Another trader reporting in, I day trade futures, though not consistently as of yet. Been hacking at it for the last five months and getting better every day, I'm extremely close to having a break-through in my trading, and once that happens I'm looking forward to upping the contracts and getting a nice penthouse apartment overlooking San Diego Bay. Dropping out of college to day trade futures, what could possibly go wrong
Like others have mentioned, trading really forces you to pursue personal development in every aspect of your life. It's like Mark Douglas says in Trading In the Zone, trading exposes you to every single one of your most deep-seated fears. If anyone here is in the San Diego area I'd love to meet up sometime and talk shop.
Dave, no offense meant here at all, but that you're looking at it from the wrong perspective when you talk about people losing lots of money first. You have to go into it assuming that you will lose ALL of your starting RISK capital. The way I see it, your first trading balance is tuition in the School of Consistent Trading. If you lose it all, congratulations, you've paid your tuition!
People will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a college education to learn a profession, but scoff at people who are willing to spend $2,500 to learn trading. Reminds me of talking to someone in a class of mine, we were talking and he asked me how much I was down from my 3k starting balance, I answered $1000 down to $2,000 over a six month time period, putting me well ahead of the average, as 90% of new traders are wiped out in that same time period. He started going on about how I had wasted a thousand dollars, when I asked him how much he's down college tuition he said that that's different
You have to get into trading for the long run, deciding that it will be your profession, your expertise, and consistency your major definite purpose. Once you do, the promise is clear, and all that's left is putting in the time to get there.