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Ask any psychological trading thoughts you may have
Indeed, I very well agree with you on this. I can directly relate to this, and here's why. I tutor all grade levels and any subject. Usually prospective clients come to me and they go I need help with grade 12 vectors and calculus. Now I haven't touched vectors and calculus in 3 years (almost 4), and I have to be prepared by the first lesson I give. I have to spend immense amount of time reviewing and refreshing the tiny details and concepts I had carefully learned and practised when I was in gr 12.
So I'd spend almost 9-12 hours the day before reviewing all of it so that I know what I am talking when I do teach. This has been the case for last few years, but my hourly rate is $30/hr. Yes I make 60 in 2 hours which 4 years ago, at McDonalds, it would have taken me 6 hours. but I made 60 over the span of 11-14 hours, so its very low as you mentioned.
But this was just a figure that I've never imagined one could earn in such a short span of time so it bogs me up whenever I go outside and I see other elderly individuals working low paying jobs just to make ends meet. For me the psychological pain and effort we go through as traders just doesn't feel like the same as if when you lets say worked physically hard.
I seem to have a strategy that is consistently profitable on sim, but we all know the whole debate regarding sim vs live. So I now want to go live so I can actually experience the REAL psychological emotions and take it from there. I'll report here to see if there are any changes in the way I view things about this topic after trading live for some time.
Cheers
Can you help answer these questions from other members on NexusFi?
It is generally said that 95% of those who attempt trading fail. By "fail" is meant, lose all or most of the money in their account. This is probably true.
So, realistically, there is not an issue here at all. The small number who can make the money you are talking about (or any money) should not make anyone think that it is easy to make so much "in a short span of time." It is very, very rare.
I do wish you luck in your trading, but you will never know what trading is until you put some money on it. Make sure that it is money that you can put at risk. If losing it would affect your life in any important way, don't do it. It is possible to succeed in trading, and it is also possible to fail disastrously. You don't have that in the jobs you are talking about, or in almost any job for that matter. That's why there is no real comparison. Just looking at the possible profit is only a fraction of the story.
Hello Bob, mhm definitely, I would not be risking money I cannot afford to lose. I'm most likely certain that I will over time end up losing the money I'm going to put in (like most of us have). but nonetheless it is a journey I want to take myself up on. Thanks everyone for their words of wisdom.
Yes Cheers, there is a difference when going from Sim to Live trading and the difference I think is mindset. I will take myself sure I sim / demo traded for a very time and could not make all that great head way at some point I said to myself it I am going to learn, and focus I have to dive in live trading.
That's what I did it really made me have a complete different mindset on trading from a mental stand point. Sure sim / demo is good but, I think to much of it is bad. Because one has to ask themselves do I really want to trade or just for the excitement of trading.
Going live made me to really look as trading as a business, and with sim / demo I just couldn't get that.
I think that trading is the only profession where one makes money for the sake of making money: all the other jobs you're supposedly doing something and then you get paid.
Of course the bottom line of any job is to get paid, and when you get paid you can pay your bills, your mortgage, your kids' college, etc. ......
Having said that, the trouble is, I think we've really moved away from a model of society where the majority of jobs are supposed to make a difference. Sometimes (check that: often) people are employed in corporate jobs where their role is to 'churn the wheel' as it were, kick the can down the road without making any meaningful progress (I have been there). Even professionals such as doctors, teachers, lawyers, journalists and so on which are supposed to help others have been turned into profit-making zombies (just think of doctors prescribing unnecessary tests just because the hospital can charge the insurance company, or lawyers soliciting all kinds of frivolous lawsuits, and don't get me started on the business of education which should be free, or how journalism has turned into a race to get a few more clicks).
I know I sound very negative, and certainly I don't mean to imply that no job provides any value.
But I digress. The main purpose of virtually any job is to get paid. How many would work for no money? Probably very few.
So I think that by comparing any other job and trading, we can at least say that the end-goal is the same.
Trading for me does not necessarily add value per se. But it is the profitable trader that, (I think, most often than not) adds value by investing or donating their money for worthy causes. I've seen examples here on FIO of people who support charities and similar initiatives.
I think trading can offer the potential to provide more value than most jobs as a by-product.
Well, when it's low it's because people desperately want to unload the risk. When it's high it's because people desperately want to own the risk. And that's where you, the speculator, come in. They should be grateful to have you.
But they don't have to thank you. You get paid for the service you provide. It's the very definition of profit in a free market and you Earn.Every. Damn. Penny you make.
If you are not trading someone else's money then you are trading your own. You are still working for a business whether its yours or someone else's. As a trader, you provide value by recognizing when it makes sense to buy, sell and most importantly, stay on the sidelines.
Well, it is a job. Full time. Even right now, I have my screens up and I have an open position in 3 markets. I trade for a living just like I wrote software before for a living. As a trader, I provide value to my employer the same way I provided value to my employer before when I wrote software. In both cases I have worked for myself and a corporation. But in terms of what I bring to the table, it makes no difference.
I dont have any conflict regarding what I do and neither do any of the traders I work with. We do what we do to make money.
Traders struggle because of many reasons but I dont think conflicting values is one of them. The biggest reason for failure I believe is their inability to take risk. Everyone wants predictable results and certainty in trading when in reality, trading results are very asymmetrical.
In my construction job I get up at 4:30 am then travel to the job site, then work 10 hours, then travel home. I get home around 5:45 at night. I don't enjoy it anymore. It's now just a job whereas previously it used to be a passion.
I think most people want to do something different for fulfilment. I used to love my job. I was pretty much married to it for a long time. Now I want something that I enjoy doing to make money, instead of something I do because I'm good at it and it's what I've done for the last 15+ years.
