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Daily Blog/Vlog: FU*K IT, I QUIT (my 9-5 day job)! 104 replies

How many pips or % to quit? 17 replies

20pips a day and I will eventually give my day-job away 39 replies

Quit Job , go Back to School, Trade Forex? 33 replies

Attachments: I finally quit my day job!
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I finally quit my day job!

I've had three attempts at full time trading. All periods between jobs. It was sort of like - The longer I can trade well, the longer I can put off getting another job.

First time was 3 years ago when I had only been trading for a year. Lasted about two weeks. Totally undercapitalised.

Next was a year later. Lasted around three weeks. Still undercapitalised and not experienced enough to know the markets well. Both these "attempts" were over the Christmas/New Year period, so that alone made it very hard to do well without a lot of experience.

Last attempt was early this year. A bit better capitalised. Much more experienced, and trading Jan-Feb-Mar, so results were much better, and starting to look promising. Biggest problem is total boredom. There are only so many forums to read, ebooks to look at, websites to update. Another thing was my trading area. We live in a large van, and there is no quiet, private area. So I have to trade listening to the wife's endless crime shows on TV. After 7 weeks of mildly successful trading, I got a call from my old boss to come back, so I did.

Since then I've taken my capital up to a decent level, $20K, and that alone has shown a real change. I now feel that next time I trade fulltime, I'll be making my needed income. I've had more experience (I trade every day after work for around 4 hours), and I now make consistent profit.

The boredom problem is HUGE one to solve. I've now got 5 accounts. Four for "proper" trades, and one to "play" with. My play account is for the trades bought on by boredom, while the others are for trades taken to plan. Each proper account is for one currency and one method, while the play account is for anything that takes my fancy. I have found that this way I have an outlet for boredom trades and scalps that won't hurt my real accounts, and my overall balance is kept safe.

For me, I need a separate trading room in the future, so that I can set up other things that interest me (electronics and microscopy) and I can be doing something else while the screens run in the background.

I can see another opportunity in about three months that may come up, so I'm preparing for another attempt if it happens. Paying up everything that I can. Putting extra money in the bank, and keep adding to my trading accounts, and I've been working on an idea to get me a trading room. Maybe this time I will crack it.


Peter
Holy Grail part 1. - Cut loses short.
That's the way, way to go!
Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiam
Hopefully I will be joining you all very soon.

I have decided over this holiday period that I can't continue forever with Trading as a hobby! It needs to become a serious business or I need to accept that I will concentrate on my career and just use trading as a vehicle to grow my retirement portfolio.

So in April my contract comes to an end and at this point in time assuming between now and then I don't do something stupid I will NOT try to look for another job and instead focus on trading.

I'll keep you all updated!
I quit my job a month ago and facing account deficit in the past 2 weeks .It really sucks and i am having negative feelings(
PRICE IS EVERYTHING
Quoting forex4worth
I quit my job a month ago and facing account deficit in the past 2 weeks .It really sucks and i am having negative feelings(
If you're going to do this for a living, you'll need to be in a financially secure position so a drawdown that lasts 3-4 months, let alone just 2 weeks, isn't going to phase you or impact your standard of living.

What was your performance before quitting your job? What was your expectations moving into full time trading?
FXGears.com
pressure and pain is the name of the game,trained for many-many days to function right

heroes and rapists they all have nice faces
With a good book and quality paper you can fine wipe your ass.
I won't quit my day job, will cut hours though. I am now only working 32 hours a week, will cut further to 24 hours if I am consistently winning in trading for 2 years. Day job is a good place to keep my head balanced and it also provides free medical and travel insurance for me.

Good luck and Happy New Year to everybody!
Quoting mystic
Since then I've taken my capital up to a decent level, $20K, and that alone has shown a real change. I now feel that next time I trade fulltime, I'll be making my needed income. I've had more experience (I trade every day after work for around 4 hours), and I now make consistent profit.
Nice. Gotta make it worth your while. I like your mindset.

All the best.
Nothing worth having is easy.
When your account down, and you can't cover your expense with it you will know truly meaning about trading, and at that time you will see trading full -time is your choice or not...

I trade full-time, truly, cause now i don't have job to do, but i ready to take job in the future because my strategy is suit me to do that...

Trading now doesn't bring my living... may be in 2 or 3 years later, you can't make a living when you R=around 10-20$, and you trade the daily chart.

It's all from my porfolio in investing (I follow Peter Lynch Strategy to invest in stock) and savings that keep my heart and soul stand...
Back to the beginning ... demo
Quoting ramy3
Hi,

I am just wondering if any of you out there actually did quit their day job to live off trading. What did you guys go through, what made you take the step? How did you deal with each new aspect of it? What where the biggest hurdles you went thru? What would you recommend doing and not doing? Are you happy with your decision? Did any of you go back to work after?

I am curios because I am actually contemplating doing this in the near future. I have been profitable for well over two years now. I trade in the day (6 to 8 hrs) and work at...
In looking at how to determine if I should quit my day job and trade full time ( I work days and trade nights) I sat down after a successful year and made a set of goals for the next year. If I meet or exceed those goals then I can quit, otherwise I have to keep trying. What are those goals? Basically, 500K in liquid assets that I could live on and half of which I can use for further trading once I quit my day job. That way I have 5 years @ 50K per year living expenses and 250K in trading capital. Also, I must meet certain monthly trading goals. I set my monthly goal at 10% month over month. Perseverance, dedication, and constant evaluation.
4XTrader2
http://www.forexfactory.com/news.php?do=news&id=406333 , good luck
Quoting fifaman2009
http://www.forexfactory.com/news.php?do=news&id=406333 , good luck
If the EU will have tax for transaction, than I will change the broker to US ( I will use that one ), it doesn't hurt me.

+ I can trade higher timeframe, anyhow my broker isn't the cheapest one and still can change the equity even with 1:30 leverage a lot...to much I say.
I want to buy PATIENCE
Very good idea with 5 account.
Sometimes I have no patience to wait, one that case it would be nice an account allowed to blow up.
When I am simulating with Demo accounts I am not taking all trash trades, and if positive the balance.
With live account I wanted to make X % of my portfolio /day / week to know if I can live from it or not, so I took a lot of bad trades.

20k it depends how much are you making / month and how is your expenses.

I think I need at least 24 month salary in portfolio if I make 10-15% / month. 30-40% it is just to risky for an average month.

How is others opinion?



Quoting mystic
I've had three attempts at full time trading. All periods between jobs. It was sort of like - The longer I can trade well, the longer I can put off getting another job.

First time was 3 years ago when I had only been trading for a year. Lasted about two weeks. Totally undercapitalised.

Next was a year later. Lasted around three weeks. Still undercapitalised and not experienced enough to know the markets well. Both these "attempts" were over the Christmas/New Year period, so that alone made it very hard to do well without a lot of experience.

Last...
I want to buy PATIENCE
I think there was another guy here who quit his dayjob and ended up losing his account as well. So its not always the best thing
Quoting squeezer
I think there was another guy here who quit his dayjob and ended up losing his account as well. So its not always the best thing
And it was many else, who doesn't quit his job and lost full account.

And I know another one who finished his life with a gun (Jesse Livermore), that doesn't have anything with leave your job and trade.
I want to buy PATIENCE
Well, back to work for me on the 24 of march. Asked to come back early and they accepted. Turned into some “sorta” couch potato during the course of my sabbatical. Bored too. Finished up most of what I wanted to do. Need human contact and daily life challenges. Forums are fine and all, but something’s missing. Will give it another whirl in two years. Can take one every two years. Time did fly by though, guess that part comes with age, the older you get the faster it passes.

Salary back to double, work load too. Thinking I won’t mind as much this time around. Will reorganize a couple of things. Like taking weekends off, which I haven’t done in a very long time. Work 7/7 was my motto. Few days off here and there. All in all I am happy with my experience. Well, there you have it. Was a long time goal and now things have changed, I aged and my needs are different. Sorta miss having those pay checks coming in.

Will see if I freak out in my first week back, lol.

Wishing you guys all the best. Was a great experience.

Oh, I don’t mind saying that i made some really stupid revenge, greed and boredom mistakes. Probably due to being at the screens for too long every day. Lessons learned.

Ramy3
Fuck Forex Factory.Wake up people.
Quoting ramy3
Turned into some “sorta” couch potato during the course of my sabbatical. Bored too. Finished up most of what I wanted to do. Need human contact and daily life challenges.
I know what would fix that. Have a baby that turns into a toddler that turns into a little person : )

All the best Ramy.
Nothing worth having is easy.
Quoting Patience
I know what would fix that. Have a baby that turns into a toddler that turns into a little person : )

All the best Ramy.
Lol, you know of a good adoption center. Thks for the wishes Patience.
Fuck Forex Factory.Wake up people.
Quote
this is probably the worst time to become a full time trader for any number of reasons.

the markets have become dislocated.

back when trading made more sense, you had an equilibrium between buyers and sellers which created force on price which followed a certain logic. now you have CB intervention in a thin market so the "push" in either direction has no balance. real money is sidelined right now, it's not engaged.

This little bit from earlier in the thread piqued my interest because it came from a poster with a lot of vouches and posts. The only reason I'm quoting it is to point out that you can find similar threads back in 2005, 2006, ..., and 2012, and find posts with the exact same sentiment: "The markets have changed," "you can't earn real returns in these conditions," etc. Many of the same justifications have been given depending on the year and circumstances.

The market always changes, which is to say: the market is exactly the same today as it was two years ago as it was twenty years ago. Just because you can't adapt does not mean trading makes any less sense than it did four years ago or forty years ago. It just means it makes less sense to you.

As for quitting your day job, financial concerns are self-explanatory and I won't get into those. But what I have found is that many people who are self-employed and work alone tend to become isolated and to an extent depressed without constant human interaction, and it is something few people think about. It's not only about keeping yourself busy with things that interest you (which will certainly help), it's about getting much needed social interaction on an almost daily basis. To that end, I would suggest to any traders who are confident in their ability to trade full time profitably look into prop trading firms, if only for the daily interaction with other people. Online forums are simply no replacement for actual social activity.

Cheers
I'm currently into the first 18 months of a 3 year sabbatical from my employer. Much needed for my health and sanity. I've traded alot during this time and realized the trading IS a full-time job. Much easier to hold a career and trade, vs the other way around..

Just my 2 cents worth.. but I'll always trade and now look forward to retirement.
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