Many amateur and part-time traders dream of a life of a full time professional trader, a life full of joy and luxury. Is the life of a full-time trader really so amazing and fascinating?
What does it take to become a professional trader? We are trying to approach these questions, showing and revealing the life of a professional trader behind the curtain.
Many times, we go to the doctor, we spend 5 or 10 minutes at his office and we pay an amount that is the day revenue of an average employee, maybe more. We ask ourselves, why a profession like this is so privileged? Why a professional that spends just a few minutes on a case, has such an easy life? His office is very beautiful, he has a very comfortable seat and all he did is to ask us a few questions and/or he examined us for a few minutes with some high technology devices that look very weird to us. We need to look closer at a doctor’s profile. Usually he is 35+, most likely he has a scholar profile (glasses etc) and his office is full of strange devices and objects. It’s very obvious that:
- He spent most of his life studying
- He has all the necessary technical equipment and tools to support his job
- He participates in many seminars and conferences in order to be up-to-date with his science
- He has a back-up plan if things don’t get better. He suggests a treatment but he will ask you to call him or visit him again after some days.
- He spent most of his life studying
- He spent most of his life studying
- He spent most of his life studying
A full-time trader demands a high income, while he’s sitting on a chair of his house/office. It
makes perfect sense to consider the same obvious ascertainments:
- A full-time trader must spend a lot of time studying (1)
- A full-time trader must have all the necessary tools to support his job (2)
- A full-time trader must be up-to-date with markets (3)
- A full-time trader must have a worst-case scenario in mind and methods to deal with it (4)
Let’s have a deeper look at the above.
1. Most of traders believe that by studying 1-2 books or articles or by attending a cycle of seminars are ready to become professional traders. Would you ever trust a doctor who studied just 1-2 books or that he became a doctor by attending some seminars? A trader must spend a lot of time in studying and trying methods and strategies.
2. Imagine yourself visiting a doctor whose office was totally empty of equipment. The truth is simple: a trader cannot beat the markets without the necessary tools. These tools can be technical analysis tools, news feeds, state of the art software, machine learning/artificial intelligence systems etc.
3. You require from a good doctor to keep himself updated with all the latest progress of his specialty. You want to take advantage of all the newest treatments and medicine. Same way, a trader must be very informed of all the latest technological development on trading platforms, systems, indicators etc. as well as all the latest fundamental market news
4. You also require from a good doctor to tell you in advance all you need to know about your case. What is the worst-case scenario and all the “what-ifs”. In the traders’ vocabulary this is called Risk Management. Bad Risk Management or lack of Risk Management is the most secure way for an account margin call.
The conclusion of all the above is that the path to become a full-time trader is very difficult. It takes a lot of studying time, it takes a serious investment in professional tools, it takes a continuous process of updating knowledge and tools and a serious Risk Management approach. A professional trader must be in one word: PROFESSIONAL. Things with trading are even worst: there will be days or specific periods where a trader will lose money. So, it takes something more than all the prerequisites of a professional: confidence, discipline, strong will, nerves of steel and patience. OK there’s still an interesting solution with all these. Doctors use robots for serious operations in order to eliminate the human error. In trading indeed, we should do the same: AUTOMATION.