"Don't quit your day job" (1985)

[Laurence Horn]

At 7:42 PM -0400 6/9/05, George Thompson wrote:
>The spirit of this phrase is at least 12 or 15 years older than 1972.
>I recall in the late 1950s or possibly very early 1960s a guest on a
>late night talk show (Jack Paar's) who had written a book on how he had
>made a million in Wall Street.  This may have been the title of his
>book, in fact.  Before taking to stock speculating, he had been a
>professonal ball-room dancer.  The guest who followed him said (in
>effect) I've got some advice for that guy: don't sell your dancing
>shoes.
>
>In this case, the message was, don't count on this run of good luck
>lasting, as opposed to don't count on being successful at all.  But
>still. . . .
>
[***Etymythology alert***]

Of course, one variant was "Don't quit your day trade", but some of
those stock speculators ignored the warning.  Whence the origin of
the term "day trader".

Larry