living from active trading?

Hi All
I was wondering if many here are making their living from trading? If so what sort of trading are you doing i.e. forex, shares, commodities? CFDs? How long have you been doing it?

looking forward to hearing what others are doing.

Forex...(I am also considering going back to SM).

sado-masochism? LOL sorry Tropo what is SM? I am not up on the short hand yet

SM = Stock Market

I am soooo embarassed!!!

As a follow up question if I may .... for anyone out there living off trading or investing (with no other full time income) how much capital did you have when you ceased traditional fulltime work and what sort of return do you rely on getting from that capital?

Regards,

Jason

Hi jason
I use about 200k, 150 of that is borrowed funds against our rentals that are neutral geared (rent also covers the 150k). I am averaging 4k per week income from my trading so far (20 weeks so far).
I also had about 50k in an account to live off while I was starting to trade, and I have further borrowings available that I keep as a safety net.( I have very high risk tolerance too)
rgds Joan

Do not worry. Keep $miling...

Jason,

The amount of capital you need depends on your income expectation and your trading skill.
If your capital is say...200K, your annual return may be 40K/year = 20% return = bottom line IMHO.
I would not recommend to trade with borrowed money, unless you are already successful as a part time trader.

hmmm I agree with Tropo to a point about borrowed funds for trading. I should clarify my position too, I have no personal debt only investment debt AND I own my own home so I am only trading for my day to day living expemses (food, petrol etc)
So I am comfortable trading with borrowed funds... I have a lot of safety nets up!
If on the other hand I had a huge mortgage on my house, carloans etc etc...NO way would I borrow to trade.