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Right @Big Mike my question was in regard to trading in general not time frame etc... I personally see swing trading as no less risky and done wrong could be defined as a gamble just like day trading. Heck even buying real estate can be a gamble. That being said as you alluded to time frame and method is not really the point of this thread and there are plenty of other threads on those subjects.
My point here was to explore amongst fellow traders my inner conflict on whether or not to pass my very valuable hard earned knowledge to my kids one day. Lets leave method and time frame out and just explore the aspects pro and con of doing so.
Also I am speaking to if someone has been successful at whatever method or time frame they are using. It is kind of a conflicting subject in that I have my reservations because I know the dangers of trading all to well. But if I have a viable business it is hard for me to not see me passing it on.
If I have a viable business for example that is not trading and my kids so interest why would I not want to pass it on? If I have a viable business again just as an example is not trading would I feel responsible to at least expose them to it in such a way as the could make a decision about whether it was something they wanted to learn? Now take these questions and apply them to trading why would the answer be any different? Could trading not provide my kids the same thing it provides me?
"The day I became a winning trader was the day it became boring. Daily losses no longer bother me and daily wins no longer excited me. Took years of pain and busting a few accounts before finally got my mind right. I survived the darkness within and now just chillax and let my black box do the work."
I think there's too much emphasis on the nature of trading and not on the nature of child upbringing. If I were a successful pianist, I wouldn't make additional effort to introduce my child to piano as compared to the average parent. I say this because I went to school with kids who were made to live in their parents' shadows; a girl named Melody who was compelled to take up professional singing since 4 because her dad was an orchestra conductor. Some of these kids turn out OK, but with the benefit of a third person's perspective, I feel sympathy for them because they were never truly given the chance to find their own, genuine passions.
My wife and I (mostly my wife) homeschool our four kids (10 yrs old down to 4 yrs old). I am a full time trader at home. The general homeschool philosophy is to find the interests and strengths of your children and educate them to go the way of their strengths and interests. My children have an interest to do what daddy does and I have already started to teach my 10 yr old boy (as well as my wife) how to find price direction and how to look at moving averages and fibs. If they have a genuine interest in moving forward I will teach them everything I can. But I will definitely put it in front of all of them to see what sticks.
I have decided I am going to teach my daughters to trade. ages 8 and 13
This will be as part of a larger project to educate them about money and develop their risk intelligence. This is something they don't learn in school, but it's more important than the stuff they learn in school, by and large.
I would like them to grow up to be money-savvy, or even smart money. No, definitely smart money. And by that I mean money that moves fast, first in, first out. Instead of being totally captive of risk aversion, like so many of the young people in this country nowadays.
Before we get to trading we are starting to warm up by playing Monopoly. The eight year old is an absolute terror at Monopoly. The last game she came from behind to get Park Place and Boardwalk and also the three green properties loaded up with hotels.
Another one I want to introduce is backgammon, very good for learning to think probabilistically.
I came from a family that didn't even told me what a stock market is maybe because they don't know it or maybe they didn't like to tell me. When I was so much interested with trading, I realized that should someone older than me told me what a stock market is and it's potential, then maybe I should have started at an earlier age and who knows where I would be right now. I am turning 30 this year and still not a fulltime trader. I'm not confident enough to make it fulltime.
When I become a consistent trader, I would definitely teach my nephews (don't have a family of my own yet) how to trade!
Even father's business might be interesting for them - it is nothing to learn upfront.
Trading is a serious business with MANY background information needed to do it properly.
So is the learning process - it needs a lot of trial and error before entering to do it as a full time job!
Children of 8 years or 11 or more years - you would not learn driving a car? Don't you?
My children (I have four) do know what I am doing - but this is not their business.
For them it would only be gambling without having any knowledge of the real markets behaviour.
Never mix the complex themes - children are easily to learn on their levels - and will be ready
to do a next step.
Just to add that money knowledge and stock markets / Forex are very far from each other..
Most children would be interested on what their parents do. Maybe it won't hurt when children are thought how to help their parents do their homework for tomorrow right? Their interests may branch out from there. Maybe they will eventually be interested in crunching numbers and become a scientist or mathematician, maybe be interested in how things work and be an engineer, who knows. It is probably one of the first steps to know on what they may be interested in. It would greatly help these kids avoid drugs.
What I am really after is to focus on improving risk intelligence.
That's involved in gambling as well as trading and many other areas of life.
I recall when I was ten or so my father, who had an entrepreneurial mindset, told me that working for a living was not the way to get ahead, that stocks were the way to go. Except he never invested in any stocks. He had a small amount of PM. He was more into real estate and PM.
And gambling. He loved gambling, and I think he lost a lot of money doing it.
Nonetheless I wish now he had taken me under his wing and at least taught me what he knew about gambling. The only thing he ever taught me was about casino edge. Well, he had worked in casinos there in Nevada and gambled after work. He told me that the casino had an edge in every game played in the house -- except Keno.
Then he proceeded to tell me how to win at Keno. Except you cannot teach somebody by telling them. The only way to learn is by getting some skin in the game.
When you come to think about it, learning about casino edge is kind of an important concept. It's applicable in a lot of areas of life. We are playing against the house in many other areas besides casinos.
Don't get me wrong - the learning process about money begins from very early childhood.
But for complex scenarios you need to have some experience and background. So children
need to get in touch with adequate questions on certain themes.
Casino, driving a car and trading with stocks, Forex or futures need a certain level of
understanding and experience.
I know of what I am speaking - my children are in very different ages - up to 29...
Of course different cultures are handling money in various ways.
In our country we have a very direct approach to money.
That is much to old to start to teach a child... as teenagers they would not listen to you. Just think back to when you were that young.
I would start at 6 years old.... not trading stocks but money management in general. That is what I did with my boy.
At 6 years old he always had a little bit of money from relatives, me and his mother though throughout his life I only ever gave him $1/week allowance (he was 6 in 1988).
As I was a traveling industrial salesman back then I was usually away during the week and he was my responsibility on weekends. I did my banking on Saturdays and took him with me since he was 2 years old. At 6 years old I opened a kiddie account for him and the DEAL WAS that I would match any money he put into the bank... he put in $1 of his own money I would match it for a total of $2 (when he was about 8 he got $40 for Christmas and tried to deposit it and I refused to match it... he negotiated $10 and I agreed and that was the deposit for the next 4 weeks... so he learned negotiation that way )
Each month we took his passbook and with my money jar we would show how much "free money" he earned for that month in pennies... this lead to buying a GIC (Guaranteed Investment Certificate) as he reached $500 at age 8 with me taking him in to meet my personal banker. At 10 years old when he reached that level again it was time to buy another certificate... "I want to do it myself dad?" ...ok... I had the same personal banker then and she had big smile as she brought me the final paperwork to sign as well.
At 12 it was no longer cool to be with your dad but I walked in to the bank and the teller told me my son was in the previous day... I nodded and she said "You know, we don't get many 12 year olds making investment decisions" she said (he had bought another GIC on his own)... At 15 he had a bank account of $7000 and had to pretend to be poor to his friends, he was working in a grocery store as a checkout clerk at 16... at 18 he worked part time as a concierge at a hotel.
Every purchase he made...I only paid 1/2... including his education. I did that so he had skin in the game and would know that life was not a freebie.
At 19 he knew I was getting involved in Stocks. He showed some interest and did a little trading himself but nothing serious. Now as a married person he does some trading, the extent of which I am not certain. We discuss it a little but his approach is different from mine and that is fine.... I get the impression it is not serious though.
My point is that it is important to teach your child about money at a very young age... not wait til they are teens. When they are 6 years old they are approachable and want to copy you.... as teens they don't think you know what you are doing and won't listen to you.
I have a grandson at 2 years old... I hope my son does the same with him.
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