Honesty is everything as the truth is all that matters...so here is some brutal, embarrassing honesty: Long story short...my education as a trader has cost me ~$140k...And I absolutely do not have anymore to lose. My primary choice for gambling was long options believing that "it has to happen"...but it never did and I absolutely deserved to learn that lesson. If it wasn't for options I would have still lost the same amount of money...the problem was obviously me as the driver, not the trading vehicle. After a 6 month break to really reflect on my failures I decided to get away from options and focus on futures (for a number of reasons not relevant to this thread). I've always been intimidated/afraid of futures trading but drawn to them for whatever reason. After some success paper trading I decided to go live trading micros...actually doing the things you are supposed to do...and I am profitable. Although this thread is slightly premature based on my skills...the time is coming and I should probably get started with raising capital sooner rather than later. Looking for some genuine advice on what to do here. I am 37 yo male, I do not have a job and really really do not want to go back to the work place, (haven't worked since 2018). I am really fortunate in that I own a decent house and a profitable small business with zero debt...but my lifestyle has to be extremely frugal due to very low income. Too frugal in fact. So where would you look for trading capital in this situation? I have about $25k in an IRA I could cash out, probably another $20k in physical goods I could let go of with reluctance...but that's about it. - Job is most obvious choice, unfortunately. - Prop firm worth it? would I have to trade their specific way? would they even be interested? - Take out a loan? If I am profitable maybe it would be worth taking out a cash loan of some sort. Just looking for some advice, thanks ET.
With options....you Have to be Right. RIGHT NOW. If you want to make money with them. A trader needs absolute timing when dealing with options. Long options, lottery tickets, gambling, Hail Mary's....that Cinderella story never plays out. That saying....those who can do Do....those who can't, Teach If you want to make some decent money, after hitting rock bottom, Turn on your Camera, Lights and Action.....Get on every major social media site.....and be this Entertaining, Larger than Life, Character Cartoon.....and Teach people how to make a Million in the Market. Doesn't matter if you're full of hot air or not. Just entertain and teach them some vague concepts of trading in hindsight,
Probably a job honestly. Don't cash out your IRA...not worth the penalty in taxes. Don't go donating plasma. Don't take out a loan. How many people have taken out a loan with the plan to pay it back with investing gains. Plus if you're trading under leverage (with money you are borrowing)...then you have another psychological obstacle to profit. A job will also help with the feeling of needing to make money.
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What are your stats like? If someone says they are profitable, is it unrealistic to expect 10 ES points per day in profit average? Clearly with only 1 MES contract, this is $50. Seems like a small amount, but you also only need $2k in an account to trade it. If you can scale up to just 5 MES, you're now talking $250 profit per day, and I assume this is a nice income given the conclusion I am making about your frugal spending. And if your stats are like this, then why on earth do you even need outside money? If you really can trade and have just 5k in an account, I don't see how this can't grow over time with trading the micros. Now clearly, making $50 per day from a $2k account sounds like thousands of percent per year that you can compound, so this will break down at some point, but I expect a profitable trader to average more than just a few ticks per day.
I agree with you that timing has to be on point trading long options (especially short date)...and I just cant survive in that environment. Maybe in the future I will revisit but for now I have to turn my back on them. As to the become a teacher comment...I get that it was said in jest (hopefully), but deception just aint my thing...neither is entertainment.
if you are really serious about trading then sell the house and live in a studio. Or maybe take a home equity loan. split that capital up. Split that capital into 3, and just trade with one, just in case you blow it up too soon lol. Otherwise, stick to side jobs/hustles to raise capital. Just don't waste time with the funded programs. they are designed for you to fail, slowly
You did not tell us if you fixed this problem. Your job as a trader is to take money from people who think this way. Don't become one of them. If you want to win (and you can) then your job is to design a strategy that mathematically puts the odds in your favor. Everything else is noise.