They 40 year old daytrader

Good grief man. Lay off the weed. It's making you paranoid ....and otherwise fuckin' with ya.


Quote from stonedinvestor:

First off I read a little turning 40 isn't that bad in this thread & I beg to differ. For the first time in life you have amassed enough to begin being scared. What if I die on the plane? what will my wife do? My son. My dog. What's this thing called cancer I here about? Hey mom are you going crazy? You now own three houses in a vicious downturn. Should I make a will?; Get apartment insurance? The fearlessness which so grooves your every move in youth is replaced by a cynical eye. Music begins to suck really bad.

I detest buys and sells for small amounts using big $.
too much paperwork for too little profit and too many roundrtrips.

I would call myself an " Active Trader " But really I am a day trader- I follow the market everyday. I do research every day. I plan scheme and cajole friends and relatives into stocks everyday. I probably Make 19-24 trades a qtr, trim winners a lot (maybe too much) and I'm 42 I think. (1964).

On my 40th birthday my stepfather collapsed into his food plate and had to be taken out on a stretcher. No drugs that night! Then at 41 I had some strange urine problem. I was going all the time. Things like this just aren't good for the headspace. The good news is it wasn't cancer or diabetes,- some sort of infection, and consequently the loss of fluid combined with high stress has left me at my old playing weight in football 220! Down from 250.

The question you ultimately have to ask yourself as a daytrader is am I making a steady income? And am I having fun? Do I legitimately care about anything? or am I just a glorified gamer with symbols and percentages swimming around my brain? To be always short term is to be shortsighted. Nothing beats a good 100% gainer.... and nothing beats the knowledge you can attain by studding the whole market not just fast moving flame outs. To confine your investing world to momentum is to label yourself incapable of leading- you will always be a follower and the ideas will never be yours. If money is all that matters perhaps you can live with that. I would think reflexes are the least of your worries...
 
Quote from jack hershey:

You may want to reconsider your statement.

Reflexes, sharp and alert seem to be important considerations to you.

For me, I keep those things in place as an extenality to trading for two reasons: I put them in a health and wel being category and second they do not come up as factors in trading.

What I mean by saying they are not factors is that they do not affect the bottom line.

The categories that affect trading are: knowledge, skills and experience.


and this dude definitely has the knowledge, skill and experience....

thank you, hershey, it's because of you that i'm turning the corner to profitability today. you said ONE THING that made the difference for me. i printed out your voluminous texts and read the summary which crystallized it all for me. was so excited about what i read that i decided to backtest and see for myself. spent the whole night looking back over charts to see if i could identify things like du and frv. i could and it made sense. the next day, armed with these tools, i went into battle with the markets and for the first time, felt like i was in total control. your texts also showed me how i could swing trade stocks profitably and know when to sell. i used to just buy support and sell resistance, but that often doesn't work out. now, armed with your tools, i have more confidence to the trade.

a longwinded thank you, but a heart-felt one...thanks!
 
Geez Dr Z I give you a nice summery of one mans pain travelling through the dark tunnel of turning 40 and trading most every day and that's the response I get?
Paranoia is not paranoia when it's laced with fact.

Keep hitting the cover off the ball princessa, I like your style. Remember there are many tactics to take to squeeze money out of a stock- catching a great company when it has a bout of bad news is one way- the classic rebound. That's often a good way to wiggle into a longer term position. Buying breakouts w/ volume is a ST traders best friend, and always remember- if the story matches the price action,
" resistance " levels are all in the mind.
peace.
 
Quote from stonedinvestor:



Keep hitting the cover off the ball princessa, I like your style. Remember there are many tactics to take to squeeze money out of a stock- catching a great company when it has a bout of bad news is one way- the classic rebound. That's often a good way to wiggle into a longer term position. Buying breakouts w/ volume is a ST traders best friend, and always remember- if the story matches the price action,
" resistance " levels are all in the mind.
peace.

thanks, dude....
 
I am in my 40s and can tell you experience I have will trump any fast reflexes of a young whippersnapper anyday. There is BLATANT AGE DISCRIMINATION though if you work for someone. I warn all who want to do this for a career working for someone that you will most likely get f&(*d over in your 40s. I did and know a zillion other miserable cases.




Quote from empee:

Granted, daytrader (in its modern form) is a fairly "new" industry, but are there any older daytraders that manually daytrade (meaning not automated) today? Or, are there daytraders that aspire (if their edge persists) to day trade as a career/do it when they are in their 45-55 years? Or is the plan to make enough that you can turn to swing trading, etc?

Just curious since I haven't run into a "older" daytrader yet. In addition, I would imagine at some age the reflexes may become to slow that its difficult to do.

To clarify, I dont mean a hobbiest daytrader, or a daytrader that trades because they have more money than they need and do it for entertainment (like some old people I suspect). I mean daytrader like you live on the income it generates daytrading (real deal).

I know there are some "daytraders" that trade size in the spooz, etc. but then they have enough size that they don't need to to trade that much, so I guess I'm referring to ppl who scalp for ticks or pennies. (like a classic daytrader you'd see @ home or @ a prop). Maybe Don can answer, are there old ppl who daytrade manually?

Its hard to believe ppl can do that at 50 years old (TODAY and tommorow) with automation, etc. plus reflexes and you're mind has to stay sharp, I dont know how I could stay sharp/alert at 50+ to daytrade today. (imagining of course!)
 
dude...I'm 41, I've been trading since I was 24. Trading is the only real job I've ever had. This is in no way a "dark tunnel."

Remember ...just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get ya.

:D






Quote from stonedinvestor:

Geez Dr Z I give you a nice summery of one mans pain travelling through the dark tunnel of turning 40 and trading most every day and that's the response I get?
Paranoia is not paranoia when it's laced with fact.

 
Hi Stonedinvestor - if you were a bit older, sounds like we cudda bumped shoulders at some of the 60's - 70's rock festivals, judging from your moniker - hahaha. I find your response quite interesting, but also find myself on the other side of the fence. Some comments, as I pull some snips from your post:

Snip: "The fearlessness which so grooves your every move in youth is replaced by a cynical eye. Music begins to suck really bad. "

I'm not so sure fearlessness is such a positive attribute for youth. I do not deny that the spirit of invincibility pervades the mindset of the young. But personally, looking back, I feel very fortunate that my friends and I even survived, considering some of our errant ways :-) And I don't believe offering the idea of fearlessness to a young trader is a particularly helpful idea. And, as far as music sucks, I am just thankful that I finally reached a point in life where I could dump some discretionary funds into my high- end system. I'll pass on the Rap, but bring on the rock-n-roll and we'll have a good time - heheh. And as a side note, my moniker was taken off the front of my CD Transport - an Audiomeca Mephisto II

Snip: "On my 40th birthday my stepfather collapsed into his food plate and had to be taken out on a stretcher. No drugs that night! Then at 41 I had some strange urine problem. I was going all the time. Things like this just aren't good for the headspace."

I would be the first to agree that health issues suck. Unfortunately, that is just an aspect of life that we all contend with - some are just luckier than others in this regard. Glad to hear your problems weren't life threatening - I think I've had 4 or 5 bouts of kidney stones, and that sucks too, believe me! But these started in my early twenties - some kind of genetic defect as to be predisposed. But do I lay awake worrying about if and when the next attack might hit - hardly. A totally fruitless endeavor. Life is what it is, and I deal with it on a "as needed" basis.

Snip: "To be always short term is to be shortsighted. Nothing beats a good 100% gainer.... and nothing beats the knowledge you can attain by studding the whole market not just fast moving flame outs. To confine your investing world to momentum is to label yourself incapable of leading- you will always be a follower and the ideas will never be yours. If money is all that matters perhaps you can live with that. I would think reflexes are the least of your worries... "

Hmm - not sure where to start on this one :-) I've held some large caps for over twenty years, and I've had numerous 30 sec trades in the Euro, so I guess I'm just a very confused person. But when scalping the futures, I can only hope that I am in front of the herd, so I don't consider that as being a follower. One thing I do know is that I always beat the alarm clock out of bed, because the internal anticipation has already started to build for the new trading day.

Just boils down to different strokes for different folks. It's all based on perspectives, and they are all unique. Cheers ...
 
I started a little late as well. I always tell people:

.... "it's always better to show up later to the party then never at all"

rjv
 
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