Trading as a full time career?

Hi,
I have been a member of this wonderful site and been studying the strategies by the GURUs here ( intra day and swing until now) for a few months. Havent done any intra day or swing trade yet though.

1)Experienced people here, please tell me if it is practicable to choose tarding (intra -day, swing, long-term) as a full time work? Is it possible to earn a decent living (I am not in this to make a killing) out of it?

2)Plus, is it possible to work as a sub-broker and a trader simultaneouly?

Thank you in advance

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It sounds naive, but my plan was this:
I started studying NCFM to become a sub-broker. I really didnt want to be. I beleived that there is no sense in the market movement - its just like the "brownian movement" they teach you in school. And i believed its highly unethical to earn by a means which you think is non-profitable for you clients. But as I started to read some threads here; viz. Saint's on trendlines, SH's on 315 swing, Pride's on scalping in intra-day, abhiwhy's on +di and -di crossover (in fact the title of his thread kept me away from day-trading section for a month), I got hooked to it. I also saw that people are taking trades based on these stratgies and succeding, I started to feel that there is a certain method here. So what I thought that in addition to working as a sub-broker I would try these and other strategies as well.
So basically I thought that I would start with the day trading strategies taught here and learn new strategies as I progress.
Please comment.


If you mean some formal edu, then thats out of question for me.


Thank you for the alert.


I really know no one who could qualify as a pro. Can you give me some pointers about how to get a mentor?
And again that would depend on how expensive that would be.

Thank you.

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I dont remember when I read it and whi said it...but it was like if you want to earn working as an engineer you have to learn at least for 4 years, if you want to earn as a doctor its learn for min 4-6 years, so why should we expect any different for trader?
The only thing I was hoping was that I could learn something on my own with online guidance from experienced people and then proceed to next level using the gains I made from that source.

Thank you.

linuxguy,
Yes, you can be a trader and earn decent living.. for that..take it as a profession, and try to excel /be master in this. Example of Engg/ doctor etc is good comparision and that is true in trading as well..
As a trader , you are a business person.. not in a Job. In job, you get paid to show your face in office for 8 hrs.. But not here. Even if you are monitoring mkt from 9.55 to 3.30, it doesn't guarantee any return.
You return comes from what u do out of mkt hours i.e. how you develop and test your strategy, how u improve that.. how u manage risk.. how u manage your emotions and trading psychology etc.
It is not easy to master all that and get consistency in your performance.. It is tough battle, and certainly far tougher for someone who wants to rely on this for bread and butter...

In India, we have ITI, Polytechnic, and Engg college from road side private college to RECs and IITs. They all churn out the technical people but you know their depth and difference.
Same goes for medical professions , there are 100 s of diplomas, degrees available there..After completing them anyone can put Dr in their name.. but the best Engg / Doctors have something different. They might come from same palces..but they adapt very well to current need, their customers, growing trend in their buss etc.
Compare that to trading.. --> The strategies and thread of TJ that u have mentioned will give u some inputs but comparing trading profession with that will be insult to this profession.
It goes far beyond a single trading system and few indicators.. Majority of trading success comes thru Psychological aspects and running trading as business.. Market is everchanging place, rule of game keeps changing regularly.. so we got to adapt to that..

If you are prepared for this tough journey then belive me, rewards are far better. You can accumulate wealth for generations here ..

My suggestion will be to get proper knowledge first, define your business plan, trading plan etc,..and start small to gain experience. Once u gain some experience,then u will be in better position to decide whether it can be full time profession for you or not. In my view, it can easily take few months to reach a consistent performance levels. And if you are slow in correcting your own mistakes fast, and developing new habits in short time, then it might take even longer.

plz chk out the thread "need a mentor".. There are few realistic posts there on trading.

Happy Trading.

neeraj, welcome to the forum.. always happy to meet traders here.
btw, have u checked forum rules.. if not plz do so and take action before moderator comes back to you?

Happy Trading.

Everything well said.:clapping:
But a real pro trader will not ask money for beging mentor.You must be lucky enough to find such mentor.People offering services for money dont know anything , better to stayaway.

Mentors are different breed of people. They dont want your money. But they wont spend their valuable time on stones that are not diamond material. They shun you in all possible ways. They'll point you a direction and its u who have to work ur ass off to find out what he meant. At the end of the exercise, you have learnt what he wants u to learn, but the HARD way.

please dont confuse them with self professed market GURU who dole out levels just to prove how knowledgeable they are.

Raja, I disagree slightly with you. Linda bradford raschke offers one such program and she is one of the person in "New market Wizard" book.

Not just the real pro trader,but each of us have to define our priority and value our time. Mentoring takes hell lot of time and effort.. it is not easy. And it is frustrating when a person who is at higher maturity level to come down to beginner's level and handle/explain basic questions..
And this is not for everybody.. We have come across so many teachers/professors in our school/college but I am sure, you would be able to differentiate between the best one and average ones among them. Knowing is not equal to "ability to teach" or "abilily to execute". PhD holder, master teachers, Successful business CEO are 3 different breed of people and each of them need different set of personality.

So if mentor asks for money, then I see valid reasons behind it. And if someone is valuing other person's time/priority and seeing the value from it, then he/she has to be ready to pay for it. Else it is like asking for valuable stuff and not pay for it. At the end of the day, TIME is more valuable then anything else. Otherwise, u keep searching for that Mentor come at no cost to you.. and pay lot more money to market thru our losses.

There are many quick-money makers over there who are selling their services so it is difficult to find out the good one among them.

Personally, I paid good amount of money to join mentorship thru a pro trader and that was just to get my trading plan done (no technical analysis, no strategy).. but I that made lot of difference in my trading, my thought process, my approach to look at market. And that was enough to put me on right track and then I picked up the other pieces on my own. Later when I knew more about him, then I found out that money that I paid him for this, was even smaller then stoploss of his 1 trade. I.e. what seemed to me as big money, was insignificant to him. Hence I agree with Dan completely on it.
With proper mentorship, one can easily become consistently breakeven trader in 6 months time which might be never ending battle without any help.

It is always a challange to find if the person/mentorship program is worth some value or not. But Isn't that true everywhere else ?

Agree, there are exceptional Pro trader cum mentor's who enjoy helping others and ready to give their time for no return.. For them, "helping others" is time wastage but something more then that. But it is difficult to come across them .. One can find them thru personal contacts..

Just sharing my thoughts as this topic carries very different importance for me.
Hope this makes the reader think.

Happy Trading