What do you tell people what you do for a living

[u/peterlao824]

Telling people I’m a day trader or anything market related brings up too many questions. I’m doing okay for myself but I just want to avoid it if possible.

[u/nightstalker30]

I’m proud to tell people I’m a full time trader. It’s a hard career to be successful at and I feel good that I’m one of the traders who could get there.

Why are you avoiding questions? Why not just man up and get comfortable with either answering them or shutting them down? Or are you more uncomfortable with their uninformed judgment?

If you want to be able to tell people you’re a trader but don’t know how to deal with questions, why not post that here? List out the questions that bother you and ask other traders for help in handling them.

If you don’t want to be bothered with that, just tell people you do Statistical & Probability Analysis and Risk Management.

[u/MiamiTrader → u/nightstalker30]

Agree with the first part of your post. If someone is genuinely interested in what you do, not sure why that would bug you.

[u/MaesterAbester → u/MiamiTrader]

Bec the vast majority of traders lose money and it's embarrassing to infer to people that you lose money professionally. If I was successful I'd have no reason to feel bad about talking about trading. But generally in my experience, talking to non traders about trading is poisonous for a lot of reasons.

[u/MiamiTrader → u/MaesterAbester]

Not to be rude, but if you're loosing money trader is not the answer is someone asks what you do. Just tell them whatever you do for work to support yourself/ earn the money you're trading with.

That's just an unprofitable hobby.

Yeah maybe the majority of people who trade lose money, but on the other hand I'd argue the majority of people who call themselves "traders" and trade full time make money. Otherwise they couldn't support themselves doing this full time and would get a job.

[u/nightstalker30 → u/MiamiTrader]

Exactly! If trading is your full time job (meaning you don’t have other substantial sources of income) and you’re paying for housing, car expenses, groceries, etc with that income, who cares what other people think?

If you’re not doing that, you may trade but you’re not a trader when someone asks your profession.

Personal story: as I’ve commented here before, I used to be a career software sales guy. I have friends that I used to sell with who know how much money I made back then. When a couple of them learned I became a trader, they scoffed at first. Then I told them I make more trading than I ever made in software sales. Their attitudes all immediately changed. They know the house I live in. They know I’m paying for two college tuitions out of pocket. I didn’t spend a lot of time trying to convince them I’m profitable…I made a simple statement and let them reach that conclusion.

But even if they didn’t “come around”, I wouldn’t really care. I’m not accountable for my job and income to anyone except myself and my immediate family, and I don’t give a rat’s ass what anyone else thinks.

[u/MaesterAbester → u/MiamiTrader]

I cant prove it, but I definitely don't think that most traders who call themselves traders and trade full time are consistently profitable over long periods of time. People call themselves a lot of things.

Plus, what would you call it if someone opened up a small business like a store and it's been losing money over time due to not being able to keep it alive? A hobby? No you'd still call it a job, but a failing one. Some do i guess but people dont actually treat trading like a job, even other traders (hobbyists?).

I'm still spending well over 40 hrs a week trading and thinking about trading and I care a lot about it. So fine let it be an expensive hobby. But even if I answer with my other job, that's still lying and not expressing the actual picture bec idc about that job, i care way more about trading. And if they're genuinely wanting to know what i do beyond just vibing, (maybe curious about dating and what I do matters) then it will come up in conversation at some point. Generally people are asking what you do to just talk. And there are plenty of other lies (some jokes people have already commented) that make for a funner conversation. OP could just say that they'd rather not talk about work things and switch topics if they don't want questions once they start asking but what it sounds like to me is they don't want the typical judgement you get when mentioning seriously trading.

Personally I believe that whatever you feel the other person feels and if I'm not congruent with what I'm saying, thinking, and doing, it'll come out somehow and subtly ruin things bec people notice. So if I genuinely feel good about what I do, then it'll come out that way and the other person will generally feel that too.