WHY I GAVE UP DAY TRADING
First and foremost, I haven’t stopped day trading. However, I no longer approach my day trading in the same way that I did when I first got into trading. Here’s why…
I NEVER PLANNED ON DAY TRADING
If you don’t know my story, I was the genius that quit all three of my jobs so that I could dedicate all of my efforts to becoming a super trader. Silly I know, but after a longer, than expected struggle to find success, I eventually became a consistently profitable trader whose full-time job was to analyze the market. As a swing trader, I had a lot of time on my hands because trades were far and few between so I started playing around on the lower timeframes as a way to spend time in the markets and train my eyes to pick out certain patterns and tendencies. As I improved I eventually added day trading to my arsenal as an alternative way to participate in the markets and because…well…I had nothing better to do.
Once I started teaching and as I started to grow my family, I no longer had the energy nor the time to spend the majority of my day in front of the computer. Time with family became a priority, time spent helping other traders develop became a priority and after years of dedicating nearly 12 hours a day to my trading, it was time to start reaping the benefits of my investment by spending MY TIME doing only the things that made ME HAPPY.
I love trading, and I really enjoy day trading which is why I still do it today. But instead of sitting in front of my computer all day, I only dedicate a very specific 2–3 hours a day to it. At this point in my life, I no longer want to be a slave to my computer screen because that defeats the purpose of everything that I’ve worked for. I got into trading because I saw it as a way to gain financial freedom. As I achieved financial freedom, my values shifted to achieving time freedom. And because of that, it was easy to give up some of what I like in order to have more of what I love.
I hope you guys enjoyed this post! And if you’re interested in hearing more about the differences between Day & Swing trading please check out this podcast below.
Your Trading Coach — Akil
