Trader Meetups (Part 2)

This blog mini-series was inspired by an invitation I received for a “Meet & Greet/Business Card Exchange” (see here).  The issue I want to address is whether or not this can make me a better option trader.

I recently came across a thread in a trading forum inquiring about full-time trading as a business.  The original poster was a beginning student of the option education program hoping one day to quit his full-time job and trade for a living.  The following response (slightly edited for clarity) is from an advanced student in the program:

> I am in the position that you want. I am on the other side of the fence where from your
> point of view the grass looks like a lush green field.
>
> My wife is involved with her family business and is bringing home the bacon while I am
> learning to trade.  When I first started with the curriculum, I was able to apply myself
> full-time.  Now that I am [near graduation]… I am concentrating on my paper trading
> and applying different trade strategies… I am trading my paper account as if it were
> real money…
>
> It’s a little harder now to apply myself full-time to trading…. 40 hours/week is a lot of
> time to allocate to trading. My trades are chugging along and I am keeping up with my
> due diligence.
>
> When I first started, my wife would ask what I was doing.  I told her about the classes
> I was taking.  I was busy.  When my wife asks now, I tell her everything is going fine
> but she can sense that I am not as busy as I used to be.
>
> My wife also asks, “When will you start trading real money?”
>
>”Soon,” I say.

I will post the rest of this response tomorrow.