Trading On A Full Time Basis And Deciding When To Quit Your Job

Many years ago I made the bold decision to try and become a full time trader. In the six months prior to this I had saved up all my earnings from the factory job that I had at the time, so that I had a decent trading pot to start off with. So I am in a fairly good position to talk about whether or not you should give up your full time job to pursue a career in trading.

In many ways I was actually quite lucky because after failing to get a job as an accountant, I settled for some basic factory work just to earn some money. Therefore it wasn't really that big a deal when I quit this job because I knew I could always get other work in my area if things don't go to plan.

Fortunately things did go pretty well and although there have been a lot of setbacks along the way, I have managed to make a decent living from both stock market investing and forex trading. However I do not want to give the impression that it is easy, or that everyone should do this because not everyone is in the same position.

Some people do of course have pretty good jobs at the moment, and so if they do start making money from their trading, they then have a big decision to make as to whether they should consider giving up their job. We all know that trading can be very lucrative, but making money in the long run is very hard to do.

You may find that even though you have some profitable strategies that work at the moment, in a few years time they could become losing strategies if the markets suddenly become more or less volatile. This has happened to me before and it can be absolutely devastating.

So you should think about this before you give up your full time job, and all the perks that come with this job. Once you become a full time trader, you do of course have to take care of your own health care arrangements and take responsibility for your pension. Plus of course you have to earn enough from your trading to pay all of your household bills.

Industry statistics suggest that only a small percentage of people manage to make a full time living from stock market investing, currency trading or any other form of trading. Therefore you have to consider how you are going to give yourself an edge in order to keep making profits over the years.

I have personally found that I have to keep on tweaking my current trading strategies in order to stay one step ahead of the game. If you rest on your laurels, then you simply will not survive in the long run.

So hopefully I have demonstrated why you should not rush into becoming a full time trader straight away. In my case I didn't have a great job in the first place, so I could afford to take a chance and give it up completely. However if you have a decent job to begin with, then I would suggest that you trade on a part time basis for several months before even considering the idea of giving up your job, and the security and peace of mind that comes with it.