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

[JMowery1987]

Quote from pairsarb:

Aren't you the guy who posted a thread in which you CAN"T GET AN APARTMENT on your own? Well, in that case, I am so glad you "chimed in" to help all of us out here at ET. We surely can use your expertise.

Thanks, I wouldn't claim I am an expert though, but thanks for the compliment, much appreciated.

Being 19 is fun and an adventure every day.

Quote from rimshaker:

This is what i like about ET.... all the warmth, love and support... makes you all warm and fuzzy dont it?

Can't get enough of it rimshaker, I'm personally used to personal abuse on ET, it's nothing new. Just have to laugh at it, and move on.

 

[earlybirdstango]

i been dreaming of trading since I was about 14 years old. after i graduated i KNEW id go into it. I dont know what else i would enjoy. i always tell my friends if i were to bust in trading i would just go manage a KFC. and im serious

 

[Adobian]

Quote from Anon314159:

Is there anyone here on EliteTrader who found a job after several years of unsuccessful full-time trading?

If so, how about sharing your story of how your job hunt went?

How long did it take?

How many resumes did you send out?

What job were you hoping to get at the beginning of your job search, and what did you end up with?

How does your new job compare to the old job that you had left orginally for trading?

What was your prior education and job background?

I told this story once here:

A friend with an engineering degree from a prestigious university quit is 50K/year job to trade. He didn't make as much. Manage to bring equity to $K230 after struggling for 7 years. Lost it all in a some bad trades in 2001. Been unemployed since, cause he can't accept to work at MacDonald for 5 bucks/hour. And his mind wanders too much (ADD + Depression) to brush up his engineering background to go back to the industry to compete with younger brighter minds. Lucky to get a place to stay with the parents. Wife divorced. Girlfriends dumped.

The guy who said he'd be a manager somewhere must be dreaming. You will waste your years and once busted you become a person with no resume, no experience, obsolete skills, aged. This is a business wich requires capital. And it's important to have capital. Once all is gone, you are a gonner. Live and Die. Minimum wage and life at proverty level will await you .

I hope that friend of mine doesn't read this post. I know he doesn't care much about the stock market these days.

Looking at him, I got scared and quit on time. These days, I am still deciding to whether I should go back or not. But if I do, I'd be swing trading, and keep my day job. I might be looking for a second shift job and save my morning to follow the market full time. I live on the west coast. Not sure if it's doable, given the current condition these days.

 

[nbates]

Interesting story, but some people are destined for success and others are not!

It's more about desire than it is about brains and of course common sense is a bonus, definitely.

 

[Adobian]

Quote from nbates:

Interesting story, but some people are destined for success and others are not!

It's more about desire than it is about brains and of course common sense is a bonus, definitely.

If the stock market is really predictable, (even a day job 8-5 is not that predictable, cause you don't know when you'd get laid off the next day) ... I guess you all can say that one only need to have the desire to succeed in the order to succeed.
]

Yeah, you can love trading all you want. You can have the desire to succeed all you want (and I went through that stage, locking myself up in the room for days, 3-4 hours of sleep a night, I know exactly how ambitious I was), but when things go wrong, you ain't gonna be able to explain what happens .

If you rely on your brother or your friend etc. as a back up plans, you got to be kidding. What if ... ? You think brothers don't fight ? Friends don't cheat each other ?

In life nothing is really for certain, but at least we could see that some things are somewhat more stable than others. Even a day job can be lost at some point, but at least it's not hard to keep an income stable and steady at your skill/education levels. At least the failure rate isn't 90%.


I think the best back up plan is to keep your day job, and work hard, and keep a nice resume, and trade only when you can afford to trade (don't let your boss know about it) LOL . Remember, 90% of us will become part of statistics. . So 90% of us can start to rely on your back up plan today.

Most of us think traders are this and that, but in actuality, no matter how hard we explain to people, we are looked down upon as gamblers .

 

[Triple X]

I think it depends on where you live, and how long you are trading. I have known people who were out of work for years, and who eventually landed work comparable to what they had before. However, if you are an engineer or programmer, I think after a couple of years it might be tough to get back into that line of work. I have been trading unprofitably for one year, and recently I turned profitable. I was laid off last year, but have been on my companies payroll until last week, so technically I have only been unemployed for one week. But I'm only going to keep trading for a few more months, and if I'm not making decent, consistent money, I'm going to look for a job. I could never trade long term without making a good living (100K+).

 

[Adobian]

Quote from Triple X:

I could never trade long term without making a good living (100K+).

Well, I guess for every successful trader who makes 100K+ a year, there are about 9 of us who loses 30k+ a year (the rest goes to commisions and salaries and costs to support this whole trading industries) . I guess it's not so bad.