Should I quit my job and trade for a living?

I like you Bolimomo!
50k from poker? that's awesome! why dont you carry on with that?

What have you been trading? Obvioulsly you need 25k to daytrade stocks (although there are ways around that)

Out of interest, are you a technical type of trader trading from charts etc? or somthing else?

I say go for it. Probably take a few weeks vacation time to trade once your all set up. See if you come across any unexpected problems etc. If so, back to work, iron them issues out and then quit the job and go for it!! .

You've already beaten the odds on the poker front! You're one of lifes winners :)

(please bear in mind this advice is coming from someone whos been trying to learn to trade for a few years now and still isn;t consistently profitable :( )

good luck
 
Quote from SomeYoungGuy:

Never heard the term? It means how much you need each month just to pay the minimum to live; rent, phone, child support, gas to/from work; does not include any fun money, adding to savings, Xmas presents or the like. I guess it comes from squirrels, who must gather so many nuts each day/week/month just to stay alive. [/B]
More...

"NUT", that's great, I'm gonna start using that.
 
Don't do it until you have a year's worth of expenses and 15K; 5K of which you should use to trade with. You may do well initially or after a while, but I think the liklihood of having it all go away at some point is high. That doesn't mean you won't make it, but have some extra sets of seed money to re-up. After you re-up, you'll be wiser than you ever could have been without crashing; especially considering that your profitability is theoretical now.

Wilt
 
Quote from Bolimomo:

I think in your situation quitting your $50k/year job to trade for a living is extremely risky.

1. You are very undercapitalized. $10k - which is not even enough to meet the requirements for Pattern Day Trader - can burn very quickly. Then you are in a situation of having no job and no cushion to live on.

2. Underexperience. While your semi-automated strategy may look good in backtesting or simulation, nothing like testing in battle conditions.

3. No buffer. You are assuming that your $10k can get you off the ground and your trading experience will get you somewhere. You should think about the "what if", which in this case there is a very realistic possibility, it doesn't work out? What will you do then? Without a $50k/year job. How easy is it to get back another full time job to pay the bills? In this economy with unemployment being over 10%? You are competing with others who just lost their jobs.


I had worked full time as a salary staff and traded part-time until I had gotten to a point that I was comfortably having enough funds and proven consistency in extracting money in the market before I quit my "day job". Now I trade full-time for a living.

Ambition, you should have. Because that's what drives you forward. But I think you should also think about some not-as-ideal scenarios. In short: It usually a good idea to make sure you have a parachute on before jumping off a plane.
More...


Thank you kindly sir. It's really nice to have this kind of input. I'm glad there is so much activity in this thread considering I'm not a frequent ET poster.
 
Quote from Brianharvey:

I like you Bolimomo!
50k from poker? that's awesome! why dont you carry on with that?

What have you been trading? Obvioulsly you need 25k to daytrade stocks (although there are ways around that)

Out of interest, are you a technical type of trader trading from charts etc? or somthing else?

I say go for it. Probably take a few weeks vacation time to trade once your all set up. See if you come across any unexpected problems etc. If so, back to work, iron them issues out and then quit the job and go for it!! .

You've already beaten the odds on the poker front! You're one of lifes winners :)

(please bear in mind this advice is coming from someone whos been trying to learn to trade for a few years now and still isn;t consistently profitable :( )

good luck
More...


As far as poker goes, I played limit hold 'em for years and I was a complete robot, I played 8 boards at a time very mechanically and did really well just playing a tight game and pounding the loose aggressive players. As far as I can tell, the game has changed a lot and I'm not able to get away with that anymore. I had a couple months in a row (probably close to 100 hours of play) where I made next to nothing so I haven't played much anymore. I prefer to concentrate on trading, but with this same type of mechanical approach. All my orders have predetermined stops and targets and there's no manual intervention once a trade is put on. I've built my strategies just from backtesting my own technical ideas, I just look at charts but I'm not into any of the subjective types of technical analysis, I prefer setups you can actually quantify. I don't believe there's much of a chance for a retail trader like me to make any money scalping so I guess I'd call myself more of a swing intraday trader. Holding positions overnight is way too risky but holding something for a tick or two doesn't work either.
 
Quote from jack hershey:

Give your mom the 10K and keep your job.

Do not teade your mom's retirement account, either.

Your mind is past the point of no return.
More...

LOL, it's posts like this that made me reluctant to post on ET. Overall though, I'm glad there are some people on here that seem to know what they are talking about.
 
you can give it a shot and trade really tiny size as to preserve cash until something clicks.

if it doesn't work out just go back into the job market. It seems like this is your prime opportunity. Relatively young, live with mom, no bills, etc.. I think this is your chance.

above all though, you gotta trade really small and not expect to make any money for a while.
 
Billy Simas:

Just to help you further - because you seem very levelheaded and down-to-earth... just to spark some thoughts:

You mentioned that you cannot trade at work because of company rules. Understood. You also mentioned that you have some semi-automated trading strategies. You are thinking of quitting your job because you want to trade your strategies during market hours. Understood.

How "automated" are your trading strategies? What is the missing piece that they are only "semi" automated? Because if you have them fully automated you can fire up your computer/software, go to work, and by the end of the day come home and see if it works/not-works. Test your strategies with small share sizes.

Do you need to eye-ball something before deciding to go/no-go? Or need to manually adjust some parameters based on the day's environment? Can you have somebody help you do that? For example, and don't laugh, your mom? Can you walk her through what it takes to run your machine? Or talk to her on cell phone at work?

There are other technologies available too, you know. e.g. WebEx. You can control your home computer via the Internet. There are other remote desktop technologies. If you can access a public Internet machine when you take a morning break. Since you have automated strategies you don't need to be a screen monkey like we are.

Anyway... just some ideas. You can keep your job, get the stable income, prove your trading theory, keep beefing up your account size, and let yourself grow gradually.
 
Mama cries, "Son, don't leave town
Find a girl and settle down"
Well, I hate to break her heart
But that's not in the cards
While I'm a young man

She says I could find a job
In the fields or on the docks
But I've always had a dream
To see all I can see
While I'm a young man

When I'm just an old man on a front porch, in a chair
Rocking with the memories from my past
The lines you see on my face should tell a tale of no regrets
I want to look forward to looking back on the race I ran
When I was a young man

I want to see those seven seas
Climb the highest mountain peak
[ Billy Dean Lyrics are found on www.songlyrics.com ]
Make it my career
To make the most of every year
While I'm a young man

Daddy says, "Young man, I know
You have to stand on your own, you can't sit at home"
He says, "I understand
Once I had big plans like you
I was a young man too"

When I'm just an old man on a front porch in a chair
Rocking with the memories from my past
The lines you see on my face should tell a tale of no regrets
I want to look forward to looking back on the race I ran
When I was a young man

Mama, please understand
I'm just a young man
I'm just a young man

Young Man - Billy Dean
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top