What do your family think about your forex trading?

Do they know you do it, are they comfatable with it? I’m 22 and still live at home, im looking at hopefully in 2013 to become self employed trading from home however i do not have the support which i would like from my family. My father is neither one way or the other and doesnt really have much of an opinion on it, where as my mother is dead against it, she has never liked investing or anything which involves any risk and is not in support of me trading. So for me i kind of have to motivate myself which is of course the money side of things which keeps me wanting to trade!, to hope that one day i can trade for a living and make thousands of pounds a week doing so.

So how does your family affect your trading? are they good with it? do they support you?

As long as you act like you are going to follow the standard lifepath, they all will see it as a hobby. Until you hit your target. Just don’t talk about it.

My family didn’t understand it and couldn’t believe that it is possible. But because I said it they didn’t call me grazy, appaerently I impressed them in the past. I don’t talk about it with them. They are hardly capable to have an opinion about it and they are grown up with the standard paradigm: “Investing is evil!”. Now things changed and they ask about it often and they brag on my behalf to their friends…:slight_smile:

Be the wise one, let the people who want to know about it, know about it. Let the rest sleep until it is time to wake them up…:slight_smile:

And keeping to yourself may be better as well, as that saves you to be ashamed when you were not able to become a full time trader. So best of both worlds -> Sssshhhttt…

When I have said to my parents about Forex trading they have told me not to trade in Forex. But a little while when I said them about the advantages and disadvantages of Forex they become agree with me to trade in Forex.

Hey ForexNewbie1,

It turns out that I’m in a similar position to you, although my mind has already been made. I’m 24 now, and started learning at around the age of 19. Even though I’m at university now I know that trading is what “floats my boat” and I feel comfortable taking the risk as a career choice. To try and make the best of a bad situation you must remember that we, you and I, are young. We have time to recover, and time to move on if trading does not work out to plan. Time is the most important element to trading, and also for that of building a career. So you’re in the right place at the right time for now. Don’t let that put you off.

My family, or rather mum and brother as my dad past away when I was younger never really knew about my interest in trading. They knew I was reading into it and that was about it. It was not until two years down the line did they see my constant interest in the area. I would go out of my way to attend seminars (which at the time I thought were amazing – although now I can see straight through them as a sales pitch). I also used to spend a lot of time at the PC learning how to develop charting skills. I personally think it was at this point which I did not even have to tell my family “trading is what I want to do” – they could already see it for themselves. You could also benefit from showing your family your determination and motivation in this area, I’m sure at the end of the day they are just looking out for you, natural behaviour for any parents.

But, you will need to make the choice yourself, and you will have to stick to your guns so to speak. Trading requires a clear head and an even clearer mind-set. If you’re going to try and take on one of the toughest career choices possible you cannot be thinking about what your mum or dad are thinking back home. Life is life, and people will always have their own opinion of what should and shouldn’t be done. But your choice is your own.

Recently I came out of a long term relationship; one of her reasons was that she thought I had no direction career wise. Just because I wasn’t taking the common route of working for a known company, or applying for work experience it was seen as perhaps not being proactive. But, as I said above, I made my choice and I’m sticking with it. People will always frown over trading as it’s getting more and more publicity as an analogy of a Casino – with reckless random speculation. What parent wants their children entering that career path? (although, if the truth be told, they probably don’t understand trading enough to make a quantified judgment)…

The choice is yours, you can’t please everyone, and sacrifices need to be made in any career choice. The most important factor to consider though is your age. You have time to recover from mistakes that could have been made – you have no family of your own….It could be a lot worse!

Jezz

I can accept failure, but I cant accept the regret of not trying

People fear what they don’t understand & I think that it’s safe to say that most people don’t understand Forex. So unfortunately negative attitudes (& bewildered facial expressions) come with the territory.

If you’re giving your parents the impression that you’re going to be rolling in mon£y in the next couple of years then they’re right to have their doubts & not be as supportive as you’d like them to be. Same goes if you’re expecting them to finance any of your trading.

However if you are being realistic with your expectations & can be seen to be putting in the hours (trading & leaning) then I would say that you DO deserve the support.

I’m new to this & although my wife isn’t interested in the slightest, she’s happy for me to experiment. I’m sensible with our mon£y, my expectations are reasonable & I spend my days off trading & almost every night after work reading stuff online to further my learning. She knows that we’re talking years before getting proper results so she just keeps out of it & I’ll just plod along, doing my thing & when I deem myself “successful”, boy will she know about it then!!!

You’ve got to believe that you’ll make it as a trader & you’ve just got to persevere. Even when you fail, change things & try again. “The reason that we fall down is so that we learn how to pick ourselves back up again”.

Good luck with it all.

My other half hates it, she’s always moaning that i don’t know how to make money, “I’m not the type” (70% up in 9 months!)
and that I spend a lot of time on my PC after work, "that’s just lazy!!!"
when I do tell her I made some cash, she just want’s to spend it, I try to explain compounding but she calls me selfish!!!
and shouts a lot… :wink: Happy days,

However, as that’s a brick wall of support, I tell my mum how it’s going.
she’s encouraging but thinks its a bit immoral selling short!!!

Thanks for the replies guys, some insightful comments :slight_smile:

22 years old? HERRRA young! (like me) I hope you are enrolled in college or just finished college because I believe everyone needs a fall back.
My family wasn’t so supportive of it. They think of it as gambling in some way. However, my brothers, on their spare time, invest in the stock market so my mother and father have been acceptable about investing (just as long as we are profiting!). If you do believe this is your calling, I say fail, fail, fail, fail at it over and over again. You’ll collect so much information. That is why you paper trade! Practice makes perfect and succeed from your failures!

Frankly, my whole family thought I was nuts and that was way before I started making any $$ in this market. Remember why you got into trading and ask yourself, if you are committed to it. And if it is a resounding yes, then go ahead with it.
It would be great if everyone was in your corner or at least understands what you do…but forex trading is a specialized market and yes, it is risky at best. So don’t try to convince everyone but just retrospect on what you are doing and that’s it.

What worthwhile thing is not risky? Risky argument is moot and pointless really. Do what you feel passionate about. Life is mostly miserable enough so at least find couple of things you want to do and do it.

I’ve written books, performed stand up comedy in front of hundreds, owned several businesses, and had an international viral video that drew in millions. My family isn’t surprised, shocked, or embarrassed by any of my antics anymore.

Link video? :D. People always look at me funny when i talk about forex or investing. My girlfriend is one. Although in her defense I’m always on an idea. Loan shark, landlord, business owner. She isnt overly critical but even when I tell her about my successes it isnt met with enthusiasm either more like nonchalance. I can usually see the doubt in people eyes. But if they arent receptive to what Im talking about I just let the subject get changed.

What it boils down to for me is freedom. Not the money but the freedom money brings. I’m sure most are like that. And that freedom to me is worth multiple failures and risks.

The sure way to fail at anything in life is to listen to family and friends.

I was married to one of those - I got rid of her

I’ll echo what everyone else says. There comes a point where you will have to decide your own path. It’s part of maturity. If people don’t understand it, they fear it. Look at the person offering you their opinion or advice - if they are in an unremarkable position in life, ignore them or at least take their input with a grain of salt.

I avoid trade talk with non-traders. Their projections can negatively influence you.

tut tut…no respect for those kind of people!

Lending money to people who cant get finance elsewhere, and then charging ridiculous rates of interest for the pleasure of doing so. And then you ask yourself the question “oh…i wonder why i’m not getting my payments back in time”

Forex trading is the best ways of losing 'money online.

I don’t know about that, I dare say that winning the Nigerian lottery or helping someone inherit mon£y (courtesy of your spam mail folder) could have a fair dent on your bank balance.

As someone else already mentioned, it’s probably best to have a fall-back in life.

My father-in-law is a retired school teacher. As a .GOV employee now living off nice traditional pension, the doesn’t understand my approach to life. He’s never negative though. To be honest though, I’m always worried about what he thinks about the very unsteady appraoch to income I’ve taken. I’ve pretty much been in sales since I got married to his daughter. Now I’m in school…but I don’t plan on using the education to earn money. I plan on doing that via Forex.

I’m a senior and am taking a break. I’m probably going to stop trading intraday next fall though and look to trade only daily charts while I return to school. I’m going to train my brother and best friend to do what I do intra-day and then we’ll open up a PAMM account and trade each other’s accounts. The substance of the agreement is that because I teach them how to do it and they get to use my proprietary approach, I only supervise and sub in if they get sick or need to attend a wedding or something. Other than that I just check at the end of each day to make sure they trade the system exactly as taught. My own trading activities, then, will be restricted to checking charts once p/day when the daily candle changes.

My plan is to take my father-in-law’s advice. He said that one should get a degree in either math or one of the “hard” sciences of biology, physics, or chemistry with a teaching certificate. He says that the schools are always looking for those teachers becasue those degrees are in high demand in the public sector and higher pay often pulls them away from teaching…so there are always openings in the schools for people who have both a science degree AND teaching certification.

I’m a psyc major with a bio minor right now…but I think that when I return to school next fall I’ll declare a double major and just get one in psyc and biology at the same time as well as take the required courses to be certified as a teacher. From there I’ll work as a substitute biology teacher in my owner area.

The big reason why I want such a fall-back is because there’s a lot of talk about Retail FX going away for the average man. Think about it. The whole thing can dissapear if we have a worldwide collapse which culminates in a New World Order and a single currency system…or it can dissapear if the retail FX trader is regulated out of the marketplace.

I want to have a fallback if such a thing happens before I’ve made my millions. Kids are going to need braces one day…and that doesn’t come cheep. I think a bio teacher fills this need pretty well. And I like biology. Except the whole “people came from rocks that organized themselves into life” thing…I’m not buying that. But I’d get a kick out of teaching young people the difference between miosis and meiosis, how the electron transport chain works in the krebs cycle, and stuff like that.

Bro, let me tell you, your the first person, other then myself, that firmly believe this as being a possibility VERY SOON…

I have been preaching and preaching and preaching about it, and its the same exact reason, I trade ALL IN, to the hilt, each and every time… I practiced this for 2 years, THAT is my main goal…

I see traders making awesome pips here, but they only risk like 2% of margin… You trade to be RIGHT, ALL THE TIME, then make the most of your trades when the signal is there… I firmly believe trading IS a Great rich quick business, and you have to take advantage of the chances you get…

Like dude said above, Forex is the most leading way to lose money on the internet, and it is, 95% will tell you its a scam…

And its not because of the way the business is, its the way the players are wired… Get Rich Quick, but have no real plan for Damage control…

When in the end, ITS ALL ABOUT DAMAGE CONTROL…

Retail Forex hasnt been around long, and it can be taken just as fast… The key is to have a bankroll as big as the movers to continue your journey, WHEN we get to that point…

MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR TRADES, and see what happens…

I have over 10,000 hours of chart time, ( in 26 months)…

My wife is behind me, my kids know whats going on, they want to learn… They are pushing me… But ,y wife also gives me the freedom to be putting in the time… Although I wonder the house all day, its not like in a cave alll day everyday… FOr the last 2 months, I have remodeled almost the entire house, fresh paint, total kitchen and bathroom makeover, new office for my business…

They also know what Im capable of pulling off… Other then talking with my wife and 3 kids, and 2 friends, i dont talk about it…