Took out a loan to transition to full-time trading. 24 years old.

Most people are criticizing


That's clearly your interpretation of the opinions with which many people are presenting you, but it's perhaps somewhat curious, to start off a thread to ask for opinions, and when almost all of them turn out not to be what you hoped to hear, to comment that people are "criticizing". However, you probably have a point, too: I was criticizing, I suppose. Anyway, I wish you nothing but well with this.
 
For clarity: I'm "thinking" of quitting my job... not quitting just yet. Going to trade from work and see if I can manage to get it to $30,000. If I can consistently, safely make returns each day I'm "highly, very highly likely" going to quit my job.

Dude...don't even be "thinking" of quitting your job. I am 23 and make $60k base (I do have a wife and kid to support though) as well, that would be a lot to give up by quitting. Not sure where you live, went to school, or do, but in my area for my age $60k is great unless you went to a great school and majored in something that pays very well. You would be much better served figuring out how to trade around your work schedule without letting it interfere with your work much. I place trades occasionally while at work, but ultimately just log in to check a few times throughout the day. Unless you have some great edge in the shorter time frames, figure out how you can both work and trade and maybe focus on slightly longer term stuff. You will be able to grow your account so much faster this way. Once you have enough saved up to cover living expenses for a year on top of what you need to trade, maybe then consider doing it full-time.

Not sure if it has been suggested by anybody else (haven't read all the thread) but maybe look into Topstep for funding as well. By all means take a loan if you are willing to risk it, but I think you would be much better served figuring out how to trade on a slightly longer time frame so you can work as well. Having to depend on withdrawals from your stake will be a nightmare without having a big stake or some insane returns.
 
Dude...don't even be "thinking" of quitting your job. I am 23 and make $60k base (I do have a wife and kid to support though) as well, that would be a lot to give up by quitting. Not sure where you live, went to school, or do, but in my area for my age $60k is great unless you went to a great school and majored in something that pays very well. You would be much better served figuring out how to trade around your work schedule without letting it interfere with your work much. I place trades occasionally while at work, but ultimately just log in to check a few times throughout the day. Unless you have some great edge in the shorter time frames, figure out how you can both work and trade and maybe focus on slightly longer term stuff. You will be able to grow your account so much faster this way. Once you have enough saved up to cover living expenses for a year on top of what you need to trade, maybe then consider doing it full-time.

Not sure if it has been suggested by anybody else (haven't read all the thread) but maybe look into Topstep for funding as well. By all means take a loan if you are willing to risk it, but I think you would be much better served figuring out how to trade on a slightly longer time frame so you can work as well. Having to depend on withdrawals from your stake will be a nightmare without having a big stake or some insane returns.
Appreciate the advice. Wife & kid at 23 and making $60k at the same time? Pretty impressive..
 
Hi guys - in need of your opinions.

I'm thinking about quitting my current job soon and trade full-time. I'm 24, been working for 1.5 years at a finance firm, and make little under 60k per year. Right now I have $9000 and I just took out a loan of $11000 from lendingclub which is going to be deposited into my bank account in less than 4 business days (26% APR). My current plan is trade safe until I get to $30000 then start day-trading. I don't have experience daytrading with real money due to lack of capital but I think I'll be able to make make consistent returns while cutting my losses short.

The reason I think i have a talent in trading is (haha..) my experience from virtual trading. Using $100,000 account with 2x margin ($200,000 buying power) I was able to consistently make at least 2% returns a day while keeping my losses to 1% a day. I participated in virtual stock competitions and finished first places. I developed my own trading style and later found out it was a mix of what people refer to as momentum trading and technical trading.

I've also traded during college and used the profits to pay for rent, phone bills, living expenses, etc. Please note I had about $5000 at the time and I was able to make $1000 (~10% return a month due to leverage) in most months. This was under PDT restrictions. Due to the stupid PDT rule once I went under for a month and because I was paying bills, in the long run I lost money. But every year it's always positive a couple thousand, then slowly sliding down to end the year in the red after that "one month" of negative returns.

I told one friend about my loan and while all he said was "I think that's too risky. Well, you might get lucky but don't do it again", his initial expression was "WTF is he crazy?".

I understand what I'm doing is extremely risky, but I always thought I had a talent for trading and it came off as easy to make at a percent a day. I also never keep my trades overnight. Any thoughts on my stupidity?

Should have asked for people's opinions before taking out my loan, but the dice is thrown...


overwhelming chances are that you are wrong about your trading abilities....

imho you know nothing and will loose everything very soon (even if you have a talent for trading - talent is not enough)

but the good thing in this country is a bankruptcy law :)

i would recommend to paper day trade (forget simulators) until you build a method (that may take many years), and then (if you will ever build a method) to borrow not 10k, but 200k...

but probably you won't listen now :)

the good thing about being 27 y.o - you have time, ...but you'll never listen
by the time you will be 57 y.o - you will listen,... but you will not have time
 
overwhelming chances are that you are wrong about your trading abilities....

imho you know nothing and will loose everything very soon (even if you have a talent for trading - talent is not enough)

but the good thing in this country is a bankruptcy law :)

i would recommend to paper day trade (forget simulators) until you build a method (that may take many years), and then (if you will ever build a method) to borrow not 10k, but 200k...

but probably you won't listen now :)

the good thing about being 27 y.o - you have time, ...but you'll never listen
by the time you will be 57 y.o - you will listen,... but you will not have time
hahaha if I was able to borrow 200k I probably would have. I'll keep this advice for when I turn 27.
 
overwhelming chances are that you are wrong about your trading abilities....

imho you know nothing and will loose everything very soon (even if you have a talent for trading - talent is not enough)

but the good thing in this country is a bankruptcy law :)

i would recommend to paper day trade (forget simulators) until you build a method (that may take many years), and then (if you will ever build a method) to borrow not 10k, but 200k...

but probably you won't listen now :)

the good thing about being 27 y.o - you have time, ...but you'll never listen
by the time you will be 57 y.o - you will listen,... but you will not have time
Time. Is on my side. Yes it is.
Unfortunately, we think we run out of time.
Too often, to let it grows, slowly, our souls.
We bifurcate, cut it short. To never grow.
Stagnation comes from going too fast.
It's like the Hare and the tortoise.

I'd say, keep your job until you've beaten the apple.
It's a nice hedge. Then if and only if it works.
You won't experience any doubt anymore.
Everything's going to be crystal clear.

If you wonder. It's because you're uncertain.
You've got nice plan but still not saine.
What do you need to be confident?
Surely not Ex Ante nice Sketches.
But that's everything you have...

Protect your downside !
While keeping the doors open,
And tending toward specificity, your dreams.

Oh, no ... You've got more than shaky plans,
Since you've borrowed "a lot" and took an expensive loan.
You have confidence in yourself, you proclaimed to be successful.
However you're in doubt. Because success is a mesure of resilience.
It's in play when things go bad. As Successful ships brave hurricanes.
So you know you can't trust that confidence you feel right now.
It's based on a small and peaceful sample.
You ain't have enough experience.

That's what we read through your lines.
We can't help you. Let's trade.
Reframe your options,
Expectations,
Potential...

And choose.
 
Last edited:
I don't have experience daytrading with real money due to lack of capital but I think I'll be able to make make consistent returns while cutting my losses short.

I trade at work..secretly. I trade hahaha but I'm sure compliance knows. My broker statements get sent to them monthly.

Troll thread.....
 
Hi guys - in need of your opinions.

I'm thinking about quitting my current job soon and trade full-time. I'm 24, been working for 1.5 years at a finance firm, and make little under 60k per year. Right now I have $9000 and I just took out a loan of $11000 from lendingclub which is going to be deposited into my bank account in less than 4 business days (26% APR). My current plan is trade safe until I get to $30000 then start day-trading. I don't have experience daytrading with real money due to lack of capital but I think I'll be able to make make consistent returns while cutting my losses short.

The reason I think i have a talent in trading is (haha..) my experience from virtual trading. Using $100,000 account with 2x margin ($200,000 buying power) I was able to consistently make at least 2% returns a day while keeping my losses to 1% a day. I participated in virtual stock competitions and finished first places. I developed my own trading style and later found out it was a mix of what people refer to as momentum trading and technical trading.

I've also traded during college and used the profits to pay for rent, phone bills, living expenses, etc. Please note I had about $5000 at the time and I was able to make $1000 (~10% return a month due to leverage) in most months. This was under PDT restrictions. Due to the stupid PDT rule once I went under for a month and because I was paying bills, in the long run I lost money. But every year it's always positive a couple thousand, then slowly sliding down to end the year in the red after that "one month" of negative returns.

I told one friend about my loan and while all he said was "I think that's too risky. Well, you might get lucky but don't do it again", his initial expression was "WTF is he crazy?".

I understand what I'm doing is extremely risky, but I always thought I had a talent for trading and it came off as easy to make at a percent a day. I also never keep my trades overnight. Any thoughts on my stupidity?

Should have asked for people's opinions before taking out my loan, but the dice is thrown...

Not sure if this is a troll thread but here is my 2c and it is similar to what others have said. You should definitely NOT borrow money, stay in your job and save whilst you swing/position trade studying the markets a couple of hours every evening. I would even go further and say do not put your career progression on hold at all to try and be a trader unless you are well capitalised AND are joining other seasoned professionals. I say this from experience. What I have noticed from the pros who have been in the game a long time is most of them have transitioned from day trading into swing/position trading, yes they still day trade but only when the conditions are right. They do not sit there all day watching ticks and the algos fight it out. Learning this game will take years, possibly 10+ years to completely master. For most intelligent people the best route is to stay in their current career and develop that as much as possible at the same time as learning how to swing trade, holding positions from 1 day to weeks.

The thing is people don't want to trade longer timeframes when they start out, they want action, they want to watch the algos fight it out. This is especially true of men in their 20s.

You will have to go through psychological pain to master trading, trust me on this. If you are borrowing money then this pain will be amplified. Ask yourself the difference between someone who is willing to lose $10k but has $100k in the bank versus someone who borrowed $10k. its huge.


GL
 
Back
Top