wolfpack 

They, like me, are using the APEX accounts to allow them to use OPM without putting a lot of theirs at risk while learning the process. I have a system that trades 10-25 contracts for small 2-5 tick gains and then out. Rinse and repeat over and over again each hour of the day. Our middle daughter was able to pass the eval on their 50k account within the first month and has had 2 months of taking $3k+ out each month... Doing great. Oldest just passed her first eval last week.

That is pretty impressive to earn $3K per month after only 3 months. Is it actual exchange trading with this group or is it sim trading?

+1 for OPM
One of the most useful (imo) tools in today’s trading world is the rise of the “prop firm” opportunity.
While many may disagree with the definition, as it’s unclear in many cases when the trades are really in the market, I would respectfully submit that it doesn’t matter as long as the trader gets paid.
I mention this on this thread as it’s a very low risk way to prove and hone your business model with little risk to the family reserves, yet offers real income potential.
I believe that if you can’t make it work in this environment, consistently getting payouts and not blowing accounts, then risking family cash reserves with the added pressures will increase the likelihood of failure, and absolutely be more harmful financially than the fees/costs of the prop service.
Yes there are fees, and one could argue that there is a predatory aspect of the model where failure fees pay the winners and provide company profits. For some that are really gamblers this may be so.
However, if one is truly interested in and committed to building a professional trading career/ business, this is a bridge that can make that possible by limiting the financial damage the inevitable failures could create.
It will likely still take months if not years, just like any business, to be consistently profitable. It’s not a shortcut, but rather a risk management tool.
Once consistency is achieved one can always start trading in other non-prop accounts of course, and there may be good reasons to do so (taxation differences etc.), but that’s a mature business decision that must only be heavily weighted *after* the business has proven it has a right to exist at all based on data driven results that will only be available after consistency has been proven over some period of time.
I am not affiliated with or promoting any particular prop firm, and they differ in costs, structure, etc. and one should compare carefully and get input from traders that have *successfully* used the platform as described above if possible.

I think that this strategy of limited risk, while still providing upside potential, can be easily explained to family, fix costs to an agreed upon level, and provide milestones for assessing progress just like any business must have to understand where it is on the map to stated goals. This reduces stress and promotes a business vs gambler perception of the endeavor.
Obviously (I hope) this isn’t addressing the need for a written trading plan, stat tracking, and other trading success measures.

Just my thoughts, YMMV, don’t believe a word, you do you, happy trails, good luck, tip your servers, don’t kick the cat or run with scissors. 🖖

Little update, since there has been an addition to the family in Aug 2023.

My wife has been very supportive of me doing what I do, my observation is there was a combination of multiple factors here;
1. Her family has few people who trade on the side or are involved in financial markets. I was not aware of this before marriage.
2. As marriage was still relatively new, she was probably also not trying to be antagonizing till at least it became some sort of problem.
3. Our financial needs were met and overall there was no burden on our family life, except my screen time. (I think Big mike was right when he asked me about this in 2021 in this thread). Surprisingly enough, It's not actually money, but my time allocation was a little bit of a problem.

We established ground rules to deal with that, for example, if she is home, my responsibility is to prioritize family. (This was workable as she earlier tried to do clothing business and later joined an educational institution as an accountant of purchase department). I felt it was a fair enough demand as I could utilize day time as per my liking.

As mentioned earlier in first line, things have now changed due to a new addition, we have had a baby girl and now there are extra responsibilities.

We are also in the process of building a farmhouse at our native place, which has hogged significant resources and my time. In this time, her side of family has become our support system as her mother takes care of our baby and my wife quite a bit. (My mother passed away when I was young, so this has fallen on her shoulders).

What is interesting to note is now my wife prioritizes our baby's future over everything else, including her, she has completely changed her spending habits, same is expected of me. She expects us to start saving funds and other valuables/assets for the future of our daughter from now on. Which is understandable, but this has directly cut my fun money pool. I'm not fully happy with this, but at the same time don't disagree with it.

I guess fatherhood is the time when a boy really starts becoming a man. In this 3 years of marriage we have seen a lot of good and bad, including loss of her father to liver cancer in a very first year of marriage, so we have also developed our relationship as a couple beyond early honeymoon period and I feel it wouldn't be fair of me to be headstrong about things which may affect our child in any negative way.

So as a result, my way of handling trading business has changed, now I'm more of a bystander than an active trader tbh. At least for a few more months, this is likely to continue. This doesn't mean I've stopped trading, I do it just rarely, and I might not even open the terminal every single trading session.

Nice update AllSeeker

AllSeeker 

now my wife prioritizes our baby's future over everything else

as it should be. As you hinted, life with children changes everything and I mean everything. The children's priorities become the parents' top priorities.

Hope to see you around still posting and contributing to the Funny Pics thread!

deaddog 

Explain what you are doing. Not so much the set-ups or price action, but how you are trying to make a profit and why you aren't when things aren't going your way. This forces you to be a better trader as you now have to rationalize your decisions to someone other than yourself. Try explaining to someone why you took a large loss becase you didn't want to take a small loss.

I am fortunate that my wife is fully on board with me trading. She is not a trader, but we do well listening to each other. Working on various work and businesses in the industries that I have worked in has given me the opportunity to ELI5 (Explain Like I am Five) to her, without being condescending. This helps me a lot as well because I am dropping the logic, mathematics, compute science and all of that. I have had a number of epiphanies over the years from things that she has asked or said based on this.

xplorer 

Nice update AllSeeker as it should be. As you hinted, life with children changes everything and I mean everything. The children's priorities become the parents' top priorities. Hope to see you around still posting and contributing to the Funny Pics thread!

Makes you old, keeps you young.

Big Mike 

I'd like to talk about the psychology of having/not having support from your wife (and kids) in your trading business. First, notice I used the word business. Trading is a business! If you run it any other way, it's just gambling. From students and friends that I've talked to, it seems many times "the wife and kids" have no appreciation for what you are doing. They don't support it or respect it. Examples would be constant interruptions throughout the day or nagging remarks in the bedroom, etc. Why do you think this happens? I think that unless you are a trader yourself, it is about impossible to fully respect the emotional roller-coaster trader's experience, the psychological impact, the stress, the preparation required, the concentration, all of it. So you cannot completely fault an outsider, even your wife or kids, for not being able to fully appreciate it. They can't, not until they are no longer an outsider! Needless to say, trying to succeed in trading is hard enough without problems of lack of support from your loved ones. I think there are a few angles to approach this from. One, if your family is not in a financially stable situation and you are "home all day playing on the computer" instead of out in the "real world looking for a job", then you can expect this is not a good situation and you have to understand that you are risking a lot for your own personal happiness. But two/second, if you are in a somewhat stable situation, then it is possible your loved ones still do not appreciate or possibly even condone trading because they feel it is just a toy/hobby or even gambling, a "no win" situation, etc. Assuming the second situation, one possible way to overcome this barrier is to involve your loved ones more. In fact, doing so will almost certainly dramatically improve your trading since most trading mistakes are due to psychological missteps, by thinking things through more carefully so you don't make mistakes when explaining them to others and look like a fool, you'll find that you're actually a much better trader for it. The first two to three years of your trading business is probably a losing proposition in terms of your bank statement. That's true of any business of any nature. It's also true most businesses fail within two years, just as most traders do. Your wife and kids need to understand that this is a business, and just like if you opened a restaurant, or a fitness club, a computer/electronics storefront, any of these things --- they are all risks and require support as well as "leaps of faith" in order to be successful. Just like you could hopefully turn to your wife and kids to support you in your new business venture of starting a "fitness club", and get them involved and make them feel like they are contributing, you can also do the same thing with trading! Most families and outsiders think trading is pure gambling and frown on it. They think you are a degenerate for trading and spending your life savings or not looking out for your family. I think there are two extremes here -- one, it is possible to treat trading like a gambling addiction in which case you don't know when to stop. But it's also possible to treat trading like any normal business. If you started a coffee shop and invested 50k of your own money, and 3 years later it failed, most likely your wife and parents and friends would not disown you. However, in trading, they just might. It's a stigma. Unless you are willing or capable of doing this on your own, the best way to combat this stigma is by involvement. Not just involvement for the sake of understanding of the complexities of trading by your loved ones, but involvement for the sake them better understanding the pleasure and joy it brings to your life. Most men would do anything for their wife and kids if they knew it would bring them joy and happiness, even at great financial cost. The same is true in reverse, your wife and kids need to give you some freedom and room to experience these things even at great financial cost. So what are some of the better ways to involve your wife and kids? Well, I hope to hear from you guys! But here are some of my suggestions (although I'm not currently married, and have no kids!) - Don't just make them watch. Give them something to do. - What they do needs to have meaning. It needs to have an impact and even consequences. - Make it consistent. If it is not consistent they cannot appreciate both up's and down's. - Let them control some of their own trades. Sim at first, but move them to a small cash account. For kids, you can make it tangible (more for teenagers). Rewards for certain percentage gains like clothes, ipod, movies, xbox games, etc. For wife it can be stuff a bit more extravagant, like hit 'xx%' gain and we'll add that new deck in the backyard you wanted, or a weekend get-a-way trip for family, etc etc. What do you guys think? Mike

I think framing it as a business is awesome, and accurate! And your methods of involving them could be helpful too. It is, essentially, strategy and operating as a business owner. Managing risk, trying to continue improving, etc. The only question I have is, how successful are you? "Failure" is part of the deal, of course. But if I were the wife or kids in the situation, I'd only lack respect for you or what you do if you are losing everything or putting the family's safety and stability in jeopardy regularly. I think the best thing you can do is keep getting better and keep showing them that it IS a job. It is a job that requires energy, research, hard work, consistency, etc. AND that it pays off.