Hello Castor,
for what it's worth, here are my thoughts and they come from my
personal experience. Like many other things about trading, don't let anyone tell you it can't be done. But also, don't let anyone tell you it's a piece of cake.
In march 2012, myself & my fiancèe were left without a job and have not been able to find one since - the situation in Italy is quite difficult at the moment. I had traded the markets for a little bit and had been a broker with a boutique fx shop here in Italy for a couple of years before that and even if I had studied indicators and watched price action for that time, I was never put in the position to extract capital from the markets on an onging basis. It was always a sort of "plan B" if all else failed. In March, my fiancèe (which has no financial background, but has a talent for "hand on" jobs like trading, where you learn from experience) and I decided to give it a shot, and our situation was as such:
1) a small retail account with half of my savings in it.
2) No living expenses (we are in the same house as my parents) except for food, cosmetics, gifts, accessories, clothing, etc.
3) We gave ourselves 1 year to get this show on the road, and made a deal with my parents that we would look for
any type of job if we failed.
Here is what our pip-count looked like from march 2012 to march 2013. Not a pretty picture, but the turnaround which happened in october 2012 was enough to keep us motivated and to keep my parents interested.
But that image does not take into account the emotional situation we carry with us every day, since we're not out of the woods yet. So consider the following before attempting to trade for a living:
1) how much capital do you have available, that can be used as a cushion while you get your barings? Cut all the excess expenses and give yourself a realistic picture of how long you can last before having to throw in the towel.
2) Does your wife approve? She can help you stay focused and disciplined, or help you get back on your feet when the times get tough if she's a part of the project and not just a spectator.
3) Realistically, the keys to surviving in this environment are consistency & discipline. Finding something that works, like the model presented in this forum, and working it over & over to see if it suits you. It may not, and you may have to find a different approach. That will take more time & capital from you. And emotional fatigue. You
must be consistent with an approach, before deciding to trade for a living (i wish I had learned these things earlier, but I was young...)
4) Do not think that your performance will rise by trading intraday. I thought that way too, but finding an intraday approach that works for you is much more difficult than trading daily. The performance is more likely to suffer, rather than benfit, from an intraday approach - unless of course you've already got one and are already trading one.
5) If you're profitable with the daily, why change? Keep your job & keep trading daily! Just increase the size a little.
6) Performance will depend on the risk allocated to each trade, and your trade selection. Which, of course, will depend on the market during each week. Don't expect to get up, turn on the screens, and plug away. In my experience, at least, it doesn't work that way. I have found that the less I trade, and the more i focus on the higher time frames, the more successful i am.
7) Remember that this job is extremely difficult, and you may get very frustrated at times. Do not expect to grow rich doing this, because in my experience, the first year is all about surviving & learning, and then deciding whether it's for you. It's not a job for everyone, just like plumbing or cutting hair or having a bakery.
Myself & my fiancèe really think you should stay very realistic, and at the very least have:
1) a consistent approach
2) a large account balance with your broker, which you should be able to loose without it changing your living standards. The larger your account balance, the less of it you will have to risk per each trade, in order to rake in enough to cover living expenses. If, for example, you have a 10k account, and you need say 1k per month to break even on the expenses, than you need to make a 10% return that month...which is huge. It can be done, of course, but realistically speaking, you would have to double your account over the course of the year just to break even! Match that with a 50k account, where all you need is 2% per month to break even...
3) the emotional stability to do this job
4) a pre-defined amount of time to prove to yourself you can do it (for me & my fiancèe it was 1 year).
How do you know it's for you, even if you're breaking even after a shorter period of time? Well, it's like finding your soulmate: you just know... but you may also find it's like trying to date a supermodel...it may look great from the outside, but when it's you having to put up with her, you may find she's not for you.
Please forgive this enormous rant but it comes from my own experience & I hope it helps put things into perspective.
Good Luck castor!
