Would you stop trading if you found better paying job?? | Forex Factory

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Would you stop trading if you found better paying job??

  • #1
  • First Post: Jul 8, 2010 3:29pm Jul 8, 2010 3:29pm
I am going for an interview for a new job. They would pay me double my current job. Its an engineering job so its also of competitive nature and I need more studying. So I don't know if I would be able to resume learning FX.

So what do you people in jobs that require studying doing?? I only interested in FX because I like the challenge. I never quit something before I master it.
  • #2
  • Jul 8, 2010 3:42pm Jul 8, 2010 3:42pm
Quoting Brb-Fraudin
I am going for an interview for a new job. They would pay me double my current job. Its an engineering job so its also of competitive nature and I need more studying. So I don't know if I would be able to resume learning FX.

So what do you people in jobs that require studying doing?? I only interested in FX because I like the challenge. I never quit something before I master it.
If you want the job trade the daily, or stocks - Review on the weekend
Time hides Nothing
  • #3
  • Jul 8, 2010 3:43pm Jul 8, 2010 3:43pm
Quoting Brb-Fraudin
I am going for an interview for a new job. They would pay me double my current job. Its an engineering job so its also of competitive nature and I need more studying. So I don't know if I would be able to resume learning FX.

So what do you people in jobs that require studying doing?? I only interested in FX because I like the challenge. I never quit something before I master it.
If you had the option of earning % more of your account balance every week consistently by yourself would you choose that instead of a fixed high salary?
The greatest force on earth is compound interest.
  • #4
  • Jul 8, 2010 7:25pm Jul 8, 2010 7:25pm
the first question you need to answer is how old are you??

second, it sounds like this is kind of a hobby for you. time you have extra in your day. is forex going to be a hobby or your prime source of income??

it sounds to me like you are an engineer first, as it is something you love to do. if it is something that you look forward getting out of bed in the morning and going to work, then do it. as for forex, when you get home at night, look at the market and see what has happened. start to look at the longer time frames and go from there. use this as your retirement vehicle, or maybe seed money to start your own engineering firm. trust me, this is the impossible building to build. forex has a mind of it's own and causes disaster after disaster for anyone who trades here, unlike being an engineer. once in awhile something is designed wrong, forex is like the ocean, one day all calm and everybody is making pips and getting a tan. the next, hurricanes and massive waves and every one has been beaten up, the day after, nice and calm. you never know what is going to happen here, so the challenge should not be to conquer, but to survive with profitable trading. just my 2 cents.
  • #5
  • Jul 8, 2010 7:32pm Jul 8, 2010 7:32pm
5% of traders are successful at making a profit; even fewer can do it for a living.

100% of people with a job are successful at doing it for a living.


I get up an extra hour early to trade before work, and can check my account during the day so I look at it once or twice. Daily charts for targets, one hour charts for zeroing in.

Then again, my job isn't so demanding that dividing my attention like this causes me problems.
  • #6
  • Jul 8, 2010 7:36pm Jul 8, 2010 7:36pm
Stick to your engineering job. Instead of trading, start investing.



Quoting Brb-Fraudin
I am going for an interview for a new job. They would pay me double my current job. Its an engineering job so its also of competitive nature and I need more studying. So I don't know if I would be able to resume learning FX.

So what do you people in jobs that require studying doing?? I only interested in FX because I like the challenge. I never quit something before I master it.
  • #7
  • Jul 8, 2010 7:47pm Jul 8, 2010 7:47pm
Quoting dr_zeus
100% of people with a job are successful at doing it for a living.
Might wanna check your stats there
Time hides Nothing
  • #8
  • Jul 9, 2010 1:18am Jul 9, 2010 1:18am
IMHO, the pay is not the main point.
the main factors are passion & personality.

personally, i would accept a job that i love even with no pay.
think about that. that's sort of an inverse answer to your question.
  • #9
  • Jul 9, 2010 1:32am Jul 9, 2010 1:32am
take the job and trade fx on long term basis.
  • #10
  • Jul 9, 2010 3:28am Jul 9, 2010 3:28am
what is the size of your current account ?
Twitter: @forexpokerpro
  • #11
  • Jul 9, 2010 6:57am Jul 9, 2010 6:57am
If you're only doing it for the potential money you're not a trader.
And if you're even thinking about quitting it is and was never your passion.
  • #12
  • Jul 9, 2010 7:41am Jul 9, 2010 7:41am
Quoting CindyXXXX
Might wanna check your stats there
All the stats in my posts are b-s really. Point is, if you have a job, you're going to get paid regularly. You'll probably have health insurance and a retirement account, and you can earn more in the future as you get raises.

Trading has more income potential, but most people don't achieve it. Be realistic and understand that if most people are losing, you will probably lose too. The odds are against you from the start since every trade has a winner and loser (50/50 chance of win) plus a commission/spread (49/50 chance of win).

So go to work. Trade when you can on a longer timeframe. "Invest" in carry trade pairs - they tend to work out at low leverage over very long time frames.

And passion as nothing to do with trading full time or not. I have a passion for a number of things that I can't do fulltime because they don't pay.
  • #13
  • Edited 10:55am Jul 9, 2010 8:57am | Edited 10:55am
Quoting dr_zeus
[...]most people are losing, you will probably lose too. The odds are against you from the start since every trade has a winner and loser (50/50 chance of win) plus a commission/spread (49/50 chance of win).
That logic is a little bit flawed. If the USA Basketball All-Stars Teams were to play against some kids from the streets the chances are not 50/50 even though there are still only 2 outcomes.Maybe that's how you learned it in school. Trend determins your probability if in the next 15 min the price will be higher/lower.

Concering that everyone who starts trading will probably lose is flawed too. When I did my MBA we had severals lectures. Some Exams for these lectures had failure rates of over 60% with ~200 people. Did this mean that I was probably not going to pass the exam anyway? No because I worked harder than the 60% who failed. As long as you can influence yourself wheter or not you belong in one group or another statistics don't really mean anything.
  • #14
  • Jul 9, 2010 10:27am Jul 9, 2010 10:27am
Quoting dr_zeus
...Point is, if you have a job, you're going to get paid regularly. You'll probably have health insurance and a retirement account, and you can earn more in the future as you get raises.
...
Warning: all these are null & void when there is a crisis
  • #15
  • Jul 9, 2010 10:36am Jul 9, 2010 10:36am
Quoting TJPLD
If you're only doing it for the potential money you're not a trader.
And if you're even thinking about quitting it is and was never your passion.
great post well said....
  • #16
  • Jul 9, 2010 10:39am Jul 9, 2010 10:39am
Quoting TJPLD
That logic is a little bit flawed. If the USA Basketball All-Stars Teams were to play against some kids from the streets the chances are not 50/50 even though there are still only 2 outcomes.Maybe that's how you learned it in school. Trend determins your probability if in the next 15 min the price will be higher/lower.

Concering that everyone who starts trading will probably lose is flawed too. When I did my MBA we had severals lectures. Some Exams for these lectures had failure rates of over 60% with ~200 people. Did this means that I was probably...
another good post... keep em flowing TJPLD. These are great points.
  • #17
  • Jul 9, 2010 10:40am Jul 9, 2010 10:40am
Quoting TJPLD
That logic is a little bit flawed. If the USA Basketball All-Stars Teams were to play against some kids from the streets the chances are not 50/50 even though there are still only 2 outcomes.Maybe that's how you learned it in school. Trend determins your probability if in the next 15 min the price will be higher/lower.

Concering that everyone who starts trading will probably lose is flawed too. When I did my MBA we had severals lectures. Some Exams for these lectures had failure rates of over 60% with ~200 people. Did this means that I was probably...
Bad news for most retail traders: you are the kids from the streets, and the All-Stars are who you are up against. Why do you think so many people are on FF and other sites looking for a system? It's because what they are doing isn't working.

I'm not saying that retail traders can't make money. I've been doing between 10%-20% per month since last fall when things started turning around for me. But I still have large crashes (my figures include my crashes) and it's not something I could depend on to pay bills.

Maybe this guy can study real hard, work at it, and figure out a way to make forex work for him. But chances are he'll fail it. This isn't like your MBA class where 60% failed because they didn't try hard enough - everyone in a class *can* pass. Not everyone in Forex can pass. In fact, more people must fail than pass in order for the winners to make it worth their while.

Think of it this way: maximum grade is 100. The broker takes 2 points off the top, so now the max grade is 98. 51 is a passing grade, and you have compete with another student. For every point she gets, you lose a point. There is no way for both of you to pass, and in fact both of you can fail by getting 49 points.

Forex is a win-fail-fail game.
  • #18
  • Jul 9, 2010 10:48am Jul 9, 2010 10:48am
Quoting dr_zeus
I'm not saying that retail traders can't make money. I've been doing between 10%-20% per month since last fall when things started turning around for me. But I still have large crashes (my figures include my crashes) and it's not something I could depend on to pay bills.
So that would make you part of the under capitalized group? 10% -20% on 50, 000 is 5000 - 10 000 a month mate! I could sure pay my bill with that......
  • #19
  • Edited 11:31am Jul 9, 2010 11:10am | Edited 11:31am
Quoting dr_zeus
Bad news for most retail traders: you are the kids from the streets, and the All-Stars are who you are up against. Why do you think so many people are on FF and other sites looking for a system? It's because what they are doing isn't working.
The big players don't really have an advantage over retail traders. They don't know where price will be tomorrow and we don't know either.
Do you think the failure rate of Hedge Funds is much lower than those of amateur traders? Most of the time the reason is always Risk. Reducing Risk will not make your strategy profitable but I can decide if you are profitable or not over the longer term. Sounds contradicting but it's not.

You can always reduce the cost of trading by trading higher timeframes making it easier to overcome this "disadvatage".

I also disagree with the "Someone has to lose in order for you to win" Theoy.
Let's say you went short 100K on EUR/USD and price drops 30 pips and you decide to exit the trade. So you need someone to buy back your position. I'll buy your position and wait for price to go up 40 pips and exit. Now someone else bought my position. We both just made a profit. In the end someone will eventually lose but I don't see why there has to be a huge surplus of losers for the chosen few to make a killing. The purpose of the market is to find an equilibrium price where most people are willing to buy and sell. It is not a game for adults where you have losers and winners.

Why do most people spend their time in the trading strategy forum? Because they belive they can copy the work of other people and be sucessful with it from Day 1 without doing some work or research themselfs (Hoping from system to system is not work). Once they realize that this is not how you learn to trade there is a good chance they'll be a good trader.
  • #20
  • Jul 9, 2010 1:13pm Jul 9, 2010 1:13pm
Theres no reason to give up trading if you except a new job. Fx trading can be done part time (24 hour market) or invest. Get a broker with mobile platform so that you'll always have access to the market. When I was working at the bank, I traded the market on my Blackberry. The market was never out of my reach.
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