Can you FX trade for a living and if so how?

Exactly, five years only give you a main understanding about how, then why markets move, then to be in it. In theese five years there will be many bad moments, you will want to drop this stupid forex. But if you are driven by this you have a chance to master it. You have always be interested whats going on in different areas, stocks, bonds, libors... It's hard work. At first 5 years you will work for free and even pay

I have taken forex trading as a part time job. I am a student and trade in forex to earn. my pocket money. In future I will think to take it as a full time job. But you know it is a risky business and should have proper preparation to take it as a profession.

I had been pondering the question of trading for a living. Fundamentally it seems quite simple.

1) Know how much money you need to live on, including contingency
2) Have a proven trading strategy and historical % returns per month (to align with typical billing cycles e.g. gym membership).
3) Adjust your account size to produce the necessary returns

To state the obvious, you actually need to have a working strategy (with money/risk management) first, which is the most challenging part. Doubt around the unknown must be removed with a healthy dose of self conviction and constant honest re-evaluation.

I am a part time trader, but with diligence I believe that I can be full income with the above method. That said I do not have significant financial obligations and when these come to bear a full time job may again become necessary for stability.

keep in mind that soros required 17 years to get lasting edge. He just blew account in year 16, i heard.

not easy

he is man of great mental power. Are you match for him ?

what if you find out that you have an edge but cant execute it

Ok, I'll give this one a shot, despite the wall of text and open ended questions

How? In FX, mostly by trading your own account since leverage and costs at retail brokers are good enough to facilitate this (that is to say, you don't need to depend on an institution or trading firm for extra leverage or lower costs.)

Who? ...err... yourself?

You build your account. You add to it slowly. As you prove to yourself that you are consistent, and you gain confidence* in your ability, you keep padding the account with whatever you can spare so your returns can start bringing in more $'s.

*confidence is a funny term in the trading world. Most traders believe it's about having confidence in the system being worked or being confident enough to take on risk... but when I say it, I'm referring to the confidence in yourself to execute well, to handle bad situations well like cutting a loss when you should, or not trading when it's not in your advantage to do so), to do the right thing even if it means taking a loss. Basically the confidence in yourself that you'll overcome emotions and instinct and objectively manage risk as it relates to your trading plan.

This question comes up a lot. I've even had ~10 people PM me about it since I work for a firm (but in the equities wold, not forex.)

Banks are getting out of the proprietary trading game. In the US, for example, banks can't even run their own prop desks thanks to post-credit crisis regulations. It's a hard game to keep up with (it's very technology driven now and banks aren't agile creatures in that department,) and despite past profits banks are realizing the risk it add to their cash flow is quite large.

So... if you're a trader at a bank, you're probably just doing client execution. It's boring stuff, you get a ticket, you execute it for a client and report the fill. These jobs are slowly being replaced by computers, as clients that rely on human-assisted trades are shrinking in number. Plus, computers can handle execution a lot better with simple TWAP or VWAP buy/sell algos. At least that's the trend here in Canada and the US.

Now, hedge funds are another story. They are loving all sorts of alternative assets to trade since their very nature is to have returns that aren't correlated to the market index.

However, the roles there for traders very widely. Most hedge funds have to justify their trade choices to investors, so they have a team of portfolio managers coming up with position ideas and pass on instructions to the traders to execute. So again, traders aren't really doing a lot of proprietary trading. Plus, hedge funds don't usually like to blow up, so often their trades aren't very high-leverage, short term in style.

Some firms do take on discretionary traders. A track record is required (usually 3+ years of audited, consistent, risk-managed profits,) or they recruit engineers or computer science majors right out of school. If you don't have the academics, you better have a track record. People often misunderstand what a track record is supposed to show. It's not just about profits, it's what you risked to get the profit, they will be looking at a track record for your trading activity and style... because any person with dumb luck can get 400%+ profits in a year.

Lastly, I don't usually suggest to people who are interested in Forex to go institutional. It's simply more advantageous to trade your own capital in the FX world with a cheap broker than it is to trade for a firm. Firms KNOW this, they aren't dumb, so if you're an experienced trader bringing a track record to them, they are going to ask themselves why this person isn't trading on their own if they are so consistently profitable?

In other markets going to a firm makes sense, especially equities (stocks), where good traders often need a firm to provide additional leverage or to lower their total costs. Heck, there's a large industry in the US that focuses just on this, prop firms who cater to active traders who need the firm's capital and resources to maximize the profits they can get from their strategy. That's not the case in forex, going with a firm often means much lower leverage, not much better costs, and you's have to share profits with the company.


That's entirely dependent on the firm. Each one is different.

Though, I'd warn you to stay away from firms who require that you constantly trade, especially if you are putting your own risk capital up as a "first loss". They probably make money on the back end for your volume and don't care if you lose since it's your own capital lost first.

As I mentioned above, there aren't many jobs for what you are describing at banks. The financial industry is very competitive, talent wise, for such positions and most banks are shrinking their prop desks, not growing them.

If you are having trouble finding job postings or researching careers in trading, google wallstreet oasis, it's a good site that has a lot of job postings.

The only disadvantage is social in nature.

Trading your own capital at home means not having someone else deciding how much you earn, and it means you keep 100% of your profits.

Banks will totally issue loans to you. You are 'self-employed', which many people are, and you'll have to show a few years worth of income to prove you have cash flowing in, but banks will still lend to you.

But please, NEVER EVER take a loan out to use as capital for trading. I don't care if you are a trading master, it's always a bad idea.

Thinking too much ahead? Yeah, that's an understatement. It sounds like you have a few years ahead of you worth of learning before these sorts of things are important. Start with building your consistency, if you do that, you'll see how a lot of what you're asking might not even be the best path for you.


Oh wow... no no, back up. If you're capital is small, and you want to build a track record, do not trade it "fast" and aim for huge returns. That's actually the opposite of what you want to show on a track record that you'll later present to potential employers or investors.

Remember, they are looking at how you managed risk. Nearly busting out an account to double it in a short period of time is not well managed risk. They won't want you doing that to their money. It doesn't matter if you only have $100, or $1 million, trade it the same way if your goal is to prove consistency and well managed trading.

Or, put another way, if you don't have the discipline to manage $100 with proper risk control, do you think people are going to trust you with piles of their own money?

That doesn't mean you can't take a small amount and turn it into a small fortune... just how it's done is what's going to be scrutinized. If you bet it all each time and lucked out, they won't take you seriously since it's not a sign of good risk management (if 1000 people did this, maybe one or two might actually survive, but that doesn't make them good traders, just lucky.) However, if you find an edge, create a plan, and follow it, turning a small amount into a large amount, and your trading record proves you followed your plan to achieve this... well.. that's exactly what people want to see and they'd be impressed if you made a decent chunk of change for yourself along the way.


Hope that helps... I was bored on a Saturday morning with the markets closed so I had a moment to pound my keyboard a bit.

I prefer higher time frames like H4, H12. They give more accurate information than other lower time frame.

I use the higher tf (h4 and h1) as the first indication of low trade. If the signal is confirmed in smaller tf (m5 and m15), the deal is made.
When can you make a living from trading? How much money do you have to earn per month? How long do you have to earn the money to be really successful in the long term. If you earn the salary of a middle-class employee for 12 months I would say yes, you can live from trading.

the hardest part of the thing is putting together a workable strategy, once you have it you just have to pay attention to managing the risk.
everything else already follows logically.

There are traders they make money from forex or other markets like stocks, this depends on the strengths of each trader. But leaving them is not that easy. Many times, it also takes some luck and accidentally finds a good strategy.
They live on trade FX or funded by someone else. And that is obvious. They have talent and capital people will turn to them

I like to trade peacefully. But in this case, you have to work by maintaining money management and discipline. And you have to give up emotions and work.

yes you can with realistic expectations... problem is not a lot of people know what is realistic trading

Usually there are two types of emotions on trading that affect a trader. One is fear and is greed. Fear of losing money and fear of losing opportunity. Due to greed traders open big lots and revenge trade. To be successful one needs to overcome this.

If anyone wants to trade for living, he should focus on developing skills. It's not like that you came and traded demo for few months and learned some strategies and you will be make good money. Noooo. A person needs to spend years to get skilled both technically and psychologically. Only then trading for living is possible.

Yes you are absolutely right. Trading is meant to do with idle money. With the money one can afford to lose. Over time it's possible to make good money but that takes time and patience.

No one is subject to your standards, if your bad at trading then don't assume others should take as long as you.

It is possible. You just have to combine a safe and successful strategy with your own technical and fundamental analysis. If you are calm and consistent in your actions, you will gradually see good results

It's good approach it will help newbies to save a lot of money and avoid painful experience. Unfortunately many traders are unable realise that if they want to solve their financial problems with trading, they most likely will lose what they have and get into deeper trouble.