Hello Fellow Traders, After reading the email from Andrew about “When to Quit Day Trading” I wanted to offer my perspective as I am in almost the same predicament as the trader Andrew referenced. My current trading career is (1) planned live trade, 2 unplanned live trades due to not realizing I was not in simulator, and about 4- or 6-months simulator depending on if you want to count the 2 months I spent just watching charts. I am an active duty United States Marine who is about to transition from the military after 22 years of service. I originally planned on becoming a Forensic Accountant upon retiring from the military. I have acquired my bachelors in accounting, Master in Forensic Accounting, and achieved a Certification as a Certified Fraud Examiner; however, after being introduced and reading Andrew’s book I have decided to invest all my time to becoming a day trader prior to my retirement from the military in December 2019. I found myself continuously asking the same question as the trader referenced, “Is there any criteria to determine when to quit trying to learn day trading?” I believe the answer to the Traders question is, “When you as a trader and your family no longer have the desire or ability to accept failure as a possibility.” As long as you and your family have the desire to learn, work, and sacrifice for this career than you should pursue it. During my time in the service I have been away from my wife, son, and daughter more than I have ever wanted to be. I currently work away from where my family lives. Monday through Thursday it is easy to focus on Day Trading and learning; however, due to connectivity issues in the hotel rooms, I spend at least 10 hours on the weekend watching the Mentorship webinars, classes, reviewing my journal, and developing the next week’s trading plan. I have found the best thing is to communicate with your family on why you are doing what you are doing and get their acceptance. My family views my time spent learning to day trade as a way that they will get to see me more in the future. They honestly have become more upset with me when I don’t put forth my full effort on the weekends to learning Day Trading, as they have bought into the fact that becoming successful in this business will allow me to spend more time with them. I could easily retire from the Marine Corps and become a Forensic Accountant Intern; however, this career path would still keep me away from my family, so we (My Family and I) have decided that $x amount is worth risking to learn to Day Trade. If I lose that amount, then oh well it was worth it and I will move on to something else; however, if I don’t then my family and I will have a great life day trading while getting to spend more time together.

Thank you!

DAS Support said:

Aloha everyone! I'm Wayne, a new equities trader. I found BBT from YouTube and after some digging decided to take the plunge. My goal is to become a Consistently Profitable Trader and join the ranks of the elite performing traders. Happy to be here!

April 20, 2020 April 21, 2020 April 22, 2020

I've had several setbacks in my journey to becoming a full time day trader. I sim traded for 4 months, finally gained some momentum, reached a level of sim trading that was consistently profitable, made some small gains in real trades to start building thicker skin trading real money... Then I lost my job. It wasn't because of trading, but it did result in me needing to empty my trading account. It's amazing how long it takes to establish something that can go away in an instant. I didn't blow up my account, but it felt the same. Two months of unemployment later and I was back in an office working a consulting contract for more money than before, but a lot less time. In the office by 8am. No time to trade or even watch the chat. No point maintaining a DAS or TI subscription. No point even studying or reading because I know myself enough to know I won't retain it if I don't get to practice. I didn't quit. To me quit means never going back. I prefer "when should I reevaluate my approach?" I think that is a question a day trader should already be asking themselves every day and every minute because that's the nature of trading. So I re-evaluated my approach. I knew my contract was 6 to 9 months. 6 to 9 months of no trading, so I adjusted my trading plan: 1. Find a job with enough flexibility to allow me time in the morning to trade; 2. Rebuild my trading account. 3. Re-develop my long term plan to reach full time trading. It took 6 months but I found the new job. I started 4 weeks ago and for the last week I've been able to join the chat through the open. Right before I started my new position a pipe burst and flooded our home, so now we're dealing with that, which will definitely delay my account funding again, but I'll deal with the setback. The upside of the flood is the owner of our home wants to sell it, and offered to sell it to us. Another setback financially, but long term a good thing. I didn't quit. I don't want to quit. Personally for me I've decided that day trading tics all the boxes of what I want to do to earn a living. I know 90% of traders fail, and I know many of the reasons why. I think self-reflection is THE key skill a trader needs, and unfortunately I don't think many people who approach day trading appreciate that. Self-reflection counteracts self-deception and reinforces self-reliance. To me, the time to quit is when you've been honest enough with yourself to accept that you either don't really want to be a day trader, or, more likely, you fell in love with the idea of day trading and found the work too daunting. Like any career, it isn't for everyone. But if it is for you, don't ask yourself when you should quit, ask instead "what do I need to change to succeed?"

Hey everyone, I'm Carlos G. I've been a member for a few weeks now and I love it! I served in the Marine Corps, worked on helicopters afterwards, and now I'm a senior pursuing a degree in mechanical engineering. I've been a NASA Pathways Intern at the Johnson Space Center for the last few years, and I don't plan on giving up my career anytime soon. However, I really enjoy day trading and hope to supplement my income knocking out a few trades in the morning before work. I'm currently saving up $25k to get past the PDT rule, so I'll be in the sim until then! Good thing, too. I probably would have lost all of my money by now. lol, I'm getting better though! I hope to go live by the end of the year. ; )

Hey everybody! I'm Francois and I live in Canada. I'm 23 and I work in construction since I'm out of school but I hate it! So now that I've accumulated enough money I'm trying to switch careers! I feel confident that in 1-2 month i'll be a full time day trader but for now i'm mostly flat

Aloha, my name is Paul and I live on Maui. I have been interested in trading for years and finally had an opportunity when I sold my snorkel business. I am a single father raising two beautiful girls (4 and 6) and love that I can be done with my trading day usually before my girls even wake up, thanks to the time difference in Hawaii. I read Andrew's book among many other and really liked his style so I joined his classes and got a simulator account. I traded in the Simulator for 4 months and went live December 1st. I feel so fortunate to have found Andrew's book and day trading, it has changed my life. The chatroom offers great support and camaraderie, I couldn't think of trading without it. Many Mahalo's to Andrew and Pez and all the support staff.