 4 years. I do not consider myself a novice.

My question for you all is this, with my background and situation, do you think I should put up my $20k with some prop firm that will leverage me up 5-10 times or wait until I can raise some more capital and just do retail at Interactive Brokers with PTD 4:1 leverage? I am not really interested in these training firms that charge thousands for a course and then may give you firm capital to trade with. I just want to trade. If I do it for a year or two with my wife helping to support us and lose it all, well then I am confident I can go back into Compliance with my licenses still not expired and resume my depressing, boring career. I am very entrepreneurial and want to control my life, not have it controlled by some company.

Is it crazy to think a person can make $40-50k a year starting out with $20k capital? With $100k in BP, making 1% a week doesn't seem unreasonable, but I know 40%-50% annual returns take some serious skill. Any help you can give me to help make this a reality will be greatly appreciated.
More...
 
geez, some people are so negative.

find a local prop firm, deposit $5k they will give you 20:1 BP, no overnights. pay a max of $3.50 per 1000 - 90% to 100% split. If you want to scalp rebate strategy (looking for 0.5c to 3c per trade) dont pay more than 30c per 1000 75% to 85% split. try and work alongside profitable traders, this is the key. You will know within 6 months if you are cut out for it.

You are only 26 go for it.

where are you based in the US?
 
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