In the world of capital markets, you must have often heard the term full time trader (FTT). For me a full time trader is a very promising profession. Regarding full time traders, I have discussed it in this post: Becoming a Full Time Trader Part I. Also read part II: Becoming a Full Time Trader Part II.
The words full time trader are always associated with trading for a living. So, before going deeper, I want to ask you: Are the two terms the same or different? Before traders are wrong and stuck with the two terms above, it's good for me to explain about the two terms.
In terms of meaning / meaning alone is actually different. If translated:
Full time trader = Full time stock trader.
Trading for A Living = Trading for (meeting the needs of) living.
Full time trader means his main job is trading. Because the main job of a full-time trader is stock/forex trading, it means that a full-time trader earns his main income from trading. Eat, pay for school children, save, pay for daily needs from trading results. So, a full time trader can be said to be trading for a living.
While trading for a living is not necessarily a full time trader. How can that be? I explain with illustrations. Illustration 1:
Andi is an office worker (main income from salary). Apart from working in an office, he also has a side business, namely stock trading. Andi's share trading capital is 100 million. Because Andi is already a seasoned stock player, Andi can always earn 10% per month = profit of 10 million per month.
Andi has a family and the cost of living is quite large. The income from his main salary is not enough to meet his living needs. However, by earning 10 million per month from stock trading, Andi can fulfill his life's needs more than enough.
From the example above, it can be said that Andi is trading stocks with the following objectives: Trading for a living. However, keep in mind Andi is not a full time trader. For Andi, trading is just a side job, because Andi doesn't give up his main job at the office.
Now I will give illustration 2:
The Billy is no longer working in an office, only trading at home with large capital, and his life needs are met from trading. However, Billy bought shares and was left to carry out other activities. Because Billy apparently also runs a convection business and opens a shop.
Can Billy be said to be a full time trader in this case? Of course not. Why? Because Billy is not trading in full (full). Buy shares, then leave (just wait for it when it goes up), the important thing is to do other work first: Convection and shop business. However, Billy can be said to be trading for a living, because yes, Billy is trading to fulfill his needs.
Whose name is full time trader, so you have to trade full time. This means that you have to monitor stock movements in real time, even if you only work from home. Monitoring stock movements in real time means working like a broker in a securities office following the trading hours of the stock exchange (even though trading doesn't have to be done every day). Also read: Indonesia Stock Exchange Trading Hours. If you work monitoring stocks and trading at home to make ends meet, you can already be considered a full time trader.
I think you understand and can draw a conclusion: Full time traders and trading for a living have similarities but are not always the same (there are also differences). A full time trader runs his job with the aim of trading for a living. However, people who trade for a living are not necessarily full-time traders.
