As going through the forum I have read lots of thread on various topics, where members are very much interested to know & learn the technical analysis, trading strategies, to learn about various financial instruments, etc. While reading the various thread, I come up with a thread where few of the members are interested to know & start his/her career as a day trader fulltime. He/she must be having a dream the way once I have in my life.
So being a professional day trader since more than a year, here are few things which come to my mind for the members who want to start their career as a full time trader:
Most people in their professional life don't have an opportunity to do something they really want to do & love to do and at the same time also make money doing so. I always wanted & liked to be worked independently in my professional career, you can say doing my own things in both life and career. And after giving a lot of thought, I decided to be become a trader (An Independent Day Trader). Like a coin....... in life or in work it has two sides Good & Bad. And so the day trading involves lots of risk & positive for trading independently. After all, I wouldn't be doing this if there were not some significant advantages to doing so. And it is always interesting and I'm never get bored doing it.
As an independent day trader, I'm the boss of my own destiny as I set my own goals & targets. I don't have to depend upon any person for how much money I make. At the end of the day what all matter is my trading result (Positive / Negative account balance). Every day most of the time I spend doing things which I really like to do as trading, researching, reading, advising & mentoring others. I dont have to work on things what others want me to work on and rather than that I plan my work on those things that I want to work on.
Being an independent day trader, I can wake up any time. I dont have to dress formals (as I work in shorts & tee shirt). I dont have to spend an hour or more driving my sweetheart (Karizma) daily for work. I dont have to waste my time on irrelevant things like business meetings etc. I can take a day off for trekking playing cricket, to be with a friend, visit my family and lots of other things. I don't have to take anyones permission for doing what I want to do.
I think now after reading this many of you may be thinking that I have a dream job. But dear friends what I understand is that there is no career in this world that doesnt also have its own sets of unique negative sides as positive one which I discussed above.
Out there in the financial market, there are many misconceptions about trading primarily due to the wrong marketing practices done by the peoples and the financial services who sell investment products, services and trading products. As for their own interest & benefit they propagate the view that trading for a living is an easy way to become rich without any effort and time. But the truth is that it is a challenging career/profession if trading for a living is a career you people want to be in your life.
As every day, I have to come up with a trading strategy or plan to my trading desk; it is because whatever effort I make will be directly related to my bottom-line returns. Here for me past success means absolutely nothing. I am only as good as my next trade. And it is one of the few career offer me the potential for self-destruction so quickly by the way trading. It has the pressure to perform which create unbelievable amounts of negative stress which I have to deal on daily basis. Working in isolation, I often miss close human interaction and building & keeping friendships (what I think is that later in life it will be often very difficult for those who don't meet a lot of people throughout their life). Lots of people think me as a day trading gambler which doesnt treated as a respectful job or career by many people. Sitting 10-14 hours a day in front of computer affects our health. As it lead to overweight, eyesight issue, back pain, fitness etc.
In trading, I've to always be in learning mode. As what I think I know right now and what is working for me today will not work someday in the future. So it will require constant education and learning. From my experience those who can say that a person can trade successfully for ten-twenty minutes a week are liars. Most of independent traders put in 50-70 hours of work per week. It requires very high capital to being an independent trader. Personal and family relationships can be difficult. Like most people, when things aren't going well, many will look for others to blame and take it out on their spouses and family members. There will be distractions at home very frequently. As independent traders who work from home, everyone else in family will think you can spare time for doing other things like going to the grocery store, doing laundry, etc.
Finally being an independent trader, I am working on a Zero Sum Game (One of my friend say it as negative sum game as it includes brokerage & taxes and I also agree with him on this point). As nothing I have to do every day as a trader other than making money which doesnt have any benefit to others or society in general (please exclude the job that has been generated at exchange level). What I think is that as an independent trader we must work really hard to find some good and effective ways to make a real difference for other people.
I know I have missed a few positive & negative points and at least I think above points must have offers some perspective on what it means to trade independently, as I have all of these years.
All in all, I have no regrets and I'm happy today as I've been in the past to do what I do for a living. Whatever you do, I hope you will feel the exact same way, and if you don't, you have both the courage and conviction to make a real change for the better. Life is far too short for anything less than that.
Regards,
iGuru
So being a professional day trader since more than a year, here are few things which come to my mind for the members who want to start their career as a full time trader:
Most people in their professional life don't have an opportunity to do something they really want to do & love to do and at the same time also make money doing so. I always wanted & liked to be worked independently in my professional career, you can say doing my own things in both life and career. And after giving a lot of thought, I decided to be become a trader (An Independent Day Trader). Like a coin....... in life or in work it has two sides Good & Bad. And so the day trading involves lots of risk & positive for trading independently. After all, I wouldn't be doing this if there were not some significant advantages to doing so. And it is always interesting and I'm never get bored doing it.
As an independent day trader, I'm the boss of my own destiny as I set my own goals & targets. I don't have to depend upon any person for how much money I make. At the end of the day what all matter is my trading result (Positive / Negative account balance). Every day most of the time I spend doing things which I really like to do as trading, researching, reading, advising & mentoring others. I dont have to work on things what others want me to work on and rather than that I plan my work on those things that I want to work on.
Being an independent day trader, I can wake up any time. I dont have to dress formals (as I work in shorts & tee shirt). I dont have to spend an hour or more driving my sweetheart (Karizma) daily for work. I dont have to waste my time on irrelevant things like business meetings etc. I can take a day off for trekking playing cricket, to be with a friend, visit my family and lots of other things. I don't have to take anyones permission for doing what I want to do.
I think now after reading this many of you may be thinking that I have a dream job. But dear friends what I understand is that there is no career in this world that doesnt also have its own sets of unique negative sides as positive one which I discussed above.
Out there in the financial market, there are many misconceptions about trading primarily due to the wrong marketing practices done by the peoples and the financial services who sell investment products, services and trading products. As for their own interest & benefit they propagate the view that trading for a living is an easy way to become rich without any effort and time. But the truth is that it is a challenging career/profession if trading for a living is a career you people want to be in your life.
As every day, I have to come up with a trading strategy or plan to my trading desk; it is because whatever effort I make will be directly related to my bottom-line returns. Here for me past success means absolutely nothing. I am only as good as my next trade. And it is one of the few career offer me the potential for self-destruction so quickly by the way trading. It has the pressure to perform which create unbelievable amounts of negative stress which I have to deal on daily basis. Working in isolation, I often miss close human interaction and building & keeping friendships (what I think is that later in life it will be often very difficult for those who don't meet a lot of people throughout their life). Lots of people think me as a day trading gambler which doesnt treated as a respectful job or career by many people. Sitting 10-14 hours a day in front of computer affects our health. As it lead to overweight, eyesight issue, back pain, fitness etc.
In trading, I've to always be in learning mode. As what I think I know right now and what is working for me today will not work someday in the future. So it will require constant education and learning. From my experience those who can say that a person can trade successfully for ten-twenty minutes a week are liars. Most of independent traders put in 50-70 hours of work per week. It requires very high capital to being an independent trader. Personal and family relationships can be difficult. Like most people, when things aren't going well, many will look for others to blame and take it out on their spouses and family members. There will be distractions at home very frequently. As independent traders who work from home, everyone else in family will think you can spare time for doing other things like going to the grocery store, doing laundry, etc.
Finally being an independent trader, I am working on a Zero Sum Game (One of my friend say it as negative sum game as it includes brokerage & taxes and I also agree with him on this point). As nothing I have to do every day as a trader other than making money which doesnt have any benefit to others or society in general (please exclude the job that has been generated at exchange level). What I think is that as an independent trader we must work really hard to find some good and effective ways to make a real difference for other people.
I know I have missed a few positive & negative points and at least I think above points must have offers some perspective on what it means to trade independently, as I have all of these years.
All in all, I have no regrets and I'm happy today as I've been in the past to do what I do for a living. Whatever you do, I hope you will feel the exact same way, and if you don't, you have both the courage and conviction to make a real change for the better. Life is far too short for anything less than that.
Regards,
iGuru
