Well... I actually did more of the opposite when I started trading. I started with money and lost part of it. I took an old and 'conservative' portfolio, cashed it in little by little about 6 years ago exchanging it to technology stocks and then oil service stocks. Mostly this was because my 'graphic arts' professions was going from desktop publishing on 'paste up' boards to electronic desktop publishing. Got something called 'Publishing Perfection" and discovered the world of hi-tech computer peripherals and software. I then upgraded my 286 computer and discovered stocks in software, hard drives, storage devices sectors, etc.
It is not a cinderella story however, I missed July 1996 by a fluke,except for a loss in ASND, and started August 1996 trading seriously with way more than 5,000. I did okay then my second, third and fourth loss came with COMS, Scopus, and Hutchinson technology.
I did very well afterwards, started the thread on SI and became full timem more than doubled the trading portfolio and selling my long term holdings little by little and adding to the trading portfolio.
By October 1997, I had another setback losing another 35k in two days... So honestly, if after every setback I only had 5,000, I would have had to quit. I was able to more than double it again after this second setback and double it still again since June 1998, only to lose 30% gains from my long term portfolio this time in the end of August.
I regained the losses now and again trading well since August 19. So I would say every setback taught me another lesson and sharpened the trading skills more and more. I'm not sure you can be a full time trader without setbacks.. and losses. If you start out with 5,000 it is quite possible to lose it and be stuck with nothing. I would wait until I had about 7 or 8 times that at least. I don't think you could actually quit your day job without at least 10 times that and in some cases even 20 times or more. Don't depend on margin, because you will 'heaven forbid' get caught up on a margin calls. I don't do margin.. Margin is a 'loan' and the payback is inevitable and sometimes very costly, about as bad as options for long term. I'm the kind of person that pays off my credit card bills every month. |
