Full Time Traders in FF?

Hi All,

I keep wondering whether forex is really possible for living a life.

Some say yes and some say it can happen only in dream. So i started this

thread to find out the truth. If there are successful traders in the world,

they must be actively seeing the activities in FF.

So my request to them is, please post a message to this thread if you are

full time successfull trader and your source of income for life is only from forex trading.

Thanks

I'm sure it's possible but I think that, truth be told, More of us Sustain a living from Forex/Trading After having accumulated Funds from other endeavours.

Not sure I could have been successfull if the pressure said it's a Make or Break deal.

So... Don't quit your Day Job just yet but I wish you good fortune.

Just my story.

i think its possible but like anything it takes dedication, focus and plenty of resolve..wont happen over night theres also a thin line between success and failure

to achieve this sort of success in trading i think u have to ask yourself are u willing to put it all on the line? i belive this is what makes the difference between the 2 ironically

Its hard, very hard but not impossible.

I have been trading full time fx since last 1 and half year and so far doing well..i used demo for 6 months before i started trading live so it's not that hard but you should always use stop lose and never be greedy.

i make my living trading currencies.

im not a full time trader, and dont live off profit i make. My profit is too small. But anyway the answer to your question is yes of course you could live off forex. Whats the point in trading if you dont expect to ever make a good living from it? There will be people that will make decent living from it but that also depends on ur circumstances. For example if you have a big mortgage, loans, children etc then you will need to make more money than a young 21 yr old just paying basic rent with no dependants.
I could personally live off forex for around £800 per month after tax, but there wouldnt be much point because thats all id ever get even in 10 years, cause I wud be taking out the profit rather than keep it growing in the account. It wud be worth it to me if I was making £1000 per month, that wud then be justifiable to take on full time.
So compare me to someone that couldnt live off that then you would think its certainly possible for people to live off forex. Im sure there are even people around here that do just that. Dont expect them to make any post to this thread though, they probably dont come on much. I know I wont when I get there.

edit: LOL just as I sent this message a couple of people above have posted, so ignore the last comment....

WITHOUT CONSIDERATION, it is VERY possible, and in some ways simple !

you cannot get to that point without starting with a decent amount unless you can slowly build the equity and have the patience of a saint, because what youre aiming for is both the ability to withdraw equity AND increase what remains OVER the amount you draw, and by a sizeable amount.

at the VERY least, this requires at least $50K starting equity AND a few years of solid and honest experience, but I can tell you it can be done !

Like any other business, unless you start with a very LARGE equity pool, you may scrimp for a year, but if you are good enough to remain consistently profitable, what develops is only dependent on your own skills and mind set.

as has been said, your standard of living determines the amount you require, but i would assume you to be relatively young and without outrageous encumbrances at the moment.

IF YOU CAN PROVE YOURSELF to both yourself and others, you may find working like a new insurance salesman to be an excellent method ---- instead of selling all your friends and relatives insurance, simply sell them a "future increase in their money".

IT REQUIRES PROOF and psychological fitness for the job, BUT its the one way of getting the equity needed without going into the 401K, investments or selling the kids !

also remember that its a rare "customer" who does not want to see YOUR money invested right alongside theirs, as it provides a "peace of mind" in a business with no FDIC or guarantees, and you will have to do that as part of your whole procedure.

50 is minimum and 100 better, but that is enough, if you have the abilities and take the usual 20 plus 2 AND youre own trades, to begin building to a VERY good living !

enjoy and trade well

mp

It's possible, and like any other business, there are risks involved

My goal is to live of Currency Trading in the not too distant future

4.5 years for me.
Since trading FX is quite dull,there's lots of time to educate myself about other markets.

Most of the info used daily in my FX research on a daily basis (oil,gold,stock exchanges,indices, etc) translate over into trading options, S&P emini,junior resource stocks etc.Why limit myself to just FX?

If you want something easier to trade try S&P eminis.

interesting and true

the forex market is just ONE of many markets, invariably interconnected in many ways --- one can trade the DOW as a true counter trade to most of the normal forex pairs and do extremely nicely, as well as the eminis and all the rest.

here you are in the "rookie" department, so the accounts tend to be small and the ability (and knowledge) to pursue the many WAYS of trading are not easily accomplished as well as "most" brokers not offering these abilities --- as the account grows and the experience increases, the options contained in the variety of trading instruments grows right alongside the other and much more can be accomplished.

Now on the other side of the coin, when one is making over 350 pips per day trading forex in full lots, the "need" and "desire" have to be weighed against the amount of work one is willing to take on in that available time space ---- other words, it aint always easy to serve many masters !

it comes down to "the fire in the belly" of the young trader vs. the "experience and logic" of the older, established trader --- you makes your choice and goes with it as you see fit, BUT thnx for mentioning what REALLY does exist out there, which can be staggering at times.

enjoy and trade well

mp

It's very possible to live off of trading profits. It's what my dad did back in the 80's (before the crash). It's what I'm about to switch over to now.

For frame of reference; with $25k starting capital, you could plausibly and conservatively earn yourself $1,000/week income from trading. In the words of Ron White, "It can happen, I've seen me do it."

The biggest hurdle to trading for a living is...yourself. You have to have the discipline to treat it like a business. For instance, paying yourself a set salary and leaving the rest of your profit in your account for growth and insurance reasons (unless you're sitting on a large pile of money that you're not worried about growing so you can take out all your winnings).

You have no boss, so you're accountable only to yourself, and for a lot of people that's a dangerous proposition since they can't hold it together. Some people require someone sitting on their shoulder to tell them yay or nay. That's not a negative personality trait, but it can be a hurdle in this business. I'm one of those people and I pay my room-mate in beer to be the person over my shoulder to keep me honest and on track. If you have a SO or room-mate, or best friend, hire them on!

"I've already made my profit target for the week, should I press on?" That's another question you have to answer for yourself. Personally, I can't do that. That's when I start slipping and do more harm than good. Plus...who doesn't want to take the day off and go play golf instead?

You also have to find a trading style that suits your personality. I have huge respect for the guys who can sit there and scalp away for six hour stints at a time, but I'd die doing that. It may be for you, it may not, but you have to figure that out. There's no shame in placing 1-2 trades per week on a daily chart that pay out well. It's how I trade, and I would still consider it a full-time endeavor. The point is, you have to have a natural fit with your trading style. Don't force it.

More to the point, you have to have a trading method in the first place! It could be as simple as flipping a coin! Regardless, you still have to have a set system and you have to follow the system. No going off half-cocked or shooting from the hip. "Plan the trade, and trade the plan." You cannot deviate from your rules. That's how you derail the train and destroy your business. The more boring it gets, the better. It becomes boring because you're getting it down to a rote behavior, which is good. Do not trade for excitement! Trade for the profit!

You have to have a business plan! You have to have set goals! You have to have structure! If you just flit from one day to the next, you're going to bomb yourself out. You should have set goals such as "According to this plan, if I just made $XXX per week/month, I want to accumulate $XXXX after y weeks/months/years." You have to have rules in place for things such as if you have a bad week. What are you gonna do? Do you still take out your "salary", or do you have excess funds sitting by that you inject back into your account? Do you have to rebuild to your watermark before you allow yourself to begin withdrawing again? You need to have this all written out before you even think of getting into it full-time.

As a secondary to all of this, what are you going to do about benefits that most people get for granted at a regular 9-5? What are you going to do about health care, life insurance, cash reserves? What about retirement planning? Remember, you have no 401(k) plan (for us US kids) doing this, and if you make a large enough amount of money, you're screwed on putting any retirement savings back. You have to create your own safety net as well. Most people over look this aspect, but in many cases the benefits you receive at your desk job are equivalent to, or greater than, your take home salary!

In summary, yes, it's very doable. The devil is in the details however. So, even as a part-time trader, draw up a business plan. Create a written framework of what you seek to accomplish, when you want to accomplish it by, and how you're going to do it. As an even better idea, come up with it and post it up here so you can get some constructive feedback and can hopefully inspire other people to do the same for themselves.

Nice post skyhook.

I've seen people do it myself, not with FX but with equity and fixed income. A couple of the traders at the bank I used to work for traded in their spare time and made several hundered thousand out of it.

It's certainly possible, but I don't think people like that have a desire or time to hang around on internet forums. They're too busy popping the Cristal!

I also beleive it's possible, I thought I was nearly there raking in some big %% gains ( Very small account ), but started trading like a TWAT again against the trend, so taking a week off and getting some normal work outta the way.

Depends ofcourse on your life style, where you live, keep your life style simple. I can live on @$2000 per month very nicely, think making 200pips per week at $3 per pip and sorted!!

If you want to become a multi Millionaire, cause lets face it 1Mil it's worth what it used to, then thats a different story, most normal people won't be able to handle trading more than $10 per pip so thats 100,000 pips to make at 200per week thats 10years of trading!!

Move to Zimbabwa(sp!) you could live of a $0.10 Micro account

MP:

As you stated there are many correlations out there.....Nikkei vs JPY vs Dow for one.


I certainly don't need the money,I do it because i love it.

Currently I'm getting into sports arbitrage,just to fill the time while waiting for a good trade.

And don't forget the Japanese housewives.


Skyhook,you're also correct. As well most people don't have the discipline to turn off the idle entertainment on TV and actually trade.

Skippy signing off,gone to Japan for a week.