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I've been a full-time trader 3 times. Undercapitalized all 3 times.
The 1st time I didn't stand a chance, but it was more of a learning experience / full time immersion. I learned a lot.
2nd time I knew a lot more, but still undercapitalized and not good enough to stand a chance.
3rd time I thought I was ready, but I ran out of money. Learned a lot, though, and made discoveries/breakthroughs which would have been impossible with a full time job. If I had a substantial bit more of money, it's possible I could have made it.
Right now, I'm trading the US session while holding a day job in Europe with a remote work agreement. Life is tough as I'm pretty much working 24/7 and usually work on weekends to pick up slack at my day time job. But I don't see myself quitting anytime soon. I hope to maybe reduce the hours on my day job to an 80 % full time job and continue trading on the side.
I don't see myself quitting the day job / remote work agreement until I have a much, much bigger account and a good amount of savings to support me for a while.
I think most traders who quit their job to trade full time do so prematurely. Of course, one could argue that it's very hard to actually make any serious progress trading part time while holding a full time job. If I hadn't done so myself I wouldn't have progressed to the level / knowledge base I have right now.
EDIT: I could add that in my current situation I'm not really doing much progress on research/back-testing as there's simply not much time for that. It's mostly trading the methodology I've developed and practicing daily. The benefit when I was full-time was that I could both trade and really immerse myself in research and development.
-Full time trader
-Trading full time for just over 23 years.
-Been with Interactive Brokers from the time they opened up in Canada
-Only trade on a active basis S&P futures and Options ( Its very hard to focus on more than one market)
-Hold a number of blue chip stocks that pay dividends (very rarely trade any of these)
-Based in Ottawa Canada with winters in Philippines or Europe
-trading style would be aggressive scalper, usually hold positions for under a hour.
-love technology have plenty of scripts that trade based on rules and market conditions.
-Trade with the latest technology and computer systems.
-Have gone weeks watching the market from 8am to 6 pm and not traded a thing.
-Engineering background
-Was a Venture Capitalist in the technology sector before I "retired" , Was a founder and the company still exists today.
-Sit on the board of a couple of companies.
- Full time fund manager / portfolio mananger of alternatives
- 9 years experience
- Was previously in hedging and portfolio manager, specializing in emerging markets
- Not sure this counts because I get paid/benefits for what I do, so not an independent
Their podcast is good, I have one of their courses, I am thinking of getting more of their classes, would you recommend them if so which ones and have you taken any of their stuff?
Hey @SBtrader82 - great thread and you got some great responses. I'm re-reading this thread after some time looking for some inspiration, but I also recently read the thread where Big Mike posted his trades and brokerage statements and there is something I should point out about the numbers above. After he posts his brokerage statement here (which shows a 25K deposit so because he was taking losses), he goes on to say this in his next post:
Since he seemed to think it was so important, I thought I would throw it out there. I don't want to be a joy-kill if you're like me and looking for some micro-sized inspiration, so here's something to make up for it...
I have actually done some additional trading, but I have not had time to post to my journal here yet. I will try to get it caught up over the weekend. Yesterday morning, I reached a great milestone for myself. I have doubled my futures trading account …