What will you do if you don't succeed in trading?

Quote from Anon314159:

Sure, here's one that a lot of aspiring traders probably have: If my trading doesn't work out in a few years, I'll just go back to my old job.

But is this a realistic backup plan?

Years later, will you really be able to go back to your old job?

Perhaps your industry will have gone down the tubes and just recently laid off tons of workers.

Will potential employers simply ignore that you have been doing irrelevant work the past few years?

Can you convince them that you can fit into the corporate environment again, after the independence of trading?

Are your skills out of date?

Will your contacts still be around to help you find a job?

Will your relationships with your contacts be strong enough for them to care about helping you out?

If you don't believe any of the above is an issue, simply take your own resume, modify it to show that you've been trading the past several years (unsuccessfully of course, otherwise you wouldn't be looking for a job), and see if you can even get a telephone interview with it, let alone a site interview.

It will be tough, demoralizing, and frustrating. With high probability, you will take a junior position, with less than expected pay, at a less desirable company and geographic location.

Now if any of the above is unacceptable to you, then such a backup plan is unrealistic.
More...

If someone actually had been trading that long, all to blow it, then the fact is... that they still shouldn't have been in the game in the first place, because they should have been able to switch to other markets, or had the ability to adapt to new things, that is why having a simple but effective strategy is really a great thing to have these days, because if your strategy completely fails, and you can no longer make money, then it is your fault, and you did not plan for the worse case, and although you might not deserve what comes from it, a person that had been trading that long certainly could have done things to protect themselves.

All the money I make from trading today, goes into long term investments. I mean, I haven't bought anything personal since I have started trading, because everything has gone towards trading. The last thing I bought was a monitor close to 2 months ago. Everything else is going into backup investments, because I only keep 1k in my trading account, and no more goes in it.

No one said you could go back to your old job, but trust me when i say, if by 25 I have not build up enough money to where I had invested in plenty of things to be a millionaire by age 30, then I'd be going back to school and working a side job and trading when I could while still maintaining my other investments.

I give up on buying that hot car, the new Xbox 360 and all that other crap, and it goes into solid and diversified investments. Even more simple things like savings bonds, to mutual funds, to CD's, to small - medium equities, money market accounts, I hope to invest in real-estate later on in my life once things really get good, and also I'm learning various markets which will help if one day my scalping on equities doesn't work anymore, I can switch to a swing-trade style and I have my position trades and I could move to Forex/Options or even go back to my first true instrument, Futures which I used to learn trading with.

Just a ton of things that could be done right now while I'm young, and still time for others to do as well, if just able to give up personal pleasure for solid investments and it will pay off in the long run.
 
Being honest with yourself is one thing everyone can do right now today to change their future for the better.



*This is mainly directed at TruthSeeker, but he has me blocked anyways because he doesn't like to hear "negativity" about his trading*
 
See, I've spent the past 4 hours on ET explaining all this stuff. I seriously do take too much time out of my schedule to commit to helping others on ET, it's a shame that I have a bunch of punks that continue to harass me when i try to help newbies who are like me that really do love the markets and want to trade because they actually like to trade.

I just hope someone learns something from everything I just typed, because if someone can't find something that will benefit out of that, then..... I guess I've failed in my trying to help others.

NOW, is the official goodnight to everyone thread, because I'm not doing 4AM in the morning AGAIN, chatting on ET. I've done that this whole week.

Peace out ET! Trade for the love of the game!
 
If I don't succeed at trading, I will more than likely go get a job with either Investools or Wiztrade and give seminars teaching others how to trade using either software.

There's always suicide to.

Maybe I'll flip a coin to decide if the day ever comes.
 
Quote from FuriousInvestor:

There's always suicide to.

[/B]
More...


Before this step in the downward spiral, take the last of your cash to Vegas and put it all on Black.

If you lose, make a quick stop at the bunny ranch then continue on to suicide....
 
Quote from JMowery1987:

Above stuff continued.......
======================

There are just so many little things that everyone could do to protect themselves, yet they don't do it. I tend to think outside of the box and try to put myself in a position where I try to look at the longer term. I know I can trade, and I'm happy about it and am a happy person because I have set myself up for a long term commitment that I know I can fufill and I love to do it, although the short-term has been very rough, I made the best out of it, and I've been here longer than I imagined, and it is all paying off.
More...

JM,

You will go far in your life.
Haven't seen a person who can think logically and have insatiable motivation from someone in a long long time.


Just make sure you pick the right choices/paths. If you direct your motivation at the wrong things to do, you will waste your motivation and it will kill you mentally in the future.

Make sure you allocate only 1 more year to learning how to trade. Set yourself a goal every single day to learn something, If you don't learn something one day, you better be making lots of money, if you stop progressing for 1 week, then its time to stop trading and get a job/business/dominoes delivery.



Succeeding requires two things

1) Motivation
2) <b>Correct path/Direction</b>
[This is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT] Make sure you know if what you are trying to learn will actually bear fruit in the end. People learn bullshit trading strategies for 2-3 years. NO FCKING WAY THEY CAN SUCCEED NO MATTER HOW MOTIVATED THEY ARE! You must be on the right path.

3) Constant re-evaluation of current progress

Am I imrpoving today? Is my ideas better then yesterday? What have I learned today? What have I learned that makes me better then last week? Is my method improving?

Am I sure I learned something today or am I just bullshitting myself?

----------------------------
In <b>business</b>, its just a check of how much money is made . simple. clients additions.

In <b>trading</b>, its differnet because its even 100% harder, because you need to know every single little thing in the business.

I'm not successful in scalping, so I can only give you an idea what is required to make money in swing trading.

For example: (for swing not scalp)
a. Check statistics of indivudiaal ideas (ie. reversal at open price , whats the stats % of success)
b. Check statistics of ideas working together (Price consolidates in a tight range + heavy volume, whats the stats % of success + market flow)
c Check if ideas can be merged together ( can this work with that to make entry/exit better?)
d. Can this be scalable? Can this work in the long run? Which markets does it work on?
e. How is my risk/r? How is my position size? Does this work in down markets and up market? Does this work in chop days? ENDLESS SHIT!

You need to understand the underlying concepts to completely patch everything together, It needs to be like mutiplication. You don't need to remember every single 33* 50 or 521 * 52. You just need to learn the ideas behind the methology, then you can solve any computation.

And then finally

e. Check if you are making money (this will take awhile because you need to learn everything above to finally be able to check if you can make money. Theres no way you can check if you can make money unless you know EVERYTHING, even then you just started your journey in the business, just STARTED is key.

------------------

One thing I can tell you is, Swing trading requires a lot of capital,
More then $100k is needed to make swing "worth your time".

You need to be fully capitalized in swing trading to capitalize off it. If not, you must do something else to build capital. The good thing is, Swing trading can lead to managing money large money in the future. This is a leveragable skill.

This is the difference between scalping and real directional trading, Real directional trading consists of broad view/ complete knowledge. Scalping just needs your full attention and experience.

Thats why most Ibanks disregard prop trader experience, it can't be leveraged because it focuses on a tight subset of the market, not the complete view.
 
can someone help him out and give him a few solid job leads? maybe the part time traders on ET who have day jobs can hook him up. c'mon, check your company and see if there are any openings. you're the only one who understands what he's going through. do him a favor.
 
Quote from JMowery1987:

Being honest with yourself is one thing everyone can do right now today to change their future for the better.



*This is mainly directed at TruthSeeker, but he has me blocked anyways because he doesn't like to hear "negativity" about his trading*
More...

I don't like consorting with people who get off on seeing me fail. I don't know you JMowery but you seem to do a lot of talking on here. This is not necessarily a bad thing but I'd suggest you start putting some money on the line and find out what it really means to be a trader. The last thing you want to become is a trader academician (that is someone who knows a lot about the markets but who knows nothing about trading). Well, anyways, that's the last thing I'd want to be. To each his own.

You are probably delving into the markets in the right way; slow and carefully. There has to come a point, however, at which you take risk capital and risk it. In the end, it all comes down to the bottom line, which is not necessarily a function of how much you know about the markets (i.e. you can know a lot about the markets and still fail as a trader; you can know little about the markets and still succeed if your money management skills are strong). When you start actually trading significantly you will see that half of what you thought you knew about the markets is out the window immediately. That markets do not always "do what they're supposed to" and that losing money can have a dramatic effect on the way you trade.

That being said, I admit I am nowhere near where I need to be as a trader having lost a great deal of money over the past few months. These are the first major losses I've had trading my own money and I'm learning from the experience. I'm learning that I should cut my size when I'm in a losing streak and trade very carefully shortly after having had a very good GREEN DAY or GREEN WEEK. I'm learning also that my instincts tend to lead me to buy highs and sell lows and so there is something wrong with my points of entry in trades (I always seem to get in at pivot points...that is sell just as the markets are about to rally and buy just as the markets are about to decline). In the past, when I've lost money I tended to trade bigger size to "get back what I've lost". I now see the importance of cutting size when in a losing streak. I'm learning from my experience trading the financial markets. And all the lessons I've learnt through experience, do you think I hadn't read in countless books before I started trading? Before trading, I knew of all the pitfalls out there for traders because I had read so many books on the subject. However, the knowledge I had acquired by reading books before trading has now become practical in nature now that I have the experience of learning through doing.

I've said this once and I'll keep saying it until I stop breathing: you can't learn this stuff in books. You have to jump in at some point.
 
Quote from TruthSeeker247:

I don't like consorting with people who get off on seeing me fail. I don't know you JMowery but you seem to do a lot of talking on here. This is not necessarily a bad thing but I'd suggest you start putting some money on the line and find out what it really means to be a trader. The last thing you want to become is a trader academician (that is someone who knows a lot about the markets but who knows nothing about trading). Well, anyways, that's the last thing I'd want to be. To each his own.
More...

There is a problem... EVERY SINGLE STATEMENT YOU SAID IN THAT PARAGRAPH is FALSE!!!

lol, I don't have time to be playing games, I have to make money.

Trading is my only source of money, and you are not thinking smart if you think otherwise. I unlike you am a trader.

You, have yet to prove to anyone on this message board that you are anything but a gambler who is in it for the money.

You can't handle criticism, you will not.

YOU PUT OTHERS DOWN TO MAKE YOURSELF FEEL BETTER.

You claim I don't make money so you can think you are better than me so it makes you feel better... well buddy, i'm sorry to say YOU ARE WRONG.

You repeatedly say I don't trade with real money, yet I've been here for a year and have shared my experience with anyone.

So stop talking false information, I am a trader, and I risk my money every day, and if you weren't so much of an asshole to realize this, and to stop putting others down to make yourself feel better, maybe I wouldn't be on your case, but I respet my job and I'm proud of what I do, you on the other hand are all talk, and I'm sick of your talk, because you have nothing but lies.

Don't ever say false information about me again. I have spent a year at this, dedicating my life to this, paying thousands of dollars in data fee's and paying for eSignal and using my money wisely and I don't appreciate a punk like you who had blown his money in one month coming up here and telling me what I do and do not do.

So, you better check your facts or stop typing because you don't know me, you know nothing about me, and you don't listen to anyone or take the time to do research. I already have made this conclusion about you and I don't believe anything you have said about you making money.... even today you wrote you are moving back up to 6 contracts.

You are hopeless, I am sick of your crap.

But, do NOT, call me a fake, because I put more effort into this than you could ever dream. I am a trader, and I will always be one because it is apart of me.
 
Come on guys - take it easy, after all, this is only a forum and nothing more. If one can't control one's emotions (and ego) here then how can one control them in the markets?
daddy's boy
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top