Do full-time forex traders exist or is it just make believe?

Lucrum · Apr 17, 2013

Quote from marketsurfer:

Anyone wanna bet this thread has been jacked by FX dealers and others with a vested interest in you trading FX? You folks are a trip!

That's some serious paranoia/conspiracy shit smurf.

achilles28 · Apr 17, 2013

See, I don't get this logic that futures or forex is somehow impossible. Forex and futures are no different than stocks, afiact. Yes, I could day-trade forex only and make a living doing it. Forex is generally more head-fakey, requiring a longer time frame for set-ups (3 mins+). But it's no biggie.

cornix · Apr 18, 2013

Quote from JB3:

FX is just like any other market. There are a few traders that are successful, and a lot of them that are not. I'm sure the statistics are similar no matter which market you are trading.

If they are successful, the leverage in FX is so high, there really is no need to trade OPM. I have only seen 1 person in retail FX that have consistently large returns. He actually "retired" from his day job to trade because his trading was making mutliples of his salary. So I know they do exist out there.

For me, a full time trader is someone who can make more money trading than what they could make at a full time job. So for each individual, the standard is relative. Trading is just another form of a job.

Well, reason to trade OPM (for me at least) is adjust risk profile of my whole trading business to decrease Graham risk. Doesn't matter what market to trade (I have damn good leverage for futures as well, equivalent of approximately 250:1 for day trading).

Ol' Yella · Apr 18, 2013

So good to know there are folks making a living trading in fx bucket shops

What great news-- I'm so encouraged by this, I think I'll go open an fx account tomorrow and start trading

How hard can it be to guess which way the fx is going to go?

boy, this retail fx is the greatest thing ever to happen to us average joes...

cornix · Apr 18, 2013

Quote from achilles28:

See, I don't get this logic that futures or forex is somehow impossible. Forex and futures are no different than stocks, afiact. Yes, I could day-trade forex only and make a living doing it. Forex is generally more head-fakey, requiring a longer time frame for set-ups (3 mins+). But it's no biggie.

Advantage of SIFs I found is known in advance time, when "the fun" begins. Much more comfortable to trade for 2-2.5 hours a day instead of sitting like a spider in the web and waiting all day for Euro maybe to move nicely and maybe not (FX markets are more global and periods of increased activity exist, but are not as well defined as in SIFs).

cornix · Apr 18, 2013

Quote from Ol' Yella:

So good to know there are folks making a living trading in fx bucket shops

What great news-- I'm so encouraged by this, I think I'll go open an fx account tomorrow and start trading

How hard can it be to guess which way the fx is going to go?

boy, this retail fx is the greatest thing ever to happen to us average joes...

IMO bucket shops are a dying business. Retail FX got big enough so that legit companies, such as Dukascopy or LMAX (unavailable directly for US citizens, but things of beauty for everyone else) stepped into the market.

Also there are always CME futures for those who are paranoid about retail FX, which are arbed tick to tick with the spot.

Plenty of opportunities around. One just needs to not be a prey of negativity and look for ways to succeed, not ways to fail.

achilles28 · Apr 18, 2013

Quote from cornix:

Advantage of SIFs I found is known in advance time, when "the fun" begins. Much more comfortable to trade for 2-2.5 hours a day instead of sitting like a spider in the web and waiting all day for Euro maybe to move nicely and maybe not (FX markets are more global and periods of increased activity exist, but are not as well defined as in SIFs).

Thanks

That's pretty much why I switched to US futures, morning session. Also, easier on the sleep and overall health (Canadian)...

cornix · Apr 18, 2013

Quote from achilles28:

Thanks That's pretty much why I switched to US futures, morning session. Also, easier on the sleep and overall health (Canadian)...

Yea, I switched to NQ almost entirely as well, despite it starts 20:30 my time.

Love it, one of the best instruments for day trading.

Well, sometimes still can't resist from playing Euro or heaven forbid, crazy DAX.

Peter brandley · Apr 18, 2013

Quote from zbojnik:

Are you a full-time forex trader or do you know of someone who is?

I am a part time trader- but there are a few full time trader. but it depends on the person whether he wants it as a part job or not.this is a very risky business,so to be successful you will have to take risk.it is not that kind of business in which you only make profits.loss is also a part of this business. unless you are not sure about making profit.this cannot be a full time business.

Xspurt · Apr 18, 2013

Quote from macattack:

How can a rookie be killing it after a short period of training? Even if you give a rookie the very best of the best signals to trade, even those that nobody else has ever noticed, even with the best risk/reward anyone has ever seen, the rookie will still lose.

It seems this is more a mental/emotional/brain game than anything else. Did you train your rookie psychologically, or was he one of the rare individuals who happened to have the psychological part mastered beforehand?

I didn't mention anything about the length of time training him so I suppose what is short to one is long to another. As far as conventional thought is concerned, training for less than a year to become a highly profitable and consistent trader would be a short time period for most traders to achieve that goal if they tried to invent the wheel themselves.

Knowing nothing about what he is doing you believe the rookie will fail. Is that based on projecting your experience on to him? I say he won't fail. He's been trading for about 12 weeks now with enough control for me to be absolutely 100% certain. Perhaps your mind is in a box of limitations that hold you back and needs reviewing?

As far as psychology is concerned I selected him because he was a certain failure on paper. He had zero trading experience or TA knowledge and when it was the right time for sim trading he was so fearful he found it difficult to hit the mouse, even though I kept saying it was only virtual money. The big plus was I had no bad habits to erase and no presumptions about what worked or didn't' work. He trusted me almost to the point that if I said PA will move along the trend line if you lift the monitor, I think he would have tried it.

I believe the answer to psychological problems lies in technique and not in the brain but that won't apply if your technique has lose control, is close to the 50% hit rate or worse and/or uses wide stops. So I don't approach this as a psychological game, but many traders do and the concepts we build our trading on determines the profit outcome. Traders can be way off the mark and believe that is the reality for everyone.