anybody that does this full time, or at least claims this as their profession… what do you tell people your title is? Day Trader, Currency Trader? or some analogy to another profession… “kind of like a Broker/Wall Street Trader”?
Hi dru-zod,
This is a great question! So I am a full time day trader and have been for a few years. However, i dont tell anyone that I’m a day trader and certainly dont tell them how I pay my bills. I have a degree so I say I am a locum, which is like a contractor so I work depending on vacant shifts.
The reason I do this is because when I first started out and explained what I was doing, a lot of people tried to talk me out of it and were generally negative because of the negative connotation of wall street/ brokers /bankers. Second, it’s hard to explain what I’m doing as most people dont understand it. They think its gambling/ risky/ waste of time/ doesnt work etc. It took longer to explain what I do, so its easier to say I work in my degree. Lastly, family and friends all thought I was wasting my time and stupid to be doing anything else other than work from my degree. They do not understand why after studying I would change careers.
I learnt very early on, that this is my life and I only have 1. So better do what I want so I have no regrets. I have to pay my own bills, I have to invest for my retirement, no one will do it for me.
its a very good reply you have done, thanks for your nice post.
Most people, in my experience, just say they’re traders and/or forex traders.
Personally, I love to say “I’m a stock, commodity and currency investor”. I prefer to call myself an Investor instead of a trader.
Doubt you would get a mortgage if you say you trade lol
It doesn’t matter what you call yourself. The most important question is: "Are you a profitable trader?"
Become a profitable trader first before you think about how much money you can earn through trading.
Yeah, I was curious about those kinds of details too, but thought it too far outside the scope of the posted topic (figured I’d ask elsewhere). I honestly don’t know anything about mortgages, but I would assume they would have to base it off of your taxable income history? but surely it would be more difficult.
That’s kind of why I posed the question though, was this bias against the idea, as if creating capital isn’t “real” work or something??! what’s the point of slaving away all day for others making whatever they deem you’re worthy IF you can make a living working for yourself, creating & owning ALL your own profit (which is supposedly the whole point of Capitalism)? I see it as an unfounded bias based off the Protestant work ethic, (but that’s an entirely different convo, haha) Anyway, I was curious how people are dealing with the social norms around this bias.
Tradeforex077, I just wanted to acknowledge the candor in your reply. I appreciate it. I also have a degree AND just got laid off, so I can empathize for sure. and I definitely haven’t told some people about this at all (I will once I’m living off of it) for that exact reason. I tried to tell them about the possibilities while running the DEMO accounts and just caught negativity and static the whole time. ain’t nobody got time for that xD like you said, “only one life”. We gotta do what we gotta do to best our lives… so I go ahead without them, for now (theyll jump on the bandwagon when/if they see it’s working)
true dat, and I’m doing ok at the moment. I’m in a position where people are curious how I get my money since I just got laid off at work (I have a bit saved). I am making a profit in forex, not living off of it yet because i didn’t invest that much, and kind of just got started. One person straight up asked me if I were dealing drugs xD So it’s those kinds of awkward convo’s at the grocery store I’m trying to shorten, haha
I’ve found I have to bust out a chalkboard and start drawing diagrams to explain to them what that means when I say that though, haha