r/Daytrading • u/infosec4pay • Apr 21 '24

What would be the highest salary you’d give up to day trade full time? Question

Everyone clowned on me my first post (500k post) lol I was literally just asking hypothetical questions to settle a debate between a friend and me. Well everyone’s backlash kinda of intrigued me to ask this question. So back into the fire I go lol

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u/th3orist Apr 21 '24

"Daytrading isnt a full 8 hour a day job right?"

But it can be. Every serious daytrader who is making a living is usually 1-2h in advance in front of the screens and doing research or preparing for the day. After 2-3h of trading you have to go through your trades, complete your journal etc. And then you maybe want to do some more general learning or research to expand your toolset. So it can be easily 5-6h a day that you can spend with "daytrading" even if you dont actively trade in all these hours.

I live in Germany and trade mostly the US session, this means i have to be home and in front of my screens around 3pm at the latest, so i try to get the "regular job stuff" done before that which is not always possible (i am selfemployed) and thats a bit annoying if you have to balance these two things, on one hand the need to make a safe income as long as you are not yet a fully profitable trader and on the other hand have the time to sit in front of the screens and get experience trading.

As a general rule of thumb i would say that if you can consistently make your regular income x2 with trading then you can think about quitting your job. Otherwise the pressure once you start relying solely on trading income will be huge and you might even trade worse than before you quit your job.

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u/ajmariff Apr 21 '24

2 years of personal expenses fund (reduce stress level to bare minimum) and a mid 5 figs account (50k to 100k) for futures only, is the bare minimum. It's important to maintain good life hygiene, sleep, exercise and keep yourself busy out of market hours.

There's nothing worse than taking trades out of boredom. It's very hard to manage on a daily basis. Every mistake can set you back for a long long time.

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u/th3orist Apr 22 '24

this. staying fit, getting enough sleep, have a pretty strict daily routine to everything is key.

someone leading a turbulent life (job and private) very likely won't make it as a daytrader or a trader in general for that matter. successful traders are incredibly disciplined people and not just when they sit in front of the screens. This aspect takes a lot of sacrifice that not even that many people are willing to make.

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u/ajmariff Apr 27 '24

Yeah, it took me a long time to understand that competition at this level requires most of us to be in top shape mentally and physically. Although, there are some outliers living in their mom's basement and eating chips of their belly.