Stay at home mum - could I be a day trader?

elwy

Hi everyone Sorry because I'm not sure if this can really be classified under 'Savings and Investments'. But I thought there might be a few regular traders on here who could help me.

I'm contemplating if I should quit my job and take up day trading as a way of bringing in income for the family.

My eldest child is about to start school this year which means I definitely don't want to work full time any longer. I want to be there for my kids and not keep them cooped up in childcare for their whole childhood and I want to be waiting at the school gates for them at 3pm.

So I have two choices, either go back to work part-time (paying for some after-school and holiday childcare) or give up work to be a stay-at-home mum.

If I stayed at home then I would have lots of time to spend with my kids, keep the house in order and potentially make a bit of money on the markets while my kids are in school?!

I normally earn around £35k which would reduce to around 23k if I continued part-time. My husband earns over £50k so we are not financially reliant on my income, we could manage on just his alone.

I also have some savings and investments and would be comfortable with earmarking around £10-20k to trade with.

I don't know a lot about share dealing or day trading but I potentially have a lot of time on my hands to learn and research it. I'd be prepared to take it seriously if it means I could work my own hours, spend more time with the kids and earn a bit of cash (and not go out of my mind with boredom while stuck at home lol!)

I know it's a personal decision at the end of the day but it's just a dream at the moment and I need to know am I being realistic?

Is it unreasonable to think that I might be able to make 15-20k a year with a little practice?

How long might it take me to learn the ropes?

And is it viable to do this only between 9am-3pm during school term time?!

Share your thoughts please!

matthew74

If you are serious, and I think April fools was last week - don't do it.

elwy

I am serious ... and thank you for your advice but please, explain why!

CLAPTON

making 15k pa with a starting capital of 10-20k is a fantastic return and if it were easy then the entire population would be doing it... a lot better than working for a living.

why not try out a 'dummy' or fantasy portfolio for a few months and see how you get on.

matthew74

Elwy

Sorry for the flippancy of my remark. With the best will in the world even the most experienced of traders are struggling to make decent returns at the moment. You will find that by just trading a few thousand that trading fees alone could take months to make back.

Also remember that fairly soon you will lose your child benefit and see your tax and NI go up.

sabretoothtigger

23k if I continued part-time

Stay on part time and use any spare time to learn. If sucessful quit the job, afterwards not first. You might be great at it but your proposal is akin to learning swimming by jumping in the deep end

Substitute the words 'day trading' in your first post for 'betting on horses'. See how it reads. Both rely on statistical analysis and averaged returns for gain.
Send me a pm and I will pass you onto someone who does this every day and is willing to teach people, see what you think then

How long might it take me to learn the ropes?

Ive been learning since about 1989, but some people are lucky.

is it viable to do this only between 9am-3pm during school term time

Possible yep, reminds me of one emailed advert I get. Learn how to work just 5 hours a week. They arent lying, its just only a few in the world are that good most people work hard

elwy

Thanks for giving me some much-needed perspective

I must apologise for my ill thought-out figures in my original post. 200-300% growth a year does now seem a bit silly! I must confess that I was a bit blinded by figures of £80k being casually quoted by traders in other posts and I thought that £15-20k would be a nice target figure for me to aspire to as replacement for my lost salary, but I see now why it must sound like an April Fool's joke!

The truth is, I still want to spend more time with my kids and like I said we could get by without my salary. So I may choose to give up work regardless of whether I start trading or not.

With this in mind, would it not be better if I tried to make some money on the stock market, than earn nothing at all?

superhanzzz77

Depends on your appetite for risk

sounds like you are comfortable financially so you can afford to take on a certain amount of risk

check out Stocktwits lots of fantastic information on there about trading - mostly US based - but if you are going to get into this I would recommend getting an account that allows you to trade on worldwide markets - particularly the american ones.

I personally think a lot can be acheived / gained through good research and if you are day trading you will be able to react quickly to market changes

You could fairly easily trade the momentum stocks and make good money.

As long as you respect your stops to stop any bigger losses.

superhanzzz77

the only problem being that the market has been going up for some time now and there will always be a correction at some point!

Ifts

You could always have a practice first without committing real money, try it for while and see if its something that you think you could be good at.

I'm sure other providers offer practice accounts but heres the link for the Share Centre: Practice trading shares with FREE practice account, you will have to register but its free.

Once you have registered you will have access to advice to help you get started and research tools so you can learn more about the market.

DavidHayton

Hi Elwy,
Nothing stopping you dabbling on the stock market. It is a profitable activity (on average, over the long term), and always intellectually stimulating.

The balance is always between risk and reward. The greater the risk, the greater the potential for rewards. Personally I aim for 15% growth p.a. but I don't always make it. There are others who look down their noses at the likes of me and claim they are doubling their money every year. Good luck to them, I say, but I do wonder why they are not filling up the rich lists. If you double your money every year, you will turn £1k into £1million within 10 years, and into £1billion within a futher 10 years.

Best wishes
David