What specific dollar amount does everyone feel would be suitable to begin trading for a living. I will be going into my last year of college and am becoming extremely consistent with my trading strategy and would like to begin fulltime out of school. While I am a strong advocate of "Trade to Trade Well, Not to Make Money," I have heard various strategies and idea's when it comes to trading full time. One being... Using a Swing Trading Strategy, a $300,000 account (No Margin), with 2 years living expenses in the bank. Add a 0 or 00 to your account and trade profits and see what you come up with.
When looking at your trading style and rules, ask yourself,
"Do I have a scaleable strategy?"
"Could I manage a 100, 200 or 500K dollar account?"
After asking myself these questions I reanalyzed my trading strategy (which is swing trading) and have equations based on my risk tolerance and account value which producing the # of shares to purchase. Now any number can be placed into the account value box and I do nothing different in my physical trading. Thanks for your comments!!
I'm always looking to trade spreadsheets and equations to developing new idea's so let me know.
tim
Comments
Just wondering...how long have you been trading? The reason I ask is because what you're saying reminds me of the way I was thinking last summer...I was extremely consistent with the trading and decided I'd try "full-time"...the reality for me was the pressure to make the bills was too great and, as a result, I actually damaged my trading (after some initial success going into the latter part of the year) Just recovering now. In hindsight, it probably would have been better to continue with my Job and get some more experience under my belt...I'm not saying it can't work but be mentally prepared for the inevitable set backs that come with the pressure of living solely off of trading profits...that'd be my advice.