Day to Day life of a trader.

[lususnaturae]

I've recently graduated and am considering a career in trading - but don't know much of the ups and downs of the job;

1) I understand that the job requires long working hours - roughly how many a day and how many days a week?

2) Obviously annual salary depends on achievement - but what is the average?

3) what are the general perks and hates of working as a trader?

Any thoughts or opinions are much appreciated.

 

[bfirth]

3) what are the general perks and hates of working as a trader?

the perks are being a smart ass,and the hates are getting asked questions like 1) and 2)

the ever helpfull bry. :clap:

just noticed this has been dead for 2 years, wow real smart :whistling

 

[Lord Flasheart]

Ill give you an example of what can happen. On average when I do a full day I take about 6 trades.
Monday...waited until 3 pm to have a losing trade
Tuesday.. 1st trade lost....2nd took out my stop and then went in direction of intended trade.3rd broke even.
wednesday.... 1st lost,2nd lost,3rd small profit,4th nice profit going into thursday.
thursday...trade from wednesday made good.1 other loss,1 break even
friday....and so on etc
ASK YOURSELF ARE YOU EMOTIONALLY EQUIPED TO DEAL WITH THAT.
After 3 or 4 loses we become dejected and believe what we are doing is wrong so we play around with our system.Since birth we are told to keep the pennies and watch the £s grow.Not in this game,you have to throw away the pennies and wait for the £s.We are told what goes up must come down,not in this game.All the time if a market has risen your natural instinct will tell you a short is due.
DONT WORRY ABOUT THE PERKS WORRY ABOUT GETTING YOUR HEAD STRAIGHT

 

[Omoh101]

"....DONT WORRY ABOUT THE PERKS WORRY ABOUT GETTING YOUR HEAD STRAIGHT "
So true!
I think there should be a link to this thread in the First Steps Forum

 

[leerees]

Here's my perspective on it, (as a stay at home retail trader)

Day trading needn't be long hours, it's how ever many hours you need to play your trade but make no mistake, trading is far from easy.

With regards to money that depends on your position. I place £1000 trades and on average I'd say I clear around £80 - £100 per trade, I usually make about 4 trades per week.

People might ask, is it really worth it for such little money but to be honest I've never been so passionate about anything. Job satisfaction really is the key to a happy life.

Of course being on less money I have had to budget myself, but I actually enjoy doing that aswell, I've become addicted to websites like moneysavings expert and now with all the extra cash through budgeting plus my girlfriends income we can afford to go on holiday once a month.

Now before you get the idea of laptops on beaches please do not be disillusioned into thinking trading is something you will learn in a day, it is not!

Trading isn't easy, all these adverts that talk about "realising your dream" and other such crap, let me tell you, to become a good trader prepare to be dragged to hell and back. It takes YEARS of painstaking research and practicing on paper accounts followed by loosing real money.

Lots of people give up however if you have the fire, the vision and you have the discipline you too could be making £80 a day lol, no seriously you can make a living from trading but it needs 100% commitment, it needs to become your life.

In order to become good at trading I sacrificed everything, my social life, my friends, nearlly lost my girlfriend too, but it was like a quest and at that time the only thing that mattered in life was becoming a good trader. I had literally no life because I was checking the markets, or reading RNS's and tweaking my trading strats till midnight. In the beginning I was on it 7 days a week, non stop.

Of course 2 years on things are different, I trade sparsely now and go to the gym, however I still get the urge and I'm always sneaking on the internet to look at a chart, when I know I should be spending time with people.

Good luck

 

[gamma]

Day trading needn't be long hours, it's how ever many hours you need to play your trade.

The problem I find is that I simply am addicted to the stock market, if I'm not trading then I'm reading about trading or talking about trading. Sometimes I do have to control myself as it drives my girlfriend mad!

With regards to money that depends on your position. I place £1000 trades and on average I'd say I clear around £80 - £100 per trade, I usually make about 4 trades per week. If I really need money for somthing then I will trade more often by placing riskier trades, but I rarely do this.

People might ask, is it really worth it for such little money but to be honest I've never been so passionate about anything. Job satisfaction really is the key to a happy life.

Of course being on less money I have had to budget myself, but I actually enjoy doing that aswell, I've become addicted to websites like moneysavings expert and now with all the extra cash through budgeting plus my girlfriends income we can afford to go on holiday once a month.

You must be a God if you manged to stop your partner buying hundred's of pairs of shoes.

 

[leerees]

You must be a God if you manged to stop your partner buying hundred's of pairs of shoes.

Nope, she buys shoes, funnily enough we had to go to the shoe shop this sunday, the good news is the shop we go to the average price of a pair is only £10 ;-) Spent just under £50!

 

[safvan]

Day Trading is hard, extremely hard and requires and certain mind set to win consistently. Unfortunately very few of us have that and that is why a very small percentage of the day traders actually make money.

Learn to swing trade or position trade. This is where you can earn decent money provided you have learned the right skills.

 

[happytrader8888]

Here's my perspective on it, (as a stay at home retail trader)

Day trading needn't be long hours, it's how ever many hours you need to play your trade but make no mistake, trading is far from easy.

With regards to money that depends on your position. I place £1000 trades and on average I'd say I clear around £80 - £100 per trade, I usually make about 4 trades per week.

People might ask, is it really worth it for such little money but to be honest I've never been so passionate about anything. Job satisfaction really is the key to a happy life.

Of course being on less money I have had to budget myself, but I actually enjoy doing that aswell, I've become addicted to websites like moneysavings expert and now with all the extra cash through budgeting plus my girlfriends income we can afford to go on holiday once a month.

Now before you get the idea of laptops on beaches please do not be disillusioned into thinking trading is something you will learn in a day, it is not!

Trading isn't easy, all these adverts that talk about "realising your dream" and other such crap, let me tell you, to become a good trader prepare to be dragged to hell and back. It takes YEARS of painstaking research and practicing on paper accounts followed by loosing real money.

Lots of people give up however if you have the fire, the vision and you have the discipline you too could be making £80 a day lol, no seriously you can make a living from trading but it needs 100% commitment, it needs to become your life.

In order to become good at trading I sacrificed everything, my social life, my friends, nearlly lost my girlfriend too, but it was like a quest and at that time the only thing that mattered in life was becoming a good trader. I had literally no life because I was checking the markets, or reading RNS's and tweaking my trading strats till midnight. In the beginning I was on it 7 days a week, non stop.

Of course 2 years on things are different, I trade sparsely now and go to the gym, however I still get the urge and I'm always sneaking on the internet to look at a chart, when I know I should be spending time with people.

Good luck

Great peak into how a real trader work....no doubt e real shooter.