Amen to that statement.
What to do with my life?
- Thread starter shotstakovich
- Start date
It was truly entertaining to see so many alleged traders argue over whether a stranger should be risking over 2% on their own trades.
Good luck OP, I understand your predicament as I'm in a similar situation myself. What I've been slowly realizing though over the years is that working for a fund isn't worth it if your strategy truly works. All of the successful futures traders I know are doing it as a hobby and never worked at a fund or under anyone in finance. I have struggled, too, to get a fair chance despite interviewing and having successful strategies, and I guess even a degree in Finance doesn't cut it now. Just keep grinding, save your profits, scale up over time, and you'll eventually have people begging you to manage their money anyway. What's the difference at that point? At least you'll be making all the decisions. Until then, if you truly enjoy this game (as I do) and you get your strategy and discipline right, you shouldn't worry about getting into any funds or prop firms. You sound like you have some profit already, so if you trade options and futures, take your time and you will need nothing else! There's too much money in the market day to day for you to ever need someone to seed your working strategy or take some of your profit in exchange for a formal job. You just need a bit of time and it will happen naturally. But all of that hinges on your own discipline and your strategy, so focus on those and the rest will take care of itself.
Good luck OP, I understand your predicament as I'm in a similar situation myself. What I've been slowly realizing though over the years is that working for a fund isn't worth it if your strategy truly works. All of the successful futures traders I know are doing it as a hobby and never worked at a fund or under anyone in finance. I have struggled, too, to get a fair chance despite interviewing and having successful strategies, and I guess even a degree in Finance doesn't cut it now. Just keep grinding, save your profits, scale up over time, and you'll eventually have people begging you to manage their money anyway. What's the difference at that point? At least you'll be making all the decisions. Until then, if you truly enjoy this game (as I do) and you get your strategy and discipline right, you shouldn't worry about getting into any funds or prop firms. You sound like you have some profit already, so if you trade options and futures, take your time and you will need nothing else! There's too much money in the market day to day for you to ever need someone to seed your working strategy or take some of your profit in exchange for a formal job. You just need a bit of time and it will happen naturally. But all of that hinges on your own discipline and your strategy, so focus on those and the rest will take care of itself.
Actually, if your strategy TRULY works, working for a fund is the way to go unless you are awash with capital. It's better to have 10-15% of a multi-million PnL than a 100% of a few hundred grand.
You know what this is an example of, right?
If you have absolutely no capital, sure, but this guy said he made 80% in his first year. Even if that's 80% of 20k, that's enough money to trade your way to any life through options and futures. It might take another year or two or three, but if his strategy is good, he's fine. Success is based on management, whether it's 10k or 10 mil. And there's lots of brokers with great margins for people with less money.Actually, if your strategy TRULY works, working for a fund is the way to go unless you are awash with capital. It's better to have 10-15% of a multi-million PnL than a 100% of a few hundred grand.
You know what this is an example of, right?
And no, what is it an example of?
For starters, he has to eat and if you want a reasonable lifestyle it takes money. Certainly more than 60k, if you have kids. Then there is a matter of path dependency - unless he's making money with a Sharpe of 4, he will have down months and even down years. Finally, there is a matter alpha decay - a fund will be much more forgiving if you have a track record of making money.
Sampling bias
You don't know many people who worked in finance, so your friends that are trading for themselves don't come from that background. Just like I don't know anyone IRL who's managing less than 10 million, but I do know such people exist.Is that movie worth watching, btw?
Sampling bias
Oh well I'm not saying something like everyone can do it and everyone who does it alone is going to be fine. I know it's a very small percentage, I'm giving OP the benefit of the doubt. If he can't do it he will find out shortly. I'm also not saying they don't exist within Finance, I know some of those too. But I don't see what the bias is, as I'm definitely not saying this advice applies to everyone.
All I was saying is there are people with proven strategies who make it work on their own (in futures) without going through the Finance route, which ends up giving them everything they desire. And they're not the massively successful geniuses/lucky people you read about, so you don't have to be the absolute top 0.1% level to make this life work, either. So OP doesn't need to get hung up on going that route if he does indeed have some money and a working strategy.
Hard for us little guys to find structural dislocation.My career goal was to be a clown at McDonalds, but they cancelled that position and I had to settle
Good answer, even though I was not asking for specifics. Broadly speaking, the edge can come from three sources - investment/research process, lack of competition and a structural dislocation. If you are saying that you have an investment process edge, better be well equipped to prove it.
I disagree and stop with the self pity.