I was born in Southern California in 197 . . .okay, so you don’t need to know everything. I’ll start with college. Like just about every point in my life before and after, I was confused about what I wanted to do and had six different majors before settling on Philosophy. I became enamored with the criminal justice system and decided I would get into a “top 20” law school, find a job at a big time D.A.’s office, climb the ranks and fight the good fight. While I accomplished the first three, I realized I was not fighting the good fight. My philosophical background had me questioning just about everything I did at the D.A.’s office. How do I send a man to prison when I am not one hundred percent positive he did the crime? How do I argue that a drug offender spend half his life in prison while a sex offender is out in 2 years? Why am I helping to uphold laws I don’t believe in? How do I live with myself? One day I woke up and realized I couldn’t, and quit that same day. A lot of people thought I was crazy, but I try to live life as Nietzsche’s Uberman would, following my own voice rather than the herd. As you all know, this is a successful principle in trading as well as life.
Now I was back to being confused about what to do with my life. While working a new job for which I felt no passion, I became more and more fascinated with the stock market. I had been trading, creating systems and reading everything I could get my hands on about the markets since high school, but it had never occurred to me that I could do it full time. That changed when I started making more money trading than I was at my day job. Trading full-time seemed like a crazy idea, but then I started reading about people who were doing it for a living and I thought “why not”. So that is now my passion and career goal, to become a professional trader. Once I have $500,000 of disposable income, I will walk into my boss’s office and peak the immortal words of Johnny Paycheck. Well maybe not like that, as I do have a good job and my co-workers are great. But you get the gist. Once I become a trader, I never want to work for anybody but myself again.
In 2004, I was almost halfway towards my goal ($235,000), but life’s forces butted in. I had a daughter, my wife wanted a bigger house, and I wanted some new toys. So I’ve started over as I did the last time, with $25,000 to try and build into a fortune. It’s even more fun this time, as you guys will be watching my every move.
So there it is, my plan to become a professional trader. With the advent of the Internet, I’ve had a lot of help along the way, from a group of people who probably don’t even know how much they’ve inspired me. If you’ve somehow found this little blog floating around in cyberspace, I hope it helps inspire you even 1/10th as much as the sites on my “blogroll” did me.
Goodluck and keep on trading!
Paul, the self proclaimed "Market Speculator"
11 comments:
Cheers to you Mate - I have a similar goal. I have not been doing this for too long, but hope to give you the day job and spend more time at home (My wide & I have a little girl due in the next day or so). I must say that with this upcoming life event, I have not paid too much attention to my trading goals on the last few weeks, but that will change soon.
I enjoyed reading your last blog, bummer about the tech difficulties. I have one myself, but it’s more to write my down my thoughts and keep myself honest! It’s probably a bit too serous. I need to lighten up I think.
Good Luck,
David - couchpotrader@gmail.com
I enjoyed reading your last blog, bummer about the tech difficulties.
Good Luck,
David - couchpotrader@gmail.com
Thanks for the kind words guys. Traderdave, congrats on the baby girl!
Hi, Everyone has similar goals and good luck with your trading. Would ou be able to list all your trades and put a balance at the end of each closed trades on how you are faring to give people like me encouragement.
Hi Mani,
I plan to do that when I get the chance.
Thanks for the link - helped me understand your profile. Until I read this intro, I was under the impression you were against full time trading.
Good luck with your full time trading dream!
People like you are my hero. Not because you're a successful trader but because you stand up for what you believe in and you don't settle for the status quo. My entire professional life I've felt like I wanted to be unique and do something out of the ordinary. I have often said jokingly (maybe not so much so) that the main character from Office Space was my hero. Anyway, life is too short to conform if you feel you aren't meant to. Best of luck to ya!
Paul,
I added you to my blogroll, just so I could stop back once in awhile to see if you attain your goal. I certainly wish you luckin your quest. However, trading as a pro isn't all that it's cracked up to be. I've been speculating since the late 70's and have had some real ups and downs. Anyways, good luck.
Jeff
Nice one Paul. Always great to see somebody who tries to avoid following the herd. Its not easy. I have the same plan as yourself. Would love to be self sufficient. However,finding the time to do the required study is an issue when one has a day-job. Would you mind please listing some of the better books you've read on TA and trading? Also, how do you filter out which stocks to analyse? Thanks and keep it up!
Inspired
Good stuff Paul
So cool to read about your background and were you came from. You and Kunal have been inspiring me along my journey. I have you guys to thank. Best wishes!
Mike(the guy who lives in a school bus)
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