I've thought it over and will go full time for a year. Just not right now but ... in a year from now :|
This gives me time to accumulate a bit more financial buffer: money for cost of living, renting an "office" (small apartment) where I can work since at home with a wife and small kid there are too many interruptions, paying for marketdata, paying for the obligatory 7 days in Greece summer vacation and some extra for stuff that may pop up. In all a year of full time work, ON MY OWN FUCKING PROJECT.
I don't even aim for "success", as in holding at least a few PROFITABLE systematic strategies in my proprietary options trading system which I can then leverage by just throwing capital at them. I came to realize that just the software ecosystem that I actually need (the data I get, the way I clean it up and the models and calibration / validation I do for them) is a few months full time work in an optimistic estimate (that's after 10 years of developing and experimenting with such a system). And with =~ 12 hours per day currently robbed by my job, it'd take me years to do it on the side at a sustainable pace. Or risk a mental breakdown if I keep pushing beyond those 12 hours. And risk another one if I DON'T keep pushing and know that all that awaits me for years to come are 12 hours of crap followed by more crap.
Dunno if I've shown you this, it's the definitory allegory for the condition of an AMBITIOUS knowledge worker (including developers, quants, traders):
I've quit my job in finance when I realized that instead of "aviation" (imagined by me as a pilot's cockpit), I'm working in airport's McDonald's.
Now after two years of resigning to be working in a regular, non-aviation McDonald's (at least they were paying better), I REALIZE I'M ACTUALLY WORKING IN MCDONALD'S TOILET!!!
This gives me time to accumulate a bit more financial buffer: money for cost of living, renting an "office" (small apartment) where I can work since at home with a wife and small kid there are too many interruptions, paying for marketdata, paying for the obligatory 7 days in Greece summer vacation and some extra for stuff that may pop up. In all a year of full time work, ON MY OWN FUCKING PROJECT.
I don't even aim for "success", as in holding at least a few PROFITABLE systematic strategies in my proprietary options trading system which I can then leverage by just throwing capital at them. I came to realize that just the software ecosystem that I actually need (the data I get, the way I clean it up and the models and calibration / validation I do for them) is a few months full time work in an optimistic estimate (that's after 10 years of developing and experimenting with such a system). And with =~ 12 hours per day currently robbed by my job, it'd take me years to do it on the side at a sustainable pace. Or risk a mental breakdown if I keep pushing beyond those 12 hours. And risk another one if I DON'T keep pushing and know that all that awaits me for years to come are 12 hours of crap followed by more crap.
Dunno if I've shown you this, it's the definitory allegory for the condition of an AMBITIOUS knowledge worker (including developers, quants, traders):
I've quit my job in finance when I realized that instead of "aviation" (imagined by me as a pilot's cockpit), I'm working in airport's McDonald's.
Now after two years of resigning to be working in a regular, non-aviation McDonald's (at least they were paying better), I REALIZE I'M ACTUALLY WORKING IN MCDONALD'S TOILET!!!