The goal is to live full lives (which has different meanings for everyone), paid for from the profits of trading.

Sounds good, doesn't it? Work your own hours, be your own boss, take days off whenever you want.

However, trading is not exactly passive income. Day-traders need to stay at their computers for at least a few hours each trading day. I've personally spent entire days looking at the screen.

That was part of the reason to create the Thinking Stuff software. Not only does automated trading software (or a "trading-bot") remove fear and greed from the trades, it also gives you freedom from staring at the charts yourself.

In fact, you could be at the beach drinking beers. In the meantime, your trading-bot is (hopefully) making the money for you.

But there are some problems with having a computer trade for you. Electricity can be switched off. Pets can pull plugs. Internet connections can be cut. If you're at the beach, there's no way to know if any of these have occurred.

Okay, maybe you have the software send you an email every 30 minutes. And if you don't receive the email, then you know something is wrong. But email is not a perfect communication medium. Sure, most of the time email arrives seconds after being sent. But occassionally it takes a day or more. This late email makes you rush home from the beach to find your trading-bot running nicely.

Or what if you're hours away from your house? Or even in a different country? Maybe the Internet connection drops out the second you put your foot on the plane. You want your trading-bot to be make you money even while you're on holiday. That was the point of the trading-bot.

Now, while your automated trading career is just beginning, you'll probably want to install it on your computer, and keep a close eye on it. It means you'll be restricted to your house, just like a day-trader. The difference is that you'll be free to do anything else in your house, rather than stare at charts. Further, the advantages of the trading-bot, such as removing fear and greed, will still apply.

Not right away, but eventually, after you have faith in your trading system, faith in your trading-bot, and you are making enough money from trading to cover the expenses, you will probably want to hire a dedicated server somewhere. There are many companies around that provide 24/7 uptime. You want to employ the services of one of these companies, get your trading-bot installed on that machine, and have them ensure it's always running.

That's the goal - to have a trading-bot do the trading, and someone else looking after the trading-bot. That's passive income. Then you're free to do whatever else you like. Even work.