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I trade for many reasons, possibly too many to list here. But, the main ones are:
Freedom and Independence: I like being in control, doing things my own way
Skill/Challenge: I like the challenge of trading, I feel compelled to continue to grow and become a better trader
Schedule: This is part of the first bullet, but I like being able to do things on my own schedule
No net: You might be sensing a pattern here, but I like being able to go in any direction or down any path and learn for myself without a net
Financial reward: You can be terrific at a 'normal' job and still not make much of a living financially, but if you are a terrific trader the financial rewards are high
Technical: I like the technical aspect, it allows me to keep my geeky hobby of "computers" and apply it towards my trading, like having a lab and R&D area, the latest equipment, programming, etc etc
But here is the biggest one:
I trade for myself. Many of you have families so you can easily insert that you trade for your daughter or son, or family. Maybe you have a specific purpose like putting them through college, etc. As a divorced guy, no kids, I mainly trade for myself. Sure, I have a small family (my mom and grandmother, thats pretty much it) but they don't understand what I do, to them it is just a means to an end. So I don't trade "for them". I trade for me, because it is what I want to do. I am good at it, I enjoy it. I feel fulfilled by it while also always feeling challenged by it.
Many of you have heard me talk of retiring to a Caribbean island. That is my goal, so I am trading towards that goal. But, when I do retire, it doesn't really mean I will give up trading. It just means that I won't "need" to trade anymore for financial reasons, but I will likely still want to trade because I enjoy it.
When i think about all the reasons why I want to trade the one that stands out the most for me is the freedom that it could provide. Not just financial freedom, but freedom from from the work place.
Well , This is the question which many of my friends and family members have always asked/ still asking me. :P
After studying a little bit of computer engineering , doing some work with multimedia graphics and animations, I was left with very few choices like if I join someone in computers and do a job with that company. Or i can freelance those expertise. Or the last choice i could make was to become a broker ( over here in my country still sub brokership exists ) , which was obviously somewhat different then I was used to do.
Well , being a sub broker, I have gone through a lot of peaks and troughs. Thought how much i will earn through commissions. A whole day commission earnings is just a matter of a one profitable trade. And finally decided to TRADE for OWN. Started everything from Scratch , improved slowly and yes now after a decade almost i can say i m profitable enough to live on my own.
But " Why do I trade ? " , Simple answer is , I love doing that. It serves me Financially well. Also , NO BOSS for me. The day i dont feel like to work , I dont. Which gives me a real FREEDOM. I can still spend hours with family in weekends and always available to family anytime they want me to. I dont think any other job or business would have given me this kind of liberty. I enjoy Trading. Interact with fellow traders. Learn from them. Improving daily. Its a whole package , can't be described in single word or paragraph. But yes , its definitely leading me to achieve my financial goals which I have set. I want to retire by the age of 40, thats the goal set ( same as Big Mike , I may not need to trade for financial needs.) . And hope fully i will.
My goal is to close my business and be free from employes, clients and government agencies, and to do the thing that really makes me feel live and pride.
Also to manage other people money, especially friends & family, to pass them a little of the "happiness" that comes from trading.
For those of you that have never seen BHAG before. It stands for Big Hairy Audacious Goals.
I believe life should be lived with purpose and goals that are much larger than myself. Purpose is the reason I am on this planet and goals are the steps I need to achieve in fulfilling that purpose.
Those goals need to really big, otherwise I get bored. Small goals produce small thinking. BHAG's produce BHAG thinking. These kind of goals need to produce a "what the heck am I thinking" response. It requires that you stretch yourself well beyond your known abilities to cope.
The problem is most people live their entire lives without ever really examining themselves to see where their purpose lies. To quote Socrates, "an unexamined life is a life not worth living". In this context, all endeavor without determining why is simply an empty chase for fame and fortune. Most of those pursuits end badly as fame and fortune are not an end unto themselves.
My view is that position, power, fortune are nothing more than platforms and tools to fulfill ones destiny. Anything else is just selfish.
So to answer the question of why I trade, my answers are the same as many of the others already mentioned. But they are different in this sense.
Freedom, both financial and geographic. Freedom of finance and geography allows me to do the things I need to do in order to pursue what I feel is my purpose in life. Being a wage slave would prohibit me from doing this. Of course, this is just me, others may be able live in the wage slave world and fulfill their purpose. But not me.
Trading is simply the tool that I believe will allow me to do what it is I need to do without overly complicating the way I earn an income. Other types of careers require 40+ hours a week for decades. Trading can be very lucrative without the enormous time requirement. In the beginning, you must spend the time to learn the craft of course, but once in the unconscious competent phase of trading, I can see how spending just a couple hours a day can produce outsize incomes. That is my goal so I can use the remainder of the day to pursue those things more important to me than the eternal pursuit of money.
That and I really like being a trader.....I actually had dreams as a kid of being a big wall street trader....go figure....how does a little kid have dreams like that? I don't know but one of the most interesting books I read when I was around 12 was a book about a currency trader that tries to corner the market on German marks using a dedicated trading center in the San Francisco area. I was fascinated and hooked. I can't remember the name of the book (I tried to find it a few months ago and failed) but it made a lasting impression on me.
So it makes sense that the thing you love to do also enables you to fulfill your life's purpose.
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, Leonardo da Vinci
Most people chose unhappiness over uncertainty, Tim Ferris
