Knowing what I know now there is no way i would go full time.
Once your in you are trapped. It's harder to win now than at any time.
Look after your money - get another job.
Most people who are pros will only tell you the good points. There are as many bad - These are not spoken of.
Is it time to go full time?
Hello sweetybt,
It requires indeed a special trait to overcome the troubles of full time trading. I'll try to play the devil's advocate for your self assessment.
First of all, if you have family, you'll need their full support. A bad strike invariably affects you, which in turn affect those around you, which in turn affect you even more. It's easier to trade when things run smoothly, but a bad run can be a true test for your personal relationships.
There is no way to tell when you are emotively prepared for such a step. The best you can do is to prepare financially for a couple of bad years, and of course, to prepare the expectations of the ones at your inner circle.
- Are you really sure about your worst case scenario?
- Are you prepared for the additional reclusion by working your way alone in the office, without co-workers around you?
When you work exclusively for yourself in a close environment, you can get miserable without even notice it. If you've already experienced these swings in humor by now, do you ever thought if this is really worth it? It's easy to forget that you are trading for a living, and not living only to trade. It may seems a weird distinction, but you'll get obsessed by it at some point.
I'm not aware of your age (I'll guess you are between 30-40), but if you were younger and with fewer personal responsibilities, I'ld say for you to give it a go, because you'll never know if you don't try it. But with wife, kids, and with few possibilities of getting yourself marketable for a new job after being "off a work environment", I have 100x more doubts for such a choice.
I'm sorry if I'm full of spikes and without roses, but this is indeed a decision that will affect a good portion of not only your life.
Cheers
It requires indeed a special trait to overcome the troubles of full time trading. I'll try to play the devil's advocate for your self assessment.
First of all, if you have family, you'll need their full support. A bad strike invariably affects you, which in turn affect those around you, which in turn affect you even more. It's easier to trade when things run smoothly, but a bad run can be a true test for your personal relationships.
There is no way to tell when you are emotively prepared for such a step. The best you can do is to prepare financially for a couple of bad years, and of course, to prepare the expectations of the ones at your inner circle.
- Are you really sure about your worst case scenario?
- Are you prepared for the additional reclusion by working your way alone in the office, without co-workers around you?
When you work exclusively for yourself in a close environment, you can get miserable without even notice it. If you've already experienced these swings in humor by now, do you ever thought if this is really worth it? It's easy to forget that you are trading for a living, and not living only to trade. It may seems a weird distinction, but you'll get obsessed by it at some point.
I'm not aware of your age (I'll guess you are between 30-40), but if you were younger and with fewer personal responsibilities, I'ld say for you to give it a go, because you'll never know if you don't try it. But with wife, kids, and with few possibilities of getting yourself marketable for a new job after being "off a work environment", I have 100x more doubts for such a choice.
I'm sorry if I'm full of spikes and without roses, but this is indeed a decision that will affect a good portion of not only your life.
Cheers
I have found that traveling is by far the best use of money... far better to buy experiences rather than material things. Many people will concur with me.LeTiss 4pm wrote:
Having gone to Australia last year, it gave me a thirst for travelling.
I'm fortunate that trading has given me a healthy bank balance, so I'm thinking of closing down all my trading operations and going travelling for a year.
After a good-sized lottery win last year I was able to travel around some of Europe that I hadn't seen before (especially France) and it was fantastic.
You could in theory continue trading anywhere when traveling by using a VPS (assuming Betfair didn't catch you at it) but that's pretty tough. Trading and traveling proved too hard for me and I ended up going bust, but at least I gave it a try.
"Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure... than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat"-Theodore Roosevelt
"Better to live a short life doing something you love, than a long life spent in a miserable way" - Alan Watts
Get on that plane Le Tiss! Watch this nice Emirates music video below... these hot stewardesses are waiting just for you on the A380s
(And remember to fly Emirates)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3qJa94nYwM
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CaerMyrddin
- Posts: 1271
- Joined: Mon Sep 07, 2009 10:47 am
Interesting thread.
I actually came back from a break, it's something I tend to do a lot think it's important to balance your life.
The word here is balancing imho.
Take time off, travel, learn how to play an instrument, get a new hobby, read a book, dance, exercise, do whatever you enjoy and get your eyes away from the screen. Get involved in new stuff, contact some old friend, visit an old aunt. Enjoy yourself, help others. The perks this kind of activity has must be enjoyed because if you do it only for the money you will feel empty and hollow.
Having a certain profile also helps. When I had a full time job I was frustrated by having to execute bad decisions made by others and being responsible for my own decisions and not having a boss is better for me. Much better.
Being married, or having a stable family around you is also key as everyone here goes through rough times and it's vital to have support when you need.
I actually came back from a break, it's something I tend to do a lot think it's important to balance your life.
The word here is balancing imho.
Take time off, travel, learn how to play an instrument, get a new hobby, read a book, dance, exercise, do whatever you enjoy and get your eyes away from the screen. Get involved in new stuff, contact some old friend, visit an old aunt. Enjoy yourself, help others. The perks this kind of activity has must be enjoyed because if you do it only for the money you will feel empty and hollow.
Having a certain profile also helps. When I had a full time job I was frustrated by having to execute bad decisions made by others and being responsible for my own decisions and not having a boss is better for me. Much better.
Being married, or having a stable family around you is also key as everyone here goes through rough times and it's vital to have support when you need.
Well a few weeks ago I got the agreement to take redundancy as from 01/08/2014.
As luck would have it, or not, this has coincided with my worst run of 3 month results ever, although over the year I am doing ok.
It is a bit of a frightening prospect, after 15 years, to leave the comforting bosom of a large company, but I must treat this as an opportunity.
I have taken on board peoples advice to diversify my interests as much as possible. I plan to search out different income streams so I am not dependent on trading, and most importantly keep social interaction with the real world.
As a start to meeting new people I have been teaching rugby in the local prison. This was a little scary at first but now I really enjoy it and it adds a bit of balance to my perspective on life and money.
I'll contact a few of the pros on here I know over the next few weeks, if I may, for some general advice and will try to write a regular update of how I am progressing.
As luck would have it, or not, this has coincided with my worst run of 3 month results ever, although over the year I am doing ok.
It is a bit of a frightening prospect, after 15 years, to leave the comforting bosom of a large company, but I must treat this as an opportunity.
I have taken on board peoples advice to diversify my interests as much as possible. I plan to search out different income streams so I am not dependent on trading, and most importantly keep social interaction with the real world.
As a start to meeting new people I have been teaching rugby in the local prison. This was a little scary at first but now I really enjoy it and it adds a bit of balance to my perspective on life and money.
I'll contact a few of the pros on here I know over the next few weeks, if I may, for some general advice and will try to write a regular update of how I am progressing.