Quiting my corporate job to trade full time

[JAP]

Hi guys,

Long time reader, first time poster here. I wanted to introduce myself and give you a short bio of how/why I'm here:

I've been trading since 2005. I made all the newbie mistakes during the first 2 years and lost about 25K. Since then I've gained a tremendous amount of knowledge. I've adopted a very diciplined trading style (based strictly on TA) and I've been fairly successful at day and swing trading.

Several months ago I moved from Cali to the Mid-West to start a new job. I wanted to get out of Cali because my company was freezing salaries and cutting 401k contributions. Also, Cali is a completely broke welfare state. I believe civil unrest/riots will start there once the welfare checks stop going out. I do not want to be there for that.

The new job is not what I thought it would be (or what they promised it would be). I've basically had it with all the corporate BS. No matter how secure I feel, or how high my salary is, I always felt like a subordinate slave. I'm also having health related problems due to workplace stress.

For the past couple years I always thought about quiting my full time job to become a full time trader. The freedom of being my own boss and working when I want to work is very liberating and empowering. I am finally ready to execute my plan.

I'm sure I'll have many questions about M2M and tax issues. I look forward to interacting and discussing all things trading with the members on this board.

Best regards,
JAP

 

[NoDoji]

If you have trouble moderating stress, how different will it be from your regular job? If you have a very large monetary cushion to fall back on, then I imagine it wouldn't be a problem. I don't have that luxury.

I just finished my first year trading, and it taught me to moderate stress better than anything I've ever done, but only very late in the first year did I get that ability, once I mastered 100% disciplined trading.

As for M2M vs. recognizing gains as regular income, our accountant recommended the latter to avoid paying self-employment tax.

The advantage of running your trading as a business is that you contribute to social security (for what that will be worth), can write off all your expenses, don't have to worry about wash sale rule, etc.