Is it a solitary life?

[parbynat]

I suppose I ask this to all those who trade full time.

Betfair trading excites me more than anything has for years, sad but true.
It's funny how a thing like this can spend more time turning the cogs in your head than anything else.
It used to take me 10 minutes to drop off to sleep now I would say the new norm is around 30 minutes, I have had to accept that trading strategies now owns that part of my life.
Sometimes during this time I get a lightbulb moment only to wake the following day to realize the flaws that it has, and so yet again another lightbulb idea gets thrown into the strategy recycling bin.

I've just entered year 3 locking horns with the formidable foe that is betfair trading and i have to say I love doing it as much now as I did when I first came across it.
As for success, nope. As for lessons learned, plenty. So every cloud I'd like to think.
When I first started I was made aware of it from a guy I work with. He spoke of the opportunities of making very nice money and that there were people out there even doing this as a living. Obviously I was interested, I mean seriously who wouldn't be.

My passion for this hasn't dwindled over 24 months it has only increased I would say, for me what has changed is the reason I'm doing it.
The more I thought about it the more the saying be careful what you wish for kept popping up. I had to have a serious look at my life, mainly my job. It didn't take long, job's ok, money's ok, like the people I work with. I think alot of people probably would say a similar thing, the problem for me was that the last bit kinda stuck with me.

Last week I spoke to the guy at works who still trades and asked him had he thought about the massive change this would likely have on his life should he accomplish his dream of trading for a living and that he should also think of what he would lose, mainly the social benefits of seeing people he sorta liked on a Monday to Friday basis.
His response "Are you mad" then "You telling me you like doing this shit"

Maybe I'm an anomoly.

Any thoughts?

[Derek27]

There's nothing abnormal about enjoying the job that you're doing. I loved the girls in my old supermarket so much I'd be happy stocking shelves there - it's the people you're working with that makes a job enjoyable.

I'm truly solitary and don't desperately need to meet people frequently but I can't see why somebody can't trade full time and still make time to have nights out or whatever they want to do with their leisure time.

[rik]

i think it will depend a lot on your age
if you are in your 40s and have been working a regular job for 20 years you probably know much better whats for you and if you will miss your 9-5 social life
early in life it can be a tough decision to make with big implications as not easy to get back into a satisfying career at some point and social implications depending on your personality
you might be able to "team up" with the guy from work thats also trading?

[Diacritical Quark]

Oh hell yeah and it's totally for me. I dream of the day of packing in my job and doing this full time. I look on with envy at some of the forumites here who do this as their sole source of income. From my calculations and the way my trading is going I'm looking at taking the plunge Jan 2021. Luckily I work from home already and live pretty much a solitary existence already, sad but true when Covid-19 lockdown happened and I didn't even notice

Anyway, I'd say it doesn't have to be all depressing, pretty sure there's lots of opportunities around. I used to have a friend that made a killing on Forex, he used to rent a desk in an office with other people all doing their own things so as to have that feeling of going to work. You can join Skype meetings.

Actually it would be nice to have a live chat function on the forum?

[Derek27]

Actually it would be nice to have a live chat function on the forum?

The way a forum works is much the same as live chat.

[eightbo]

Doesn't have to be, life is what you make it. Wouldn't be concerned with someone else's opinion if it differs from your own and you believe in it. Passion for what you do and semi-flexibility as to when you work is a good start. It can be all-consuming whilst learning but work-life balance will probs yield better improvement. I find social time way more cathartic when in a dif. environment than markets/forums (not surrounded by traders) and sometimes I'll go a long stretch in isolation without much social anything trading or not and those are the only times I'd say are "solitary" but that's by choice and enjoyable for me. No reason why you can't establish strong relationships with other traders online if you want to and interests align. When I was in the city I'd regularly meet my mates in the eve or have someone come over, or just play games online and chat to them, not much different from organising stuff between two people who work "traditional" jobs with different hours. If you've been trading a while and want new friends, start a new hobby.

[parbynat]

Thanks for taking the time to comment.

As anyone in their 40's will know social gatherings significantly dip from say your 20's, has for me anyway.
Personally it's just me and my daughter but she's doing her own thing, ha hanging out with me is pretty low on her priority list but I'm cool with that.
It seems like personality traits play a big part in all this, possibly a more introverted type would find it more suited as a job than an extraverted one.
I took a week off work 2 weeks ago as I had jobs around the house I wanted to do. I figured it would take 5 days but was all done in 2. In total I didn't converse at all in 4 days and it was beginning to slightly affect me. That got me thinking about a traders day to day life and it got me curious, hence the reason I posted.

[johnsheppard]

Here's a video about loneliness. Randomly saw it yesterday.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3Xv_g3g-mA

I would suspect that electronic communication is a poor substitute for touch. I think it's initially easy to mistake it for something that could sustain you. I get the impression (although haven't read any) that there would be scientific studies aplenty out there saying such.

IMO Everyone is different.

For mine, even tho my day job is not my favourite thing....its stops me from durping...and social skills need watering...
I don't wanna clean my teeth but I still do it, that sorta thing...

[xtrader16]

Before becoming a full time trader I was a Private Hire Taxi driver. I still go out in my car and pick people up with UB*R sometimes through the week. It gets me out of the house and speaking to other people and I still get paid for doing it. It also pays for my car finance which is another bonus of doing it.

Trading can be very isolating and it can affect your menatal health if you are alone too long. Get yourself a Taxi License if you think it coud help.

[alexmr2]

I'm 27 and only coming to the end of my second year and I've thought about this a lot. The work is solitary i.e. there is no social element to trading but on the other side it can give you the opportunity to spend more time with your friends/family.

I miss the social element of my past manual jobs as they were always a good laugh. I don't miss my office job or the office politics. I used to work as a design engineer in an office and for me this was hell. 40 fixed hours sitting at a desk doing boring data entry and reports, answering to a boss, 1hr commuting a day, difficult to arrange a day off and all for slighly above minimum wage.

I'm introverted by nature (which makes it more suitable for me) and I enjoy trading, it feels like I'm working towards something good and on my own terms. In the current economy I think it makes even more sense to do something that others aren't. I graduated with a masters degree in engineering but in the UK nowadays so many people my age have degrees that companies can afford to pay very poorly even to skilled professions. I only see a life of misery if I continued my career down that route.

[LeTiss]

Yes, it is

I don't have a family life though, I am single

The biggest downside of trading for me, is that you do become very detached from outside life. If you don't watch out, it can completely consume you. This is what I admire most about Peter Webb. Forget his green screens for a second.....I think his greatest achievement is to have done this without neglecting his family commitments

I have told the story here before, where I turned down a guaranteed shag because I was more interesting in trading the Aussie Open tennis throughout the night. When you reach that point, you need to start questioning the balance.

I openly admit, I have never got the balance right. I regret that hugely

[Derek27]

Is there life outside of trading?

[ShaunWhite]

Is there life outside of trading?

There is when you're automated.
I've been tinkering in the garage all day and it's lost the 200 quid I'd have lost if I'd been sat trading all day.

And it's been all day cos I've got a habit of dismantling things without taking enough notice of how they go back together again!

[jamesg46]

Is there life outside of trading?

There is when you're automated.
I've been tinkering in the garage all day and it's lost the 200 quid I'd have lost if I'd been sat trading all day.

And it's been all day cos I've got a habit of dismantling things without taking enough notice of how they go back together again!

I also suffer from this dismantling issue, when I started my apprenticeship as an holticultiral mechanical engineer my boss very often lost his rag with me... I would take the engine of somebody's pride and joy ride along mower apart & sprawl the parts from one side of the workshop to the other. He had little tubs for every part & labelled as he went. His mantra was, there is place for everything & everything should be in its place, everything right down to his tools were set out & organised in order of use.

I try to use his mantra in my trading, Bet Angel is my toolbox & Servants are my tools, the markets are the machines, it helps with this weird mental approach but I often revert back to my old ways & when I do, I get this strange voice in my head that gives me a right old royal bollocking.

[eightbo]

Yes, it is

I don't have a family life though, I am single

The biggest downside of trading for me, is that you do become very detached from outside life. If you don't watch out, it can completely consume you. This is what I admire most about Peter Webb. Forget his green screens for a second.....I think his greatest achievement is to have done this without neglecting his family commitments

I have told the story here before, where I turned down a guaranteed shag because I was more interesting in trading the Aussie Open tennis throughout the night. When you reach that point, you need to start questioning the balance.

I openly admit, I have never got the balance right. I regret that hugely

you talk as if you're 80 looking back on your life. pointless "regretting" as you chose what you wanted at that time so imo that was the correct path for you. even if you weren't consciously thinking about it at the time, it's just how things played out. regret implies association of decisions being right/wrong and I think that's the typical toxic western way to look at it. how things played out were simply a happening. the only one there is and will ever be. it's correct by default.

zen vibes inc
idk if i've mentioned before on forums or not but sitting down one day and figuring out what's important to you (identify value heirarchy) and then structuring your life around that, making sure you're ticking the big boxes on a daily basis is just so huge i can't even put it into words. having a strong sense of purpose and making progress on that regularly leads to ridiculous levels of fulfilment. and ppls circumstances, beliefs etc. change and so therefore do their values so best to review every 1-2yrs or after any major lifechange and set trading goals as a subset of those life goals. if you don't check in on them you can become complacent and before you know it you're just meandering around in life operating on whatever habits you've accumulated over the last few yrs which is a scary thought particularly if you've been living whole life in ignorance of what you value (as most do, shit like this not taught in traditional education systems for a reason)

when you're living life at any age which isn't in alignment with your core values then fuck solitary you are just straight-up living a subpar version of your life and who wants to do that. if you happened to get caught being complacent for a few years then so be it, or if you're only just stumbling onto this sort of concept after a long life then that's just how it played out, can't dwell on it any residual fomo feelings or whatever are just in your head and out of line w/ reality (just a happening - not good/bad). the only thing we can control is how we're choosing to live right now, in the present, that's all you have and will ever have, and if you're keeping your attention there then imo you're doing all you can do and there's a great level of peace in that and you are free to enjoy the synchronicity.