Full time trading does it really pay

That’s ironic Split. Most have aspirations of trading full-time to get away from hard work. I suppose if you’re trading for breadcrumbs it will seem like hard work and that is why most continue with part-time trading until they are certain their living will be much more comfortable making the transition to full time.

It may be just me, but I am always sceptical of the people who call themselves a ‘full time’ trader (as if it confers some extra credibility in what they say about trading) when they are married and use spread betting because of the tax advantages. They are either too embarrassed or too arrogant to admit that they have a very supportive (emotionally and financially) spouse, wife, partner, ‘other’ as well as the tax advantages that you get with the dual income. But when asked about it, those people get so incensed by the question and refuse to answer that it will always be a mystery....a forbidden question...But I just can't imagine anyone coming home from work and saying "Honey, Kids, it's beans on toast for the next few years because I want to be a full time spred betta!"

I say that so called ‘full time’ traders have absolutely no idea how much extra time and effort “part time” traders are putting in to realise their own dreams and aspirations about trading and are therefore completely unqualified to make any comments about it.

To continue with the sceptical theme - A number of other people have also mentioned that they lost their entire trading pot 3, 4, X times before becoming profitable. I always wonder where they got their 2nd, 3rd, X pot to start again.

Ah yes, I always wondered that.

You forget the other alternative with full time traders - they may have made money in a previous job and regular income generation is not a priority.

In the end, if you have traded independently and successfully for a few years, there should be a next step, namely managing OPM, at which point you're no longer a "full time trader".

Umm interesting posts but I can't say I am particularly inspired..! There seems to be a lot of cynical put downs on this site. My experience of life is the more I help people the better my life is and I try to lead by example.

I am sorry for mentioning the company I use for investing it was wrong and done without thought. It has been instructional to me however how paranoia on the internet can be spread so easily, I really have nothing to peddle and truly wish to make an informed decision on whether to invest more time in learning about trading or go with my original assumption. Anyway thanks all.

There you go!

I hope what you say will get inside the heads of the wannabe fulltime traders. It's pie in the sky and you have to be tall and have a long reach to get it!

I trade index options credit spreads. Capital at risk is the difference in strike prices making up the spread less the credit received.

Excuse me for being dumb, but if you have 100k total capital, you made 6.1k? from that credit spread?

Without delving deeply into money management, here are a few points. At the moment I have 13 credit spreads open. Twelve of them are paired up to form Iron Condors. This is important because the second spread added to form the Iron Condor does not place any additional capital at risk. Last, I am never "all in." I was hovering around 10% cash in this account, but am moving it toward 20%. This arrangement permitted me to earn an average of 10.5% month on month return in this account.

Is it correct to then say you have up to 80% of your entire trading pot quarantined by the broker?