Hi all (preface: sorry for long post)
I always believe I'm a beginner in all the things I do irrespective of how many 'years' of my life has been dedicated to it.
Quick background: have trading experience with CFDs, aussie equity (in that I have traded quite a substantial amount of my money and have been moderately successful); while a penultimate uni student in commerce/law, I'm at a fork in the road of my life where I am deciding to go one way or the other (i.e. work in corporate firm, be it the legal sector or finance sector) or to go full-time trading?
I'm willing myself to move into intra-day trade, and in that light, be a full time trader but I am unsure what lifestyle that leads to compared to a security job where my earnings potential is limited.
All the talk of successful entrepreneurs, etc etc. I've seen alot in my young life so far, and I believe the true successes never look to claim publicity of any sort. So what does it take to become truly successful? (yes, I refer to the material sort: wealth).
I have experience (though wouldn't say background) in programming, am decent with maths - but the big question I hope to answer, while soaking up all the experience of well-read and life-trodden members here, is how one constantly deals with pressure of learning (esp when it is of a severely steep learning curve)?
e.g. just looking through the mechanical trading systems thread - where I am certain some members have actuarial, pure mathematics or extensive programming backgrounds - how does one come to have the guts to not only develop a comprehensive understanding of all the processes, systems (e.g. Tradesim) but to use it as a main source of income?
I appreciate that it is not an overnight, nor an over-year sort of thing. But what do you do when you are unsure of your own philosophy of things (if short term trades are truly profitable for guppies amongst a sea of HFT sharks? Or is long term investing with a good and steady income from a normal career a better supplementary life?) - e.g. reading Valueable by R. Montgomery, my philosophy to short term trades has become askew (although I started my first share purchase at 18 with a job with a view to hold it long term).
I suppose most would answer "that is up to you' or along the lines of such. But this seems insufficient to me. I'm a heavy reader, but that means nothing if one is not practical in one's criticism of what is read. One must have a philosophy which one adheres to completely and to completely invest himself in all of it as if his life relied on it.
The ends of the bridge of 'comprehension of the markets' and 'application of that knowledge to one's practical life' seems like a very long one.
Andrew
PS. this is as philosophical as I can, and will, get. I don't know if others have felt the same in their lives.