Happy New Year

The year 2024 passed in the blink of an eye, and it has become 2025.

They say that as you get older, time seems to pass more quickly each year, but when you’re developing EA and researching AI, each day feels like an hour.

I’m currently 37, but today it feels like ±5 years is a margin of error.

I’m sure 2025 will be another whirlwind year full of AI research?

Nice to have your continued support this year as well!

Leaving my salary job to become a bottom-tier full-time trader

There isn’t much to write, so I’ll say this title…

I left my salaried job in July 2018 and have been living without employment up to now.

In the first few years I literally lived only from trading, but now I also run a FX-related business, so is it a side business?

Anyway, I have experience as a full-time trader, so I’m aiming to become a full-time trader now!

I thought I’d share my experience with those who are aiming to be full-time traders.

Guidelines for a full-time trader

First, you should prepare so you can always work.

If you don’t have communities outside of work, you’ll become isolated, so have hobbies.

There may be days spent drinking, but reckless spending is strictly prohibited.

Being a full-time professional trader sounds suspicious, so when asked about your occupation you may not know what to say

A career-complex can arise.

Let’s create some business-like justification. By the way, I’m a programmer.

If you’re unemployed and lose social credibility, secure credit card limits and housing.

Keep monthly expenses down.

If profits are small, savings and margin decrease.

If you have large unrealized losses or poor performance, you’ll feel nauseous, so have confidence in your mindset and methods.

Take weekends off; even if you’re bored, day trading cryptocurrencies is off-limits.

Don’t expect to be able to maintain a long-term “buy-and-hold” approach as a casual investor

If you can’t consistently profit, monthly expenses become tough.

As a rule of thumb, quit your job once you can earn three months’ worth of living expenses per month.

There are times you’ll face withdrawal refusals, so withdraw regularly.

If withdrawals are refused, your principal won’t be returned. From a cash-flow perspective, it’s similar to a margin call.

Choose a broker with low deposit/withdrawal fees.

If payment is on the 25th, plan to withdraw your margin to align with that date.

If withdrawal takes three business days, you may miss three days of operation, which could be costly.

Opportunity losses can be severe. Choose a broker with fast withdrawals.

Cash flow reference example

Even for a full-time trader, reducing margin without generating profits is pointless, so this is a simulation for living off returns.

• Set monthly living expenses at 300,000 yen

• Standard operation assumes 900,000 yen monthly profit (three months’ worth) per month

• One month’s taxes, etc.

• One month’s savings of 300,000 yen

• If there is no profit in a month, you can live on the previous month’s savings. Consider tax only when there is profit. Savings -30

• Conversely, if it’s -300,000 yen, you live on the previous month’s savings and use two months prior savings to cover margin.Margin replenishmentSavings -60

• If it becomes -600,000 yen, you live on the previous month’s savings and use two to three months of savings to replenish margin. Savings -900

• If it becomes -900,000 yen. Following the above rules, profit for months 1, 2, 3, and 4 will be used. Savings -1,200

Among 12 months, how many times can you tolerate this?

(The numbers in parentheses are changes in savings)

① Zero profit six times (-180) = Standard operation six times (180)

② -30 four times (-240) = Standard operation eight times (240)

③ -60 three times (-270) = Standard operation nine times (270)

④ -90 two times (-240) = Standard operation ten times (300)

If you combine the above patterns and have one instance of -90 or -120 in a year

① Zero profit three times (-90-120=-240) = Standard operation eight times (240)

② -30 two times (-120-120=-240) = Standard operation nine times (270)

③ -60 once (-90-120=-210) = Standard operation ten times (300)

④ -30 and -60 once (-60-90-120=-270) = Standard operation nine times (270)

This is how difficult it gets.

Please use this as a reference.

If it’s interesting, please follow me, okay?