Too old to go Prop?

You are not to old to join a prop shop, but I would not join an equity scalping shop... that is generally where the younger traders succeed. Look for a place that has good, solid training and don't be picky about what products they trade. All in all, I say go for it and accept the possible consequences. There are a couple of really good prop firms in Chicago, just look around.

Good luck!
 
I appreciate the experience and opinions that you have posted. They are varied as I suspected. It's certainly a major decision at my age because if it blows up there is less time to recover finacially.
Worst case senerio I could burn through the 10K and be nothing but pissed off. 5-6 months living out of my checking account and fail...again, nothing but pissed off. Quit the job and fail...once again pissed, but I can always drum up another job. After that the money starts coming from places other than "fun money".
Then of course, there's the biggest hurrdle of all, selling this brillant idea to the "little woman". We've discussed it on occassion and while she's not totally opposed, she's not totally behind the idea either.
Oh! to be 24 and single instead of 54 and married. But, at 24 again I'd probably be smoking weed and guzzling Mad Dog 20/20 just like before.
Once again thanks for the opinions. For now I'll probably just keep trading my little system and see if I can tweek it in to profitibility rather than going sideways.
 
Quote from WarEagle:

I think age is irrelevant, more important would be your ability to focus all day staring at the screen. How long you can (or want) to do that will vary from person to person.

With that said, at 54, if you can only put up $10k and live without an income for a few months then I would say don't do it. The odds of anyone (regardless of age) making a living from a $10k account in 3 months is virtually impossible. There is a <1% chance that you are a natural born trader and a 99% chance that in 3 months you will have to ask nicely for your job back.

Maybe if you were 21 and lived at home with no bills I might say give it a go so that you can learn that lesson as cheaply as possible, since you would still have 40 years to earn a living. With only 11+ years to retirement, the risk just seems too great. Do you already have your retirement set up separate from trading funds? That might change the equation a bit if you did. But its still a very big risk that is unlikely to pay off.

An alternative would be to keep your night job (you mentioned working at 4am) and stay up a couple more hours to trade the open before going to bed during the day. With $10k you could trade one of the mini futures contracts. If you then discover its something you are good at you can expand the time trading while still having an income. You will find that trading is much easier when you aren't trying to pay the electric bill with it.

Good luck to you whatever you decide.
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Hey you getting ready for Football season?? I hear Auburn cleared itself of any wrong doing in the Barnergate deal.

John

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=2545992
 
there was a 90 year old trader at the NYSE a year back, might still be there. there was nothing slow about him when he was dancing with the chick that was interviewing him. basically, if you can still draw air you can trade.
 
Quote from CaptainObvious:

I appreciate the experience and opinions that you have posted. They are varied as I suspected. It's certainly a major decision at my age because if it blows up there is less time to recover finacially.
Worst case senerio I could burn through the 10K and be nothing but pissed off. 5-6 months living out of my checking account and fail...again, nothing but pissed off. Quit the job and fail...once again pissed, but I can always drum up another job. After that the money starts coming from places other than "fun money".
Then of course, there's the biggest hurrdle of all, selling this brillant idea to the "little woman". We've discussed it on occassion and while she's not totally opposed, she's not totally behind the idea either.
Oh! to be 24 and single instead of 54 and married. But, at 24 again I'd probably be smoking weed and guzzling Mad Dog 20/20 just like before.
Once again thanks for the opinions. For now I'll probably just keep trading my little system and see if I can tweek it in to profitibility rather than going sideways.
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LOL, in the good old days, drinking mad dog 20/20 mixed with tequila and qualudes and you were set for da nite.

John
 
Quote from Jayford:

Never too old'

When I was a the Bright office, SF, half the guys (OK maybe 25%), were 50.

The old guys did best.

Jay
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Bright trading has guys alot older than 50. He has 80 year old traders working in his prop shop. The Bright brothers aren't exactly young themselves. They both look like a bunch of old fogies. lol. I'm sure they don't mind me saying that, since they are old fogies to anybody younger than them. :D
But seriously, Bright trading really does have some 80 year old traders. And I think this whole conversation is stupid because age has nothing to do with managing finances and trading stocks.
 
Age was addressed by Barton Biggs in "Hedgehogging". He had over 30 years with Morgan Stanley before starting Traxis Partners ($1B AUM). He is, I think, well over 70 years old and writes when asked about his motives:

"I told them I was not interested in golf or cruises to the Greek Isles, but above all I was doing it because professional investing was the best game in the world, and I relished the competition. In addition, I said, it was the only game where age may actually be an advantage." p81
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Trading is one of those jobs you can do well past the age when you can't do other jobs. It requires no specific location, no physical strength, merely the decision to buy or sell. That decision can be carried out in an infinite number of ways that are about as challenging as breathing.

It is a mental skill. Period. The longer you trade on the same capital, the better your skills will become. That, to me, is the primary skill. Survive. Survive with your trading capital, while you do what it takes to have a life. Sometimes that's saving a bunch before you start, maybe it means having a day job or night job while you develop your trading skill.

This crap about older people not having video game skill, well, it may be true. But there are an infinite number of profitable ways to trade, so you pick one you can do, and modify it if age changes things too much.

The most critical question to ask is not,"Am I too old to go Prop?", it's really,"Do I really want to trade?"

If the answer is yes, then your age is just a number relative to other ages of other traders. Who is anyone to say one is too old to trade prop? As long as you make money for the firm, they couldn't care less if you could somehow trade from your grave. Money is what matters, making it. Age, in this business, does not.
 
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