What had trading done for and to you?

[Jakobsberg]

Pros
- Enabled me to take jobs for interest rather than money e.g. recently moved back into science/engineering role with same company. No chance of being made VP but with trading income I earn more than him and have to deal with less corporate shit at work Need 6% return to match my after tax salary so have more options of mid 40s retirement or starting own small business in future.
- Understand myself better in term of choices I make, risk level etc in trading but also other areas of life.
- Read lots of interesting side topics, human nature, psychology, evolution, risk and uncertainty etc

Cons
- Stress of drawdowns. Painful to lose a few years salary in a couple of days.
- Lots of time exploring dead ends and small things which dont matter.
- More cynical of human nature and less respect for institutions, governments, politicians etc.
- Tend to value 'hard work' in the real world less now.

Not sure if its a Pro or Con but recognizing the extent that the future is very uncertain, not predictable or under anyones control tends to make you a bit different to most.

 

[Zr1Trader]

Cold turkey on the smokes or what? Any advice?

I reduced the amount of cigs smoked per day at first then finally just gave it up. Replaced smoking with exercise. Many people gain weight if they quit smoking so I think the best route is to replace smoking with exercise. Replace bad habit with good one.

 

[jsmacksem]

I reduced the amount of cigs smoked per day at first then finally just gave it up. Replaced smoking with exercise. Many people gain weight if they quit smoking so I think the best route is to replace smoking with exercise. Replace bad habit with good one.

Good for you. Any sort of program or just gradual reduction?

Also yes, replacing those smokes for exercise makes sense. How long did you smoke for?

 

[HobbyTrading]

less respect for institutions, governments, politicians etc.

I'm not sure whether you've put this in the correct list.

 

[ubo]

I'm not sure whether you've put this in the correct list.

i think he meant that it's not a good thing to have a lack of trust but the truth is that you will finally learn that you can't trust institutions, governments, politicians etc.

 

[fordewind]

To see the World like a real joke now.

edit:Well,except for all the creatures that populate it.

 

[HobbyTrading]

i think he meant that it's not a good thing to have a lack of trust but the truth is that you will finally learn that you can't trust institutions, governments, politicians etc.

I think that you have understood what I was trying to say.

 

[Simples]

Trading has taught me the difference between good patience and bad patience.

 

[Traderjohnsblog]

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.

Since trading income provided for a nice living I started looking at work differently. I have gone back to my old profession part time (flying) and I trade more or less the rest of the time. The little day to day work issues that once bothered me no longer stress me out. In fact many of lifes little twist and turns make me laugh now.

 

[Vindago]

I started trading out of curiosity, made some money and lost more money, kept trading as it became a challenge: I wanted to figure it out.

Lost some more money, stopped trading live and went into paper trading for a year, last 6 months of that year I became consistently positive and decided to go back to live Trading. I have been consistently positive since then.

I left my job and now I am very happy as I am free to spend my time as I wish and I have the money to do so.

Now, for what I learnt during this journey: I learnt a lot about myself, I learnt that instead of changing myself to follow some arbitrary trading rules I had to change the way I was trading to fit with who I am and how my mind works.

What trading has done for me? it had given me a challenge that has occupied most of my thoughts for a couple of years and then I had the satisfaction to see the result of my efforts. That has increased my self awareness and self esteem.

It has allowed me to choose how to spend my time (and that is the best thing ever to come out of Trading) while I have not yet figured out how to spend my money, mostly I am growing my capital but soon enough I will need to either scale down or figure out what to do with all these extra money as I do not want to change my life stile much, most of my friends and my family makes normal money and few even struggle to get to the end of the month and it is kind of disturbing to think that I make more in a month that they make in a year or two...

I want to give back.

So I am trying to find ways to enjoy my luck with the people I care about without imposing my money, and it is not easy as I cannot simply share the money with them (they would never accept them and I love them for this!).