Lets face it, day trading isn’t the most beneficent job in the world. Even the most popular saying involves comparisons to farm animals, “Bears get rich, bulls get rich and pigs get slaughter.” We’re often assicated with the pursuit of one goal, to aquire that which is “the root of all evil,” money.
After being in the red for nearly than 8 months. Then oscillating between above and below water for 2 months I finally starting to turn consistently profitable after reading One Good Trade by Mike Bellafiore from SMB Capital (That’s another post). I felt a great sense of accomplishment but it was pinned to a lack of contribution to a greater good. So I devised a way to give back. To take the greed, the karmic “debt,” and try to give day trading a new name.
Any day I make equal or greater than 2 standard deviations of my average net profit in a day (about 500 – 1000 for me) 10% of all earnings before taxes gets donated in one of two ways. I give to my favorite charity or “donate” the amount of time I spent trading that day to an organization through volunteer work. I donate to organizations dedicated to helping/saving animals and “donate” my time to Forgotten Friends of Long Island.
If the market and I were in such flow that my hard work was rewarded with a statistically improbable return it makes sense for me to pay homage and give thanks for this. I felt a great sense of accomplishment after my first donation because I had traded hard, stuck to my plan, had an above average pay day, and help one of my favorite charities. I can’t think of a better way to feel happy about the work I do.