$300k to Start a Fulltime Trading business

April 12th, 2012, 11:18 AM

We have all seen many people quit jobs or lose jobs and think trading is a quick answer to their problems. It is said that any new business should be expect to be in red first 5 years. While their are exceptions longer and shorter time frames it is a good rule of thumb.

I would never suggest anyone jump in and try trading full time with no experience for many reasons. But just some food for thought if you are thinking about it.

If takes 5 years to produce enough monthly income to live will need some serious cash. For example sake lets say need a modest 50k per year to live. Your needs may be more or less. In any case that equates to $250k.

Lets also say you start with 50k in your trading account. Chances are you will burn all this up learning and need more capital to keep going..(I lost more than 50k and it took me around 8 years to figure this stuff out) Does not have to be that way but usually is for most.

Combined 300k to start a full time trading business. It could take less but most likely will take more.

Reality is only 5% make it so you have a 95% chance you will lose your 50k and burn up 250k you could have left in savings by working a job outside of trading. There are other possible expenses from trading platforms etc that add to your cost as well as the likelihood of blowing out a few accounts needing more cash. So more than likely will take more than the 50k allocated directly to trading.

Point being while trading is a noble pursuit it is not an easy one. It is not a quick answer to cash needs. It must be approached soberly and like any business taking a realistic look at how much cash and time it will really take. To be successful at trading it takes being honest with yourself. First place to be honest when starting is how much it will really cost.

I realize I don't cover every scenario or possibility above but something to think about. This can be done much cheaper if you can work a full time job and learn to trade.

April 12th, 2012, 12:13 PM

Plus there is a lot of competition. Traders in general don't share their secret sauce. And 95% out of all vendor education for trading is questionable material and don't trade for themselves anymore if they ever did.

Scam vendor education/indicators may actually have a higher success rate as a business in general. (Or they can just say they are "selling dreams" ) As the trading education industry has rocketed in the past 15-20 years as more beginning retail traders try to find the holy grail. Some of them are lucrative as they grow and have sales and marketing depts. Then one can hear their radio commercials (mornings on the commute before work or after work, and late night , hah!), links to well made flash movies, spam email and receive in the mail intro literature on very finely printed stationery.

$300k to Start a Fulltime Trading business

Discussion in Psychology and Money Management

$300k to Start a Fulltime Trading business