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Perhaps, there is nothing more exciting than trading stocks for a living.   Indeed!  I have never worked a regular job more than 6 months combined in my entire life, I do not answer to anyone and I am not worried abut layoffs.  I will never trade this kind of life style for anything else.

 If you are a typical 5-9er

• You really hate it when your boss tells you to work on this and that. You do not want to be a slave anymore, You would like to answer to nobody.
• You see no future at all in your typical boring day job. You will always be that little work bee whom everyone can assign work. You are at the bottom of the food chain.
• You hate office politics. Some people can be your boss just because they are better at office politics than you. You are always the one that does all the dirty work and gets no credit.
• What you do everyday is more boring than flipping burgers.

If you become a day trader

• All the above gripes will be gone.
• You can profit in a bull market ,a bear market or even a range-bound market.
• The sky is the limit. If your system can bring home 50 dollars everyday, then it will possibly bring home 500 dollars and more.

Before you get all excited about day trading, you will have to ask yourself one simple question. Why do 99.99% of the people around me have a boring day job?

Is it risky? The answer is no. Day Trading is much safer than investing. You close all you positions before the market closes everyday. Thus you avoid the possibility of a gaping-up or a gaping-down the next morning. If your risk control is very solid, day trading is not risky at all. That is also why most brokerage houses give you a 1:4 leverage buying power for day trading instead of 1:2 for overnight. Nevertheless, I never use margin.

Is it hard? The answer is yes. The hardest part is your market psychology and discipline. It will take you a long time to master these 2 things. And I am sure that you will relapse after a few good trades. Day trading for a supplementary income is easier than for a living since you have no pressure to make the ends meet every month. Of course, if you have a consistent system to make a supplementary income , then you can easily transition to trading for a living.

One single most important thing is that there is absolutely no shortcut in trading. You will be a profitable day trader only after a tremendous amount of hard work.

Here are 10 preconditions I think you need to meet.

1. You should be available from 9:30 AM to 4:00PM.
2. You should be realistic about your gains.
3. You should know it will take you quite some time before you can be profitable.
4. You should know it will take a lot of hard work.
5. You do not depend trading for your main income,which would put too much pressure on your performance.
6. You should have at least 30k disposable income.   The more, the better!
7. You should have a decent computer , a dual monitor setup and high speed Internet.
8. You should be optimistic and upbeat about your trading.
9. You should have solid knowledge of technical analysis.
10. You should know you will lose some money in the begining, which is the tuition everyone has to pay. You are not an exception!

It is easy to get all your hardware ready. But it will take you a long time to be mentally ready. You will ride your emotional waves up and down for quite a long time.  I think the coolest part, if you can make it, is that you do not have to answer to anyone.  Good Luck!

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