Is it worth it?

I love trading, in all aspects of it. Waking up to fresh patterns, movements and determining the highest probability setup every day brings me joy like anyone’s hobby would.

I learned a lot about myself, and how to overcome certain challenges that aren’t regularly talked about.

I don’t want to give up, although it’s been a thought every now and then due to not being consistent in profitability to become full time into it yet.

I recently lost my job but have a cushion to layover until next year. I’m searching for another job for guaranteed income, but at the same time should I take the leap of faith and discipline myself into a profitable trader until I find another job, or scrap the idea of becoming a full-time day trader and convert to a CDL A truck driver?

It’s been 1 year and 6 months of trading with being on and off live accounts and finding my edge on demo.

I’m very open to criticism and figuring the best option and would appreciate feedback!

If it was easy, everyone would do it. I used to wonder why anyone would start a business or work at a job when they could just learn to trade for free online and then sit at home and make money trading. Turns out trading is a lot harder than it looks in every possible way. It’s as difficult as trying to make it to the NBA, or becoming a famous rock star. A handful of people succeed on the backs of millions of others who try.

This is going to sting a bit…

Waking up to fresh patterns, movements and determining the highest probability setup

As long as you think marking up patterns on a HISTORICAL candlestick chart has anything to do with “highest probability” of FUTURE trades, don’t take the leap of faith.

Ex: Say gas is $2 in September, $2.50 in October, $3 in November, $1.80 in December, and $2.40 now. What’s the price going to be in March? … Can’t answer that, huh? That’s because a historical price is… historical.

“But I marked up support and resistance” … No, you marked up where support and resistance WAS, not where it IS. Big difference.

“But I marked up ‘liquidity’, there’s a bunch of orders at 1.12345” … No, you marked up where the orders WERE, they got filled that’s why price reversed.

“But I saw a MA cross going up, so I bought!” … Really? So next time when you go buy a TV and the average price is $300, you’re going to pay $350? F* no! All trading is, is buying and selling assets at auction. If that asset is FX or a stack of Pokémon cards, it makes no difference. And last I checked you’re not going to bust up a historical candlestick chart to trade anything else. Why? Because you already know that won’t tell you jack shit about the future.

It’s pretty clear you like the trade more than you like the money, that’s a huge problem. This isn’t about waking up, finding fresh patterns, and predicting the future to see if you’re correct. When you’re a profitable trader, this stuff is boring AF. It’s the same BS day in and day out. It’s why I spend so much time on Reddit, it’s kind of entertaining (and it’s why sometimes I’m a straight-up ass, it’s entertainment value for me. Should I do that? Probably not, but sometimes it’s nice to have FU money and actually say FU).

Why not do both until you are for sure that trading can be your main income? It doesn’t have to be a truck driver either. Medical couriers make good money as contractors. If you are in or near a major city, check to see if an airline would hire you to deliver lost luggage. I was thinking about doing the pallet (middleman) John Wilker talks about. It seems lucrative if you ever have driven behind a shopping center that has a grocery store.

I’m basically talking entrepreneurship where you can set your own hours and still make good money, and then still trade. CDL, someone else sets your schedule. Who knows if you will have time for trading if you are driving a truck?

Only time can tell. I find it worth…but I’m not consistently profitable. Some people will never make it…

By no means is this financial advice.

I don’t think you should go all in on trading. Most successful traders that do it for a living say you need to have other sources of income. And that you should never quit your day job. Or in your case, go all in until you find a job.

I think it should be the other way around. Find a job first and then try to focus more on trading. I know that sounds counterintuitive because you have free time now, but with trading you can lose a lot of money fast, especially if you aren’t in the right mindset. A part of your mind is on finding a job, the other is on the cushion of money you have slowly depleting (if you can’t find a job) and the other is on trading.

I think you should still learn to trade and develop your strategy until it becomes a consistently profitable strategy. But getting a job should be your number one priority and trading should be on the “sideline”. The way I view being a consistently profitable trader is to have at least a 50% win rate and good R:R. Even if you lose half your trades, if you have a positive Reward, in the long run you will have made money. (Someone correct me if I’m wrong please).

(And for your first paragraph, I’m the same way).

Before anyone asks, no I’m not a profitable trader that does it for a living. I’m here and there lol. I’m working on getting there and learning and improving my strategy. Please feel free to correct me if you know something I don’t or something I said is wrong. Or even feel free to disagree.

Get a job, bro. Keep learning while you’re earning.

To trade with ease you need other sources of income. You have no control once you place a trade. Say you need money at month end, while trading you don’t know when your take profit will hit; it can be today, tomorrow, next month, or it can hit your stop loss. If you have fixed expenses you can’t rely only on such variable income to cover them.