So, You Want To Be A Trader?

By Brien Satzinger

I don't know a entrepreneur who has branched out to do their own thing who has not taken their lumps.  I know quite a few personally and I have read a handful of biographies and all of them at one point or another had to experience pain.  They had to make mistakes.  They had to blow it, lose sleep, sacrifice their time and possibly their families (don't do this) just to make it to do what they thought they could.

Trading is no different.  Granted, some forms of trading are easier than others.  Longer time frames are easier than day trading.  Equities are easier than futures because of the leverage.  Unless you were raised around traders or have a very rare gift of comprehension of the markets, you're going to have lumps.  You'll need to make mistakes in order to move from book knowledge to consistent returns.

Sounds bleak, right?  It's the truth.  What makes it even more challenging is not only will we experience fiscal losses but also we all have to find what trading style works for our personalities and this may be a frustrating endeavor.

I started out trading equity options, moved to equities and landed on futures.  My time frame went from swing trading to day trading.  There are thousands of different ways to day trade.  It took me years to find my knack. I had to work through dozens if not hundreds of variations to finally arrive at what I use every day. The hardest parts for me were internal things that had to change.  I had frustrating blind spots that I had to work through. FYI, being bull-headed is not helpful in trading.  Everyone's experience will be unique but the one thing that's universal is there's some unknown pain factor that we all have to go through until we finally find our place.

The reason I'm writing this out is to be clear that there will be a cost involved and we've all had to pay it. However, you can do it.  The only thing stopping you is yourself. You are a champion.

Brien Satzinger has traded stocks, options and futures since 1999.  To date, he has traded over two million shares, 500 option contracts and 2200 futures contracts, mostly done while working full time.  He currently lives in Memphis, TN and you can follow him on twitter here.

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