Return To Reality

[Shanb]

Quote from usrx201:

I don't understand why one needs 100k + expenses. I have a college degree, went to work in the computer field and have had to get by as a single person on $40k salary for years. I get by with no cable, living close to work and sometimes riding a bike, and getting food and cleaning supplies from walmart and 99c store. I did not start trading or learning to trade until my mid-thirties. I've always rented and have stayed out of debt. I use the same clothes year after year. I put together a working MAC osx clone out of older pc computer parts and an OSX disk.

Unless one has a specific lifestyle needing 100k. Or has a family and house to pay off.

Gaining profits from trading has only added to my income sometimes exceeding it by a monthly basis. Keeping a savings pool along with a trading account I don't see what the problem is making a living on trading if one is able to. My dreams of a robust career in my field are pretty much gone with all the outsourcing and betrayal of the middle class by the 1% wealth controlled government. Trading is still a possible means to make it big to accumulate capital to start a business in the future instead of working for someone else for peanuts in today's employer's market.

Most of us get into trading expecting to make the big bucks and not just supplementing a little income to our lifestyles.

One thing I will say is that it is very hard to compound capital with a small account if one is using it to live off of. If you are using this as a sole means of income it is almost impossible to succeed with a small account. Trading for a living can be done, and you can make alot of money(think high 6-figures and 7 figs). Almost everyone I see that makes this amount of money either has good amount of capital to work with or is backed.

 

[baggerlord]

You have never been self employed or you would understand. My current job pays <40k but when you factor in taxes and benefits it is the same as making 125k when I was self employed.

 

[Shanb]

Quote from baggerlord:

Good, haven't done any trades since that one I closed. Kind of busy at work, trying to get promoted next month and doing some prep for the sf course. Hoping to run some more stats tomorrow if I have time.

Good stuff bro, do work. And happy belated veterans day .

Also some good news, looks like I may get an opportunity to work at a firm and be fully backed. Comes with some specifics and would have to build up to the level I want but it looks good.

I do have a bit of a luxury insofar as I can spend alot of time on my trading, I think I've picked up ACD pretty fast because of that. The mean reversion stuff has worked decently, but volatility has kind of died down and then is when it performs really well. So it is a good sign that I've been able to get some profits in the last couple of weeks!

 

[Shanb]

Quote from baggerlord:

You have never been self employed or you would understand. My current job pays <40k but when you factor in taxes and benefits it is the same as making 125k when I was self employed.

Yep...I think you are going about this the right way. I would never be able to do it my way if I didn't have capital saved up and without the help of my family, which I will always be grateful for

 

[baggerlord]

Quote from Shanb:

Good stuff bro, do work. And happy belated veterans day .

Thanks. And thanks to you and everyone else for paying taxes. I've been on both ends and I like it better on this side of the tax exchange.

There is something to be said for being in the best trained, best compensated, and safest military in the history of the world. Did you know that once I am active in sf I am 10x more likely to be killed or maimed than the rest of the military, and yet my odds are still far lower than a soldier at any point in history until now?

I cringe when I see people in public thanking some of my co-workers for their service. Lets just say there is a lot of room to cut military personell without really losing anything in terms of function, if you cut the right people.

Anyways, looking foward to leaving my current unit lol.

That is great news you might be getting backed. I'm probably only going to be making 1 or 2 trades a month right now. I've found that trades entered near the beginning of the month statistically run much further vs trades entered later in the month, yet both can be entered with the same stop loss. I'm going to take that edge and call it good for now.

 

[baggerlord]

Quote from usrx201:

I don't understand why one needs 100k + expenses. I have a college degree, went to work in the computer field and have had to get by as a single person on $40k salary for years. I get by with no cable, living close to work and sometimes riding a bike, and getting food and cleaning supplies from walmart and 99c store. I did not start trading or learning to trade until my mid-thirties. I've always rented and have stayed out of debt. I use the same clothes year after year. I put together a working MAC osx clone out of older pc computer parts and an OSX disk.

Unless one has a specific lifestyle needing 100k. Or has a family and house to pay off.

Gaining profits from trading has only added to my income sometimes exceeding it by a monthly basis. Keeping a savings pool along with a trading account I don't see what the problem is making a living on trading if one is able to. My dreams of a robust career in my field are pretty much gone with all the outsourcing and betrayal of the middle class by the 1% wealth controlled government. Trading is still a possible means to make it big to accumulate capital to start a business in the future instead of working for someone else for peanuts in today's employer's market.

To be more specific to your quesiton here is a breakdown:

100k

40k self employment/income/state/local taxes
14k health insurance (specific to my family sitution wouldn't be so bad for most)
minimum 5k health expenses in addition to insurance, copays etc
That leaves roughly 40k for everything else which is doable unless you get hit by a big medical expense one year as I have had happen twice while self employed. (>50k medical in one year). Have that happen once and you are screwed for a few years while you pay that down. Good luck compounding your way out of that hole.

That was my experience. Obviously yours will be different especially if you are single.

 

[Shanb]

Quote from baggerlord:

Thanks. And thanks to you and everyone else for paying taxes. I've been on both ends and I like it better on this side of the tax exchange.

There is something to be said for being in the best trained, best compensated, and safest military in the history of the world. Did you know that once I am active in sf I am 10x more likely to be killed or maimed than the rest of the military, and yet my odds are still far lower than a soldier at any point in history until now?

I cringe when I see people in public thanking some of my co-workers for their service. Lets just say there is a lot of room to cut military personell without really losing anything in terms of function, if you cut the right people.

Anyways, looking foward to leaving my current unit lol.

That is great news you might be getting backed. I'm probably only going to be making 1 or 2 trades a month right now. I've found that trades entered near the beginning of the month statistically run much further vs trades entered later in the month, yet both can be entered with the same stop loss. I'm going to take that edge and call it good for now.

Thanks and yea we will see what happens. Just curious if you've done any work into the trade management. I know I work on a smaller time frames and the noise level probably increases exponentially with smaller time frames. I have found with that stop placement and targets are very important in my trading.

I initially traded with al brooks/PA setups with an ACD bias and man can't tell you how often I was shaken out of moves. I now put on stops based off of volatility and sometimes even wait for the stops to be run before entering a position

Anyhow just wondering, idk it may not even be a big problem when trading with monthly signals

 

[baggerlord]

I haven't made nearly enough trades in his style to have any sort of educated opinion. I'm leaning towards not using charts much at all because I think they are mostly useful for intraday trading.

 

[baggerlord]

Short again, tight stop this time.

Edit: entry 1.0305, stop about 60 pips

 

[Shanb]

Quote from baggerlord:

Short again, tight stop this time.

Edit: entry 1.0305, stop about 60 pips [/QUOTE

Nice, whats the entry trigger? Smaller TF chart, noise level ?