I Look Back Now and Wonder

[james_gsx]

Originally Posted by Sledge Ha. What about a trader who hates his day job and is working his/her ass off to get out of said day-job to trade full time for a living?

By job, I meant as a trader

But I know what you mean, because I'm in that exact situation right now

[mister ed]

Originally Posted by Sledge Ha. What about a trader who hates his day job and is working his/her ass off to get out of said day-job to trade full time for a living?

Sledge, I reckon that's probably getting very, very close to the definition of passion!

[bootstrap]

I guess it is now time to explain the "Wonder" in the title.

I sometimes look back and wonder if I had to do it all over again, "Would I?"

Would I spend almost 8 years learning to do this? Would I let my desire to do this cost me a marriage? Would I let my desire to do this cost me thousands of dollars? Sleepless days and nights? Friends?

To be successful, I thought I had to put my whole heart and soul on the line.

I was wrong.

And the answer to would I do it all over....YES. Just a little different.

It all worked out in the end. The friends are still there and I am close to the ex even though we are not married.

I would spend more time with the family and friends. I would listen to what they had to say, even if I disagreed. Explain that this is what I wanted to do. That this was what I was born to do.

But just like going to medical/law school, sometimes your future has to come first. Don't be afraid to take a stand if you have too. There will most likely be personal sacrifices. That is just part of the fee you have to pay.

Hopefully they will not be as severe as mine.

Chris

[OAC]

Well, this is the real wonder here. Unlike medical or law school, you know when you will graduate in certain amount of years. The real wonder in trading is that you don't know when you will graduate. My question to all of you is how do you keep the faith and keep on running when you don't know how far you are from the finish line ?

[Sledge]

Originally Posted by james_gsx By job, I meant as a trader But I know what you mean, because I'm in that exact situation right now

I'll give you an oar brother- and we can row the boat together!
Aaron

P.S. Ed- Passion is an understatement! ;-)

[OAC]

Originally Posted by OAC Well, this is the real wonder here. Unlike medical or law school, you know when you will graduate in certain amount of years. The real wonder in trading is that you don't know when you will graduate. My question to all of you is how do you keep the faith and keep on running when you don't know how far you are from the finish line ?

I feel what may be most important, besides the belief that you were borned to do this, is to be inspired by a higher power. Men through out history have accomplished extroadinary feat of achievement because they had believed that this was their calling.
How do you keep the faith when you don't know how far the finish line is ? Well you must enjoy the process, which means continual of study and research and practice on your demo account in your spare time even though you have just blown your live account . If you don't enjoy the process ? Then perhaps trading is not for you.
If you truly enjoy the process and you know in your heart that this is your true calling, then you shouldn't have to ask yourself if you would do it all over again. Right ?

[maildigger]

What's your plan when those thins happens ?

Originally Posted by smwinc Great post. I think it's important new traders (and old traders) realise how much there is to do for point #4. Do you have an plan for when your trading software goes down? What about when the exchange goes down? Do you know how to hedge your trading instrument/size and do you have the excess capital available to? Do you have another brokerage account if you can't access your current one? PC Crash? Internet Crash? Your local phone exchange crash? (Yes, I actually have had that happen, and yes I was in a position.) Power outage? Godzilla? You get the drift.

[smwinc]

Originally Posted by maildigger What's your plan when those thins happens ?

Do you have a plan for when your trading software goes down?
I have subscriptions to CQG, Esignal & Ensign Software.
What about when the exchange goes down?
I have accounts with different brokers & clearing firms to be able to hedge any open positions in a correlated market on a different exchange. I.e. CME, EUREX, SGX, etc.
Do you know how to hedge your trading instrument/size and do you have the excess capital available to?
I know the equity / ratio requirement to hedge positions in the markets I trade.
Do you have another brokerage account if you can't access your current one?
I hold accounts with Infinity Futures, Interactive Brokers, MFGlobal.
PC Crash?
I have two desktops & a laptop.
Internet Crash?
I know how to access my brokers via telephone and what to say.
Your local phone exchange crash? (Yes, I actually have had that happen, and yes I was in a position.)
Again, I know how to access my brokers via telephone (Mobile) and what to say.
Power outage?
Same again, Mobile phone access.
Godzilla?
This one.. I'm still working on.

[bsl113]

Bootstrap,

you mention that you turned profitable during 1999. Not to challange your methods but wasn't everything in 1999 going up. Did you same insights and techniques work during late 2000 through 2002? I've been trading or over 10 years and have had great years and bad years. This last month caught me by surprise and turned all my profits into losses. I'm finding it hard to walk the line between trading and investing. Fortunately I started moving more towards cash a couple months ago which protected me a lot from the recent sell off. Best or luck and thank for sharing.

-bsll113

[bootstrap]

Yes pretty much everything was going up.

In 1999, I was and still am trading currency futures exclusively. I have not had a losing month since. Yes, I still have down days and even weeks on occasion.

It is not the method. It's the trader that makes the difference.

As for long term investments, yes this portion will show a loss. But the strategt is designed to take advantage of falling markets.

The hardest investment rule is:

If 95% of traders/investors lose money, then do exactly the opposite of what they are doing when they are losing.