To leave your job as a trader - be careful what you wish for

"My friend left the markets two years ago, he was one of the traders in my company, so we've known each other for a long time, and he managed to achieve what he set as a goal at the beginning of his career as a trader.What a lucky guy - or so I thought. "

He ran away from the daily trading floor tests - with a full pension, a zero mortgage, and a few small investments. Now, only two years later, he returned to brokerage. Why?

I met Rob for lunch a few days ago to make up for the lost time. It is always difficult when a friend leaves the market. It just does not have the same intimacy of being together in the trenches, not to mention the obvious lack of geographic proximity. It's just the system itself - when someone leaves the job, he leaves your life.

Anyway, like the ex-trader he was, he was slightly cautious about his plans and something was not right. Why did not you talk about intraday trading from home or investing in real estate?

Rob is about 50, like me and qualified for pension at two firms. I doubt there was not at least one pro trader who did not envy Rob's prospects. He left us alone in the unfortunate markets that were totally swallowed by the fall of the euro, uncertainty about our jobs, and he managed to get out of it in 50 years, while the others seemed to be doomed to continue to retirement age.

I imagined Rob getting up in the morning, dressing up his silk shirt, making grass fresh coffee, and taking the newspaper from her porch while reviewing his positions on the new laptop. Then comes the pursuit of "business interests", some other lunch in the city and of course a lot of free time for golf and rides with his Porsche.

It turned out, however, that things did not stand this way.

Do you remember what it is when you are unemployed and looking for a job? Well, that's exactly what the early retirement looks like. Wake up and have no patience for the next meeting or lunch with someone. You continue to postpone house duties or vacations that you have planned simply because you have no motivation or energy to organize. (Rob told me he had managed to turn his focus back only for the last 3 weeks of his 2-year break when he knew he was starting a new job!)

This is an instructional story. Rob really missed the noise from the City, which he admits to being a drug. His companions were missing, and lunches and beer after work. He was missing making money, as well as the monthly salary. Mostly he lacked the feeling that he was part of something really big.

When you work here in the City, you may not think of it this way, but you really are part of something very massive, something that has an effect on the whole planet. I guess when you get to the kitchen in the morning and you get all this second hand on the TV you feel like you're on the bench. You feel more like a player when you are a PLAYER!

Picture: pixabay.com

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• Forex Guru Path: Mindfulness, Morning Routine and Trading at your sharpest is common sense.