Full time trading as sole income

I notice a lot of people on here and in other forums who wants to use trading as their sole income generating tool. Their dreams are to give up the "day job" BUT isnt this just changing from one day job to another?
What if you became ill or have an accident or some misshap? The way I see it is trading is not that different from doing a dayjob apart from you are working for yourself instead of for Joe Grind. Havent you heard (not all of you) of the income triangle. With the income triangle you have 3 forms of incomes where trading could be one of them, therefore if your trading isnt going well for one reason or the other at least you have another 2 income to fall back on. As well as there is less pressure on you to get that 50 pips every day. An example is I was reading a thread where someone claims that he was making constant pips every day but he only trade part-time and some cynic posted asking if he is doing that well why not jack the day job in. I thought this was a bit short-sighted of the poster. After-all the biggest complains that I see successful traders complains about is how lonely and boring trading is and that they keep their sanity by visiting trading forums. I can see where they are coming from, I wish I was a successsful trader but I doubt if I would give up the dayjob since I need to interact with different people on a daily basic. I would love for trading to be one of my 3 incomes instead of my sole income, This would means I dont have to worry too much about loosing my main job especially with this looming economic deflation that the media has been talking about.

Great point. You have to realize that most people here are still in college or shortly out of college and are not thinking yet about all these points.

From my own experience you need a lot of money to be able to trade for yourself easily. And I have to agree that if you have a second job or business, it takes a lot of pressure off trading, if you haven't yet lots of money to provide for yourself through trading.

Thirdly, yes, it is a lonely business, that is why it is crucial to always be doing something else as well to not become a loner. If one has the money, then also opening a business is a viable option. Life is not about amassing crazy amounts of money, but about getting lots of different experiences. Trading itself will limit your exposure to those experiences, if you are not doing something else besides trading.

Though i don't want to comment fully on all the points raised (there are too many), i would share my view ( I REPEAT : only "My view" (before someone else throws excessive testosterone here))

NO it isn't. SURELY when one is a PRIVATE Trader.

Even if you are doing some part time work (or whatever you call as "NON-JOB" work) it will get affected too, ranging from mild to severe, extent depending upon how mobile the work is, etc, etc.

That's why any LOGICAL (or better i say SANE trader) would not call himself a profitable trader, till he/she has found the edge and has been profitable for a considerable amount of time and has become totally dependent upon it, for finances.
That simply means, "successful" or better "established" trader always saves when he is losing (or has a strategy which will not make him lose his/her shirt if he actually has an consistent EDGE) and that's part and parcel of ANYTHING that involves MAKING MONEY FROM MONEY (except if u control world's Money supply-a separate topic )
As far as dry periods are concerned i would say "dry" is more of a term in stocks and other less liquid markets devoid of opportunities like we have in FX. (Its a opportunity river compared to others being pond or something).

That's a very discretionary target/aim for a trader. Pip based targets/day or Money based targets/day or any time frame, are not the only way traders trade.
In fact i dont know of any REAL BIG-Money successful trader doign such thing in history!
"Letting it Run" thingy rules except one is a high frequency algo-trader(as i call it )

I agree and have read about this , in fact, from few successful traders, who have the EDGE and making money consistently. BUT there are lot more things to do in life than trading (hobbies and stuff), if you are making money except if one knows nothing else than Trading.

That's your personal style or frame of mind and thats not something wrong. If you are cant live "un-socially", thats fine. You may try to find some JOB-based strategies (requiring post-office time or less screen watch and stuff) floating around; They work or not ..no idea.
I read one thread dedicated to it. Search.
and One more thing, Successful private traders are always unsocial or introverts, is a very-very GENERALISED TALK! MOST have fixed/disciplined schedules for trading and their other life (which may involve other people or hobbies ...whatever)

FWIW!
Regards

I like this topic. Your premise is that everyone daytrades. I aim to hold positions for several weeks, so I check charts just once or twice a day - definitely not a day job. This gives me time to run a small client-based business, work on my family's small farm, and still have a lot of discretionary time; and I also work part-time as a musician, but it's not nearly enough money to live on.

I eventually want to make enough from trading so that I can quit the small business and refer my clients to colleagues. Yes, trading is a solitary business, but many people, like me, enjoy that; and I nonetheless have an active social life.

If I ever get injured so that I can't sit in front of a computer and make buy and sell decisions, I probably can't work at any other job, anyway. But otherwise, if trading ever heads south for me, I can easily walk back into this small business I currently run and have a new clientele within a year.

I think some of the people your talking about are a lot like me. I got a good job straight out of high school and had aspirations of working up the corporate ladder. I realized after about 2 years of hard work that everyone above me had less and less knowledge and ability. literally the higher up I would look the dumber people would get. In a recession obviously downsizing is all over the place and a company tries to squeeze as much work as possible out of all there employees. In my proffesion (railroading) this causes trains to depart late and industries to miss delivery of goods. When the people higher up cant explain why things are not working correctly they tend to blame the people below them. This means ive been a constant scapegoat for the last 6 years. I began needing outs from the corporate grind. I would play the lotto or search for jobs elsewhere (during the largest recession since the depression im sure you know how my job search worked out lol). A year ago my co-worker mentioned his brother in law started day trading because his painting business ran out of work. I looked into it and was hooked from then on. Trading to me is a business that has a boss thats always smarter then you. The market is your manager and hes always right. the only person that can make a mistake is yourself and im ok with that. ive always owned up to my own mistakes. Every job has its downside and with technology today contacting other people while trading isnt far fetched at all. I understand the points you bring up in your trading triangle but just wished to give you an insight into some other peoples experiance. Trading is an out for a lot of people that are barely hanging on in the corporate world. This is my first post and I thank you for that because I think i'll try to stay active here to motivate myself that much more to become a better trader.

I love you railroad guys and trains. My office window used to be literally 10 feet from the CSX tracks in Boston, and the engine would stop (I guess while they were attaching more cars) close-enough for me to see the guys inside - I was on the second floor, so just above the top of the train. Occasionally I'd stand at the window for a few minutes just to take it in.