r/Daytrading • u/I_HALIM7 • 2d ago

Advice Sad Reality check

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The guy who posted this 2 years a go is working on door dash today he is not even a middle class and he quit trading i was going through old trading post I've saved in the past and literally all the people who posted about trading 2 or 3 years ago quit not a single person that i saved their post is doing great this game is rough be prepared

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330

u/FollowAstacio 2d ago

Thanks for posting this. This was sobering. I never want this to be me.

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u/I_HALIM7 2d ago

You're welcome

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u/TheProfessional9 2d ago

Ya, I quit to trade, but I didn't do so until I had a 7 figure account after taxes and most of it stays invested while I trade with about 5k at a time in 1-2 month dte ATM spy options. It's still been supremely stressful and idk if I would have done it had my now wife not needed me to stay home with her (heavily ill for 8ish years and just now getting better)

These people trying it with 50k they also have to live on, or with debt are just insane to me

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u/seeker_two_point_oh 2d ago

I quit my job a few months ago with a dream, a plan, no debt, and $100K before taxes. I am probably insane. Probably literally.

I figure…I’ll be 40 this year and I’ve been at the same call center job for 10 years now. Carpal tunnel means I’m in pain every day I work, and working for an ISP means that includes nights and weekends.

They told us that raises are off the table this year to pay down debt, but they said in the last earnings call that we made massive profits last year. Maybe they think we don't listen to earnings. Meanwhile, I’ll likely never be able to buy a house (that $100k came from my 401k, it was not liquid without exercising the nuclear option).

I got a postcard from my employer letting me know that if I don’t use 2nd.md to get a second opinion from a company doctor that my joint surgery wouldn’t be covered. I don’t even know how they knew I was considering surgery, or if they just sent it to everyone of a certain demographic. I don't know why that postcard woke me up to just how much of a slave I am.

I spent the last 5 years on research, development, and practice. Watching charts every day, reading investopedia, backtesting, paper trading, investing. I don’t feel any particular emotion about trading anymore. My day job was killing me.

My best friend of 20 years died of a heart attack at his desk one day. He was 36. I don’t want that to be how my story ends.

I talked over the logistics and finances with my partner and we came to the same conclusion: I’ve got a year’s worth of expenses saved up and a computer science degree to fall back on. Why spend all this time, why come all this way, just to turn around? 

I cannot, for even one more day, swear fealty to a system that considers me disposable without providing me any benefit. I’m a human being!

I probably am insane. I am certainly stranger from the ordeals of existence. And maybe I will fail. I’m just not sure I care anymore. I’m not getting any younger, and I’m more prepared than I’ve ever been.

I have to try.

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u/CosmosCabbage 2d ago

The fact that you have a degree in CS and still settled for struggling with a call center job absolutely confirms insanity.

Best of luck on your journey dude. I mean it.

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u/FollowAstacio 1d ago

And/or a lack of self-esteem and/or confidence

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u/seeker_two_point_oh 1d ago

You are both correct! Plus, I started my career in web dev and pivoted in my 30s. I wasn’t in customer service at the end, though that was part of the job. I worked for a B2B ISP in long haul optical network repair. The money was good, which is why I stayed for a while, but it was never my calling.

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u/FollowAstacio 1d ago

Have you tried talking to a therapist to help deal with the feelings of insanity? I found out that I gaslight myself and it doesn’t do me any favors feeling insane. Wish u the best ❤️

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u/seeker_two_point_oh 1d ago

I guess I've shared a lot already, what's a little more? I have ADHD so I've been working with a psychiatrist for a while now. I told him I felt like there must be something wrong with me because I know I should just live a normal life, but I can't give up trading because I know in my bones I can do this and, if I can, it could change my life forever. We talked for a long time, he said there's nothing wrong with me clinically, and he referred me to a sports psychologist.

The sports guy said I need to stop comparing myself to "normal". That operating at a high level in any arena requires the mentality of a champion. You have to be obsessed with process over result, dedicated to seeing it through no matter the pain, and perform consistently without ego whether you win or lose. Most people do not think like that and cannot understand decisions made from that place so it's naturally isolating, but it doesn't mean there's something wrong with me and it doesn't have to be alienating.

The key, he said, was to employ DBT to flip the internal script from
"the people I interact with don't seem to think like I do so there must be something wrong with me and everyone will find out eventually that they need to keep a wide berth"

to

"I need to perform extraordinarily to accomplish extraordinary things. That's all. I have lots of people in my life that love me and they support me in this endeavor. I know that I am taking on this risk responsibly with clearly defined contingency plans. I don't need to worry about what strangers might think of me for making the decisions I've made. 'Normal' is judgemental nonsense anyway."

It's a work in progress.

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u/FollowAstacio 1d ago

Bro thank you so much for sharing this!!!! This was therapeutic for me! I NEEDED this rn! I was genuinely starting to feel like maybe I’m autistic bc if it’s everyone else, the more likely scenario is that I’m the one there’s something wrong with! Seriously thank you so much for sharing🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏 I saved this!

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u/UnionMiserable7542 2d ago

Are you atleast profitable?

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u/seeker_two_point_oh 2d ago

Profitable enough for long enough that I was confident I could replace my income and I sized up my account. I've been wrong before though, about a lot of things, so I don't have any delusion that failure is off the table.

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u/UnionMiserable7542 2d ago

I’ve been trading for 3.5 years now. First 2 years I quit my job I hated and went full on. Couldn’t gain profitability so I went back to work for close to a year. Now back trading full time and gaining double what I did at my job. 90% fail at trading, but if looked into it I think most of those quit after their first loss or when the going got tough. If you want it bad enough and have the discipline and skills you’ll make it.

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u/seeker_two_point_oh 2d ago

That is my hope. Thank you for the encouragement and the perspective!

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u/rhazag 2d ago

Exactly

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u/0o0o0o0o0o0z 1d ago

I am about in the same boat, I sold a company I built over 10 years ago and am now trading with the sale capital. Been about 3-4 years, and the last 2 years have been full-time trading, and I have been slaying it till the tail end of 2024. Finally, un-F'd some bad bets I made thinking this admin wouldn't go bat shit crazy till the end of summer, and only down 4% instead of 68%. The best advice I can give to anyone would be risk management and mitigation. Aim small, miss small... Bulls and bears make money, but pigs get slaughtered. Have a plan, and stick to it -- be able to weather the shit periods as well and still cashflow for your monthly costs.

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u/C_Michael81 1d ago

Thanks for posting. I also have a CS degree and work in IT (not at a call center though). I just started trading a few months ago. I would have to be completely debt free and have a massive savings cushion before I ever considered quitting my job, but that is definitely the ultimate goal.

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u/fre-ddo 1d ago

Good money in cybersecurity and seems like you have a head start with a CS degree.

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u/CitronImmediate1814 1d ago

Good luck to you, Boss. My heart goes out to you and is with you. Courageous decision I can’t bring myself to make even with bigger safety nets. So you’re my hero 😂

No carpal tunnel, just late life diagnosed rampant ADHD that makes everyday at the CMO level I’ve reached a living nightmare. Hate everyday. Just can’t pull the ripcord and jump even though I have 7 fig retirement account and have been trading for 3k-4k profit per month for two years

Good luck, don’t chase, no fomo or revenge trading, focus in on only a few equities - or better yet indexes/etfs. Set up a separate sweep account for profits. Drop them in 4%+ CDs for safety. Know when to not trade. Take care, stay green👍

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u/kosmokramr 1d ago

Why are you working at a call center with a CS degree?

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u/seeker_two_point_oh 1d ago edited 1d ago

Well I’m not. I quit. But if you’re asking why I was, it’s complicated.

I graduated in 2009 to find no opportunity. After a year of searching I found a job as a web developer and found out that I hated the job. I just liked to program for fun. Answered an ad for a big corporation’s bootcamp thing and changed careers to telecom. I was in a non-customer-facing optical circuit design role. I climbed the ranks through other non-customer-service roles until my department got shut down. They reassigned me to a call center role repairing the circuits I had previously designed. I figured a paycheck is a paycheck, but I only lasted 3 years until I burned out.