Trufflette,
I am the English teacher that was profiled in the WSJ article. I would like to comment that I had no idea the article was to portray daytrading in a negative light. I suppose that is my own fault. The reporter contacted me after reading my post on the "Are you considering quitting your job to daytrade full time?" thread. He told me he was doing an article on daytrading, and I was honest in sharing my experiences so far with him.
I was upset after reading the article because I feel he highlighted only a small part of our discussion, the part about me not making any money at this yet. I am actually quite pleased at the state of my account at this point in my daytrading career. I have kept my losses extremely small, have managed to live off of my account for 5 months, and have just recently dipped under my initial account balance. Compared to some of the sad, horror stories I have heard, I feel that this is not so bad after all.
To be honest, my confidence is taking a bit of a beating from both the article's focus on my lack of gains and from your comment that I should not be doing this. I knew daytrading would be difficult when I started, and as I stated in the article, I was prepared to not make any money for at least a year. I accept this as part of the learning process. However, I am not ready to give up yet. I am not stupidly throwing my money in the market, daytrading without a clue, letting other traders take my money from me. I did not get into daytrading because I thought it would be an easy buck, and I did not leave my job on a whim. I got into daytrading because I wanted a career change for reasons I won't go into in. I chose daytrading because of my interest in the market and the opportunities it can provide and because of the recent technological advances that make it possible. To be honest I am not a scalper. I make daily trades based on technical indicators, and I am currently learning how to trade for the longer term hold.
I am tired of all the daytrader bashing that has occurred lately in the media, and I am upset that I got to be one of the examples of the failures of daytrading. I don't believe one can fail at anything unless they stop trying. I plan to keep trying and learning. I am studying trading just as I would any other profession I hope to excel in. I don't expect to be at the top of my profession yet. How could anyone expect that? I know that I have a long way to go, but I had to start somewhere. Some may think I don't belong in this field because I don't have enough experience to be doing this. Well how the heck am I going to get the experience to do it unless I jump in and go for it?
Forgive me for going on so long. I just had to get this out. I finish though with my spirit unbroken and my confidence back in tact. Nothing worth doing is ever easy.
Respectfully yours,
Tara |
