Trading for a living, really?

Are you one of the chaps that are tempted to give a shot of trying out day-trading to earn a living? 2020, 2021 were badly affected by the COVID-19 Pandemic, people have lost their jobs and are trying all sorts of ways to try to boost their whatever little income they can make and day-trade might be an avenue for them. But, before the pandemic hits, I was already trying to dabble with trading as I was hoping there was an easier way for me to earn money and spend quality time with my family and friends. And the conclusion was, I failed terribly and I regret getting onto trading ever.

Before you try, out trading you might want to check out various investing and trading webpages such as investopedia or daytrading.com.

What is day-trading?

Day-trading simply refers to the trading in the financial markets and executing the trades fast (usually within the day) in hope for a profit. This can include gold, stocks, Forex, oil and more. Forex is one of the most common day-traded market due to the fact that the market is extremely volatile and in the financial markets, there are brokers that offer high leverage, making it possible for you to make several hundreds of dollars a day with a small sum of money (a few hundreds to a few thousands). As per all form of financial commitments, the higher percentile of returns, the higher the risk. It's just like going to the casino, you know that by placing a bet on a table game, you have approximately 48% to 49% chance to double your money. However, if you treat day-trading as a form of gambling, you are in for a hell of a rollercoaster emotional ride.

I am not implying that trading for a living cannot be reality. It could be, there are many reputable traders out there that are trading for a living and teaching others to trade for a living. However, what I am sharing next is a piece of life lesson of mine.

As a curious young individual who had been trying to explore of ways to earn extra cash or find ways to replace my current income, trading is one of the things I've tried and fail many times.

In the alluring fantastic world of finance where a bitcoin broke $50,000, the ultimate temptation and desire of getting rich through trading is very real.

I have dabbled with CFDs, forex options and took on huge leverages and I had lost count of how much monies I had made. More so the amount of monies that I had lost. In the world of trading, it is always a money out and money in thing. If you can achieve 100% winning trades, you are achieving the impossible and that is a feat to be in awe of!

I first got involved with trading in 2015, dabbling with CFDs, inspired by a friend/colleague who had made a small fortune through trading. I tried CFD for a bit but did not achieve much success. After getting into CFD for a while, I came across this beautiful 5 letters game, FOREX.

I decided to put my monies into it, lots of it, and I really meant lots of it. I started to read up on the candle stick theories, resistance zone, news trading, etc etc. Heck, I bet I read more books than I ever did during my studies. I even sold the blue-chip stocks I held onto as retirement investment to try out this game of FOREX which cost me my early retirement.

The largest trade that I lost was approximately twenty thousand dollars and I have had obscene gains of more than thirty thousand dollars a day. I risked too much and I went into gambling mode.

By my conservative estimate, I have probably lost over a hundred thousand dollars through trading over the last five to six years and till date, I am regretting daily on my poor choice of money options. Oh well, with the on-going pandemic, things just don't seem to be any brighter. But hey! On the bright side, my career was still doing fine in this tough times and my salary had risen quite a fair bit and despite my losses, I was able to finance my house and car still with my earnings, but I must have set myself back from retirement a couple o years. And being in my current job, I seriously hoped that I can retire early than later. But as the general saying goes, when you rush into things, things tend to screw up. So as Yoda would tell the young Anakin, patience young one. The philosophy of being a Jedi is actually so much akin to philosophy of a hunter of success. Success don't come over night, unless you bought bitcoin but that also took several years. Patience is key for you to do well and succeed in whatever you want to try to do.

After years of losing money and sleepless nights, the main lesson for me was that trading is not for the everyday person. Money comes easily and go off easily too. It is only with top discipline and emotional control that you can make a living off markets.

After years of losing money and sleepless nights, the main lesson for me was that trading is not for the everyday person. Money comes easily and go off easily too. It is only with top discipline and emotional control that you can make a living off the financial markets.

I have decided to stop trading as an attempt for alternate source of income. What about you? Are you trading and doing well?

Hope to hear your inputs!

Be a better man

Leo