What makes day trading a resume killer?

Quite a bit of negativity in this thread to say the least.

As I said earlier, ANY position (daytrading included) is all about presentation on the resume. A resume and interview is about selling yourself.

I'm quite surprised with as many smart guys we have here that so many think putting daytrading on a resume is 'killer'. Perhaps putting the words 'daytrader' is not a smart move, but independent wealth manager sure sounds more professional and 'acceptable'.

It's quite apparent that some here don't grasp that concept.

I would highly recommend that anyone that does in fact need a new resume to hire a professional resume writer before trying this on your own, esp. if your views are like the others in this thread.
 
a few years ago, i was thinking of going back to a computer techie job. i wasn't making as much as i wanted to trading (note: i was making positive money and nice returns, just not the absolute number i was hoping for) for the risk (of working on my own) involved.

i worked on my resume with some people, and one passed it on to a headhunter, who nearly immediately had jobs for me (as a techie) where my first occupation listed was self-employed daytrader.

now, my ROI was real nice, and i could prove it (if needed), but daytrader was not a drawback for me. from talking with some higher-ups i know, there's a few reasons for that:

-> it's easy for people to understand that it's difficult to work with no safety net (independent), need other people around, perceived stress of daytrading, etc.
-> i had previous experience on wall st/ financial district. that's a HUGE advantage to getting many types of jobs.
-> i had worked in startups and established companies and my skills within those showed both ability to take initiatives on my own, as well as to work within a structured corporate environment.


note: just opened that old resume. here's the basic way i had it set up.

SUMMARY up front

next thing: "Self Employed Equities Trader" first line, achieved ROI of (X) % over 5 yr period, next line: "Self-trained in all aspects of trading. " along with the trading stuff I did, more trading stuff, and then final bulletpoint under trading (along with trading skills) the technical details of maintaining a secure home OS environment.


(after that were my previous jobs, which all were either in tech support, writing, or other overlapping areas)

if i had to go back, daytrading would NOT have been a resume killer.

and if i hadn't had the returns, the first thing i'd say would be something about : It's much harder than I expected, here's what I learned about it, and why the failures I had in daytrading helped me in life and will be a benefit to me in this job.
 
I traded for both Schonfeld and Last Atlantis Capital. I made money, I lost money. However, the challenge, the will power to continue to work you way out of a loss, to come back profitable, the management of stress, the long hours of learing diffrent "methods", thinking out side the box.

All these landed me a very good position with a Private individual who deals in Land Development, Investments and Commerical Real Estate.

So, if your looking for a "Monkey" position and your gona interview with a person who has wasted his.her life in a cubical, of course they will pass you up.

But if you "Think outside the box" and try and find someone who is a successful person in another field, that is willing to teach you because he/she knows you have what it takes...Trading is a powerful background.


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