Why do you trade?
The Quick easy answer is... For The Money.

Am I niave to say that the money will only come when you can break through your own personal mental blocks?

So shouldn't the answer to the question of why do I trade be... I am on this journey of self discovery. A journey that takes a lifetime. As I hit certain waypoints I start to make more and more money.
I believe that if it was just about the money we would never enjoy it.

• Fascination
• Freedom
• Security
• For itself (love of it)
• Challenge
• Money

I believe I can reallocate the money I make more efficiently.. eventually

Hi Patrick,

great idea to make that question.
I am currently doing research in my own life history what made me start trading.

During the time i considered myself a profitable investor, by buying two or three stocks in the 90s and selling them profitable before the crash in 2001, money was not as important to me as it is now.
During that time i said to myself i am happy with what i have and believed that my life will always prosper.
But one event turned that. After that i got very greedy and started to trade options which didnt work i lost a lot of money. But ok at that time i realized a had to do my homework, made my homework tried again and lost again.
The last really profitable trading time i had, i considered money not as important as it was two years after the event, which made me greedy, i just wanted to have the possibility to go wherever and whenever I want to go. So definitly freedom seems to be the most important motivation for trading.

But the problem is : The pursuit for freedom, implies the premise that i am currently not free. Being not free means unhappiness. And being unhappy with my current situation can result in bad trading.

So much to the hard stuff i have to deal with, when it comes to why i am doing what i do.
But now to the positive motivators.

Scrooge Mc Duck inspired me during my childhood.
The movie "Trading Places" fascinated for commodity trading. ( Right now i can do only stocks but i defintly want to trade orange juice :-D )
One German tv film with Helmut Fischer acting a tramp who got broke by trading pork bellies with his friend, who claimed to have a computerized system which is right 90%, of the time now also a tramp.

Being in a business where most of the others fail, I think 90% of retail traders go broke.
I love the thought being one of the best.
I seek challenges. ( This can be dangerous because if i master a challenge i could be bored easyly, resulting again in bad trading or feeling like god and throwing money management away trading to big)

I am not sure if i can say that in a explicit way, but girls can be expensive.
Therefore girls are definitly a motivation to make a big bunch of money. And trading seems to be the best way to do that. But girls especially when there are more than one in my life can be very stressful. This emotional roller coaster can also lead to bad trading.
Cars having a big house all that status symbols are only girl driven motivated, i myself do not need a car or a fancy dress if i cannot impress girls with that a muscle car renders itself for me useless.
Therefore girls is not a good motivation for trading.
And finding a supportive spouse should not require much money.

But when it comes about trading and i can talk to other people who trade, which i do regularly every second and fourth wednesday a month. I am so fascinating that men become fascinated childs again. So in my opinion trading itself has a very big fascination. Sometimes i think that i really would do everything to be succesful in trading.
And that is not because i want to make money or to have freedom it is just the big challenge the risk all that emotions which are involved. I think trading itself has the biggest fascination.

Oh and trading is for me the last possibilty to express my own warrior within myself.

I could write a lot of pages but i think i stop to make it readable to others.
:-D

@FB2012 has summarized it quite nicely!

To read @iqgod's motivations read the previous post by @FB2012 again. :-)

The 'girls' in my life are hypothetical but exist nevertheless as a deep motivator somewhere in the corners of my mind.

Casino @ Home

For ~90% of traders ...slapped by the market

GFIs1

Two reasons for me....

1 - Pensions aren't viable any more and 'independent' financial advisers will push you towards whichever fund pays them the most.

2 - Jobs are no more reliable than starting your own business, they just pay less.

There is no guarantee that any person or group will grow your money any faster than you can.

Trading is no less stable than a job (once you know how) and there's always jobs if you decide it's not for you.

I'm 43, worked as an independent consultant for many years and made lots of money doing so. My perspective is not one of somebody needing to make it but of one annoyed at seeing other people lose large chunks of my cash.

Some 20 year old with $5k scraped together will rightly have a completely different outlook. In fact, I think to some extent, trading is an old mans game. The only reason props take on teeny-boppers is that anyone older would not be able to join on their terms.

FB2012 

Hi Patrick, great idea to make that question. I am currently doing research in my own life history what made me start trading. Oh and trading is for me the last possibilty to express my own warrior within myself. I could write a lot of pages but i think i stop to make it readable to others. :-D

My definition of a True Warrior is someone who serves a purpose bigger than himself.
A Mercenary on the other hands serves his own purposes. Mercenary - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Would you like to explain what you mean by your warrior statement?

My definition of a warrior related to the markets.

I do not see myself as a Mercenary, if i would prefer to be a mercenary i would continue my actual carreer.

True warriors are people like you and me, which are definitly competitors, but have to follow a codex of fairness.

It is like sport but you can go break, which is the same as getting killed.
And it is a way to confront yourself with the most deepest fears inside.
And I am willing to go that confrontation.
The codex of fairness is dictated by law and the SEC.
But when i meet with traders i always experienced a high degree of solidarity, between them which are during the trading session maybe enemies trying to get each others money. And that makes those, fair true warriors.
Ok you can discuss if trading always results in one getting the money of somebody else, but i think i have to be aware about that possibility.

That would be my definition of that true warrior in the stock or futures market.
Hope i have not harmed anybody with that statement, who was in a war and maybe says that trading has nothing to do with the brutality he or she has seen.

Please understand this statement as a feeling closly related to my personal reflexion about trading.

Added that:

There are other parallels to a warrior.
1. A warrior has to be physical and mentally fit
2. has to have a high degree of discipline
3. regular training
4. following checklists
5. following tactical statement in case of do that.

This is very related to trading.