I am trading forex for the last 10 years ,waiste of time , switching to stocks and maybe futures like sp500
Do full-time forex traders exist or is it just make believe?
- Thread starter zbojnik
- Start date
I've met many people who claim to be successful Forex traders but ironically, they also were sellers of so-called "coaching" programs.
I am full-time retail forex trader since 2010 (More precisely, my computer is, because I am 100% automated). Over this period, I averaged 2.5% per month from trading (before taxes). My average performance has decreased over time (yes, decreased !) because I decreased my risk with increasing capital.
I think higher average returns (2-5% per month) in Forex with reasonable risk is achievable but requires significant expertise and hard work.
My advice to aspiring full time traders (from home) is : Do NOT leave your current job until :
1) Your average net income from trading is at least 2x your current income. This requires a significant amount of capital
2) You have at least 1 year of capital on a bank account which is not at risk (or you keep a part time/full time job to pay the bills).
Once you meet 1) and 2), you may want to give a try to "Full Time Forex Trading, No other income". It may not suit everyone personality because of the level of stress (Am I going to recover from this drawdown soon ? The baby needs a new pair of shoes) + trading from home is a lonely venture.
Check out www.fxim-markets.com .
They consist of
a) institutional FX Brokerage (Prime Brokers ABN Amro, BNP Paribas, HSBC)
b) 2 or 3 FX hedge funds
c) FX Managed Account Platform (more than 120 money managers in one database)
d) FX Hedge Fund formation services
I would describe them as a "FX asset class" boutique firm.
At least for the US, the reason you don't have a lot of full time forex traders is that you can more easily go full time with other financial products.
-with options you can be biased with selling premium until you blow up from a black swan
-with stocks you can lean on the upward bias until the end of the (comparatively regular) business cycle
Leverage is actually the bane of forex. At 50:1, even 20:1, the price series looks extremely noisy. I used GP to create algos based on breakouts, trend following, and mean reversion strategies. Even with some likely curve fitting, it looks like forex has a really poor risk/reward ratio compared to algos for stocks.
Additionally, the spread costs scale up with your sizing. there's a very good reason IOM seats for currency futures is worth $250K. That seat should be your minimum investment for a career solely based on currency trading.
People in other countries have the rebate game working for them, so they can scalp all day.
-with options you can be biased with selling premium until you blow up from a black swan
-with stocks you can lean on the upward bias until the end of the (comparatively regular) business cycle
Leverage is actually the bane of forex. At 50:1, even 20:1, the price series looks extremely noisy. I used GP to create algos based on breakouts, trend following, and mean reversion strategies. Even with some likely curve fitting, it looks like forex has a really poor risk/reward ratio compared to algos for stocks.
Additionally, the spread costs scale up with your sizing. there's a very good reason IOM seats for currency futures is worth $250K. That seat should be your minimum investment for a career solely based on currency trading.
People in other countries have the rebate game working for them, so they can scalp all day.
LOL, so true! I actually no longer listen to any of these professional advertisers. I switched from day trading to swing trading as of May 2014 and fully developed a system that I think will win atleast 40% of the time as of August 1st. So as long as continue using "good money management" I will get back in the green and excel.
Laugh, criticize, or ......, I'm going to post my trading results from trading the Currency Market. I was laid off on September 5th, 2013 and started trading full time September 9th, 2013. Here are my results so far and I will continue to post my results until I reach $100,000.00.
September 2013 +8.15%
October 2013 +12.16%
November 2013 +13.25%
December 2013 +45.63%
January 2014 +3.46%
February 2014 -22.56%
March 2014 -3.38%
April 2014 -32.41%
May 2014 -18.77%
June 2014 +1.59%
July 2014 -22.15%
August 2014 As of 8-21: -3.88%
September 2014
October 2014
November 2014
December 2014
This is real real results from an "average currency fulltime trader".
Forex traders became extinct a long time ago - the trades you see here are done from the afterlife with Confucius acting as the broker
i still keep my day job and make extra on forex trading with hotforex, im not confident enough to go full time and i trade manually, I'd like to go automated but have no idea where and when to start. how i wish there was 28 hours in a day