It depends on 1) How much you like trading to be a way of earning and 2) How successful you are at it. Trading honestly is one of the MOST boring activity on earth. It's NOT nearly as exciting as depicted by Hollywood unless of course if you are doing something illegal like those penny stock scams or insider trading. But real life legitimate trading is about analysis, analysis, analysis of tons and tons and tons of data and then scouring through more tons of tons of tons of data to find this one gem that you want to trade with and then doing more analysis and analysis, technical, fundamental and quant to formulate a strategy of how you want to trade it, when you want to trade it and then at the end, you still have to deal with the devastation of a loss that you had no control over. So UNLESS you are like that guy in the movie "The Big Short" (great movie btw, you should watch it) who just REALLY have a passion for numbers and just LOVES to bury himself in analyzing numbers, trading can take a REALLY big toll on your mental health and at the end I dunno if it's really worth it especially if you are making losses after losses after losses which brings me to my 2nd point: How successful you are at it. If you don't particularly enjoy trading for what it is and at the same time you are actually not able to make a living out of trading, then I think it's best that trading is just a hobby for you, occasionally dabbing in the market and receive the happy surprises of extra windfall that embellishes your life instead of enduring the constant and unrelenting pressure of having your entire financial well-being and that of your family dependent on the outcomes of your trading activities of which you have very limited control. BUT on the other hand, if you just absolutely LOVE trading for what it is and you enjoy the analysis and embrace risks and have perseverance (trading takes a LOT of that) and you are able to make CONSISTENT profit that constantly bring home the dough, then by all means, for sure earn your living by trading! Trading is enjoyable only when you are able to achieve both 1) and 2) that I stated at the beginning of my comments especially the 2). Hope this helps and all the positive profit to you!!
I trade for a hobby most of the time, ie when I've got time, I like playing around with setups and theory and stat's but I'm kinda strange. But I'm trying to go Full time, which for me is 2 - 4 hours per day, 4 days per week.
Well said, i have the same mentality, used to work 12 hour days for about the first five years of trading, i used to make alot more back then but thats cause we had an arb strategy that was just free money that we figured out two years into trading, that no longer works, so when it failed I just decided i was willing to sacrifice a little money for freedom, i might make 30-40% more if i still did it, but im pretty comfortable now working 2-3 hours in the morning then putting in stops and targets and heading off to the gym, or finding something else to do, then come back for the last hour of the day. Id rather make 150-200k a year working 4-5 hours a day, then make 250k a year but have to work three times as hard. My house is paid off already so 150-200k a year i can live a pretty good lifestyle, and still be socking money away in retirement accounts. Its just not worth the extra grind especially when the government takes half of your money anyways once you get to that level, really after taxes id only make about 20-30k more per year if i was sitting infront of my computer for 6-7 more hours every day, totally not worth it.
Where do you get these statistics and what do they even mean? 99% never have a winning year - never make money overall - never make money consistently ... I think that's BS - just like the post above yours - you won't find a mathematician who will acknowledge that statement to be a fact either. Sounds like a conspiracy theory post - 99% of traders lose - the one % that makes money is super secretive and part of an elite society - they work with the government or goldman sachs have advanced techniques and outsmart everyone else.
It's way more insidious, more like the 80 - 20 rule. 80% lose, but the 19% winning are winning because of luck in timing, not recognizing they've really been had (Greece). Of course, some are winning, especially long term buy & hold, eg. in various fonds. You won't hear about them because it's more like fire and forget, pension stuff, and when people get old enough they don't want to brag about it but just take the extra income which will be miniscule compared to a real salary. It's a sort of casino-effect, and will work until it doesn't. Any rationalizations in hindsight will be just that. If you know 100 people, 1 out of them will have a real clue. Most probably, (analyse the network-stats) it won't be you..
Which country do you live in? The government takes away HALF of what you earn? That's brutal! Do you incorporate? Does incorporation really saves you taxes? I read everywhere that if your income is at certain level, you have to incorporate in order to save some taxes. Is that true? Thanks
Canada, its not half but once you get over 100k its about 40% with provincial and federal taxes, and even higher once your over 200k, so basically half. Ive always been under the assumption that if you incorporate your just going to get taxed twice, cause you get taxed on the money you leave in the corporation, and then you get taxed when you take it out as income, so im not 100% sure it would sasve you money in the long run, it might allow you to build an account a little easier cause theres less tax as long as it stays in the corporation.