What had trading done for and to you?

[themickey]

I think we can agree that many of us started down the trading / investing pathway in order to make money, and probably we believed we would be making lots and lots of money.

Some may have achieved that goal, many won't have.

But aside from making or losing money, what else has this endeavour done for you?
Has it made you smarter, wiser, more cynical, more reasonable, grumpier, a better or worse person....?? Has stress affected you?

Please share your honest thoughts on personal spinoffs that you may or may not have foreseen.
I'm wondering if trading has been a positive or negative experience not only for yourself but maybe for other people in your circle.

 

[bladerunner2049]

Forced me to develop understanding of the world and its markets.

 

[algofy]

I know a few people that it's ruined their lives, a few that have been successful, a whole bunch that have blown out or have been scammed. It's a mixed bag.

 

[mushinseeker]

It has been both a blessing and a curse for me. A blessing because I made a lot of money in my first 15 years trading 100,000's of options contracts. This enabled me to “slow down”the last years and be a FT dad to my 3 kids, It is also a curse … because now that my kids are in their late teens and independent, I am starting over and that is the sucky part – new market structures, volatility levels, etc. However, I believe that this is better mileau for the “ market taker “ trader- way cheaper commissions, tighter spreads, more products, easy access to managed money for traders with Alpha and the best development of all—robust backtesting software !

Would I have been better off as a RIA or FA , slowly building a book of business making 2% of AUM? Probably! I have lots of friends that do that and they don’t work as hard after getting past a certain level of AUM . They “coast” while we traders can’t for we have to continually adapt. That being said , it was really special being there when my kids were growing up... So…

 

[comagnum]

Trading has enabled me to hit the waves on Maui whenever I want and funded my oversea travels. When I go shopping I now know the ticker symbol for every company - it's fun buying products you made profits from, like buying Colgate (CL) toothpaste when you just made a few grand trading it.

Trading has taught me to think & live way outside the box and that there are always great opportunities to be found in the markets.

 

[MoneyMatthew]

I think we can agree that many of us started down the trading / investing pathway in order to make money, and probably we believed we would be making lots and lots of money.

Some may have achieved that goal, many won't have.

But aside from making or losing money, what else has this endeavour done for you?
Has it made you smarter, wiser, more cynical, more reasonable, grumpier, a better or worse person....?? Has stress affected you?

Please share your honest thoughts on personal spinoffs that you may or may not have foreseen.
I'm wondering if trading has been a positive or negative experience not only for yourself but maybe for other people in your circle.

It has made much more cynical because I have seen many of my ideas die in the transition from backtesting to forward testing. It has also made me more humble in the sense that countless ideas that seemed great on paper turned out to become total garbage once I tested them out.

It has made me become a software developer in that I have had to develop all of my own software from scratch to gather data and test ideas.

Short-term self funded trading is the ultimate reality check in my opinion. If you dare to leave a good paying day job to take these risks on a daily basis.

I have witnessed people who were wrong constantly both in markets and sports betting. These people maintained very good paying day jobs. They could afford to take losses constantly because the next big paycheck was only 2 weeks away. These people were great at lying to themselves.

Trading has made me appreciate the most basic and straight forward performance assessment around which is, "have I made money or lost money?". Anything short of that is simply a lie funded from elsewhere.

 

[tommcginnis]

...
It has made me become a software developer in that I have had to develop all of my own software from scratch to gather data and test ideas.
Short-term self funded trading is the ultimate reality check in my opinion. If you dare to leave a good paying day job to take these risks on a daily basis....
Trading has made me appreciate the most basic and straight forward performance assessment around which is, "have I made money or lost money?". Anything short of that is simply a lie funded from elsewhere.

Frikken awesome summary.

 

[Max E.]

What has trading done for and to you?


Shortly after I started trading i was able to find new accomodations, with a river view, and then i started teaching people to trade and giving motivational speeches.

 

[zdreg]

I know a few people that it's ruined their lives, a few that have been successful, a whole bunch that have blown out or have been they scammed. It's a mixed bag.

they likely scammed themselves by not being realistic about their trading abilities.
or if scammed by others please explain how.

 

[Turveyd]

Drove me nuts.

Lost money

Made loads which was nice

Spent loads thankfully

Lost ALL

Drove me more nuts.

It's a hobby I'm always so close to retiring from, but that last missing bit of the puzzle, is kinda tricky lol