I decided to day trade full time after I graduated medical school.

[chasm-e-baddoor]

I'm making this topic for everyone who has strayed off the path of medicine or feels like they are about to. Whether it's burnout, depression, inability to get residency, what have you.

I did not enjoy clinical rotations, to put it mildly. Working ungodly hours, high stress, toxic hospital environments, losing the prime of my life, and the sword of Damocles aka student debt hanging over my head made me really question my career choice. I still liked the field of medicine but I didnt know if giving up my 20s, amassing six figure debts, etc was worth it. My diet went to crap, my sleep cycle went to crap, I wasnt able to exercise everyday like I used to, and I was barely in contact with my good friends, who seemed to be having the time of their lives.

I started looking for potential "back up" plans for after I graduated. Based on my research, a DO degree is pretty useless without a license let alone board certification. It seemed likely that if I did not want to complete the physician path, I would be doomed to working hard at a job that would make it very difficult to pay my six figure med school debt.

That is, until I learned about markets. Not to sound arrogant, but I thought to myself that there has to be a way for someone like me, someone of above average intelligence who has dominated academics up until medical school and then passed medical board exams, to escape indentured servitude. The answer that came to me was markets. Markets are the vehicle by which the smart people become rich and then stay rich. And traders use the vast field of technical analysis to try and trade profitably.

In my fourth year of med school I started studying technical analysis and started trading cryptocurrencies since my bankroll was small and there really isnt much fundamental analysis involved in those. I had a pretty rough time at first but I kept studying and improving my trading. Bear market really kicks into high gear in feb 2018 and I'm actually making money in a bear market. By June I could multiply an account margin trading bitcoin in my sleep.

Now I have paid off all my debt and am looking forward to slowly expanding into forex and stocks.

The main thing I want to get across here is that there is hope for those that feel lost or are struggling in the medical field. I have to point out that it is NOT easy money unless there is a raging bull market. Markets are brutal and it took me 100s of hours of studying various methods of technical analysis and live trading to become consistently profitable. You will blow your account out if you are underprepared and/or have mediocre risk management. Risk management is VITAL.

Feel free to ask my any questions here or via PM

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[LookForZebras]

Interesting path that you've taken! I have a couple questions -

Did you leave medicine entirely? About how many hours per day do you dedicate to trading?

You mention that it's much harder to make money in a bear market. What is your plan for when that happens? Would you return to medicine?

 

[Mman]

In my fourth year of med school I started studying technical analysis and started trading cryptocurrencies since my bankroll was small and there really isnt much fundamental analysis involved in those. I had a pretty rough time at first but I kept studying and improving my trading. Bear market really kicks into high gear in feb 2018 and I'm actually making money in a bear market. By June I could multiply an account margin trading bitcoin in my sleep.

Now I have paid off all my debt and am looking forward to slowly expanding into forex and stocks.

The main thing I want to get across here is that there is hope for those that feel lost or are struggling in the medical field. I have to point out that it is NOT easy money unless there is a raging bull market. Markets are brutal and it took me 100s of hours of studying various methods of technical analysis and live trading to become consistently profitable. You will blow your account out if you are underprepared and/or have mediocre risk management. Risk management is VITAL.

Feel free to ask my any questions here or via PM

Here's a question: what makes you think you know anything that will be profitable long term and that you won't be broke? A couple months of making a profit isn't sufficient evidence to think you are doing anything correctly. It's like the guy with unstable angina that decided he feels a little better now that he stopped his metoprolol. Probably not going to end well despite his short term observation.

Day trading is a losing game. Risk management is vital, obviously, but knowing what that is doesn't protect you if you have to do it to make a living. The best risk management is not being forced to play that game.

(as to why day trading is a losing game, too many frictional costs and tax consequences compared to long term investing. Long term investing is almost a can't lose proposition if done correctly)

 

[WholeLottaGame7]

I'm making this topic for everyone who has strayed off the path of medicine or feels like they are about to. Whether it's burnout, depression, inability to get residency, what have you.

I did not enjoy clinical rotations, to put it mildly. Working ungodly hours, high stress, toxic hospital environments, losing the prime of my life, and the sword of Damocles aka student debt hanging over my head made me really question my career choice. I still liked the field of medicine but I didnt know if giving up my 20s, amassing six figure debts, etc was worth it. My diet went to crap, my sleep cycle went to crap, I wasnt able to exercise everyday like I used to, and I was barely in contact with my good friends, who seemed to be having the time of their lives.

I started looking for potential "back up" plans for after I graduated. Based on my research, a DO degree is pretty useless without a license let alone board certification. It seemed likely that if I did not want to complete the physician path, I would be doomed to working hard at a job that would make it very difficult to pay my six figure med school debt.

That is, until I learned about markets. Not to sound arrogant, but I thought to myself that there has to be a way for someone like me, someone of above average intelligence who has dominated academics up until medical school and then passed medical board exams, to escape indentured servitude. The answer that came to me was markets. Markets are the vehicle by which the smart people become rich and then stay rich. And traders use the vast field of technical analysis to try and trade profitably.

In my fourth year of med school I started studying technical analysis and started trading cryptocurrencies since my bankroll was small and there really isnt much fundamental analysis involved in those. I had a pretty rough time at first but I kept studying and improving my trading. Bear market really kicks into high gear in feb 2018 and I'm actually making money in a bear market. By June I could multiply an account margin trading bitcoin in my sleep.

Now I have paid off all my debt and am looking forward to slowly expanding into forex and stocks.

The main thing I want to get across here is that there is hope for those that feel lost or are struggling in the medical field. I have to point out that it is NOT easy money unless there is a raging bull market. Markets are brutal and it took me 100s of hours of studying various methods of technical analysis and live trading to become consistently profitable. You will blow your account out if you are underprepared and/or have mediocre risk management. Risk management is VITAL.

Feel free to ask my any questions here or via PM

Everyone looks like a genius in a raging bull market. Not sure what "bear market" you're referring to in Feb 2018, unless you mean specifically for crypto.

Obviously medicine is stressful, but from the big picture view, it is generally seen as a steady, consistent path to financial security, especially compared to some of the alternatives. You've instead chosen the high-risk, high-reward, high-burnout pathway. But, it seems like it is less stressful to you, so to each their own. Hopefully you can keep it up.

 

[TexasPhysician]

My family and I work at finding 1 stock/year that is under-valued with likely positive news on the horizon. Every year that pick has beaten all of my mutual funds on a percentage basis. This is the first year that I bet heavy on it, and I’m seeing huge returns.

That said, we are in a huge bull run. Part of my success I believe is a bit of luck. I don’t recommend my strategy to others, and I’m not quitting my day job - which I enjoy over analyzing stocks.

 

[J. Winter]

As I see it trading is similar to business (if you are smart, shrewd and comfortable with uncertainty -- you can do well). One is advised to have a primary occupation (medicine, engineering, etc) -- that gives a solid foundation in life first. The next step is to try something more speculative. Starting the other way round can leave you in bad shape if you hit a two standard deviation event.

 

[calvnandhobbs68]

Everyone looks like a genius in a raging bull market. Not sure what "bear market" you're referring to in Feb 2018, unless you mean specifically for crypto.

Obviously medicine is stressful, but from the big picture view, it is generally seen as a steady, consistent path to financial security, especially compared to some of the alternatives. You've instead chosen the high-risk, high-reward, high-burnout pathway. But, it seems like it is less stressful to you, so to each their own. Hopefully you can keep it up.

My family and I work at finding 1 stock/year that is under-valued with likely positive news on the horizon. Every year that pick has beaten all of my mutual funds on a percentage basis. This is the first year that I bet heavy on it, and I’m seeing huge returns.

That said, we are in a huge bull run. Part of my success I believe is a bit of luck. I don’t recommend my strategy to others, and I’m not quitting my day job - which I enjoy over analyzing stocks.

Exactly. Everyone looks like a genius in a bull market. Finding someone who hasn't made money in the last 8-9 years is way harder than finding people who have.

And dude, just because you bought some crypto when nobody cared about it and now it's worth 100x what you bought it at because it's artificially inflated on the basis of basically nothing...I mean good for you but overall it doesn't take some "above average intelligence" to do that. You know how many college dropouts bought Bitcoin (and promptly lost it on a flash drive somewhere)? It's like trading penny stocks. High amount of upside, low amount of downside on an individual basis. You can spread 100 bucks per company over 100 investments and you just need one of em to pop for you to look like a big shot. There's not a ton of analysis that actually goes into it. Real day trading right now is done with teams of math PhDs manning specialized AI systems that trade 1000 times before you can even click on the "buy" button. Day trading real stocks is a losing game for us average joe's.

And margin trading bitcoin sounds dumb as hell but whatever...

 

[chasm-e-baddoor]

Interesting path that you've taken! I have a couple questions -

Did you leave medicine entirely? About how many hours per day do you dedicate to trading?

You mention that it's much harder to make money in a bear market. What is your plan for when that happens? Would you return to medicine?

At the moment I do not do anything related to medicine. I chart anywhere from 30 min-a few hours per day depending on what's going on in the market and of course i constantly monitor the market (alarms set while i sleep). At the same time, I also just take a day or few off whenever i feel like it. I take no more than an hour a day making my rounds on the internet to gauge market sentiment.

The asset i trade right now, bitcoin, is actually in a bear market. I'm already making money in it.

Here's a question: what makes you think you know anything that will be profitable long term and that you won't be broke? A couple months of making a profit isn't sufficient evidence to think you are doing anything correctly. It's like the guy with unstable angina that decided he feels a little better now that he stopped his metoprolol. Probably not going to end well despite his short term observation.

Day trading is a losing game. Risk management is vital, obviously, but knowing what that is doesn't protect you if you have to do it to make a living. The best risk management is not being forced to play that game.

(as to why day trading is a losing game, too many frictional costs and tax consequences compared to long term investing. Long term investing is almost a can't lose proposition if done correctly)

It's not a losing game. I am amassing capital and it's virtually impossible for me to lose because of the way i set up my stop losses. The rate I am making money I wont have to do this long term. When I reach my targets I can diversify my strategy and put most in long term investments.

Everyone looks like a genius in a raging bull market. Not sure what "bear market" you're referring to in Feb 2018, unless you mean specifically for crypto.

Obviously medicine is stressful, but from the big picture view, it is generally seen as a steady, consistent path to financial security, especially compared to some of the alternatives. You've instead chosen the high-risk, high-reward, high-burnout pathway. But, it seems like it is less stressful to you, so to each their own. Hopefully you can keep it up.

I do mean specifically for crytpo. That is what I'm trading.

I agree this is not for everybody. But it comes very easy to me and I feel like I am living the dream.

I'm assuming you're gonna vote Trump 2020

Is trump good for this stuff?

Exactly. Everyone looks like a genius in a bull market. Finding someone who hasn't made money in the last 8-9 years is way harder than finding people who have.

And dude, just because you bought some crypto when nobody cared about it and now it's worth 100x what you bought it at because it's artificially inflated on the basis of basically nothing...I mean good for you but overall it doesn't take some "above average intelligence" to do that. You know how many college dropouts bought Bitcoin (and promptly lost it on a flash drive somewhere)? It's like trading penny stocks. High amount of upside, low amount of downside on an individual basis. You can spread 100 bucks per company over 100 investments and you just need one of em to pop for you to look like a big shot. There's not a ton of analysis that actually goes into it. Real day trading right now is done with teams of math PhDs manning specialized AI systems that trade 1000 times before you can even click on the "buy" button. Day trading real stocks is a losing game for us average joe's.

And margin trading bitcoin sounds dumb as hell but whatever...

reread my post and try again

also, the algos you are talking about engage in high frequency trading. youre right that no retail trader can compete with that. but I nor any other retail trader dont trade at that frequency. in fact, they can be exploited (for example, these systems you are talking about defend certain fibbonaci levels, making them good entry poitns)

 

[Mman]

It's not a losing game. I am amassing capital and it's virtually impossible for me to lose because of the way i set up my stop losses. The rate I am making money I wont have to do this long term. When I reach my targets I can diversify my strategy and put most in long term investments.

Statements like this almost always end up very bad. Nobody that knows what they are doing would ever claim an impossibility of losing money. You can't make money without risk. Risk is risk. If you don't take risk, you can't make money. Anybody trading short term that can make good money is taking a sizeable of risk. You sound like you don't understand the risk. It's like all the geniuses shorting the VIX for years that thought it was easy can't lose money that then lost massive amounts of money or the dot.com day trading era.

Unfortunately the only way some people learn those lessons is to lose the money.

 

[chasm-e-baddoor]

Statements like this almost always end up very bad. Nobody that knows what they are doing would ever claim an impossibility of losing money. You can't make money without risk. Risk is risk. If you don't take risk, you can't make money. Anybody trading short term that can make good money is taking a sizeable of risk. You sound like you don't understand the risk. It's like all the geniuses shorting the VIX for years that thought it was easy can't lose money that then lost massive amounts of money or the dot.com day trading era.

Unfortunately the only way some people learn those lessons is to lose the money.

Do you even know what a stop loss is? If you do, the fact that I say I use stop losses should tell you that I do know there is risk involved in every trade. I calculate the R:R ratio for every trade I make

I do have losing trades, and I am perfectly fine with that, because the way I set up my stop losses means that my winning trades pay for my losers in spades. That is how you become a profitable trader. The other dude said day trading is a losing game, and I responded that if you know what youre doing like I do, it's not, and that it's virtually impossible for it to become a losing game because I'd have to have a huge amount of losers in a row for me to blow out an account which simply doesnt happen my TA is rock solid

the people who kept shorting VIX sound like permabears with garbage risk management. Traders with weak technical analysis will not be profitable over time - fyi being a permabear is bad technical analysis.

 

[Mman]

Do you even know what a stop loss is? If you do, the fact that I say I use stop losses should tell you that I do know there is risk involved in every trade.

Do I know what a stop loss is? Ummm, that's pretty basic stuff. Having a stop loss on a position doesn't mean you understand risks. Things that you know you know, things that you know you don't know, and things that you don't know you don't know... it's the last of those that destroys over time.

 

[tartesos]

To the day trader

Humble Bundle

Has a book sale courtesy of Wiley that focuses on trading/stock market analysis and benefits charity. Win win.



Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

 

[073116]

OP you contradict yourself many times. A lot of BS to be honest. Even the initial assumptions are plain wrong. I mean you are saying paying off a 6 figure debt is very hard, but thousands of us do just that every year lol. You are saying all the negative things like poison environment in hospital, doomed to be worked hard ..... while making bitcoin trading look all good lol. I don't have time to argue with such level of fanatics, but I can say that I have 3 physicians in my family and ALL of them are happy doing their job. They love it and make tons of money. All of them repaid their debts and never had to wake up during night for an bitcoin alarm lol. 2 of them bought 3 houses each, invested into artificial valve company amount that is 7 figures, while 1 of them have 6 private offices across long island, ny and making money while actually helping people and doing what they love and wanted to do. It's unfortunate that you didn't realize that medicine wasn't for you. It's not for everyone. Not everyone can survive it, not everyone is meant to have a job that actually helps people and is valued. You trade bitcoins and have alarms - that's still better than work in McDonalds I guess, so good for you. Good that you realized finally that you are not cut for medicine. We need traders, bankers, cleaners, and mcDonald workers too you know.

 

[nimbus]

How are things going this month?

 

[TMP-SMX]

How are things going this month?

 

[Black Coffee 24/7]

My family and I work at finding 1 stock/year that is under-valued with likely positive news on the horizon. Every year that pick has beaten all of my mutual funds on a percentage basis. This is the first year that I bet heavy on it, and I’m seeing huge returns.

That said, we are in a huge bull run. Part of my success I believe is a bit of luck. I don’t recommend my strategy to others, and I’m not quitting my day job - which I enjoy over analyzing stocks.

Used to be a successful day trader myself here. Started my career around 2008.

But, I have become wiser over the years, in term of picking undervalued stocks and holding it for 3-4 years.

On a good year, there's always 5-6 names that are literally like picking free money off the street. I have made a lot of money using this method for me and my family. There's a lot of less stress involved.

It seems like I'm not the only one.

 

[libertyyne]

Used to be a successful day trader myself here. Started my career around 2008.

But, I have become wiser over the years, in term of picking undervalued stocks and holding it for 3-4 years.

On a good year, there's always 5-6 names that are literally like picking free money off the street. I have made a lot of money using this method for me and my family. There's a lot of less stressg involved.

It seems like I'm not the only one.

Not really a day trader anymore at that point. Seems like you are a value investor now. Unlike what this gentleman is doing.

 

[atomi]

Don’t give up on medicine to become a professional gambler.

There’s no difference between analyzing stocks and making picks than analyzing sports and betting on games in Vegas.

For every story about successful day traders there are hundreds of those who have gone broke and lost everything including their families.

 

[The White Coat Investor]

Congrats on paying off your debts. This is a risky pathway to wealth. Hope it works out for you.

Are you worried you'll regret the other aspects people value from a career besides making money?

 

[PlutoBoy]

I'm making this topic for everyone who has strayed off the path of medicine or feels like they are about to. Whether it's burnout, depression, inability to get residency, what have you.

I did not enjoy clinical rotations, to put it mildly. Working ungodly hours, high stress, toxic hospital environments, losing the prime of my life, and the sword of Damocles aka student debt hanging over my head made me really question my career choice. I still liked the field of medicine but I didnt know if giving up my 20s, amassing six figure debts, etc was worth it. My diet went to crap, my sleep cycle went to crap, I wasnt able to exercise everyday like I used to, and I was barely in contact with my good friends, who seemed to be having the time of their lives.

I started looking for potential "back up" plans for after I graduated. Based on my research, a DO degree is pretty useless without a license let alone board certification. It seemed likely that if I did not want to complete the physician path, I would be doomed to working hard at a job that would make it very difficult to pay my six figure med school debt.

That is, until I learned about markets. Not to sound arrogant, but I thought to myself that there has to be a way for someone like me, someone of above average intelligence who has dominated academics up until medical school and then passed medical board exams, to escape indentured servitude. The answer that came to me was markets. Markets are the vehicle by which the smart people become rich and then stay rich. And traders use the vast field of technical analysis to try and trade profitably.

In my fourth year of med school I started studying technical analysis and started trading cryptocurrencies since my bankroll was small and there really isnt much fundamental analysis involved in those. I had a pretty rough time at first but I kept studying and improving my trading. Bear market really kicks into high gear in feb 2018 and I'm actually making money in a bear market. By June I could multiply an account margin trading bitcoin in my sleep.

Now I have paid off all my debt and am looking forward to slowly expanding into forex and stocks.

The main thing I want to get across here is that there is hope for those that feel lost or are struggling in the medical field. I have to point out that it is NOT easy money unless there is a raging bull market. Markets are brutal and it took me 100s of hours of studying various methods of technical analysis and live trading to become consistently profitable. You will blow your account out if you are underprepared and/or have mediocre risk management. Risk management is VITAL.

Feel free to ask my any questions here or via PM

This is perfectly doable. If I could devote myself to it 100% I know I could make a living out of it but trading is a full time job. It's not different than any other job. If you expect success you have to wake up early and go to bed late. You have to do a lot of reading and keep in touch with other traders. It's not much more fun than any other job. I'm not ready to quit medicine altogether yet. I'm almost debt free already and plan to go part time hopefully before I'm 40 years old.

Good luck!

 

[321931]

I tried the day trading route...

Only problems is:

1) It's stressful gambling with 100-200k on 1-2% swings. Yes if you get it right- you make out like a bandit- if you get it wrong- you start sweating and make bad decisions like sell at a loss.
2) Fees add up- in-out-in-out The only winner is your trading platform
3) Taxes add up- The reality is that you lose 2000$ means you lose 2000$. You gain 2000$ then you actually gain like 1500 or even less because of short term gains. The odds are against you
4) No amount of TA, and youtube videos, and candlestick pattern means anything. The more you do it, the more you believe in a random walk down wall street where the premise is everything is random- noone knows anything and therefore you can never predict the market. Long term the market has risen and recovered even in times of recession...so the best thing is to buy and hold strong companies or index funds.
5) I quit day trading when I realized it consumed my life. For example, I would be glued to the screen in and out and at the end of some months...I only gained like 2-3k...or lost 2-3k...and then I realized if I just opened one extra day for a shift of work- I would of made MORE in ONE DAY OF WORK then "trading"
6) I also quit day trading when I realized that I'm literally gambling...what would my wife say to me if she knew I lost that 100-200k on some bet that FB would beat earnings. I wasn't willing to risk my marriage for some money.

So in the end, careful with day trading. I tried it...it wasn't for me. The taxes, and stress doesn't make sense to me. Best of luck.