Career Question

I have a career question and since folks here understand our trading goals I thought this might be a good place to ask.

I'm currently in a job that I absolutely hate and over the past year or so the stress that the job itself causes and the fact that I don't like it is starting to take a "serious" toll on my health - "blurry" vision in one eye, muscle pain requiring physical therapy and high blood pressure. My doctor(s) say the problems are due to "stress" and "anxiety". My only stressor is work.

I originally thought I simply needed to "destress" but activities like meditation, exercise, and healthy eating habits definitely help but the health problems do not go away.

I took my first class in the summer of 2009 and practiced (not diligently enough) for one year and started real money trading at the end of 2010. My w+o is not consistent through the "summer" months, but I am starting to get very good at it. I have trouble holding on aka sitting on the piano. My trading basket is much more spotty, but recently have a 75% "hit" rate with average gains of about 10-20%. My losses tend to be <10%.

Do you think I would be crazy if I decided to commit myself to one year of "de-stressing" and trading? I don't have the expectation that I will be able to never work again...but I think my trading would improve (I miss a lot of entries because of work - being unable to check charts at night and missing 233 min entries). Also, I would definitely "de-stress" and have more time to find a job that suits my overall goals!

Some people I have asked think I am absolutely crazy to think this.

Thanks in advance!

Questions:

Do you have enough capital to see you through 1 year and enough that should there be an emergency you can pay for that? Example..car breaks down, dental or other surgery, family situations that you need to help with such as parents, house payments, insurance, accidents you have to pay for.

If you aren't successful at trading what are your options?

Is your job an occupation or a job? I mean are you able to go back in one year and pick up where you left off? (Such as doctor. lawyer, police officer?)

Are you married and if so what does your spouse think?

Working shouldn't stop you from trading. You can always trade longer charts or do leaps or buy and sell stock. All I am saying is think before you take such a big step.

I will not advise you to quit nor continue working. That is an answer only you and yours can decided. I will say this my S/O and I have 2 businesses. Last year we cleared almost 5 times what we did in our businesses but note I said we HAVE 2 businesses. We still work at these businesses but our advantage is we do them at home and sometimes we have to step in when an employee is sick or during vacation. This year has been more often than last year due to illness.

All I will advise you to do is

THINK

before making a move.

And don't forget to PRAY about it

Dynamike...That's the first thing to always do. Great post and reminder!

To preface my response I concur with Darcy and do not believe anyone can make the decision other than you. Most of the successful retail traders I have followed over the years all seem to agree that “more” is not necessarily better. The general consensus being that you have to learn to do this in your spare time and have some “proof of concept” in order to have the confidence required to be successful over the long term. If you are a short to medium chart trader that uses some intraday techniques then you might gain a bit of additional knowledge by following the market for a year. If you are a medium to big (144 and above) then you may find as I did that following daily can hurt your results. I was fortunate enough to be able to take a year off due to the financial crisis. I say fortunate because I had a couple of years of reserves set aside along with a severance package that covered another two years. My intentions were to take off six months that intentionally turned into twelve. The more I watched the worst I performed due to the intraday noise. Yes, I loved my Put positions the day of the flash crash but overall I felt like I was being kicked around. I forgot the basic premise of watching the bigger charts.

Whatever you decide do think about it and pray for guidance. If you feel compelled to make the leap and take a year I would suggest carving out some of your newly found time to practice. If you are a short chart trader and have TOS then spend an hour in the morning and evening using the On Demand feature. If larger chart trader then spend time running the charts back moving one candle at a time on 233/Daily/Weekly practicing your predictions. If I could go back and do it over again that is where I would have focused more of my time instead of watching all of the flashing colors and candles painting waiting for a set up during market hours. I certainly understand why GW suggests having a hobby and finding something else to do once you achieve choice.

NCT

Thanks for the replies guys. I will take all points into consideration. I do have reserves to carry me through and some. I may have to move back in with Mom though to pay less rent :-)

I guess I could take the time to find something more suitable for "trading". I do find that at my current role half the time I come home I physically have energy but my brain is basically like scrambled eggs.

NCTrader is correct. Watching the intra-day action of the markets is enough to give me an ulcer. The last thing I need in life is more stress.

Whatever you decide... best of luck to ya. Just don't forget to enjoy the journey:-)

sonicwave,

I am in a similar position. I have always been intrigued and wanted to trade off bigger charts for this reason alone. To be successful trading off small charts, you have to be available to see what is going on. Basically, I am glued to the terminal while I am in a trade. Yes, it is very stressful, but I had to do what I had to do to make money. I miss a ton of trades because of 9-5 responsibilities, but I focus on 2 trades a week and live with it. If I have time for more and the opportunity presents itself, I jump on it.

This past weekend, I took time to look back over my brokerage account (from the time I started trading until now). I was amazed at what I was able to clearly see. 3 years ago, I was only trading a maximum of $1250 (1/2 my basket). After starting, in the Fall/Winter Zone, I drove my basket from $1250 to over $7000 in a couple of months. I was only placing 1 or two trades a week, but they were running 60, 70, 80%. When I look back and do the math, I see how a person can retire really fast if he/she knows how to trade off big charts. I ran a trade on AAPL from $1125 to $3200 in 4 days. Make no mistakes about it, I was getting my butt kicked also, but I was gaining a lot more than I was losing. I lost it all during the summer trading zone because I thought I could trade the same as I had during the F/W. I had no knowledge of the 233 chart, moving averages, MF, or any of the indicators I use. I did not understand the MACD or how significant support and resistance was. I simply traded based on Trend Lines (Bottoms up Tops down).

I love intraday trading, but as I have stated before, it can be stressful trading this style with a full time job. I get so p'oed, when someone knocks on my door and I am in a trade. This is simply not fair to the company I work for-although these clowns has me on radar with a smart phone and laptop. I am also on-call 24 hours a day-seven days a week. This is just not fair to an employee, so I rebel by making sure I take care of my future and family as well. Anyway, I go on a vacation next week for several days. I have surgery on July 15 and will not return to work until late September. My goal is to LEARN HOW TO TRADE BIG CHARTS BEFORE RETURNING TO WORK. I am prepared to not make a dime intraday trading. Heck, I have to learn how to do this. I want to come back to work in the fall/winter and not stress myself out every morning for 2 hours. I want to see my trades walk up or down the ladder, and settle down a bit.

Come up with a plan, think it through with your family, pray about it, and if it is meant to be, it will happen. I have talked with my wife, created a study plan, and have started the process of going back through critical parts of 1-5, reading some of the critical areas in specific books, and practicing. I am pretty excited about the challenge.

i concur with all the above and especially taken with rookie30's words. i will say this. a long time ago, in another life, as a young husband with a child born with a life-threatening birth defect (talk about stress!), i worked as an editor for the wall street journal. i hated it. i hated the work, i hated the corporate culture, i hated having to spend money on brooks brothers' suits just so i could look like every other monkey in the joint. (my immediate boss was great, though). about two months into it, i started throwing up every morning before i got on the freaking subway to go to freaking work. every blessed morning. i'd wake up, make sure my daughter was still breathing, go into the bathroom, throw up, brush my teeth, brush them again, kiss my wife goodbye and stumble my way onto a 90-degree subway train for the ride to wall street.

the thing is, we needed the money and i couldn't afford to quit. my wife wasn't working, because she had to watch over our child. but i was so miserable, and so ghastly pale and sickly, that with my wife's okay, i chucked the job. and the moment i did, another door opened that i didn't even know was a door or not a door or anything. but i sailed on through, just about the happiest boy-man in brooklyn, into a new, much more fulfilling life -- one that i would never have known had i not tossed caution to the wind and dared to hit the tightrope without a net.

it worked in my case, but it doesn't work in all cases. i would say a lot of it depends on your age and of course the degree to which you hate your job. some times you have no choice. i didn't have a choice. (and my daughter has survived very nicely and recently turned 30, God love her.)

good luck in your journey. listen to all the wise words of my betters. but then realize you also sometimes have to jump ...

oh and one other thing: don't burn bridges. ever. there's always a way to leave a job so that everyone understands and wishes you well. you just have to make it so.

linter,
That was deep. Your story has just given me more motivation to work harder and get out of this rat race. As yourself, I never had physical affects to the stress of my job until recently. I get a tightness in my chest every single morning before going to work. On weekends, I do not feel anything. I know this issues revolves around stress because the more overwhelmed I become the more uncomfortable I feel. I am trying to offset this issue by working out everyday. Anyway, thanks for your sharing. I have read it more than once and every time I read it, I am gain more inspiration.

Linter thanks for taking the time to share that and being open about your experience. Sometimes my heart too isn't up for the job!

Rookie, thanks for sharing too. Indeed it is a very challenging to deal with! Sometimes talking about it makes the mind clearer and lets you get it off your chest. You are not alone in that situation!

Good original post & question - I enjoyed the reading the responses. Definitely agree with many posters that suggested a thorough review of your current $$$ situation, and some proper prayer/introspection before making any big changes. I would add that you definitely think of a plan B - if trading is not generating the $$$ you desire by the end of Year 1, what then? Good luck and happy trading!