Trading full-time can be extremely rewarding. There is incredible potential for profit without many of the day-to-day hassles that accompany other businesses. Some of those benefits can include: the ability to work from home or a private office, a less stressful environment, quieter atmosphere, increased productivity, the freedom to set your own hours, eliminating your commute, more free time, being your own boss, reducing workplace distractions like meetings and coworkers, trading from wherever you want.
Trading is a way of life. If you are someone who enjoys looking for trends in real life, questioning them, and trying to predict what could happen in the future, trading will probably be a very satisfying hobby or activity. But if you have to rely on someone else's advice, it won't be a joyful activity for long. The biggest difference between traders who are profitable and those who aren’t is the money management skills. It is important to know that higher returns come with higher risks.
Before you go into any business you need a business plan - and being a full-time investor is a business. At the very least, your business plan should include (forward-looking) financial statements, such as income statement, balance sheet and statement of cash flow that project at least three years; marketing strategy (if applicable); and technology, occupancy, licensing, registration, legal and administrative requirements. Going through the process of developing a business plan will make you think carefully about whether becoming a full-time money manager is right for you.
The potential for total career and financial freedom as a professional trader is no doubt very compelling to many people. While this is certainly possible, the path that a person must take to become a consistently profitable full-time trader can be fraught with perils so it's essential that you're properly prepared for the task ahead. Becoming a full-time trader isn't about getting rich quick or taking shortcuts. It's about having a clear development plan and being determined enough to keep moving forward until you reach your trading goals. If you can remain focused and stay on the path other professional traders have taken, then it won't be long before you are a full-time trader yourself.
Many aspiring traders stumble on their path to becoming a professional and far too often it is due to poor money management. Money management is a topic that deserves a few articles on its own, but suffice to say that it is a crucial part of any trader's plan and without well thought out rules to define your trading risk you will only set yourself up for trouble. The professional, full-time trader knows that managing their risk is the most important element to their success. They understand that making money can be easy, but recovering from a large draw-down of their account is very hard. For this reason, they keep their maximum risk on any trade within their personal comfort zone and focus on trading opportunities where their reward to risk ratio is high.
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