Possible to turn Daytrading into career?
Hey guys,
Day trader here - I've been day trading for slightly over 2 years now. Quit my full timeBBM&A(1nd year associate) job 2+ years ago for personal/health reasons and have been day trading ever since. Non-US citizen, US green card holder, worked inNYandHK. Currently living inHK.
I mainly day trade Index/Commodity Futures and Options and occasionally stocks. Had some experience trading stocks in high school/college but formally started daytrading with initial capital of 50k USD in late 2016, got around $150k additional funding from family and close friends throughout 2017. Right now my total "AUM" is roughly at 1.7 mil.
I daytrade Hang Seng/China A50/KOSPI Index futures throughout Asia hours - generally scalping and maybe some position trades but close all position before cash market close. During US morning hours, I trade Nasdaq100, Crude Oil and S&P500 futures. I try my best not to hold any positions overnight, but when I get a strong conviction I sometimes do hold positions for a couple of days to even weeks... and this is where I earned big bucks. I also trade rates/FX futures, but usually take an event-driven approach (i.e. trade GBP during Brexit votes...) My win/loss ratio is pretty bad (~40+%) but my wins are generally huge compared to my losses due to these swing trades.
I also scrape up extremely OTM long call/put options on various indices, stocks and commodities hoping for a miracle. Recently had a little bit of luck back in December 2018 during the equities sell-off but other than that, no real luck.
Overall, defo made/making more money than my short 4-yearM&Agig, but I've got to say that daytrading is a lot more stressful especially on a bad day/week/month. Was lucky for the past 2-3 years in my trades but I am not sure if i can maintain this streak of luck in the future. Looking for something that I can leverage myM&Abackground and daytrading experience. Also I just used my retail brokerage account to trade... so officially, it is a big 2.5-year employment gap.
Questions:
- Any career options from here? Haven't thought that deeply about joining a prop shop but some people brought this up. I don't do/know those market making/HFT/Algo stuff, and don't have any interest in trying to do so. Most of the prop shops (at least in Asia) seem to be market makers/HFT/Algos. Open to relocating back to the states if good opps.
- Was thinking about macro hedge funds - Will they even take me/day trading experience seriously if I do apply?
- Is starting up a hedge fund in Asia (or even US) a viable option? I don't have any connections who's done that but heard from my friend who is a prime broker that some Asian hedge funds go live with less than 5m (is this true?)
Thanks
Comments (2)
Hey Airborne279, what a lonely thread. I'm here since nobody responded ...so maybe one of these discussions will help:
You're welcome.
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