Hi Everyone,
Just wondering if anybody has got any advice on how to make the jump from going from part-time trader to full-time trader, perhaps from their own experience on how you did it.
Right now I have a very busy job and it doesn’t allow me to give full attention to my trading, but I want to make the jump. Just struggling with fear of not succeeding.
Thank you.
I don’t know you or how you trade or how well you’re doing. Do not quit the day job before you can consistently trade successfully.
You can demo trade for free. Use as many long-term strategies as you can find until you have one that is consistent: then start this with small positions in the live account.
Do the same thing with day-trades through the demo account when you are not working. When you’re consistently winning, use small positions with real money through the live account.
But to be honest, if you can combine long-term profitable trading with a job, financially you will not need to go full-time. And remember that wages are not dependent on good trades.
I’m in the same boat as you are in so I’m not full time into trading as yet.
My criteria is as follows:
I’ve accomplished #2 and I’m working on the other two.
Have you been profitable for over 6 months?
Hi pwnr,
Its difficult to answer this for you as we know nothing about your trading experience.
Are you profitable?
How profitable are you % wise?
What is the size of your account?
What timeframe do you trade on?
How long do you keep trades on?
Scalper, day trader, swing trader?
How much are your expenses for the month?
And so on and so on.
Generally…You can only make the jump to fulltime when you’re trading makes as much as you need to pay for your expenses. That means you either need to be making good risk to reward trades or have a large account or both. If you’re not sure, you can demo trade and analyse trades on the weekends. You can add to your account slowly via your job so the account builds. But the ultimate test is actually live trading.
My experience. I used to look at the charts on the weekends and evenings to see what trades I wouldve been in on the day. While this was going on, I was working and saving all my income for expenses and putting some into my trading account. I tested myself by taking time off and annual leave to trade live. Once I knew I could do it and I had money saved for expenses I went full time. I used what some of what I saved and took a loan from the bank to build my account up and off I went. Note 1: i gave up work because I day trade. If you can develop long term trading, you can trade and work with no pressure. Note 2: I had savings in an account to pay for my expenses so I didnt need to make anything from trading. Note 3: I did not have fear of succeeding because I had forward tested my trading and was happy I would be profitable. If you are not sure it means you need more time with your setups and backtesting, forward testing until you have the conviction it works.
Put your safeguards in place, and then have a go! I’ll be following your progress.
Priceless.
Why can’t you copy and paste something practically useful and interesting, like for example a recipe for preparing chicken parmigiana? Or precise instructions for stripping down and re-building the engine of a vintage Porsche?
profitable trader for over 6 month is a big deal , according to me, only real professional trader can make this consistency. need most powerful analyzing trade knowledge also.
Basically you have to start to earn stable income from trading to retire from your offline job and move completely to online. But it’s risky and it’s fraught with stress. That’s why I do not advocate limiting your stream of possible incomes and occupation exclusively to trading. As with the stock market investing you have to diversify your portfolio, same with income sources.
I wanna thank everyone for their thoughts. Helps a lot.
I think I am going to focus on getting more consistent, and be so, for a six month period, as well have a years wages saved up along with a back up plan if things go south.
I think I am going to focus on just one scalp in the morning before work using just one set up I like and make that my bread and butter and go from there. And then look for swing trades in the evenings and weekends when I have time. Try to keep it simple.
Thanks again everyone for your thoughts!
Why not just trade part time until you can quit work?
Why the rush to quit work?
I know there are successful day traders here, but really you do not have to day trade to make a living trading.
In fact quite the opposite, the chances of being a successful day trader are sooooo small.
If you hate your current job and are using trading as an escape mechanism that is not going to work.
Forget quitting work - and just concentrate your efforts on trading well.
If being a short term trader is what floats your boat - its still possible to do it without being a “day trader”.
All you newbies out there, do stop trying to scalp, focus on longer term timeframes- at least until your profitable
IMO anyone out promoting scalping as a legitmate method for beginners is not helping you
Day trading and intra day charts are very hard- it takes experience to be able to do it - save your energy and your money!!!
I am sure that exactly this attitude is the reason why in the statistics around 80% of private traders loose money. One hour a trade fast in the morning, than between 5 and 6 in the evening another trade, and before going to bed another “overnight” trade to see a win or loss when i wake up, opening a trade in the car on smartphone without considering all time frames because the traffic light is now green and i must gas on… In a nutshell: that does not work.
Sometimes thise little “time-bomb-trades” work, but in most of the cases not. If you dont work (
), and you can afford it to spend a whole week all day long infront of the screen, without timepressure, you get a different aproach to trading, and you have more winners in your row, and you are more flexible to changing circumstances.
Example: Before you left your house you checked during your breakfast financial news, took a glance over development of majors over night, and a setup in the one hour chart EUR/USD jumps in your face.You see a triangle, and it seems EUR/USD is going to break out long during the day-you set your takeprofit and stop loss according to the patter-size how you learned it,the odds are good, and you drive in the office and do there your work. From the organisational point you cant check every minute your position,(because of your work), and hope the trade explodes.
Lets say the trade runs in your favour, (you dont see it because you have to hold for one hour a presentation), and short before your take profit some politicans in the news make bad statements concerning the future eur development- and the price moves down, and after 30 Minutes stoploss is hit and you lost 500 Bucks.
Such things cannot happen when you trade like a pro (maybe Nick Leeson,f.e.
)and you are all day long infront of the screen
Because in the scenario above you had the chance to close your position in profit, without waiting for take profit hit as a result of your reaction of changing environment.
Thats just one simple example, why spending more time for trading and behavioral like a pro increases your odds and shifts someone to the 20% winners
Kasmaster - couldnt have said it better myself.
Im so puzzled by these need to scalp.
Quick way to the poor house for all but the most talented.
Because they reason something along the lines of “I’ll take a bunch of small trades and build up my account!!!” I know, because I used to be that guy.
In the end, it ends up being death by 1,000 cuts.
i think this comes with many years of luck and good money risk management. very few have the luxury to go fulltime. it is my goal also
good advice here actually ,thank you