“Can You Actually Make a Living Trading Options?”

Photo by Omid Armin on Unsplash

There is a frequent question that I get from people who know I trade options: “Can you actually make a living trading options?” As with most things in life, the answer is both simple (“yes”) and complicated (“it depends”) at the same. In this article, I’m going to explore the complicated part of the answer, since that is what you really want to know.

The Job Interview

One of the first things you should consider is whether trading is how you want to spend your life. Trading options for a living is essentially a job and it is not necessarily the career for everyone.

Imagine you are being interviewed for this job, and interview yourself. Be brutally honest and answer the following questions:

• How much time do you have to develop your skills? Trading is a challenging skill that takes practice and you will not be able to live off of your trading income until your skills are exceptional and you are able to apply them consistently over the months.
• How willing are you to study and learn? There are a lot of technical aspects to options so you need the right mindset, the drive to study, and the aptitude for complex, technical concepts. If it is interesting to you, as it is for me, then it can be fun and intellectually rewarding.