Comments on: A Typical Day in Life as an Independent Trader

By: Matt_SF

Matt_SF — Fri, 22 May 2009 15:31:29 +0000

It started with the double digit cash sum back in the late 90s.

I also saved like mad (saved a dollar for every dollar I spent) and bought a few high growth stocks that did well. Companies that made products that everyone would want (or need) that had a high profit margin and dominated their market.

A six digit account is needed unless you want to eat Raman noodles.

By: Matt_SF

Matt_SF — Fri, 22 May 2009 15:17:24 +0000

I can’t imagine what it’s like to be 3 hours behind Wall Street. I’ve read bios of traders that work in SanFran who show up at the office at 4am.

Not sure I would do it if that was the case.

By: thomas

thomas — Thu, 21 May 2009 03:26:46 +0000

Yeah, Now try doing all that on the left coast! Market is open and I am just hitting Snooze.

By: eric

eric — Wed, 20 May 2009 15:47:46 +0000

You’re right: sounds horrible!

By: Matt SF

Matt SF — Wed, 20 May 2009 14:49:01 +0000

Thanks for posting the article Jim. Try to stay away from daytrading AIG and GM though… your good luck can’t last forever!

@ labelcd6

Quite a few independent traders live in out of the way places. I saw a report a few days ago with a commodities hedge fund trader who lived in South Dakota… planted wheat/corn in the early morning and traded in the afternoon.

By: No Debt Plan

No Debt Plan — Wed, 20 May 2009 14:17:24 +0000

Interesting. I’m curious as to how much cash we’re talking here — I’m guessing a lot to be able to do it full time. Not sure if you’ll get into this in the next two parts of the series, but how did you decide to get started in full-time trading?

That is, did you start with $1,000 and just get really lucky to grow your portfolio to a significant size, or did you slowly save money and decide, hey what the heck I’m got $100k, let’s make some noise.

By: GloombergNews

GloombergNews — Wed, 20 May 2009 14:13:03 +0000

I am a recent college graduate searching for a job and get traders calling me all the time trying to recruit…

I usually stop them one minute in and tell them I am not interested and I’ll pass the word along to my friends.

By: Jim

Jim — Wed, 20 May 2009 14:00:01 +0000

Hmmmm, good point, I fixed it so logged in users don’t see it.

By: Todd @ The Personal Finance Playbook

Todd @ The Personal Finance Playbook — Wed, 20 May 2009 13:58:29 +0000

Very interesting. I’m looking forward to the rest of this series.

By: Caitlin

Caitlin — Wed, 20 May 2009 13:17:59 +0000

Should the “First time visitor?” box keep showing up for logged-in Barganeering members? If we have accounts, it’s certainly not our first time here!

By: labelcd6

labelcd6 — Wed, 20 May 2009 13:01:22 +0000

I am surprised to hear that somewhat “normal” people make a living this way. Does the American Hedge Fund book deal with this issue? I don’t care about thirty year old MBAs who live in Manhattan. I want to hear about the middle-aged family man living in Iowa who makes his living as a day-trader.

By: Lily

Lily — Wed, 20 May 2009 12:51:05 +0000

“I hope that I convince you that becoming a professional trader is a horrible idea!”

Maybe that should be amended to read “professional independent trader”? After all, traders attached to broker-dealers are the people who make markets. Without them, there is no stock market. Some people might not think that’s a bad thing, but then firms won’t be able to raise capital, investors won’t be able to earn as high of returns, and the disconnect would horribly stifle economic growth.

By: Kyle

Kyle — Wed, 20 May 2009 12:41:25 +0000

I am reading An American Hedge Fund right now by Timothy Sykes and it is amazing how well he portrays the high you get from trading. It outlines much the same routine you mentioned here. I think people are under the impression you can just sit down, click a few buttons and BAM! money appears in your account. They don’t really understand the amount of research that goes into making successful trades.

Great Post. Thanks