Hi there fellow traders and bettors, I am new to the forums but wanted to make a quick first post about how much I've come to understand and appreciate the high's and low's which comes with a trading lifestyle. My story, just as many of the people on this forum, involved a lot of blood, sweat, and I'm not ashamed to say quite a few tears, but I am extremely grateful and humble to say I'm now in a position where all those lost banks and hours of studying the markets have finally come into fruition. After a year and a half of pretty much paper trading, I am now in a position to quit my £<30k job and trade horse-racing for 3 hours per day. My message to up and coming traders is to be persistent with it and more importantly, focus on finding and STICKING with a trading method that has an edge (too often do I see people jumping from one method to the next), and then getting into a trading mindset of eliminating losses and other silly habits such as letting those losses run.
Thank you for taking the time to read my first (of hopefully many) posts, please find below my P&L between 1-4pm from yesterday
Finally made it as a professional 'full-time' trader
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TradeMeister92
- Posts: 5
- Joined: Tue Nov 18, 2014 12:06 pm
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TradeMeister92
- Posts: 5
- Joined: Tue Nov 18, 2014 12:06 pm
Very well spotted LeTiss, I have slowly learned to appreciate my scratch trades just as much as my most profitable swingsLeTiss 4pm wrote:Congratulations
Your figures make interesting reading - 50% break even, 50% smash a lovely green
It suggests you have learned when to get out of an unsuccessful trade, and when to let a good trade run for maximum profits
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tomallen123
- Posts: 113
- Joined: Mon Nov 01, 2010 1:52 pm
Hi,
Do you have a backup plan if the trading doesn't work out?
As someone who's also just turned pro, I'd like to hear what contingencies you or other people may have.
Tom
Do you have a backup plan if the trading doesn't work out?
As someone who's also just turned pro, I'd like to hear what contingencies you or other people may have.
Tom
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TradeMeister92
- Posts: 5
- Joined: Tue Nov 18, 2014 12:06 pm
Hi there Tom,tomallen123 wrote:Hi,
Do you have a backup plan if the trading doesn't work out?
As someone who's also just turned pro, I'd like to hear what contingencies you or other people may have.
Tom
Yes, in addition to trading I am also a few months away from finishing a university degree as well as being a licensed electrician. Despite this, there have been MANY days during my uni course where I have felt like simply terminating my degree but I figured in the long run it's always best to have a back-up plan. Congrats on the newfound career path, my friend! I'm sure, like me, you are very excited by the prospect of not having to work for 'the man'
Hi trademeister,
First well done i'm well impressed not just by your profits but more so with your loses or lack of them!
I'v been trading for about a year now and only now after many mistakes and really hard work am i getting somewhere, now making £100+ per week.
I can see myself possible making money the same as you in the next 6 months.
My question to you is how long did it take you to start making the kind of profits you have showed us?
Thanks
First well done i'm well impressed not just by your profits but more so with your loses or lack of them!
I'v been trading for about a year now and only now after many mistakes and really hard work am i getting somewhere, now making £100+ per week.
I can see myself possible making money the same as you in the next 6 months.
My question to you is how long did it take you to start making the kind of profits you have showed us?
Thanks
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TradeMeister92
- Posts: 5
- Joined: Tue Nov 18, 2014 12:06 pm
Hi there Marko,marko236 wrote:Hi trademeister,
First well done i'm well impressed not just by your profits but more so with your loses or lack of them!
I'v been trading for about a year now and only now after many mistakes and really hard work am i getting somewhere, now making £100+ per week.
I can see myself possible making money the same as you in the next 6 months.
My question to you is how long did it take you to start making the kind of profits you have showed us?
Thanks
First of all that is a fantastic profit to be earning after just a year of studying the markets, and believe me, I sure went through my fair share of mistakes and losses too!
For the first year or so I was mainly paper trading by using stakes of <£20. It wasn't until I was confident in my method that I started increasing the stakes, and this continued for around a year or so until the present day. What excites me is that I am currently nowhere near what I imagine my 'limit' will be, I often stay awake at nights thinking about the kind of profit margins I could be clearing haha
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marksmeets302
- Posts: 527
- Joined: Thu Dec 10, 2009 4:37 pm
Congrats Trademeister!
Same here, quit my job at an HFT firm a couple of months ago. The plan is to take it easy until January, then scale up trading for my own account. Betfair, the stock/future market and bitcoins.
I have no backup plan
Mark.
Same here, quit my job at an HFT firm a couple of months ago. The plan is to take it easy until January, then scale up trading for my own account. Betfair, the stock/future market and bitcoins.
I have no backup plan
Mark.
Interesting comments.
" prossesional trader " seems to be a pretty subjective term. Proffessional is defined as :
"someone engaged in a specified activity as one's main paid occupation rather than as an amateur"
Using this definition it is clearly much easier for some people to be a " professional " than it is for others as it is well documented that in sports trading making £50 a day is significantly easier to acheive than £500 per day so it depends what your individual requirements / aspirations are. I know both are acheivable but the skill level required for both are very different so you can be a professional but be operating on a very different level to other proffessionals.
If my aspirations to call myself a proffessional are £50 a day then i can be a full time pro tomorrow however my current earnings are far greater then that so i am in the unfortunate ( or fortunte , whichever way you look at it ) position of needing to AVERAGE around £250 a day net , 20 days a month , 12 months a year or else i'm better off financially to continue with what i am currently doing.
However , i cant help thinking that to make that kind of money consistently over years ( not just a good week or a good month or several months ) requires full time dedication of at least 50 hours a week and being diverted for 45-50 hours a week on other stuff as i am currently just makes it extremley tough to know if you can acheive it without actually taking the " plunge " and actually going for it.
My circumstances may be changing shortly which will allow me to sports trade full time with no other distractions and most importantly no financial pressure if i make nothing for a year. ( I say that but if i do it and make nothing then effecively i lose £60k becauae i could have done something else )
What i am interested to know from any pro's is what time period do you think you need to use in terms of looking at your average monthly P&L in order to be able to say " i am a pro " so that variance and " good luck " and " bad luck " get ironed out and the real skill of what you are doing is genuinely apparent and you know that what you are doing really is a result of skill.
Or am i just reading too much into it and should i just go for it , immmerse myself into it and give it my best shot and unless i do it and nothing else with no distractions then i will never know becuase right now i just dont have the time and unless i make the time i wont know.
Its a tough decision as the people close to me simply dont understand it and becuase of the social stigma attached to gambling there is just a perception of " what the fuck are you thinking ? , proffessional gambler ?? , are you nuts , you will end up in the gutter " becuase all you ever hear about is " my dad spent all his time in the bookies and ended up with nothing "
It always fascinates me when i'm introduced to someone that trades interest rate swaps in the city and everyone goes " wow , what a great job he has " and when i say i may wish to trade tennis for a living the same decent members of society think its madness and just the same as going down the bookies when in other aspects of life they are able to make completely rationale assessments without being able to understand that the guy that trades interest rate swaps could easily be a much more out and out gambler than a person that carefully trades tennis matches using a carefully defined strategy based on an in depth knowledge of the marketplace and historical analysis to project future performance
" prossesional trader " seems to be a pretty subjective term. Proffessional is defined as :
"someone engaged in a specified activity as one's main paid occupation rather than as an amateur"
Using this definition it is clearly much easier for some people to be a " professional " than it is for others as it is well documented that in sports trading making £50 a day is significantly easier to acheive than £500 per day so it depends what your individual requirements / aspirations are. I know both are acheivable but the skill level required for both are very different so you can be a professional but be operating on a very different level to other proffessionals.
If my aspirations to call myself a proffessional are £50 a day then i can be a full time pro tomorrow however my current earnings are far greater then that so i am in the unfortunate ( or fortunte , whichever way you look at it ) position of needing to AVERAGE around £250 a day net , 20 days a month , 12 months a year or else i'm better off financially to continue with what i am currently doing.
However , i cant help thinking that to make that kind of money consistently over years ( not just a good week or a good month or several months ) requires full time dedication of at least 50 hours a week and being diverted for 45-50 hours a week on other stuff as i am currently just makes it extremley tough to know if you can acheive it without actually taking the " plunge " and actually going for it.
My circumstances may be changing shortly which will allow me to sports trade full time with no other distractions and most importantly no financial pressure if i make nothing for a year. ( I say that but if i do it and make nothing then effecively i lose £60k becauae i could have done something else )
What i am interested to know from any pro's is what time period do you think you need to use in terms of looking at your average monthly P&L in order to be able to say " i am a pro " so that variance and " good luck " and " bad luck " get ironed out and the real skill of what you are doing is genuinely apparent and you know that what you are doing really is a result of skill.
Or am i just reading too much into it and should i just go for it , immmerse myself into it and give it my best shot and unless i do it and nothing else with no distractions then i will never know becuase right now i just dont have the time and unless i make the time i wont know.
Its a tough decision as the people close to me simply dont understand it and becuase of the social stigma attached to gambling there is just a perception of " what the fuck are you thinking ? , proffessional gambler ?? , are you nuts , you will end up in the gutter " becuase all you ever hear about is " my dad spent all his time in the bookies and ended up with nothing "
It always fascinates me when i'm introduced to someone that trades interest rate swaps in the city and everyone goes " wow , what a great job he has " and when i say i may wish to trade tennis for a living the same decent members of society think its madness and just the same as going down the bookies when in other aspects of life they are able to make completely rationale assessments without being able to understand that the guy that trades interest rate swaps could easily be a much more out and out gambler than a person that carefully trades tennis matches using a carefully defined strategy based on an in depth knowledge of the marketplace and historical analysis to project future performance