Switching from "House money" to my own money

Quote from KILLINIT:

I wanted to know if anyone had any advice for trading on my own, especially if you have made the switch yourself. I would appreciate any input.
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I never traded prop. I worked in the Pharmaceutical Sales industry for years before moving to full time trader. One of the hurdles I needed to overcome resulted from my family having me around the house all the time. To them, having me around meant full time access. After all, trading isn't really work, right? Once they understood the level of concentration required to trade, my family kept their distance until midday when things slowed a bit for me. You'll need to set similar boundaries for yourself (as well as friends / family). By the way, my last down month (either gross or net) occurred December 2002.

Good fortune to you on your transition.

- Spydertrader
 
Don't count on it, in fact it may have the opposite effect. Sometimes, and for most people, having someone to answer to and having someone 'turn you off' when you need it, is the only way they can really make a decent living. A lot of traders left to their own devices fall into all the psychological traps and have a melt down. It only takes a couple of slips and you can implode.

Wish you luck. Just out of curiosity (and you can ball park this), how much capital are you planning to use as your risk capital, and do you have a clearly defined trading plan. And I don't mean just some mental parameters that you say you'll stick to but some hard rules actually written in the form of a legitimate plan and a way to enforce it on yourself.

Once again , good luck!
 
when i switched from prop to self-backed i was initially more aprehensive putting on trades. i was afraid of losing my own money instead of someone elses. after a few weeks i got my aggressiveness back. 2 years later im so glad i made the switch. just make sure you have confidence in yourself and are adequately capitalized.
 
I will be putting up $6,000 and getting 20:1. I put a downside limit of 600 bucks. The first few weeks i'll be trading extremely conservatively and build up a little cushion in the account
 
Quote from esmjb:

when i switched from prop to self-backed i was initially more aprehensive putting on trades. i was afraid of losing my own money instead of someone elses. after a few weeks i got my aggressiveness back. 2 years later im so glad i made the switch. just make sure you have confidence in yourself and are adequately capitalized.
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What is prop trading? Is that when another firm props you up? Had to ask, I'm new :D

Cheers!
 
What the heck does never had a down month gross mean? Who cares? We enter into trades so we can be profitable net. Aren't all trades and decisions based on these economics? I might enter a lot more trades if I did not have to pay commissions.
 
my lord i thought when you said you switched from prop to your own money you meant 50-100k not 6k. in essence you're still a slave to your firm. i hate to be mean but i've been doing this 15 years and if all you have is 6k capital you're a few bad trades and living expenses from being gone. i've said on this board many times i truely think retail somebody needs 100-200k capital to make it. i started with 500k 15 years ago when i was 27 and i felt that wasn't enough
 
Lemme understand this, you are willing to lose 10% of your capital per day? So what happens if you have 5 bad days?

Oh ....I almost forgot, you NEVER have a losing day.


Where do I sign up?
 
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