Took out a loan to transition to full-time trading. 24 years old.

Don't mater where the money come to start with if you can make it happen.

The guy doing the interview is also a bit of a trader.
 
He is not the first nor will he be the last, why is everyone so surprised, I did the same thing when I was younger, lost it all but don't regret it for a moment.
 
Day 3:
Beginning of day: $39109.89
End of day: $43342.15
P/L: $4232.26; +10.82%

Wow what a crazy day. DUST still being good to me. Wasn't seeing much other action in beginning or any good entry points but thought I could make something out of WDC so dipped my foot into that. I'm not sure if I was net positive or net negative on WDC but made some and lost some. Volumes were weak across the stocks I was screening. Was not satisfied with how I traded WDC. Saw an opportunity in VRX and went into that. Weak volumes and bad entry/exit points. Not satisfied with this trade either and was scared because of the longer period of time I was sitting on the trade and the weak volume, but I saw the trend as going up so held steady. Then BOOM! I was refreshing my brokerage account and the total $$ started going up. I thought the system had an error or something and that's when I saw the VRX chart. Sudden unexpected boost and I was like "WTF What is happening. No idea but I'm satisfied with this profit" and exited. Ended up exiting at $33.03 which was a really good exit. All luck right there, but made huge gains today thanks to VRX. I experienced these giant unexpected moves before but it was all going against me. First time in my life a sudden change happened to move for me, and wow it feels great.

I was thinking of giving myself 2 stars for todays trading for poor entry/exit points but I stayed in VRX seeing the trend and while luck was probably 95% of the whole results, still gotta give credits to someone and who else but me. For such huge returns today, giving myself 4 stars for todays trading. Withdrew $2000 afterwards for my mom so tomorrows starting money will be $41342.15.
 
I am going to jump on the bandwagon too and say pay the loan back asap.

I'm also going to go out on a limb here and say that if you're willing to take that type of risk on a 25% loan, then you should take less of a risk of trading with an offshore broker which doesn't have the PDT rule.

I won't name the brokers here, but I think it makes sense to look into this if you MUST day trade. Last I heard they will start you will around 5K.
 
Day 3:
Beginning of day: $39109.89
End of day: $43342.15
P/L: $4232.26; +10.82%
Withdrew $2000 afterwards for my mom so tomorrows starting money will be $41342.15.

Why on earth did you take out 2k for your mom??? Unless she's your creditor...
Already taking out 5% of your trading capital doesn't make any sense at all...
 
@sun11 - when I traded small, i wasn't profitable but this was my conditions: $5000 capital. Goal of $1000 return a month to pay for rent, phone bills, living expenses, school things, etc. and under PDT restrictions. I would be able to meet that goal like 2-3 months but once I went negative or even short of my goal, it was pretty much downhill from there. However did practice daytrading in virtual accounts and did pretty well,

Your answers states that your performance falls with excessive risk or drawdown on small account. Which is a common case.

Well with large account size it can be done. But I need to highlight few things,

You may do good in demo account. Everybody does! But when it comes for real money people get mad. So set a limit on your current account. If balance fall below x point, then you will stop. Recover the loss money with your salary & pay back the loan to the bank. (They are taking too much interest) Keep doing your current job & side by side trade with small account size. Do this for 1-5 years, you will see your small account grown up & you can go full time with full confidence.

This is my view.
Regards
 
This totally depends on your trading abilities regardless of it being a wise decision to take out a loan or not. If you have a track record of making consistent gains profitably over time and you are confident that you can stay profitable long term perhaps you may have an edge to play on.

However, as we all know most fail in this game long term with greed and fear being the main manipulators of success.

Best of luck, if you need any help let me know, I manage funds for two institutions and private clients at the moment so may be able to point you in the right direction.
 
Day 4:
Beginning of day: $41342.15
End of day: $42085.77
P/L: $743.62; +1.80%
Weekly Gain: +15.74%
YTD Gain: +15.74%

Not a bad day today. Played with FCX right from the start and while I thought it would bounce higher, I saw a possibility of dropping a lot lower so I exited but it ended up going higher...higher than I expected but w/e. Made a profit. Played around with JBLU and DAL and made money. Had an appointment so missed a good chunk of trading time in the middle of the day but the appointment ended early so I went back to trading. DUST did not go well for me today...pretty bad actually and when I checked my balance I was negative for the day. Stupid DUST. Then looked for opportunities and found DDD. Played with DDD and did very well. Traded like how I would expect myself to trade on a typical normal day. Not too crazy, not too volatile, in control, and making profits. I was up to +3.6% for the day thanks to DDD but in the end I messed up. My account balance was just under $43000 ($40 short) so to get that $40 and end up above $43000 for the day I forced some trades in and ended up losing half my profits. Such an amateur mistake. Got greedy for $40....

Trading for today I give myself 3- stars. Was in control all day, going in and out on a slow, not too exciting market. Good entry and exits. Was thinking of giving myself 3+ stars until I messed up at the end. Man, 1.8% is just on par with my daily goals but losing half the gains on such amateur trades just making me frustrated.

Withdrew $500 cause my mechanic said I need to replace all 4 tires so next week's beginning buying power will be $41585.77.

Weekly Analysis: Off to a better start than I expected. Was very nervous taking out high rate loans to daytrade since I'll be screwed if I can't pull it off, but a week in, things are looking a lot better. Most of the gains was thanks to a lucky break from VRX on Thursday, but my tradings not too rusty and I'm recognizing good opportunities so I'm building up confidence and looking forward to more trading next week.
 
@sun11 lol thanks for the advice but if I was planning to wait 1-5 years to trade full-on, i would've not taken out my loans. With the salary im earning i would've saved $30000 by Feb 2017. I took out the loans because I couldn't/didn't want to waste any more time.
@tradedoctor thanks its awesome you are managing outside capital. Will keep you in mind and reach out if i'm having trouble.
 
Wait, you can't service your basic needs (such as new car tyres) without having to withdraw from your trading account?
 
yea my salary covers all the recurring expenses like rent, phone bills, student loan interests, food, with like $300-$500 left over per month but whenever I have one-time expenses such as new tires, I have to take money out. This month its new tires and and my car insurance payment. Since I got a lot more loans I will probably be taking my money out regularly to help pay off the loan payments.
 
For my own opinion borrow money from the bank to investing in forex trading, it's not adviable and might will being disaster if eventually can't manage well these capital, so far I am only treat forex as part time job and never borrow money to start trading and I hope will never.
 
Day 5:
Beginning of day: $41585.77
End of day: $41472.74
P/L: ($113.03); -0.27%

Horrible trading day today. Started the day off very well with DUST but gave out all my gains throughout the day. Poked around in AAPL, NFLX, and DUST. Trading just didn't go for me today. Multiple times I would sell and it would immediately go up... small losses added up and in the end finished negative.
Giving myself 2 stars for todays trading. I was busy with work so couldn't stare at my charts as much as I would have wanted to, but still doesnt give an excuse for poor entry/exits. Made couple impulse trades today because I made good gains earlier in the day (had something to fall back to) but did not think I would end up negative for the day. Wow, such a bummer. Glad the loss wasn't too big but still very disappointed in how I scalped most of the trades today.
 
Think you need to stop trading, work on your strategy, or work but not both.........you are doing text book mistakes and are about to eat your loan.
 
@Sonicscooter yea last week work wasn't too much so I didn't feel it but I noticed it today. Trying to perform well at work and trade well at the same time was pretty difficult. Since for now I am planning on continuing with my usual ways, could you elaborate on the "text book mistakes" and perhaps give a suggestion on how I could avoid it?
 
For example, "Multiple times I would sell and it would immediately go up"

You should have an idea of exit when you enter, if target is reached, who cares where the stock etc goes after.

"Made couple impulse trades today because I made good gains earlier in the day"

What you did earlier in the day, last week, last month, have no relevance to the next trade you make, it has to live on its own merits.

Are you deviating from your plan, sounds like it, so stop before it costs you in £....oops.....$.....:cheesy:
 
Touche. Well, it is still very disappointing to see a stock move up a moment after you've sold it right after reaching the target price. Today it happened perhaps on 1/4 or 1/5 of my exits. These things happen but its not everyday it happens this often on a single day.
And yes, I think I was deviating from my plan. This money is something I can't afford to lose so I'll keep an extra care on controlling my emotions and staying with my game plan. Was up a little over 3% an hour into the market! I think it was due to trading on a bigger size than I should've.. such a waste of a trading day.
 
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