Well gosh, it seems I am a bit late to the party in answering this one.
When I first saw this thread I thought well heck, I am already 57 years old, I am almost at the accepted "retirement" age and I am wondering "Huh? "Who the heck wants to retire!" But as I got to thinking about it, I think that is possibly a separate question from when do I wish to leave trading behind.
I will risk sort of joining into the chorus here with other posters in this thread and say that I think retirement is grossly over-rated. In my opinion it is an entirely outmoded concept. I think perhaps it was never really much more than a dream of some day escaping the "drudge of work and bosses" in favor of the proverbial "Good Life" that must surely be waiting for us in the future if we just slaved and sacrificed for oh, say 40 years or so starting right now. Admittedly, upwards of 85% of people can barely stand going to their particular "jobs" each day, and thus the desire for a future escape, but that is an entirely different discussion for another day and possibly even a different forum.
Let's get back to trading itself. Why do we do it? What do we hope to get out of it? What does it extract from us in return? I think most of us could agree that we enjoy not only surviving but also occasionally beating the odds in the market. There is no question we have to treat trading as a business to survive in it, but don't most of us at least somewhat enjoy it as much as perhaps our children enjoy their videogames? Heck, to me it has sometimes seemed like the most fun I could have as an adult without it being illegal, immoral or fattening and it even pays me money in return!
But let's be really candid and honest with each other. We all know very well that actively trading day after day definitely "extracts its pound of flesh" from us as they say (for those of you for whom English is not your mother tongue, this is simply an idiom basically meaning we usually must sacrifice a great deal to get what we want in return.)
To trade successfully requires intense concentration, a constant willingness to accept being wrong (usually in the form of being punished by the markets in the form of loss of capital and the potential depression that may result therefrom) and almost super-human control of our emotions. Can any of us truly deny that occasional little nagging feeling that the market seems to take great pleasure in occasionally stomping us into the dirt and grinding its boot on our neck? Actually that kind of thinking is exceptionally hazardous to your your mindset and also your trading capital, but it does paint an entertaining picture of the risks, does it not?
As I sit here and calmly think about all that it requires to do this successfully, I find myself thinking of air traffic controllers No wonder most of them burn out at an early age! However, if we are willing to admit it to ourselves, even if not to the public at large, in our heart of hearts we know that most of us feel a sort of "addiction" to this game of trading. Yes, I know that many will read that and pooh pooh that whole idea, holding themselves aloft and above such petty feelings about their involvement in this illustrious industry but how many of us can honestly deny that it is somehow in our blood?
Let's ask ourselves a question or two. If the key goals and reasons (or the big WHY's) that brought us to trading were suddenly fulfilled, would we stick around hour after hour, day after day intensely studying our monitors, always keyed upon looking for that one high probability trigger to jump on yet another risky trade, in a marketplace well known for gobbling up trader's accounts as though they were candy?
Here is a slightly different thought along those same lines. As much as humans love the comfort of "routine" they also crave variety. They say that trading, when done right, is very routine and possibly a bit boring. Once you have spent upwards of several thousand hours in front of the monitors trading back and forth, the fortunate amongst you may eventually have a breakthrough and trading will become much easier. You may get to that stage where instead of fighting to extract your 1 or 2 points a day, you are able to extract multiples of that from the market on a regular basis. What then? Isn't it the struggle and challenge that provides the real zest of trading?
Isn't Life designed to be an amazing adventure? Is it desirable or even prudent to plan on remanining tied down to the same old thing, especially in our later years?
Each year I grow more convinced that the time we spend with our friends, immediate family and assorted loved ones, enjoying those simple every day moments together is the greatest pleasure in Life. After all, while not wishing to seem morbid at all, I daresay that on your deathbed in the future, there will not be many amongst us who will bother to pause even briefly to think that perhaps they should have put in more hours or days trading.
Ok, you have endured more than enough hardship here reading through my lengthy response to the riddle of when or if to retire from trading and it is high time for an answer!
YES, I shall most definitely retire from trading
I shall only continue trading as long as I can continue to do it successfully and even then only as long as it remains more fun than it is stressful. But I shall never retire from doing
something productive with my time, whether you call that work or not.
I shall tell you that the only reason I have been able to successfully focus the several thousand hours necessary to achieve a breakthrough in my trading is only because my "WHY" is much bigger than my own self involvement. The biggest reason I trade is so that I can donate an ever increasing amount to charitable foundations that sponsor and provide for children who do not have the benefits in Life that I have enjoyed. To me, that has made all the difference and it is the driving impetus behind why I do what I do in trading. If it were just about money for me or the vicarious thrill of trumping the markets on a more regular basis, I would already be long gone and wasting away on some little beach in Thailand sipping on those cute little umbrella adorned drinks.
Thanks for reading and thanks to James (alias Soultrader) for providing us the venue to speak our mind in this great trading forum. I always enjoy reading the comments from the other traders here and find that the more I read, the more I am convinced that we all are very much more alike than we are different. I think that is something to be celebrated and appreciated.
Happy Trading