Hi guys,
are you a full trader, part trader or don’t trade at all ?
Not sure why but cannot post the poll that I wanted to here. It says forbidden 403
These were the choices:
What type of trader are you ? Choose in the poll
1} I only trade and don’t do anything else
2} I only trade part, I do other work as well (50 %trade ;; 50 % other)
3} I only trade to make 1 - 10 % extra
4} I only trade as a hobby
I would be the second option, in that case
I suspect it’s just a “glitch” (there are some polls in Newbie Island - though arguably Forextown would be a better place to ask? It doesn’t matter much, anyway: your responses will be rather skewed/self-selected, wherever you ask).
That one would be me (I don’t really have a shoe-shop: it’s only a rumour).
- I trade off the long-term charts so have no need to trade full -time
1 Like
Well, I started my trading career as a part time Forex trader but from last two years I am with this financial market as a full time trader! I must say, full time Forex trading is much flexible than part time trading! Now I can use maximum good entry points of market because I’m a full time Forex trader! By the way, make your trading personality gradually in order to your live trading performance!
1} I only trade and don’t do anything else
My trading is almost completely automated and done by expert advisor software though, so I only need to spend around 20 minutes a day updating a spreadsheet and checking/maintaining my software. I could probably get away with checking it once a week, but I like to keep an eye on things to make sure everything is running properly.
Currently falling in the 3rd option, and from April’17 will shift to option 1.
Hi guys,
Thank you for the replies.
[B]Hi Lexys, [/B]
Thank you for the reply. Please let me know on the below as a full trader:
How much tim do you spend in a day doing trading ?
As a full trader, what is your schedule like ?
Do you get free tm for yourself - which is given to you by the fact that you are a trader ?
And if one only trades the how does one get social lif ?
[B]Hi Kenshin[/B]
1} I only trade and don’t do anything else
My trading is almost completely automated and done by expert advisor software though, so I only need to spend around 20 minutes a day updating a spreadsheet and checking/maintaining my software. I could probably get away with checking it once a week, but I like to keep an eye on things to make sure everything is running properly.
What is expert advisor software ? I have heard but not sure exactly what it is ? Is it something like - you learn a coding language and then you code you trading into it ? Or is it like a software tool where rather than complex coding you just do some configuration ?
Also, in general what is done in Expert advisor - what is the logic implemented -because I dont understand how you can automate trading (unless you are a genius). Do you code conditions - like entry and exit and SL and TP etc ? What is you conditional clause based on? Is it on chart patterns ? If so, how is it possible at all to code such as to identify a pattern !! ? Please let me know - maybe you got the drift of the question right ?
Also, isn’t bugs an issue with software approach ? I mean what if some issue with the code you write and makes a ridiculous trade ?
[B]Hi tommor,[/B]
What is meant by long term in forex market especially in context of the fact that this market tends to range for this.
Thank you
An expert advisor is a program written in the MQL programming language. It runs on the MetaTrader platform and allows you to open, close, and manage trades via the program. You do need to learn how to program to write an expert advisor.
The logic of trading via an expert advisor is as simple or as complicated as you want. It it normally based on a set of conditions being met that determine whether to open or close a trade. For a simple example, you could use a moving average of the price over a period of time and then buy when price is above the average, sell if it’s below. That strategy doesn’t work by the way. Patterns can be detected by looking at the open, close, high, and low of a series of candles. If for example you have consecutive candles with higher high’s and higher low’s then it’s considered an up-trend. These are extremely simple examples though.
I have not had any issue where my expert advisor has placed a ridiculous trade on my live account. Bugs aren’t an issue as long as the expert advisor is programmed sensibly, tested in MetaTrader backtester, and also tested for some time on a Demo account. If I make any changes to my expert advisor I will test on a demo account until I’m happy. When I am confident, then I will put it on my live account. So, then any ridiculous buggy trades only happen on a demo account, and not on the live account.
Hey, I do work in a Shoe Shop… check the avatar…
I trade full time XAUUSD only on the 5m when I’m bored… 1h when I’m out and 4 hour when I’m serious…
More liquid than currencies enabling smaller positions for similar profits (and losses).
I only trade part, I do other work as well (50% trade; 50 % other) - that would be me, for now. I do hope that one day I will be able to be a full-time trader but I still need more knowledge and experience. It takes quite some time to become totally independent.
I take my analysis form daily and weekly charts only, so I can identify points at which to enter orders for long or short positions. If/when triggered, I run these until the respective trend seriously weakens, at which point I’m either stopped out for a loss or the profit is banked. Positions tend to run for 2-20 days, nothing intra-day.
The problem at the present is that geo-political events last year have undermined most of the powerful ongoing trends in the forex major pairs, so I’m having to resort to trading stocks. But this is unusual, forex pairs do make some really long-lasting and consistent trends.
It’s not easy to assess, because of all the time I spend sitting at the computer sometimes trading and sometimes not. I “keep an eye on things” for at least 9-10 hours a day on midweek days (less on Mondays and Fridays) but also spend a lot of that time playing backgammon, reading non-trading-related websites and even watching the BBC iPlayer.
When I was trading spot forex, I started after the London open about 8.15/8.30 and finished before the NY close (about 9.00/9.15) - all UK times, working on-and-off between those hours (excluding Monday mornings and Friday afternoons, which I didn’t much bother with).
My hours have changed, now: I do a little less. [I]Most[/I] of my trading is of the e-mini Nasdaq futures, and the Nasdaq itself doesn’t open until 2.30pm (UK time), but I sometimes trade it “out of hours” anyway, because I trade not from time-charts but from constant-volume bars, so the time of day is much less relevant to me (this is a bit harder to explain but isn’t really what you wanted to know anyway?).
I get as much/little free time as I want, but again my answer isn’t very helpful to you because I became a trader partly because I [I]like[/I] to be socially isolated, completely independent, not to have to go out, and so on. :8:
Posting here is my social life. I don’t go out much, partly for medical/health reasons. I’m also very unsociable and anti-social anyway - I have Asperger’s syndrome and “don’t play well with others” (apart from backgammon) and am very happy this way.
Sorry, my answers probably aren’t very relevant to anyone else, really? :8:
[B][U]But[/U][/B] I [U]don’t[/U] think, for most people, that being a full-time, independent, home-based trader is any more limiting of their social/personal/family life than any other job, and probably [I]less[/I] so overall, and with [I]more[/I] flexibility. 
(I also think that “learning to trade” is [B][U]much[/U][/B] more demanding and time-consuming than “trading”. It’s the process of learning to trade - the universal requirement for all the study and all the practice - that’s surely the problem for most people? I’ve never really quite understood how people with a full-time job, a family and social commitments manage to [U]learn[/U] to trade … but once you’ve done that, and have a proven edge and understand risk management and can do it, [I]the trading itself[/I] is relatively easy and would be quite boring for most people, in my opinion.)
1 Like
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