yea youre right about that. I still work my 9to5 now, but its wayyyy less stressful trading while having a job starting out. I go to work happy all the time because I’ll go to work knowing i already made my daily job income, so it definitely makes being on the job easier for me. But, my ultimate goal is to become a full time trader, no job, but I have to pay off my student loan debt before I even think about doing that.
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Full time trading is not just about finding freedom, leaving a horrible job or “being my own boss”.
It is about a consuming passion for trading.
Full time trading is full of pitfalls and risks and dangers. It is not worth it unless you have the PASSION.
Passion for trading means you live it. It drives you to learn it, practice it, review it, day after day, year after year, every mistake only drives you with even more intensity.
Passion => Development
Development => Competence
Competence => Confidence
Competence + Confidence => Consistency
Full time trading is being self-employed with your very own business. It needs the same passion, drive, dedication, perseverance and striving for excellence as any other successful start-up. Maybe even more time spent on managing its equity base and income than on actually reading the charts.
Live it - Learn it - Earn it
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I loveeee this, thanks for posting this. I’m literally about to copy and paste and put it up on my damn wall next to my desk LOL
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Perhaps I might add one more thought here.
By definition, full time trading means that it has to generate actual cash on a regular basis to cover daily running costs, build additional capital and carry over losing runs. This means realising profits regularly and frequently.
But this need paradoxically drives the trader more towards the short term trading environment such as day trading. And it is generally accepted that short term trading is one of the hardest and most challenging environments from which to derive consistent gains.
It is rather difficult to see how a full time trader, whose is dependent on his trading earnings could, at least during the early stages, live off position trading where trades remain open for maybe weeks before being closed and profits banked, even though the potential earnings per trade might be significantly bigger. There would also be the risk of losing all the accruing profits on such an open trade in an unexpected market event - which would be hard to replace. One could open sufficiently large positions to begin with that could then be drip-closed as the days go by but the initial loss risk would be quite formidable.
I would anticipate that most new full time traders would select to trade with a shorter but more pressurised and erratic style, where trade durations are no more than a few days at most, and often only a few hours, If one pauses to reflect on what that will demand if continued for many years then one can start to appreciate the potential hazards and risks that lie ahead.
It does not mean it is impossible, it just emphasises the need for the passion and the commitment - and a benefit from starting with eyes wide open and not wide shut!
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soo true, I’m on the charts every single day and I’m in love. I just like being ‘right’ whenever I do an analysis on a pair, and its just overall fun LOL its crazy to see how much I’ve learned and how much things started to click after a while. It’s only UP from here. Thanks, @anon46773462
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That is really great to hear and I wish you every success with your endeavours. You are spot on that work should also be fun.
Regarding styles of trading, I think we can look for analogy in athletics, for example. Why do some athletes choose and excel in marathons whilst others choose and excel in a 100m sprint? We need to find the style that suits us best, even it it is generally considered tough, and excel at it.
Study, practice, learn, gain competence, confidence, commitment:…then comes reward! 
( and if, after all that, it still doesn’t work out, well, you gave it your best and your life is that much richer for that experience!)
you’re absolutely right! And to be honest, I feel like trading psychology, and just mastering your mind is way more important than learning the skill. The skill to me is simple, after you discover your strategy and trading rules, but if you can’t control your emotions it will kill your account. And a lot of people tend to give up super fast if things are “too hard” for them. A lot of people want easy and quick money, but little do they know that will not get them that far. Work HARD now, so you don’t have to continue working like a slave all your life.
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The confidence of not being burned yet
Yea this is what most people don’t seem to get. “Why is it my own business? No it’s not, it’s trading!”
YESSSS. I mean the skill’s important too don’t get me wrong but you can have all the skills but if you’re psychologically not ready or equipped to handle losses or really just things not going as planned, all your skills go out the window.
I’ve also learned that some people just want to work for other people all their lives. Some people are happy that way too, and that’s okay also. What’s not okay is if you’re unhappy with that setup yet don’t do a thing to improve it.
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New traders look for the answers is systems - more experienced traders look for it self development in a number of disciplines.
No disrepect to newbs but it sometimes were talking different languages.
Im of the belief trading is not difficult but most go setting off on this quest without the right approach, they either get slain straight away or end up getting lost in a search for the holy grail.
The holy grail is no indicator, no method, no mindset, no money management system etc it is actually being a professional the minute you open an account.
You have to have the mindset of a winner well before it shows up in the physical realm.
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I think because they are not comfortable with the job…
A job you are not comfortable with, its better you quit the job and go get one you will find comfortable with and enjoy doing while earning form it.
#PassionIsReal