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Community


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Online Share Trading

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To All Day traders

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Mr_Money
Regular Contributor
Guys , what is it like actually being a full time trader? When do you go on holidays , how do you guys manage to budget for monthly payments? Is it boring or is it exciting ? I am a long term investor so day traders please provide some advice?
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25 REPLIES 25
saash
Super Contributor
Yes - I'd love to hear some advice on this too - but are there any full time day traders on this site? I'm thinking of becoming one - very unsure.
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Mr_Money
Regular Contributor
I also intend becoming a full time day trader , so unsure as well
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SimonPB
Valued Contributor
well before you can become a day trader, do you make money trading longer term an less trades ??
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Not applicable
see what happens when you are a trader? You can't leave the office - why just last night I heard that Simon was going to be out hte office
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kwagga
Super Contributor
We'll why don't you guys get your IT environments set up, your strategies in place, take leave for two weeks and try it at home. I did it and boy was it an eye opener. Lot tougher mentally then I anticipated. Still want to do it full time, but getting paid a salary and still trading (less trades) is currently working for me. Just the thought of being part of the rat race makes me nauseous, but if the pimp (company) pays, whoring (working) for a while until you can do your own thing is one of the very few options available to you.omo
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kwagga
Super Contributor
I still think South Africa is missing a Paul Rotter.
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saash
Super Contributor
But if that be the case Simon - we may as well stay in our jobs - cos we can hold long term positions, and hold down a job - and earn good money doing both - like you do!
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Not applicable
Being a full time day trader is hard on the nervous system. Been one now for 10 years and have aged 50 during that time. But you are your own Boss and you can have holidays whenever you please. But you have to be dedicated.
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Werner_1
Super Contributor
day trading is a full time job, so there is nothing different to a job and day trading - both take same time and effort.
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Russ
Super Contributor
Are there any day traders out there over the age of 35 who don't have grey hair?
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HateGauteng
Super Contributor
Hey. Fancy this topic should come up. I told the boss that I'm outta on Friday want to move out of Gauteng and take my chances in KZN as a daytrader. There's also a female that I met on the internet, who's keen on getting married. Let's see how this works out but she is highly intelligent (ENT Specialist) and pretty well off. So my aims are 1: Marry money and so explicitly though to us at the OST courses and 2: It galls me to be supported by a woman so I need to show more profit on my daytrading. Hopefully I'll be outta Gauteng and outta work by the end Oct and on the KZN S. Coast. I'm pulling the pension fund so that'll give me about R150K after tax. I'll keep R100K for trading and need the R50K for car and insurance installments. So yeh! I've got my fingers crossed!!!
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saash
Super Contributor
Nonsense - If I trade my office only opens at 9am - I can play games or design presentations while the market is parking off and no-one will come stare over my shoulder wondering what I'm doing. I get leave on public holidays, weekends, and whenever I over-shoot my target for the week. I never have to work overtime. I never have deadlines. If I wanna go on a holiday - I just have to ask if the hotel has WiFi - no matter where in the world I choose to go :-) I don't have to sit in Sandton traffic :-) I can go to gym and play Golf whenever I reach my targets ... My career, as much as I love it, is NOT this flexible.
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Mr_Money
Regular Contributor
How much start up money is required?
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Not applicable
A decent start should be around 100k.. Offcourse, thats the minimum
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jack12
Super Contributor
Yip, going grey wasnt my problem, pulling it out was, so at 34 was bald!!! mmmmm...now does that not make you think?
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SimonPB
Valued Contributor
saaaash ... worng .. wrong .. the futures opens at 8.30, you need to be ready for the days trading by then, so at deak 7 or maybe 8 depending on systems .. then market closes at 5.30 now you start your admin, depending how many trades you did this could take hours .. best day trader I iknow starts his day at 7am and ends most days around 11pn .. an when market open you're not leaving your screen, the chappie above stopped drinking cofee as toilet breaks lost him money .. no playing games, no coffee with a friend as you're trading .. an so on ..

reality is that true day trading is hard work, very rewarding but very hard .. rather aim to be a lazy trader, now that is low effort ..

an as foer the taking two weeks off work .. that doesn't work at all, except to show the challenges to a degree .. but it is play play, not reality ..
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SimonPB
Valued Contributor
decent starting amount is R1million ..
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KVW
Super Contributor
100K not near enough to support, what would you be looking at trying to get as a monthly income 10-15%? Every month and realise that everytime you draw you actually putting yourself in a weaker position, especially if it's maybe a strong bull, a strong bear and your always behind. I would say to be a full time trader that pulls a 15K salary and still grow your postion, you would prob need about a 1 bar+ cash flow. 1 bar+10%/month less 15K gives you a month gain on captial of 8.5% which puts your following months needed return to roughly 9% if you aim for a fixed monthly return, which highly suggested as you would have strong entry and exit points. So in theory, it becomes easier with time and I would say change you plan on a annual basis.
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Mr_Money
Regular Contributor
I would agree with Simon , 1 million. Trade big amounts , but trade few times on big pullbacks
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