Money Magazine

How to set yourself free

One of my clients retired at 50 to become a full-time trader, hoping he could shrug off the rat race and the typical work-sleep-work life.

Fifteen years later he is still “retired” and still trading full time. Now he calls it what it turned out to be: trading not investing. That’s what happens if you do it daily. There is no set and forget – it’s just a series of individual stock-based battles and if that’s investing, so be it, or if that’s trading, so be it. It’s just an endless, but enjoyable (for him) financial survival exercise, in any stock over any time frame.

He says long-term investing is mostly born out of denial, a convenient high-brow excuse for doing not a lot of research, doing a moment’s stock picking and then a lot of hoping. “Being a bad investor is for rich people,” he says.

He is not rich, but he owns himself, which includes playing a lot of tennis and golf and being “free” to do what he wants

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from Money Magazine

Money Magazine3 min read
The Price Is Right – Sometimes
If the expression ‘May you live in interesting times’, usually attributed to the Chinese, was applied to a single ASX sector, I think it would have to be resources. These businesses tend to be price takers and that price is usually nothing if not vol
Money Magazine3 min read
Letter Of The Month
Paul's response to Tamara about her teenagers’ interest in shares (Ask Paul, February) is insightful. Might I add that an excellent way for teenagers (or anyone, for that matter!) to learn about shares is the biannual ASX Sharemarket Game. Her childr
Money Magazine1 min read
Shares
▶ MORE SHARES STORIES ON P78-85 Shareholders are increasingly objecting to what they regard as company executives’ inflated pay packets. Strikes against executive salaries among the 300 largest companies listed on the Australian SecuritiesExchange (A

Related