How come you don’t trade full time?

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John Forman - The Essentials of Trading author

During an email exchange with a member of my mailing list and a student of my trading course, I was asked this:

How come you don’t just start trading full time? Wouldn’t it be more lucrative then working the day job?

I have stated on a few occasions that I am not now, nor do I ever plan to be, a full-time trader. I have absolutely no desire to spend my days trading. It’s just not my thing. I need variety in my day and that certainly doesn’t provide it. As well as I know myself, I know I wouldn’t be able to stick with active day (or even short swing) trading for very long. It doesn’t suit me at all. I’m much better off operating in longer-term timeframes - weeks or even months.

As for it being more lucrative, I get paid pretty well to be a stock market analyst. I get very good benefits, mostly paid by my employer. A lot of would-be trading for a living types fail to properly account for all that income and benefits they really need to replace. It’s also a much less risky income flow. For me trading and investing will probably always be primarily about weath creation and preservation, not about generating income.

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