It’s such a common question I see not just here but on social media/other articles. But we all know it never turns out that way. It takes a lot of time, practice, and experience to even make a decent return so quitting one’s job altogether seems a bit reckless to me.
BUT, I could be wrong. Do you know someone or are YOU someone who’s been able to quit your job after discovering trading within say, 6months to 1 year? 
I think it has more to do with having the capital. Let’s say someone has $500k then they can live easily live off their account with the monthly returns. Most people come into this game with only 1-2k expecting to replace their income.
You hit the nail on the head. 
Because everything works until it doesn’t and next time will be better because I’m so close to figuring it out. I mean it in the nicest way possible that quite simply they’re delusional.
It’s because there are so many scammers online who promise you will easily make a lot of money.
My Grampa traded stocks for years. Put his son through University and ran the household with that as their sole income. At one point he was raking in quite a bit of dough. A year before he died he lost most of it due to cognitive issues and had nobody to take control of his accounts. What I wouldn’t give to go back and learn Some of what he knew.
I’ve been trading for a year now and I have no intentions of quitting my job. Dreams, yes I do have dreams about it.
My plan is to keep learning until I’m consistently making $35-40 per day for 3-4 years straight with a $10k account, then maybe, just maybe…I’ll think about handing in my resignation or retiring. But not until I have at least $100k in my account, that way I’ll be averaging $350-$400/day (told you I was a dreamer).
But still, the thought of relying solely on trading scared the s**t out of me. But confidence comes with experience.
Plus one on this. I also think it’s because it’s made to seem like anyone can succeed easily.
I don’t know… impatience? Ignorance? Looking or better yet hoping for that better life that they see all over media, sitting behind a computer, at home, working when you want, making millions, easy…
I’m sure they see that enough on Youtube videos and education website to think it’s reality.
Sounds a bit like desperation also. 
I also think markets change so quickly that what works today, won’t necessarily work tomorrow. I think someone who jumps all in without enough time using a strategy across different market conditions, or different strategies based on the market conditions, is a recipe for disaster.
I think the problem is that alot of new traders hear success stories about how some traders manage to succeed early in their trading career and some at such a young age. I think this tends to distort the reality of what to expect when it comes to trading.
And to make things even worse, some of these new traders confuse early success with skill when in reality that early success had more to do with luck than skill.
I believe that trading should be treated just like any other business, its going to take years and it wont be easy. You have to pay your dues take your hits and and put the time in before the market gods deem you worthy.
There are no shortcuts.
This. I don’t think wannabe traders get this.
Oooh. This is an interesting thread. Thankfully, I don’t personally know anyone who suddenly quit their day jobs to become full-time traders. I would discourage them to do it too.
But thinking about it now, I guess this is because of the illusion that some people create that being a trader is easy money, and that you’d automatically achieve financial freedom once you give it a go. 
As most of us know, this is not really the case.
Traders believe they will succeed because there is no logical reason for them to believe they will fail.
Trading does not look complicated. Its not hard to get started - you can start without a licence or an exam. Its cheap - you only need a little cash. Its popular - so you can see and hear from lots of people just like you who are already doing this. The financial markets are a huge business and the trader wants only a tiny tiny slice of it. Each trade is a small cost but any one trade could make a fortune, so you risk a little to hopefully gain a lot.
New traders are not wrong to think they can win.
I gave up work to trade (Spreadbet the DOW) around 20 years ago. My experience may be useful to others ?
I had started spreadbetting around 6 months before and was betting £3 per point (Pip) whilst I was working. Won a few lost a few - but decided that I wasn’t learning fast enough and gave in my notice to learn.
I employed a girl part time to look after my “other stuff” like filing, opening mail, cleaning and generally “keeping me tidy”
However, that is the way I “do stuff” (a bit OCD) and I spent every waking hour reading and learning.
I had enough peripheral income to pay the bils and the rent. Put £5,000 into an account and went live (demo accounts were not really available and we had to phone the bets in and out). and I had NO OTHER COMMITMENTS.
I learned a lot about myself and my psychology and was always “One more book away from being an expert”.
When I had a good many bets recorded, I had lost some money and found that without my 2 biggest losers I would have been “even”. Also without Spreads I would have been even ! - SO I abandoned the short time-frame betting to remove most of my spreads and learned that when I was about to get panicked out of a bet, going for a walk for a half hour was enugh for me to be able to make a rational decision when I got back.
Then I made one bet that I was determined to stick to and lost 600 pips at £3. SO I went on holiday for 3 weeks to “Have a think”
On my return I examined in great detail “turning points” on the big time frames (This was DOW remember - NOT Forex.) and found a set of 3 indicators which were good predictors. My first bet went into the red and stayed there for about 2 weeks. dropping a little each day whilst those on the forum I was using were forecasting a major down move. Ignoring the opinions of others was VERY HARD, but eventually it turned and took me well into profit. I came out way too soon of course but with a significant profit. and started looking for my next bet !
At this point I realised that these bets were incredibly rare - occurring 1-2 times per year at best ! So I thought there was no point me poring over charts endlessly - I could do this and work at the same time - so I went back to work. Doubled the account twice over the next couple of years or so - but then found I had stopped looking at the charts as often as I needed to and missed a couple. But work was going well and other things popped up in my life - so I just sort of “wandered off” & stopped doing it !
I came here a year or so ago looking to “get into it again” - but somehow I just don’t have the “All consuming passion” of my previous time. I am also looking at really short time frammes because the spreads are nowhere near as big now as they were “in my day”.
So I would say IF your life is at a stage when you can afford to put everything else on hold and just “Do it” - then GO FOR IT !
IF you absolutely Need to make a lot of money and you want to “Give it a try” then DON’T - YOU WILL LOSE !
IF you have a system you are confident in and are allready making consistent profits - then you need to wonder whether you can keep doing it and working, or whether your income from trading is now bigger than yyour income from work - and be rational about your choice !
PS _ Although my account started with £5,000 - I had to Add £3,000 then £2,000 to keep it tradeable as time went on. - It is unlikely you can do this full time unless you do have a decent “Reserve” to fall back on.
Not right now but this is my plan. Probably by '21. Currently doing a small account and saving the returns. On top of it, I am also saving from my small business for it.
Influencers really push the “Forex lifestyle” as being an easy goal
My mentor was able to quit and become a full time trader after maybe 2 years, so basically that’s how long it took him to become consistently profitable. But, he literally spent hours every single day studying and backtesting,he made a ton of mistakes but eventually things just clicked in his head
I’ve seen it from both sides of the capital fence.
I started with a small 8k a/c a few months before stumbling onto this + 1 other forum. Long story short, found & participated in a thread on here frequented & run by a small group of professional industry guys & girls.
My personal account increased steadily on the back of their material, nothing spectacular but enough to attract an offer, along with 4 other thread regulars, to receive one-on-one mentoring with a view to trading investment capital for the guys aligned to very specific trading criteria.
The learning & familiarity curve is incredibly steep & the models (mainly options based) are totally different to the regular technical diets peddled on your typical forum. The capital exposure/availability is eye opening, but it needs to be in order to facilitate the model variances required to generate the expected returns.
Again, long story short, although I was booking good figures, it wasn’t really for me. The other guys who frequented the thread are still in situ & making fantastic money, but the work modules, prep, information streams, on-tap support & access to professional expertise slices years off the learning, experience & financial curve.
In this game you really do need money to make money. A decent wedge affords you the ability to operate & manage a variety of models that take advantage of the constantly changing & evolving market conditions you’re exposed to on a regular basis. It helps to keep you in the game longer, allows you to ride out the troughs with minimal damage & gives you a decent psychological buffer when the best laid plans get hijacked.
Very few can navigate the markets in the long term armed with small capital exposure & flaky strategies. Sure, you might be fortunate enough to tread water for the short haul, but eventually you’ll drown in a sea of tightening leverage restrictions, lack of funds, inferior pricing/fills & account fees & if they don’t get you the mind games surely will.
Interesting JS - what timescales does he trade ?