Hei guys, I know that this question may sound stupid but I wanted to hear from you how you stopped your job and started to trade. I am in a step where I developed few indicators and my entire method to trade. I backtested executed through expert advisors the strategy in the past with different pairs in order to build a virtual equity line.
I am looking to go live with 1% risk per trade and check if is going to be difficult for me to trade it with real money. I will check after the first 30 trades how the things are going but the real concern for me is to understand after two years that I study how to prepare the transition to full time trading.
I would love to get few opinions from you all.
Thanks in advance.
Hi Zen4x,
Am I right in assuming that you haven’t started trading with real money yet? If that’s the case then going full time should be the last thing you should be doing. The psychological and emotional impact differs from back-testing and using a demo account. When it’s real money on the line it’s a different animal all together especially if that is your only form of income. That brings it’s own set of emotions.
My advice would be to carry on doing the job you’re doing for at least another 12 months. This will give you time to fine tune your strategy and experience what it is like trading with real money without all of the emotional stress of knowing you have to earn X amount per month which WILL force you to take trades that aren’t really there and make the whole experience a very bad one which isn’t a good way to start.
This is just my opinion and I’m only a newbie however; I trade the Betfair sports markets full time so have some experience in giving up work to pursue this type of vocation. Even with a 3 month contingency fund, a solid strategy and over 2 years of trading the sports markets in my spare time, I still found making the jump to full time a difficult one. My biggest hurdle was the isolation and lack of contact with other humans.
Anyway, I don’t want to come across as a harbinger of doom but if going full time is something you really want to do then do it properly and then when the time comes you’ll be as ready as you can be 
Hope it makes sense, and good luck.
Luigi makes a lot of good points. I personally had over 8 months of expenses and income before i even started thinking about going full time. Also I had traded live and build consistency over 6 months trading the system i developed. I believe having a BUSINESS plan is important, not just a trading system plan. Understand your costs, your overhead and how you will manage the volatility of your income stream. I personally believe the step from successful hobbyist to full time trader is much like going from demo to live. Your now 100% responsible for your monthly income from trading, you must cover all your rent, food, utilities, etc. This time its not just fun money, but the earnings have a purpose now to sustain your lifestyle. I tried to remove that by having a large side fund to make sure i could keep living the lifestyle i have. But even taking money from that side fund is kind of a downer for me, made me feel unsuccessful. If i could break it down into steps it would be, 1) learn to trade profitably 2) learn to be consistent 3) have enough starting capital 4) have savings for at least 6 months of living expenses 5) have a business plan on how you will control your trading business and how you will grow it.
Great points made by last two comments.Man there is alot to learn when going live ,your emotions how you handle news,how you handle your broker.If you really want to see how you handle going live just put enough out there where it will hurt but not kill your account.The market might change in months ahead so time will tell.
I know of professional trader who finally went independant after 8 years.The first 5 years he lost money!To trade professionally it cant be a partime endeavor(IMO) so you might have problems doing this part time trying get a feel fulltime?Life will pull you away for hours at a time.I wish you the best in your trading endeavor!There was people on here you warned me, my ego wouldnt listen and i took 40 percent hit with a 4 figure account 3 years ago.
Transition from your job to full time trading won’t help you become a pro.
you will just lose your money…
it’s all about time and experience man… some people says that trading with a demo account and trading with a real account are totally different.
I will never advice someone to quit his job for trading forex… sorry
If you know what you are doing then I’d say quit your job when your account size is ~ 3x your gross yearly income.
Options on Futures &/or intramarket spreads for the win though.
that is actually a good calculation!
quit your job if your account size is 3x than your gross yearly income.
like that
Wait, Wait, Wait, be patient. As new traders we all think we have a great plan or something new to offer the markets and well it just ain’t so, you can’t factor in the unknown, the unknown being how you will emotionally handle draw downs and even wins, your emotional response and actions are probably 90% of your plan. If you have very little screen time, on top of that never traded real money then you are in for the shock of your life.
My shock came after I decided to go live after 3 months of demo trading the S&P eminis, now I was in the military (retired), and was actually a special kind of soldier (well I like to think so LOL), I figured hell if I could accomplish the things I did in the military then this waiting, real money thing and advice is for the other guy…I quit my job and started trading full time from the house, look at me go I’m special…problem was the market didn’t know how special I was and handed me my A@@! I would say about six months later I was looking for work again. It is six years later, I now trade Forex and have done ok, it has its ups and downs, my biggest issue is boredom, it is a lonely gig, I’m now taking on another contract just to stay sane…
One piece of advice if you do this, environment plays a major role (that’s what’s hurting me at the moment), set up a real office and treat it like a job, if you can find a place/office that other traders trade from then rent a space go there and it will really help your mindset…trading from home is a ***** if you have any types of disruptions…
Here watch this youtube series, on never before traders learning the trade and thrown into the fire, hell I’ve experience all those emotions and then some, this job is a *****…Million Dollar Traders - 1/18 - YouTube
If you are about to fire up a live account and you have not done so before do not even think about trading it for your main source of income. That proposition alone can and will lead you to ruin. Start small , real small ( like risking .0025 % of your balance per trade, yes thats a quarter of one percent ), get comfortable with trading real money first. Compound your wins over time and you can achieve great things …
Zen4x, I have a very bad experience quitting my day job and go for full time trading few years back. Lol, with 30k savings, I thought that was enough for me to get 2k consistent profit every month by trading 0.5 - 1 lot. But the emotional part on live trading almost kill me, and also other unexpected expenses in daily life. I did not lose alot in trading, but sometimes I was forced to enter trades in order to complete profit target. So my recommendation is that, you have to clear all your debts and make sure you are financially healthy(excluding your trading capital) that can support your expenses for at least a year.
Hope that helps…
“Quitting one’s job to go into full time forex trading” the anxious question that every newbie want its answer to be in the affirmative. I’ll say not so fast. Trading the markets is not a days jobs, neither is it the matter of 1year nor 2. The process of learning I presume is continuous…
Am sure no one would actually give an advice of quitting school just after elementary and go for full time work way back? The fact is never live your life always rushing, acquire all you think you’d need to be a successful full time trader like our colleagues have listed in here before making transition. . .
But for me I think its wise to always have something to fall back on.
I am currently building up my account so that I can go full time. I have enough capital to make more than enough to love on, however that would mean over extending myself and increasing the possibility of being wiped out. That is why I trade a small amount of my account keeping my risk low. I’m building my account up slow and steady unroll I am making enough to live on. I’m planning on about 5 more months or so.
hey morris
Its good that you’re building up your account before thinking of switching to full time trading, at least some percentage of the capital will be made from the markets. I bet you won’t get wiped out if you stick to the plan that will be getting you that far, plus I know its easier to loose on one’s initial capital than to loooooose on the capital and accrued profits.
Best of luck
Thank you, that’s how I figure it!
My first advice would be to not do it.
However if you insist, you will want to have enough cash reserve on hand to ride out the storm. One year’s of expenses would probably put you at ease.
Open up three accounts. One for your business account. The other your personal account, the final your account that will hold the taxable dollars you will pay. Calculate your win rate and expected returns from your trading system. Pay yourself a salary based on an amount of 80% or less than that. Update semiannually.
That’s pretty much how I manage the accounting in my practice.
Hei guys thank you for the replies to the post. At this point I would like to ask you how much money in term of budget I should have to trade with no pressure. Let’s assume I need 20,000$ in 1 year to pay bills and expenses. How can I calculate how much money I might need to start with ? I did not have time but I wanted to get a couple of books about running an own business in order to work with this data.
That is entirely dependent on your win rate and use of leverage. I’m uber conservative so I would say have a trading bankroll equitable to three to six months living expenses.
Imo I think you need a realistic plan and build it like a business. Maybe have a parttime job on the side for security to ease the pressure. I wasn’t successful when I went fulltime trading so I went back to work…
Luckily I’m able to trade Forex while at work. It’s office environment and it gives me complete feeling and ability to trade full time forex. So I get two for the price of one! :27:
This will continue to help me transition more smoothly.
Most people get Blocked at the work place and they are not able to access the outside networks apart from the local company Intranet for the reasons of security.
You are lucky
Good rule of thumb… 2.5 times your annual NET Income needed. Assuming you are consistently profitable and not undercapitalized either.
Ideally 100k account
2.5 times your NET living expenses in savings.
Go for it! :57: