Are you a full trader, part trader or don't trade at all

I hear you there Lexy.I am happier pottering around, doing my own thing, far from the madding crowd…

Totally agree with you Lexy… Learning to be profitable was hard work, I was putting in 10 - 16 hours day and night at one point in January. Reading Trading, Watching Trading…Thinking Trading. I could always see the potential, just had to master the art. Stay Sceptical… Stay Profitable.

Me too, so far only treat forex as part time business, and I am trading on several broker also although only using small money each broker but this is like as make diversify account and capital, treat as part time job making more comfortable for me

Hi guys,

Thank you for the replies.

[B]Hi Lexys[/B]

I know what you mean by not wanting to be too social. I am like that a little bit too. More than a little I would say. I guess this is a common thing among people who really really want to trade. Because they want to be independent. Although its not that one does not want to be social, but its just that its not very conducive to be social given where it is all going. Many around seem to be ok with stuff that you may not be ok with. Is that how you think as well ?

Its good to hear that trading is an option available.

[B]Hi Kenshin[/B]

How do you account for forex data publish and news etc which could cause the technical factors to be unreliable. Can you factor that into your code as well ? Is there anything to the thinking that - no matter how sure you are on your code, it is still code right ? And since you wrote it you are responsible for it. Is that a factor you consider ? Because there is always a chance of a bug - an input data scenario you did not consider or something.

Interesting question!

I agree with you.

Also - maybe a slightly different point - I suspect that, statistically, there’s an increased chance of people who genuinely [I]don’t[/I] want to be particularly social being attracted to trading, because I think there’s an overlap (maybe only a small one, but a real one) between “mathematically orientated people” and “less sociable people”, and those traits perhaps both slightly predispose people towards trading?

My own perspective on this subject may possibly be a biased one, but I think there are probably clinical psychologists who would agree with it, too.

I’m thinking partly of the related facts (and I think they really [I]are[/I] “facts”) that (a) if you apply to one or two leading investment banks for their “graduate entry trading-trainee schemes”, having an oblique reference to something like “mild Asperger’s syndrome” on your CV/application is more likely, overall, to be seen as a potential advantage than as a problem, and (b) the incidence of “a touch of Asperger’s” on the trading floor is higher than its incidence in society in general.

Hey Lexys,

You mentioned mathematically oriented people - do you think that would apply to people who are more attention to detail types, who prefer being methodical rather than on their feet type ?

Thank you

I think so; yes …

I would imagine the aspergers may even help there

My program always has at least one trade open. I don’t account for news in my code. There is no need. My effective leverage is so low that I trade through NFP and Brexit with no issue and no surprises. I did not trade CHF during the crash, because I was already well aware that it was pegged. IMHO trying to predict news is a losing game. Without giving away any details of my system, I will just say that I am working with probability based trading as opposed to prediction based trading.

Sure, it’s a program. There is the possibility of errors, but errors are made by humans, not computers. I am the one who will screw up a trade entry or exit rather than my program. It’s been nearly six years now that I’ve been automated with no unexpected trading operations performed on my live account by my expert advisor. In that time there have been 2 complete rewrites of my expert advisor. The current version has had 63 different modifications made to the program. So you could say it is version v2.63. I am confident that my programming methods are fine. Think about air traffic control programs. They don’t crash a few planes with buggy software. Instead, the bugs are fixed before the program ever goes live. Of course, it is possible to miss a bug and it goes through to the live environment. This hasn’t happened to me though as I am pedantic about checking for bugs.

Hi Kenshin,

Thank you for the reply. Could you tell me

  • How many lines of code is your EA?

  • Have you coded for very few setups / scenarios , or many different ? Or is this a correct question at all ?

  • what do you mean by “probability based trading as opposed to prediction based trading” - do you mean to suggest that if you add up all the probabilities, your are most probable to have a positive balance ?

  • when you say versions, do you refer to your code versions or is it the upgrade by the product vendor ?

  • Do you get vendor upgrades which affect your code - and you have to change ? Like communication protocol or something that is not backward compatible ?

  • Do other trading platforms provide for EA ?

  • Effective levergae - what do you mean by this ? Is your trade size very small ? Like 0.01 of a lot ? Is this what you mean by this ?

  • Can anyone learn to code an EA (supposing they know how to trade to begin with for this)

Thank you

The latest version is 5489 lines of code.

My ea only trades one type of setup, but I’ve spent a lot of time making sure it does that one setup extremely well.

I can’t give away too much;)

I write and maintain my ea myself, so it’s my own versions of the ea. I keep them all just in case I need to look at a previous revision. There is no vendor. Occasionally MetaQuotes make changes to the MQL language which I may need to cater for in my ea.

I believe CTrader has a programmable interface. I have never really looked though, because MT4 is doing what I want.

Effective leverage calculation:
(((L*Q)/B)100000)
where L is the total lots of open trades, Q is the current quote price, and B is your current account balance.
So, if I am trading 0.45 lots and the quote price is 0.785 and I have $10,000 in my account then it’s:
(((0.45
0.785)/10000)100000)
which equals 3.5325 meaning your effective leverage is 3.5325:1
This formula is good for any currency that has 5 digits after the decimal place such as EUR/USD. For any currency that has 3 digits after the decimal place like USD/JPY, then the formula is:
(((L
Q)/B)*1000)

This description assumes that you are trading one currency. If you have trades open in multiple currencies then you will need to calculate the effective leverage for each individual currency that you have trades open in, and then add the results together to get the total effective leverage. Also, there may be some value in using the account equity with these calculations instead of the account balance.

My trade size varies, but is small enough in relation to my account size in order to keep effective leverage below 10:1 at all times.

Like any programming language, MQL can be learnt by anyone with enough time and dedication.

I had been programming on various computer when I was younger like the TRS-80 MC-10, Sinclair ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, and Commodore Amiga. When I moved to Windows based computers I then learned DarkBasic, Blitz3D, BlitzMax, PureBasic, C#, and some C++. I did a lot of work on programming 3D graphics in game engines which involve some pretty insane mathematics, so that helped a lot. The crazy thing is that all the programming prior to MQL didn’t make me any money. It was just a hobby that I wasted so much time on just for the love of it. After all this, learning MQL was easy.

As being a newbie I cannot presently say what kind of a trader I am. But I initially started my trading with small amount of $200. So far as now I’m having good trading experience. And I will slowly and gradually build my trading personality.

I am a part time trader as I have already an offline job, forex is my 2nd source of income, I found forex lucrative and interesting business and I am earning reasonable amount, I will also stick with this business as part timer in future.

Well, now I am using my live trading account as like a full time Forex trader, but my initial trading style was part time trading, then I spent only 2-3 hours! Actually, I have selected Forex trading as my permanent profession because of it’s flexibility! Such as, now I am making overall 15-20 monthly return quite comfortably, that is enough for me!

I`m a part-time trader, dreaming to become full-time. As well, as the majority of traders-beginners, I think.

An expert advisor is a software written specifically for Forex Trading Platform. An Expert Advisor can suggest traders which trade option is better or it can automatically execute the trades.

I started trading when I was free it was a full time for me to learn trading . After some months I had a regular job so I continue trading as part time. Now I had no fix routine of trading. I try to do trading as my passion making extra income from it. I try to get my monthly target from forex trading with my plan.

Right now, I am spending here more than 8 hours in a day! That’s way, I would like to introduce myself as a full time Forex trader! But I am working hard to make a healthy monthly income!

Not trading at the moment because I’m still studying the School of Pipsology. My goal is to become full-time trader someday.

I trade and i’m a part time trader, because i have main job, but need extra money. So my colleague advised me to try such activity as trading on markets. I was skeptical at first, but my desire to earn more was bigger. I tried many platforms, but ITrader was the most suitable as for me personally. It is perfect for rookies and platform itself is very simple in using. It helps me to produce profit and i couldn’t wish more.