Trading: My Passion and My Skeptics

Technical Analysis for stocks (i.e. charting) is my life's passion. I literally could sit there looking at charts all day long and it never feels like work. I have always envisioned one day it would lead to me raising enough capital to pursue any of my other life's desires such as music. I'm very proud of how far I've come, especially since I'm entirely self-taught.

My results the last three years (especially this year) are a testament to it - currently up 31% for 2017 and beating just about every major index ....... and yet doubt from one man (my uncle) still looms. This is a self-made man who's owned plenty of different businesses and up until 2016 had his own private friends/famly fund run by a man who used to be a trader on the NYSE. He is someone I look up to as a mentor and has also lent me money on two different occasions when I was trying to trade full time.

He operates from the assumption that the market is all BS and what I'm trying to do "can't be done." No matter what happens, I can't seem to get this man to acknowledge my progress. He tailed me a on a trade a month ago that turned out to be a loser and was real quick to text me a petty "See, not so easy huh". Yet, when I show him what I've made for the year he won't respond. He also continues to cling to initial losses when I first started out as a trader.

Had he stuck it out with me, I would have already made up any losses and been largely profitable for him. It's crazy because he of all people should understand the net sum aspect of trading i.e. as long as your winners outside your losers you don't have to win every trade. It's no different than how he came into wealth - he had a couple of companies that were really successful and a bunch of them that floundered fast. As a business owner how can he not more closely at the situation to see which way I was trending?

Yet I can't get this stubborn man off his high horse and open his eyes to what I'm doing. The worst part is he's my only potential access to significant capital. Otherwise I'm stuck trading my parents IRA and my own. At a time when not much else is going right in life it would feel nice to have this man in my corner even just from the perspective of him believing in me. He said this wasn't possible and yet here I am with a method that has never been more refined or successful than it is now.

Such a strange thing when you're really good at something but most people in your life simply don't understand it or are extremely dismissive of it. Heck, I even sent a screenshot of the balance of my parent's IRA to my mother. No response. No "great job!" or "Wow you're really doing it!" ..... nothing.

....So why can't you grow your own money and investments? I'd say do that and prove yourself over time. I know plenty of people who trade solely for themselves and make a fantastic income. If you have a time tested working model, then forget family and seek outside investors. Don't expect huge things. Be happy if someone will give you so much as $1000 dollars and run with it. Prove yourself to them, build on that. Ask them for more once you've proved yourself, ask for references and keep at it. Sometimes, aiming a little lower will get you higher faster.

I think it is possible that your uncle is somewhat jealous of you. Have you ever considered that possibility? chi

....So why can't you grow your own money and investments? I'd say do that and prove yourself over time. I know plenty of people who trade solely for themselves and make a fantastic income. If you have a time tested working model, then forget family and seek outside investors. Don't expect huge things. Be happy if someone will give you so much as $1000 dollars and run with it. Prove yourself to them, build on that. Ask them for more once you've proved yourself, ask for references and keep at it. Sometimes, aiming a little lower will get you higher faster.

Well, I mean I already am growing my own money - specifically my retirement account.

Not sure that I really ever want to go into the business of trading other peoples' money as it requires certain licensing. It was easier just taking what was essentially a business loan from my uncle and be free of the pressures of dealing with a lot of other people. But I'm getting to a point now where my growth/development is constantly staring at me in the mirror. I'm very unhappy at my job and here is this particular skill set that has really come together in ways I never could've imagined when I first got started.

I think it is possible that your uncle is somewhat jealous of you. Have you ever considered that possibility? chi

The thought crossed my mind, especially with some of his pithy comments and refusal to acknowledge my development.

It's sad really. I mean he's supposed to be this big metatphysics guy and a "dreamer". Yet here he is always pissing in my cereal with this trading thing.

Well, I mean I already am growing my own money - specifically my retirement account.

 

Not sure that I really ever want to go into the business of trading other peoples' money as it requires certain licensing. It was easier just taking what was essentially a business loan from my uncle and be free of the pressures of dealing with a lot of other people. But I'm getting to a point now where my growth/development is constantly staring at me in the mirror. I'm very unhappy at my job and here is this particular skill set that has really come together in ways I never could've imagined when I first got started.

I'm really baffled on why you think your uncle owes any kind of support. He doesn't. Not emotional support, not any kind of rah rah rah cheerleading and most certainly not financial. You really need to drop this idea and absolutely avoid mixing family and money/business because if you ever do lose their money it's going to be a million times worse for you than if you had lost a stranger's money. Strangers will accept the risk of loss in investing without getting personal with you. Family will never let you live it down and the guilt will haunt you forever even if you weren't directly at fault.

As for hating your day job, I mean do what most people do - use your day job to fund your passion. Once you are making enough to pay the bills from your passion, you can quit your day job and move on.

I'm really baffled on why you think your uncle owes any kind of support. He doesn't. Not emotional support, not any kind of rah rah rah cheerleading and most certainly not financial. You really need to drop this idea and absolutely avoid mixing family and money/business because if you ever do lose their money it's going to be a million times worse for you than if you had lost a stranger's money. Strangers will accept the risk of loss in investing without getting personal with you. Family will never let you live it down and the guilt will haunt you forever even if you weren't directly at fault.

 

As for hating your day job, I mean do what most people do - use your day job to fund your passion. Once you are making enough to pay the bills from your passion, you can quit your day job and move on.

Why? Just seemed like a natural fit. He is a man who takes a lot of chances in life and at one point owned his own fund. As I stated before he's also very metaphysical about life and a very generous person in terms of helping people achieve their business goals/dreams.

I struggled early when I first got started but I always knew it would come around because it wasn't the method that was the problem at first - it was my psychology and discipline to stick to the method. I mean I jumped right from studying to charts to full time market trading. But now here I am ...... I'm doing it. Yet all he wants to focus on is the early losses. What business owner does that? I would assume naturally a saavy business man would look underneath and eventually see the turning point.

Sorry it just shocks me. Thought he would be the perfect guy to bring this method to and open his eyes. I forgot he knows everything though.