Trading as a career .. advice please..

[PostCountWarrior[+1]]

Thank you everyone. I really appreciate your constructive feedback. I am happy that as a community everyone came and gave your sincere advise and shared your experiences. Thank you for all.

I have been working. I was retrenched recently. I am in early 50s with family (including school going kids). I have some trading experience with stocks. I was greedy. I bought a share US $0.10 cents 20K shares in 2008. it went all the way up to US$1.45 but never sell. I was greedy thinking the company has good products will reach $60. These are penny stocks. Now lost.

So my initial capital of US$35K (Invested over a period of 2005 - 2009) all busted in investing in US stocks. I have traded US stocks, and Options. Main loss came from Options.

My cash position came all the way down to US$10K. So net loss of US$23K. Past 4 months investing for short term and trading (buy and hold for couple of days and sell) I could able to make some money. Now my cash position is US$14K. So I need to be disciplined learning from the mistake.

I do not know what other financial products I should trade or invest. so evaluating. some say Forex. Another one say trade commodities. Another one say Trade index. so not sure what I should do.

Is there any course available which will introduce some of the financial products? Appreciate if anyone can guide me.

Going back to job, is another option. But at my age it can be challenging to find suitable Job when everyone wants fresher or 2 to 3 years experience.

I need to figure out what suits best me based on some of your inputs here.



Thank you once again.

I am a trader at a bank, and I would not personally advocate full time trading for a retail trader.

lets talk abt stocks since u say u trade that. Whats your size? You trade small but how much commision are you paying to the broker with your small size? when it all adds up, you may be better off buying and holding. Stocks are actually the worst commission structure as there is a min size. I can buy 100 usdjpy but when u buy 100 shares, u pay the same commssion as a 1000 share (depening on price, but you get my drift as there is a min charge).

and how do you know u r a good shares trader? some people think they are good and beat the market but actually they are buying stocks with high beta and we are in a bull market, e.g. if SPX goes up 1% but your high beta stock goes up 2-3%, you are not god, and you will suffer when SPX goes down.

u r curious abt the market and like trading and wanna know more. I get that. but you are at an age you need to save up for retirement and for your children, you cant use that money to punt the market. So please, no matter how hard it is, pls go get a full time job. taxi driver or whatever. Trading is not so simple as it seems. If its so simple, there won't be any hedge fund blow ups by ivy league educated traders. You can use say 10% of the market to punt. The rest invest in indices, and if you really wanna take on more risk, i rather u use leverage on equity indices because they are like property, no matter how much indices drop, they will recover one day as long as u have holding power. Same cannot be said if you trade forex or individual stocks.

read my thread if you want to learn more about index investing:
http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/m...ve-etf-index-fund-investors-here-4920371.html

i would have kept quiet but seeing how some people are egging you on despite you are in your 50s, with children and jobless, I realise I must really speak up and discourage you. Caveat is of course you are so danm rich with 1million cash and even if you lose 30% punting the market, you don't mind. Otherwise, please do me a favour and get this full time trading idea out of your mind please.

 

[winorlose]

Btw, 1 of my dad's friend loss 500k punting mirach energy back in its hay days. He sold his commerical space for a profit and lost it within a year in Mirach Energy.. Now driving taxi.. Sad, Dont say, my dad losses about a million liao. All thanks to a towkay whose connections all gone haywire about ABL even though not connected to ABL.

When days are good, all go nightclub give out tips to atb. Now... Pui chao nua.. Haha

 

[ValueInvestor]

during 2006 to 2007 super bull
Many of my friends quit their job to trade full time
Money was so easy and most of them became millionaires

After 2009 all when back to work, in their mid 30s

True story bro

 

[mrwonderful]

The 3 points you highlighted are the reasons why technicians absolutely love fundamentalists.

Just let others who don't know how to do it, teach. There are always intrinsic / psychological reasons why they want to advocate ideas.

Sorry, not sure what you mean by technicians love fundamentalists.

Myself, my method of trading honed over the years is quite unorthodox --Some people might feel it's not suited for them. I don't believe in charts, technicals, and stuff. In fact, I believe going by technicals is dangerous: Some of these 'technicial analysts' will say Kepcorp $8.00 is strong support / plus nice round number, lucky number, etc... earlier this week (Tuesday?) the BBs just sold down that support instantly at market open, made quick money off these technicians. Same as Noble 0.48, etc.

Anyway like PCW+1 mentioned above, I agree that trading as a career because you are desperate and out of options is dangerous. Worse is you give yourself targets to hit every month. I wrote the stuff above not just for TS (if he is die die want to become a fulltime/parttime trader), but for anybody else who wants to trade or even for long term investing.

 

[lunafan]

during 2006 to 2007 super bull
Many of my friends quit their job to trade full time
Money was so easy and most of them became millionaires

After 2009 all when back to work, in their mid 30s

True story bro

haha I'm one living example.
Opened multiple brokerage accounts to increase my credit limit.
Was easily making like $1000+ per day on contra.
The going was so good, I almost wanted to quit my job and trade full time.... then the crash came. I didn't believe my luck and continued to long. Lost all the money I made and then I went and short. Made small amount and was issued with warning from MAS

 

[maxinger]

Below is my daily futures trading profits for the month of Jul 15, trading with 1 lot per click of the mouse. I am a full time self employed futures day trader with 11 years experience. My trading capital is about $110K. Most of my daily profits/losses comes from Nikkei 225 futures contract, which is my main focus. Once a while I would scalp other contracts like HSI, SIMSCI, NQ & DAX for quick profits.

Week Ending 03 Jul 15
Wednesday $50.00
Thursday $450.00
Friday $0.00

Week Ending 10 Jul 15
Monday $850.00
Tuesday $600.00
Wednesday $1,250.00
Thursday $2,000.00
Friday $700.00

Week Ending 17 Jul 15
Monday $1400.00
Tuesday $600.00
Wednesday $200.00
Thursday $500.00
Friday $0.00

Week Ending 24 Jul 15
Monday $400.00
Tuesday $50.00
Wednesday $50.00
Thursday -$150.00
Friday $50.00

Week Ending 31 Jul 15
Monday $350.00
Tuesday $250.00
Wednesday $50.00
Thursday -$50.00
Friday $150.00

Total profits for Jul15 is $9,750.00.

As I did not hold more than 10 lots Nikkei 225 futures at a time and traded with 1 lot per click default size, the results shown above can be achieved with S$30K trading capital, provided you are an SGX derivatives trading member clearing through a local broker like Phillips Futures or KGI Ong.

For most new full time traders, their chances of being a net winner is probably less than 5% within the first 1-2 years.

u are doing very well !

 

[maxinger]

so is trading risky ?

very simple question.

Let's say u got kidney problem and u need surgery.
If u get kidney surgeon to do for your you, then very low risk.
If u get us to do for you, then extremely extremely high risk.

so if u know how to trade, then very low risk.
if u don't know how to trade, then very high risk.

 

[Tony Sim]

From my own personal experience:-

When you have a small capital base (<$100K), to be successful in trading is difficult as you would need to take up lots of higher risk positions in order to achieve very high rates of returns (to sustain yourself and your family).

When you have a mid-size capital base (~$500K), it is relatively easier to be successful in trading as you can afford to go for lower risk positions to achieve a lower rate of returns (probably 6-8% returns).

When you have a large capital base (~$1M), you could probably be an investor instead and not have to do much trading.

 

[ValueInvestor]

From my own personal experience:-

When you have a small capital base (<$100K), to be successful in trading is difficult as you would need to take up lots of higher risk positions in order to achieve very high rates of returns (to sustain yourself and your family).

When you have a mid-size capital base (~$500K), it is relatively easier to be successful in trading as you can afford to go for lower risk positions to achieve a lower rate of returns (probably 6-8% returns).

When you have a large capital base (~$1M), you could probably be an investor instead and not have to do much trading.

if got 1 billion dollars, park in government bonds and retire shiok shiok liao

 

[ValueInvestor]

haha I'm one living example.
Opened multiple brokerage accounts to increase my credit limit.
Was easily making like $1000+ per day on contra.
The going was so good, I almost wanted to quit my job and trade full time.... then the crash came. I didn't believe my luck and continued to long. Lost all the money I made and then I went and short. Made small amount and was issued with warning from MAS

yeah, during the good bull days~ every week sure max limit to contra....keep repeating... like a machine that spits out $$$ lol

 

[Sinkie]

haha I'm one living example.
Opened multiple brokerage accounts to increase my credit limit.
Was easily making like $1000+ per day on contra.
The going was so good, I almost wanted to quit my job and trade full time.... then the crash came. I didn't believe my luck and continued to long. Lost all the money I made and then I went and short. Made small amount and was issued with warning from MAS

the good old time during 2007 time right

close eye and hoot, sure can win. no need stop loss one.

lose le, close eye and wait, sure come back

 

[maxinger]

the good old time during 2007 time right

close eye and hoot, sure can win. no need stop loss one.

lose le, close eye and wait, sure come back

yep. 2007 people closed eyes and hoot and people earn $$$.

2008 people closed eyes and unhoot and people also earn $$$.

price goes up people earn $$$.
price goes down people also earn $$$.

 

[seabiscuit]

Any full time traders there? I am planning to move into full time trading.

Please share your experience and advise..

With so many choices Forex, Commodity, Stocks, Warrants, Options, etc which one works for you or your known friends?

My current goal is to make S$100 per day.

Appreciate your inputs.


Thank you.

Just wonder how much you willing to lose to make the $100 profit? Do you have trade records to tell yourself your trades winning probability? If your winning probability is more than 50% your survival chance is higher in the long run.

 

[bbq_squid]

If you are in your twenties freshly out of college and want to get into trading, join a firm to do it, can be banks, hedge funds, market makers, HFT firms. Join the right firm - must be an established firm. Look at the credentials of their current employees.

If you are in your thirties and have been working for sometime in other profession and is thinking about getting into trading, trade part time while holding your full time job. When you are profitable consistently for a year then consider going full time. You would probably not be employed by any firm to as a trader since they prefer people who are young and who can work night shifts. They generally want fresh people who don't have their own style of trading already; so they have a clean slate to train.

If you are in your late forties/fifties with families and financial responsibilities and have never been profitable for an extended amount of time, to be honest it is really unlikely you will make it in trading. You would not have the energy and time and even health to devote yourself to master trading. It is wiser to explore other options

 

[lunafan]

the good old time during 2007 time right

close eye and hoot, sure can win. no need stop loss one.

lose le, close eye and wait, sure come back

yeah during those time, just contra all the way
make free money out of zero capital
luckily I didn't go out and spend all my earnings because I was made to spit everything back out soon lol

 

[lcornwisky]

I have friends making 10k USD per day

Sent from Asus ASUS_Z00AD using GAGT

 

[lcornwisky]

And its not in the Singapore market

Sent from Asus ASUS_Z00AD using GAGT

 

[lcornwisky]

Btw google Kathy lien

Sent from Asus ASUS_Z00AD using GAGT

 

[lcornwisky]

Btw, 1 of my dad's friend loss 500k punting mirach energy back in its hay days. He sold his commerical space for a profit and lost it within a year in Mirach Energy.. Now driving taxi.. Sad, Dont say, my dad losses about a million liao. All thanks to a towkay whose connections all gone haywire about ABL even though not connected to ABL.

When days are good, all go nightclub give out tips to atb. Now... Pui chao nua.. Haha

Agree there is rush

Sent from Asus ASUS_Z00AD using GAGT

 

[ValueInvestor]

I have friends making 10k USD per day

Sent from Asus ASUS_Z00AD using GAGT

thats like 3.6 million a year?

cool story bro