Trading in Thailand

Quote from Peternam:

What about current trading conditions ?

good wireless internet ?

VISA requirements , I have read that you have to do a VISA run every weeks instead of each month after you have stayed 90 days
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Excellent, when you include the cost of living, and wonderful women who generally prefer traditional roles of women. Internet is fine. I recommend a minimum of two different connections (one for backup).

Most countries visa exempt is 2 weeks now at all land borders (1 month if you arrive via airplane). Or you can get single/double/triple entry tourist visas, good for 60 days + 30 day extension or 90 days total for each entry. The best visa to have is non-imm visa (single or MULTIPLE is best). you get 90 days for each entry, and the multiple entry you can get up to 15 months in LOS if you time the last entry right.

http://www.ThaiVisa.com is much better for specifics on living conditions. Don't give it a second thought. Take some risks in life and make it over here, then make a decision on whether or not it is right for you.
 
On a totally different note, how do you guys like living there? Feels to me like it's a perfect country for retirement - good weather, good food, low cost of living, good rock climbing (important for me), accessible women (important for some) etc.

My buddy just retired in Phucket - I am following his progress closely. From what I know, his nest egg is not that large - maybe about a buck total, but he thinks it's more then enough.
 
Quote from sle:

On a totally different note, how do you guys like living there? Feels to me like it's a perfect country for retirement - good weather, good food, low cost of living, good rock climbing (important for me), accessible women (important for some) etc.

My buddy just retired in Phucket - I am following his progress closely. From what I know, his nest egg is not that large - maybe about a buck total, but he thinks it's more then enough.
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If you are particularly picky, then grab a single/double entry tourist visa and see what it is like for a couple of months. If you are willing to give up some of your western standards, then go and see if you want. If you shop around or use priceline, you can get a round-trip ticket for $1100 or so from USA. One of the biggest surprises for most western people is the fact that there aren't as many rules/laws. No big brother. For self-directed traders, one of the biggest expenses is living expenses. So you can cut down on those here.

Make sure you take with you things that might be expensive to import/find (like maple syrup).

Honestly, I wish I had come here before. It's not just for old folks. In fact, you want to be young when you come over here. Offers some balance to the western get, get, get mentality. A huge break from western feminism :)

thaivisa is a better resourse for specifics.
 
Quote from ybfjax:

If you are particularly picky, then grab a single/double entry tourist visa and see what it is like for a couple of months. If you are willing to give up some of your western standards, then go and see if you want. If you shop around or use priceline, you can get a round-trip ticket for $1100 or so from USA. One of the biggest surprises for most western people is the fact that there aren't as many rules/laws. No big brother. For self-directed traders, one of the biggest expenses is living expenses. So you can cut down on those here.

Make sure you take with you things that might be expensive to import/find (like maple syrup).

Honestly, I wish I had come here before. It's not just for old folks. In fact, you want to be young when you come over here. Offers some balance to the western get, get, get mentality. A huge break from western feminism :)

thaivisa is a better resourse for specifics.
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Great post.

I'm tending towards Chiang Mai. Some of my biggest concerns are access to specialty products... like maple syrup lol. I'm a little worried about not being able to get certain luxury items I've become used to having around. Also a little concerned about transportation. I like to run and cycle so I'm a bit concerned about air quality.

Reading thaivisa is informative but also a little off-putting. Some of those guys are so bitter! I don't know whether to make some expat friends or avoid all of them like the plague.

I was thinking of doing a 1-year trial run in Chiang Mai. I'm planning to live in the city and attend a 1-year language course at CMU. The best language course is at Chulalongkorn U. but I don't want to like in BKK. I will probably not trade for the whole year. Then I'll come home and make a decision.

Somewhere in there I might do 1-week in Pattaya. :D :D :D

Do you keep stuff in storage in your home country or did you sell absolutely everything? Just curious.
 
Quote from 377OHMS:

Great post.

I'm tending towards Chiang Mai. Some of my biggest concerns are access to specialty products... like maple syrup lol. I'm a little worried about not being able to get certain luxury items I've become used to having around. Also a little concerned about transportation. I like to run and cycle so I'm a bit concerned about air quality.

Reading thaivisa is informative but also a little off-putting. Some of those guys are so bitter! I don't know whether to make some expat friends or avoid all of them like the plague.

I was thinking of doing a 1-year trial run in Chiang Mai. I'm planning to live in the city and attend a 1-year language course at CMU. The best language course is at Chulalongkorn U. but I don't want to like in BKK. I will probably not trade for the whole year. Then I'll come home and make a decision.

Somewhere in there I might do 1-week in Pattaya. :D :D :D

Do you keep stuff in storage in your home country or did you sell absolutely everything? Just curious.
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I don't worry about air quality, unless you are living in downtown bangkok. Even then, I wouldn't worry about it any different than any other major metropolis. Casual bicycling in congested parts of bangkok is not recommended if you are worried about safety....motorcycles are too aggressive, even on side roads, let alone main roads. Greater bangkok and lesser congested areas like Chumphon Town, Phuket Town, Pattaya (non-main roads). Chaing Mai should be ok also.

Specialty products there are shops like Villa Market in the major tourist areas of Bangkok, Phuket, Pattaya, Chiang Mai, Hua Hin that cater to foreigners. Siam Paragon has a supermarket called Gourmet Market that also carries. Beyond that, bangkok has "little india" china town, etc other places. The walmart/Sams/Cosco/Kmart equivalents are Tesco Lotus, Makro, and Big C.

there is a website "retire on $550 a month" that should give you some insights specific to chiang mai. That guide was based on a studio or 1 room furnished apt, air condition/hot water/electric, eating thai food twice a day. As you add your western foods, movies, toys, etc, it would go up. Although $1000/mo living is very doable. Although as you move out or away from tourist areas, you can find 2-3 bedroom houses for $80-200/mo. In fact, it is not uncommon for people to have "live-in" shops/storefronts where you pay $50-100 rent/mo, plus you sell stuff out of your home. This works out well especially if you are on one of the main roads.

Thaivisa can have some sourpusses. Keep your questions objective, don't take anything personally, and you will be fine. Interestingly enough, there was a thread recently about how immigration was tightening down on the visa requirements. You should have seen the amount of people crying that their paradise might be shorter lived. (btw, the best visa is the 1-year visa [multiple entry non-imm ED or any non-imm....you want the one that is issued already and then you do a visa run [leave country for a few minutes]. This visa is pre-issued before you enter thailand. This is different that getting a single entry and then extending every 90 days.)

You don't need to go to Pattaya to find women, but if your sex drive is high, it's s definitely worth adding on the to-do list. As a general rule of thumb, take what you see in Patong Beach (phuket) and multiply it by 15-20 that is pattaya :D. I think you learning the language is a big step in the right direction. I learned that if you can't get the subject and verb right, the other filler words/symbols won't matter too much.

I have no intentions on returning to home country anytime soon, although I didn't have much material stuff anyway. I suppose you could store your stuff, but why? What are we really holding on to anyway?
 
What are the taxes like? Not that low, last time I checked. I'm assuming you're from the US so you pay the same amount as you did in the US.
 
I knew a trader who retired in Thailand in 2003-2009.. He had that year-long Visa just mentioned. He told me that part of the requirement was to have a certain amount of money (10K?) on deposit in a Thai bank. Also, very true about that DSL connection. The neighbors will pull your bandwith down to a crawl. He couldn't work off of tick-based charts due to the lag (trying to daytrade the ES).

He's happy. Met a woman (think it was his realtor when he first got there) and got married so that took the Visa issues off the table. He said the hardest thing to get used to was the time distortion reality these people live in (appts mean nothing). PC repair guys will say they can fix anything, not have a clue and then figure it out as they go along. Their (thais) favorite past-time is getting in groups and gossiping about the ones not in the group.

I've never been there. I just saw a House Hunters episode on HGTV and they were in Kuala Lampur. It looked pretty clean there although the monthly for a decent standard of living looked like $3000 / mo.

He's in Chang Mai. I lost touch with him. He also mentioned that there a trading club there (expats, of course). It's common I guess that trading is the one of the favored ways to have a supportive income.

Good luck guys. I'm no prude, but if it were me over there, I would rather meet a highly educated / intelligent, normal woman who had her own steady income source and then some kind of meaningful relationship could develop than devolve into what's been hinted in this forum. I'm sure it sounds good in your mind but it has to get old eventually for someone(s) only being nice to you as an illusion to get your $$$. For guys 45+, I'm sure there's plenty of genuine women in their late 30's / 40's who would actually want a real relationship.
 
Quote from d08:

What are the taxes like? Not that low, last time I checked. I'm assuming you're from the US so you pay the same amount as you did in the US.
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If you qualify as a taxpayer, then I suppose you would pay whatever taxes you are required to. If you qualify as a non-taxpayer, then I guess it wouldn't matte anyway. For US residents, I recommend reviewing the relevant sections of USC Title 17.

Quote from SteveH:

I knew a trader who retired in Thailand in 2003-2009.. He had that year-long Visa just mentioned. He told me that part of the requirement was to have a certain amount of money (10K?) on deposit in a Thai bank. Also, very true about that DSL connection. The neighbors will pull your bandwith down to a crawl. He couldn't work off of tick-based charts due to the lag (trying to daytrade the ES).

He's happy. Met a woman (think it was his realtor when he first got there) and got married so that took the Visa issues off the table. He said the hardest thing to get used to was the time distortion reality these people live in (appts mean nothing). PC repair guys will say they can fix anything, not have a clue and then figure it out as they go along. Their (thais) favorite past-time is getting in groups and gossiping about the ones not in the group.

I've never been there. I just saw a House Hunters episode on HGTV and they were in Kuala Lampur. It looked pretty clean there although the monthly for a decent standard of living looked like $3000 / mo.

He's in Chang Mai. I lost touch with him. He also mentioned that there a trading club there (expats, of course). It's common I guess that trading is the one of the favored ways to have a supportive income.

Good luck guys. I'm no prude, but if it were me over there, I would rather meet a highly educated / intelligent, normal woman who had her own steady income source and then some kind of meaningful relationship could develop than devolve into what's been hinted in this forum. I'm sure it sounds good in your mind but it has to get old eventually for someone(s) only being nice to you as an illusion to get your $$$. For guys 45+, I'm sure there's plenty of genuine women in their late 30's / 40's who would actually want a real relationship.
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If you work with reputable people/companies, then the time factor is not an issue. Ask around and use your intuition and you should get pretty far.

Retirement/marriage visas have different requirements, and usually require some monetary lump sum or proof of income. The ED visa is much easier to qualify for. Getting along with some women The "secret" is to be honest with yourself first; figure out what is a good fit for you and then it is easy to find a partner that will fit your needs. Unfortunately, most people lie to themselves, and therefore find it difficult to attract someone who is honest with them.

BTW, if you want woman with high education, either you will have to go to the major cities, or maybe you run into someone who runs their own business or happens to come from a well-to-do family. Learning some basic conversational thai would obviously help your quest. One of the good things about a university girl here is that they don't lose most of their femininity even when they do start working.
 
Quote from Peternam:

What are the better wireless options ?

Where you stay in Thailand ?
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Internet.

I was in Bangkok in 2010 and traded from a hotel on Sukhumvit Road. The download speed when connecting to a New York server was around 7Mbps (Ping slightly higher than 200 ms, I think.) Not all hotels, even the five star ones in Bangkok, have this speed though. I had to walk around and tested the speed at different places. That was in 2010.

If you stay in an apartment, however, you can get something faster. An internet company there, True Online, just came out with 100Mbps service in late 2011. There's a very high speed for Wi-Fi as well. By the end of 2012, many areas around Thailand should have already been covered, not just Bangkok. Costs around $160 a month. The 100Mbps speed is what you would get domestically. Connecting to New York, I'm guessing it would be just slightly over 10.

FYI, at 7Mbps I was finding a minor delay in my real-time quotes. I'm talking about 1-2 sec here at most, not that significant unless you're extremely active. Hope this helps.

Apartment.

Sukhumvit is a popular area for many expats. Hard to find a nice apartment that's cheap and in a good location. But they do exist. My gf stayed in Sukhumvit 41 for 7,000 Baht a month on a 1 year contract. It's a studio room, clean and comfortable enough for a single person. Many Japanese lived there as a matter of fact. The only thing I didn't like was the bathroom design which had no separation between the shower and the toilet. If you can afford 20,000-30,000 Baht a month, you should be able fine.

Hope that helps. If you have more questions, I'll be glad to answer them. I spent many years of my life there.
 
Not to sound polemic or anything, just a clarification , 7 mbps download speed has nothing to do with delay, you are not going to max out a 7 mbps line with realtime data, even if you are following 5000 stocks realtime tick by tick , you are still way far from maxing it out. What prolly happened were periods of very high ping response, or dropped packets. By the way if you had 200-250 ms constant ping response that's actually pretty good for a not USA line, I'm in Italy and on avg pinging Interactive Brokers quotes server gives me a 120-150 ms response. For Bkk 200 ms is quite good. And that should be all the delay you get, obviously was something else.
Quote from loogling:

Internet.

I was in Bangkok in 2010 and traded from a hotel on Sukhumvit Road. The download speed when connecting to a New York server was around 7Mbps (Ping slightly higher than 200 ms, I think.) Not all hotels, even the five star ones in Bangkok, have this speed though. I had to walk around and tested the speed at different places. That was in 2010.

If you stay in an apartment, however, you can get something faster. An internet company there, True Online, just came out with 100Mbps service in late 2011. There's a very high speed for Wi-Fi as well. By the end of 2012, many areas around Thailand should have already been covered, not just Bangkok. Costs around $160 a month. The 100Mbps speed is what you would get domestically. Connecting to New York, I'm guessing it would be just slightly over 10.

FYI, at 7Mbps I was finding a minor delay in my real-time quotes. I'm talking about 1-2 sec here at most, not that significant unless you're extremely active. Hope this helps.

Apartment.

Sukhumvit is a popular area for many expats. Hard to find a nice apartment that's cheap and in a good location. But they do exist. My gf stayed in Sukhumvit 41 for 7,000 Baht a month on a 1 year contract. It's a studio room, clean and comfortable enough for a single person. Many Japanese lived there as a matter of fact. The only thing I didn't like was the bathroom design which had no separation between the shower and the toilet. If you can afford 20,000-30,000 Baht a month, you should be able fine.

Hope that helps. If you have more questions, I'll be glad to answer them. I spent many years of my life there.
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