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Hi jtelang,
Tuesday, October 28, 2003, 9:11:12 AM, you wrote:
j> Yuki (and other guru's),
Not this girl. No guru here at all. Just somebody who has survived
long enough to become experienced.
j> I'm sure some of you folks initially had a different primary career
j> and then transformed yourselves into successful pro traders. It'd be
j> very interesting to hear from you about the experiences. For example -
j> what were the hurdles? How long were you trading on the side before
j> going fulltime? What was it that finally convinced you to go
j> fulltime? etc. etc...
j> If you guys find it interesting and willing to comment, I think many
j> would be interested to hear about it.
My story is kind of boring, actually. I had a great advantage: an
employed spouse who brought in the daily bread. All I had to do was
take care of the savings fund, and it turned out I was not so bad at
it, and seemed to (well, definitely did, actually) get better over
time. So I come from a situation that a lot of guys might not be able
to relate to, unless your wives can and will support you while you
trade. The payback for my husband was early retirement, however, so
maybe you can pitch your wives on that. ^_-
I truly believe that just about anyone can do this, however. But
like many things, it takes lots of practice and lots of patience.
There are few things that people do in life that they don't get
better at, the more they do them. The trick here is to stay alive
(have equity) long enough to get the experience. So, concentrate on
defense first, and don't try to force things. This will become a
habit, hopefully, and you will learn over time when to take on some
additional risk.
IMHO, you cannot quit a day job and do this full time without being
adequately capitalized. That means you need enough capital that you
can generate your salary off of it *without* needing to take
excessive risk. If you need to double your capital each year to pay
your salary, you probably aren't starting with enough capital to do
this full time. ^^_^^ If I were starting today without any other
income stream, I'd want a trading account equal to *at least* three
years of (comfortable) living expenses. That would be the absolute
minimum for me, and I would be very nervous until the ratio was
higher. I *know* others will come in and say that this is
unrealistic, but I will disagree strongly. Sadly perhaps, the fact
is that doing this full time in lieu of a salaried job is not going
to be an option for many, and for even fewer young people. Once you
get your account up to about twice that bare minimum level, you
should be home free, as long as you keep the focus on defense first.
I don't hit many home runs, but I avoid errors at all cost and have a
great pitching staff. And unlike the former manager of the Boston
Red Sox, I yank my starter, even my ace, at the first sign of a
breakdown. And if my reliever comes in and throws two consecutive
balls on the first two pitches, I probably yank him, too. I'd
probably need a 75-man roster with 40 pitchers to manage a baseball
team. ^_-
(For you baseball fans -- an extremely popular sport in Japan of
course -- the "Chicago Cubs of Japan", a.k.a. the Hanshin Tigers
[from the Osaka region], made it to the Japan Series this year,
unlike the real Chicago Cubs, who somehow managed to self destruct as
usual. But in true "lovable loser" fashion, Hanshin lost the big
series to the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks. Some things never change.)
Yuki
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