What would you do? - Consistent Returns

I average 2-3% per month Trading a very low 6 figure account. I do this on the side from a sales job that is unrelated to finance in which I make a fare amount of money, but my passion is trading.

My strategy is a combination of trading equities and options on equities, and I finally got consistent after 8,000 hours of study, and failure for many years. I've been averaging about 2-3% per month for 22 months straight.

What should I do?
What would you do?

I'm 34 years old, making a good living in sales (outside of finance) but I would rather be trading all day and compensated for it. I went to an average college, but I am a very hard worker and intelligent.

Thanks

5 Comments
 
Best Response

ask this question again when we've had a bear market.

I'm not discounting your skill but aside from the fiscal cliff about 4 years ago, we've had an uninterrupted bull equity market since march 2009, so in theory it's possible to have done rudimentary analysis and gotten good returns out of sheer luck.

also, don't quit your day job. investing works because you can hold your positions in time for your thesis to come to fruition if you're eventually right. if you're trading to meet your needs, you still need to pay bills, and the mortgage company doesn't wait for catalysts to happen, so regular income is important

 

Don't start day trading yet. You're just now experiencing the benefits of compounded growth, and that will slow down a lot if you're removing money to pay for COL.

You could look into being a professional trader by reaching out to other professionals, but I am rather certain you won't be able to trade your own account anymore. So, you'll have to analyze the cost benefit there.

Without knowing your salary it seems like you're in a pretty golden spot. Your job is flexible enough to allow you to trade, and you've used that to get awesome gains. The future value of your 100k at the around 30% over 10 years is 1.38 million. And that doesn't assume you'll add any outside money. It does assume you'll keep it up though which will be tough. If you actually understand trading you'll be able to do it. This is actually my goal as well, and writing this explanation just actually talked me out of it because of how much more you can benefit by working and trading, assuming your job allows it. I'd say the toughest part is the fundamentals. I feel like if you have these down you can keep up what you're doing. Technicals are easy and even if you forget you Can look them up quickly. Plus, if you're working and you have no idea what the markets doing you can just stop trading till it passes over. If you need the money for income that's a lot tougher. Last point I'll make about and I apologize my opinion has lost its structure. Talked to a professional trader on here about this, and he basically said I was gonna get crushed by professionals because idk how to get the information. (I like forex though) so, if you've figuried that part out you'll be alright. If you haven't, that might be another reason to test the waters for a while longer.

Edit: just in case he reads this, I'd already been talked out of day trading right now anyways.

 

There's something nice about being able to walk away without any pressure to continue trading, it gives me the flexibility to wait for my pitch. I write a lot of options on dividend players for extra income, so I can see where you're coming from.

 

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