thoughts from experienced hands wanted!

[spy74]

hi there. i currently work in equity sales, but have been trading as a hobbie for last 5 years. during this time i've acquired some good experience, and learned some valuable lessons - the best ones being around money and risk management, and learning to grow equity slowly and steadily, as opposed to betting the farm on one trade, which i started off doing and had incredibly wild P&L swings, but fortunately was able to keep my inital capital in tact! i've developed both a medium term swing trading strategy on the S&P 500 in which i will hold positions for 1-3 days, and i've also, over the last year, been trading the Euro Bund intra-day (at night after work) using MP, which i've really enjoyed (both trading the bund and learning MP!)

i want to start to take this full time, using both the med term swing trading and day trading, although, trading from home for a living is not well understood in my corner of the world at all, and when i try discuss it with people i regard as "mentors" most think i'm crazy to leave a relatively well paying job at a reputable firm in a tough market to have a crack at it....like really crazy, presumably because i'm only 6 years out of university and potentially have some good earning years ahead of me, and most here tend to think of trading as pure gambling.

i've been able to get my mortgage down to where the payments are equivalent to a modest rent, and have enough personal savings (seperate from my trading account) to get through a few months of not having to draw on my trading account at all, and also a relatively modest spender when it comes to lifestyle.

i value the freedom of running my own biz and being able to spend time doing "other things" when i want, far more than trying to climb the corporate ladder, but most importantly, i REALLY love mkts, economics, and trading and would look fwd to trying to build this into a decent business. ultimately, my plan is to scale up my current activities and develop a track record over the next 1-2 years, then possibly look to starting a small fund and run OPM.

i guess i'm keen to get some sensible thoughts from experienced hands on whether or not quitting my job to do this full time is a good call, and when is a good time to do it. perhaps others have been in the same position as me before?....love to hear from you

 

[everyonerich]

go head and try, you always can look for job anytime. you only live once and this would be invaluable experience if you take this seriously & stop listening to insecure morons

first of all, it would be better find any full timers in your area & hang out with them. hope you would find someone are trading same market as yours thou.. it would be greatly helpful in terms of mental support, or sense of fellowship.

the most important thing is if youre trading/planning to trade full time, set aside some amount of money for daily expense maximum of 1 year. so that means you had 1 year full time of learning and trading without need to withdraw the profit from trading account.

 

[foredog]

Or can you take a fortnight off work and try trading full time, it won't fully be the same as when you quit your job but it'll give you an idea of how it'll be

 

[GammaJammer]

One thing I think you'll find really stands out if you quit your job, and sit at home trading, is just how much less information you see, compared to sitting on a trading / sales desk somewhere. That will in turn affect your trading style.

Not a reason not to do it mind you, just prepare for that and have a plan to cope with it.

GJ

 

[rs1]

My advice would be to hope for the best but plan for the worst. Don't burn any bridges and keep doors open so that if you try it for a year and it doesn't work out then you can still get back on the career ladder. I think you would need at least one year's worth of living expenses covered without having to draw from your trading account.

Think very hard about whether this is really what you want to do.

Good luck

 

[spy74]

All very useful thoughts and much appreciated. i took some time off earlier in the year to try and simulate what it would be like to trade full time from home....kinda scared the living daylights out of me at first, initially because dealing rooms tend to be great places for throwing ideas and views around on a daily basis, secondly, because i couldn't readily get access to mkt info & news releases (bloomberg, reuters etc etc) and thirdly because i just plain missed talking to people! after a while tho, i found that i really started to rely more and more on actual price action as well as TA & MP to tell me what was going on in the mkt. i had always, in some way, relied on what others were saying. This was actually one of the best things for my trading, because it forced me to really make sure i pressed hard to understand what was going on and who was in control of the market i was looking at. i also discovered some websites with data releases and calenders which were quite useful, and subscribed to our local pay TV service which has CNBC on it (yeeehaaa)....TBH, i think the hardest bit will be not having anyone to talk to during the work day...arguing with the CNBC presenters just isn't the same!

Thanks again for the useful comments, keep 'em coming

 

[GammaJammer]

There's a big difference nowadays in the quality and quantity of available information when you're not in a wholesale environment any more, compared to say ten years ago. It's just a case of organising yourself, distilling it down to what's really important, and not expecting it to just drop in your lap imho.

The having people to talk to thing is a double edged sword I reckon. You can also get disctracted by a lot of stuff that's basically noise when you're in a dealing room.

 

[montmorencyt2w]

Thanks again for the useful comments, keep 'em coming

Any chance of working part-time?

 

[spy74]

Any chance of working part-time?

yeah, have been doing it part time for a while now. Part time works ok for position trading, but day trading is just not sustainable, given my job requires a fair bit of socialising after work etc etc and it would be good to have some kind of life outside of working/trading!

 

[vcir]

my five cents:

I sacrificed a year's vacations and stayed at home a whole month trading full time...
That made me think seriously about leaving my job
Ok... haven't done it yet... New year's resolution i guess

Best regards