No day in trading is satisfying. When you make money, you didn't make enough; when you lose money, you never should have lost money in the first place. That being said, I wouldn't want to live any other way.
There's more than one way to make a buck in this world. Some of these paths lead to something we as a society like to call "financial freedom."
Nothing is more indicative of the American Dream than scaling the summit of business and attaining this much vaunted goal. This dream is becoming ever more a Global Dream, as more and more countries and people come online to the world-wide financial system; getting rich and living a good life are becoming universal goals.
While there are indeed many professions that could ultimately lead to financial freedom in the future, very few, however, allow for freedom along the journey to this goal as well.
Many times, professionals find themselves beholden to a boss, a client, or someone else that controls the power to sign paychecks and affect general well-being. Even though bank accounts may grow, professionals may see their real freedom of thought and action slowly erode as they become more adapted to the culture that sustains them.
These are the proverbial golden handcuffs.
Trading, however, is a different way to make a living. Traders define the game they wish to play and share many things in common with entrepreneurs. This shouldn't come as a surprise: traders need to treat their operations like a business and focus on the bottom line.
This intellectual freedom can come at a burden, however; the shrewd market operator must have the intellectual flexibility to abandon an idea that doesn't work anymore, regardless of how well it has performed in the past or the personal effort already expended supporting the idea.
Unprofitable trading strategies need to be tossed aside just as a successful business divests or abandons unproductive projects and investments.
Stubbornness should never be confused with discipline: sticking to an idea who's time has come and gone is tantamount to being out of control.
This isn't to say a trader is an island, entire of itself. Far from it, traders are free because they are beholden to everyone else in the market.
An Exchange organization provides a bridge to connect all market participants via the act of trading. In being dependent on everyone else in the market in a small way, traders gain an ironic sort of freedom of thought and action. This is the effect of decentralization which can benefit all market participants.
This has the effect of sterilizing some of the need for interpersonal communication... Even if you hate the trader standing across the pit, you can still trade with him, or you can trade with other people around him.
In an electronic market you don't even see who you're trading against. This can create the illusion that the trader is indeed an island. It has the everyday effect of allowing a speculator an unparalleled freedom of thought and the ability to take large intellectual risks without much personal or career risk.
This contrasts heavily with other professions. In the extreme case, a worker's paycheck could be at the discretion of one individual. In this instance, interpersonal communication probably matters more than actual performance. Many workers must actively manage the expectations of a group of taskmasters who control the feeding tubes.
In many firms there is a mismatch between time cycles: e.g. a worker might see a boss everyday but get a yearly performance review. Bullshit can exist for much, much longer in this kind of environment than in the trading floor; PnL is the ultimate clarification and is computed in real-time for traders. This, as it turns out, provides a luxury of certainty that is very rare in this world.
This is nice read article although I can say that I am not a trader. I am an investor in nature and wait for the long-term for high rewards in the long run. I often study and research before immersing myself in any investment. Like Warren Buffett said if you cannot hold it for 10 years don't ever think of holding it for 10 minutes.
interesting comment! investing definitely offers a different perspective... but I think there's a lot of overlap between trading and investing from a psychological / freedom standpoint. its really just the time-frames and the amount of money you're aiming for. not that the time frame doesn't change your perspective; as an investor you might have 10-20 signals per year while a trader might get 10-20 signals per day ;-)
Thanks for awesome reply my friend. I followed you from now on. So we can be rich in crypto together😀😀😀
These are two different approaches, they work with different timeframes and are not mutually exclusive.
Boy that opening is so true it hurts...
certainly feeling that "cant get no satisfaction" moment today, as one side of the portfolio does a sommersault while the other grinds in place...
I JUST don't like Crypto-traders that much because, they claim to be anti-establishment Crypto rebels and yet 99% worse mentality (GREED) than Wall Street traders.
Yes I've GREED too, I want to make many of people life better by adding value. So Invest in projects/people who has/have the potentional to add more value to peoples life. Proud to be Value-Invester.
Can't wait for more people use DEX (decentralised exchange) and we'll make sure there is much money to be made by being a crypto trader.
I truly believe that most traders will trade nuclear bombs as long as the trade make them money. They care less about what they trade.
I just don't like your mentality and most of them are doing bad and bad things come to you sooner than later.
@nathanmars:
I thought like you some time ago, but then, "Hey! They are greedy, but they are a necessary part of the system, not the best part, of course, you need doctors and they are better, but if you don't have volume of money moving between places you wouldn't have liquidity in this decentralized exchangers."
But "bad things"? I believe there are worst things like big bad people with a nuclear power button, crazy people, you know, the kind of people that thinks that they're better than everybody in this room and in the next room.
Talking about trading is a thing I really like, I myself also have business in the field of making Aceh motif bag. but I still need a lot of capital to make my business become more advanced, but although I do not have the capital I can still be patient, hopefully the future can be better. thank you for sharing your story and providing information. I am very happy to get to know you my friend, all the best for you.
likewise! best of luck in your biz!
patience is tough but as warren buffet said (and i paraphrase) "the most money i ever made was while sitting on my hands"
Why do I keep seeing this word in all the places it doesn't belong?
Great write up! Pretty much sums it up about trading as a profession. The freedom does sometimes come at a hefty price for those who are not fully emotionally disassociated from their trading portfolios.
Do you trade forex/equities as well? And are you more of an algorithm trader or do you trade manually?
before i traded crypto I ran an institutional trading desk that made markets in global fixed income futures, nowadays my time is 100% crypto however
algo's all the way... i started trading manually back in the day... i was not comp sci or anything i just learned to program from the internet in response to the fact that I couldn't get a fill manually anymore, that was 2008 i think...
Great to see established talent from the financial industry on here.
Yeah, almost all trading is now done through algorithms, so being a system(s) trader is key nowadays.
I can't wait to get learning. I've been intimidated to trade. Not quite sure where to begin, but I love the impression you pose here @marketstack..
i started here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reminiscences_of_a_Stock_Operator
first book i ever read on trading
@marketstack thank you thank you thank you!
Thanks @marketstack for sharing this amazing piece on trading!
You just highlighted the most important key in trading.....like me for instance i hate trading though my mum is a trader, i want to be a salary worker.
But as times goes on and maturity set in, i realized that trading is the best work anyone can do, not only it gives immediate feedback/returns, you become a boss of your own who controls his/her time.
Not all traders feel that way, especially the ones that have been burned (and there are many of them). As noted, discipline is huge and probably the most important piece to successful trading. And as @marketstack mentions, it's important to be flexible in your strategies. Too many people get in on good ideas, but never let go, even if the idea tanks. You don't have to go down with the ship.
interesting to hear! thats kind of what i love the most, is the immediacy of the feedback... so many pursuits in life you 1) make a decision then 2) wait and wait and wait and wait for whether or not it was the right thing to do... not so in trading!!!! your decisions smack u right in the face sometimes, other times they make u levitate... LOL
Lol!
You are right....but the gain is much compare to what we lose sometimes.....if am ask to make a choice about my career, i would have chosen the path of trading
Important post. Thanks for sharing your valuable post❤
True talk trading makes you your own boss. And you dont have to leave your house, i take my breakfast and trade binary same time its amazing @joagawu. Greetings from @ayahlistic
I sight you @ayahlistic
Thanks for your nice comment
I know a girl named Gina, from Brandoa, in Portugal, that does other kind of trade.
Interesting to note that you hate trading because your mum trade - I told my daughter, "why not you try trading? You can earn some money so you can pay for college later on." She replied: "why is it always about money with you? I don't want to trade. I want to do other things.."
Different post discussions from different types of business as a trader in this post, why there is more detail in this topic, and ultimately its subject matter activities are so beautifully described which would be good for everyone, in the training of some time possible, or how the money was lost in the organization Haranani has several ways to cut down and the final business of business The goal of life of many people in the World Cup is to become financially successful online. One of the most prominent personalities in the profession of Moni has been supported by the idea of personal effort towards respecting the culture etc. The techniques are well-described. Most of the time, there are similarities between the workers in the workforce. Worker
This comment has received a 0.28 % upvote from @booster thanks to: @isabella69.
Work can be very enjoyable but unfortunately having a boss does tend to reduce the amount of fun considerably and can even lead to resignation.
With trading you are your own boss which can be both a good or a bad thing personally I welcome the responsibility and have been well rewarded along the way growing more as a person than financially although I'm sure that will come as my decision making is getting a lot better.
FYI I recommend shorting bitcoin cash today :p
I've been a full time trader for last 10+ yrs..
Nice article!
I agree with your statement. I've seen so many traders with stubbornness..
Upvoted & resteemed it!
trade on, trader!
I 've been trading part time for more than 10+ yrs. Never dared to do it full time because I was waiting to see if I could ever earn a decent living from it. I guess I am one of those stubborn people that never learn.
Here's a trade I am still stubborn about. (at Etoro) What do you think? Get out or stay on?
imo if you've already lost that much you might as well keep HODLing until you either lose everything or go back into the black. Key to remember is never to take out a position that you cannot afford to lose. It makes situations like yours much easier to navigate
thanks for the tip. This is a CFD of the german index. I pay fees for each day that I hang on to this position. i should have gone out when I had the chance last week.
Incredible post! I too am a trader/investor, and I couldn't see my self doing anything else in the world besides trading! I'd like to add on to what you said and share a short excerpt from one of my favorite books about investing:
"Most important of all, however, is the fact that investing is fun. It's fun to pit your intellect against that of the vast investment community and to find yourself rewarded with an increase in assets. It's exciting to review your investment returns and to see how they are accumulating at a faster rate than your salary. And it's also stimulating to learn about new ideas for products and services, and innovations in the forms of financial investments. A successful investor is generally a well-rounded individual who puts a natural curiosity and an intellectual interest to work to earn more money."
The excerpt is from A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton G. Malkiel
couldn't agree more. its monetizing natural curiosity
people always wonder how traders / investors can work so much... for the right kind of person its not work its fun LOL
Really interesting article. My father was a trader all his life, and my pre-children career was back office so I have spent my whole life surrounded by market movements, types of trades and lived and been involved in the likes of the tin and copper crisis. But now markets FEEL different. They seem to respond differently; where some things used to move contrary to others they now move in sync?!?! It seems things rise in a market where research and logic suggest that it should be falling .... sometimes I think the movements seem independent of the global economic analysis .....
Is it just me or are the markets a little screwy?
commodities!! very cool... i traded ag futures for a brief time back in the day
re the "markets feel different comment" they probably are!!
this is the concept of "regime change" or "market epochs" see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regime_shift
in other words the market acts under one set of rules for a time then abruptly transitions into another type of environment.
i have to explicitly build into my robots this idea that what has worked may not continue into the future and to be adaptive, but it aint ez for sure
so much machine learning these days also explicitly relies on things staying the same for long periods of time. in stats we call it stationarity, and we rarely find it in the markets!! ;-)
Commodities are great fun but not all commodities contracts were created equal. I am forever shouting at the TV journalists who don't make clear distinctions between LME style trading where there is an actual lump of metal and gold trading where there is ... well ... sort of nothing behind it.
I feel incredibly ignorant about algorithmic trading strategies, it is definitely something I need to learn about. Perhaps my view of trading is a little Jurassic... I suppose to me a strike at a mine would affect the price of the metal, but now it seems that the volume of trade resulting from the strike at the mine is the market mover, not the strike itself! There is probably no need to even be aware of the strike, just the consequences.
(I am supposed to be writing a talk at the moment and all I want to do is start researching more about this... steemit does tend to throw me of focus sometimes.)
Thank you for the article @marketstack . Trading is the first thing that has ever interested me on a professional level. It can also be the most frustrating thing I've ever done at times.. but even when I'm feeling down, angry, annoyed, or depressed.. at least I'm feeling something.. which is more than I can say about any other job I've ever done.
me 2!
me 2 LOL
yeah real jobs are the pits. i don't think i could handle one anymore... been in the wild too long
as we both i think kno too well, there's no psychological free lunches. freedom of thought comes with a price of having to deal with a lot of pain at times...
Interesting article. You're right. All bosses want employees to work for free. But people want a good life, money, freedom ... I support you!
corollary: ppl wanna be bosses!
only if they are good at leading
Great article.I really like the comparison to the island that you used.Indeed trading and crypto in general can give us freedom in many meanings.The possibilities we get from them are amazing and if you are taking your actions wisely you will for sure achieve financial freedom at some point.Thanks for your interesting thoughts🤗
thanks for ur feedback
Great inspiring and valuable content for a trader @marketstack. I believe that a professional trader thrown around quite a bit. Pundits seem to enjoy pointing out the foibles of the retail trader while facing Wall Street thrice daily and bowing down to the brilliance and elegance of the professional trader.
true true, at the end of the day, pro or retail, we're all only as good as our last trade...
Before all, I knew Bitcoin, then my vision of the world changed bruptly, one year ago I understand the fundamentals of TA, then how to be a good trader, it's not that hard, I mean, even a monkey can do it in this crypto world.
Best thing of this? I think this proves that with this new technologies you don't have to be a big fish to invest in projects you like. It's a game changer for the current elites, the wealth distribution that we are being witness is the best thing about trading, THAT MAKES ME HAPPY.
I know a girl named Gina, from Brandoa, in Portugal, that does other kind of trade.
Thanks for that eye opener concerning trading in the realworld and its uniqueness, i can say there are many factors which are dependent on making trade unique and these include
@The time frame for which companies or equity markets sell their stock
@The rate of turn over which commodities move in a given market system.
@Unforeseen factors like climate changes and other contingencies.
Nicely put. I wouldn't have put it any other way. I would have liked to write something like this but I would not be able to articulate myself so well like this. Thank you @marketstack.
Hmm not sure I agree 😊
Amazing article. Beautiful writing. I really agree with you. Everyone has life. They want to make it good. All they want freedome, money, success. Thank you so much for sharing sir @marketstack.
I can't agree any more with your writing. For me, becoming a trader and living out of it is much harder than succeeding at business.
When trading, you are alone, you can, of course, learn Technical Analysis; but at the end of the day you have to take the decisions on your own, let me tell you why:
First book I read and got me in?
Trading in the Zone, from Mark Douglas
its better to do other thing then trading
꾸욱.들렸다가요
Trade like a Business!
Thanks for sharing such an inspiring idea!
Inspiring @marketstack the journey to financial freedom is a journey not a walk through. Traders/enterpreneur must be ready to pay the price to win the prize. Thank u
Financial freedom one of the most important thing in life to live. trade helps one to gain financial freedom. In our life trade plays an important role for gaining financial freedom.
Thanks for this great information
trading is risky but if we remain always on the safe side, soon we look back and regret the way we live. The journey of financial freedom is simple but not easy...
Well explained, informative and quite appreciable
That's interesting thanks a lot
Thankyou for sharring this I learned a lot from what you said
a good blog post is very interesting I love it. Thanks you.
Kindly follow me and up vote thanks in advance buddy
Yes, right.. Better we have own small business though .. Because even our own will be the boss
Interesting article.I've been a full time trader for last 5+ yrs. success always for you frend
Inspiring, thank you for the article @marketstack. And sometimes we need to isolate in the financial island, even isolating from some people in order do protect our mind, our beloved ones and our focus.
While there are indeed many professions that could ultimately lead to financial freedom in the future, very few, however, allow for freedom along the journey to this goal as well.
Je perefere pouvoir mener la vie que je veux ! Que d etre riche !!
Et il y a mieux que le trade , dans les cryptocoins....
EARN 10% DAILY https://yobit.io/?bonus=fvhEK
EARN 10% DAILY https://yobit.io/?bonus=fvhEK.png)
Interesting article. You're right. All bosses want employees to work for free. But people want a good life, money, freedom ... I support you! Great inspiring and valuable content for a trader. Great write up! Trade like a Business! Financial freedom one of the most important thing in life to live. trade helps one to gain financial freedom. In our life trade plays an important role for gaining financial freedom.
i like your experience
Your post is interesting and great
Really awesome and timely post. The ruling class always wants to earn more labor at a lower price. General people want a meaningful life.
Can hardly wait for more individuals utilize DEX (decentralized trade) and we'll ensure there is much cash to be made by being a crypto broker.
I genuinely trust that most dealers will exchange atomic bombs as long as the exchange profit. They think less about what they exchange.
I simply don't care for your mindset and the majority of them are doing awful and terrible things come to you
Thanks for good article it true that to be employed by some one is so tough that to and always the bosses can not pay you the same amount you make for the company. It is better to start up your small business and use good strategy to grow up that will be a good idea and not wast time for working and making the rich to someone.