I was a full time online poker player, and switched to forex trading. To be successful in online poker you need to be: patient, disciplined, practice strict money management and be dedicated. To make money these days online you will have to learn how to play multi tables and spend most of your days playing. Weekends are loaded with casual and bad players. So you’ll be playing every weekend. Week nights are the same thing so to take advantage you’ll be playing then. Mornings and days are filled with multi table grinders who play a lot of tables and grind all day long. You have to table select to make sure you’re not sitting with a 3 or four pro’s or full time players at your table. Cause if you do, your win rate really suffers. You have to remain positive when your good hands will be called by inexperienced players who have no idea what or when to play and they will win, and you will talk to yourself saying what’s going on, I play only top starting hands and still can’t win. The forums will be filled with players (like here) who are looking for all the quick east ways to get to the top, I know everything and can’t understand why you ask such stupid questions (like here), on know not another thread of how to (like here). Players who have and have not made a living playing poker and offer videos, ebooks, coaching, (like here) and promise to make you a star if you buy their service. You can have software that will help you do the proper math for hand,pot and streets, when your at the table, but most of the other players at the table will have the same software. You can not use any pre programing software so all the tables you play at and hands you play are done manually. To be a top money maker you will not have much of a personal life and this is only online. If you add live poker you have even less of a personal life and less of a chance to make a living.
Now to be successful in trading you need to be patient, disciplined, practice strict money management along with your trading plan. You can use automated trading systems so you’re not a slave to the computer, most traders don’t trade Friday, weekends or even Mondays. In trading you only have to make 2 decisions, when to get in, when to get out you can set a stop loss so if the market changes on a dime, you won’t lose your entire bankroll. In addition good traders don’t mind sharing info to help you, cause they know they don’t have to worry about competing against you. In poker you may find yourself playing against your students or your previous coach. In poker there is only 2 ways to win the pot. In forex there is many more plus on going.
In addition to playing poker full time, I also bankrolled (and still do) poker players. In forex that would be similar to having a master account with other traders going through your account. As well I’m a full time sports bettor. For that I use handy capping services. In forex that’s like using signal services. In short Forex is much much simpler to play and make money at than poker. I’m looking forward to this summer where I can set my trades early and watch them through out the day at my pool. I hope this helps you out.
I have played poker for a living for 6 years. The reason I have taken an interest in trading is not to replace poker, at least not for many years, its for diversification. However, if I had the choice between being really good at poker and being really good at trading Forex, the choice is easy, Forex. The big reason for picking forex above poker is that the task doesn’t get any harder as the stakes get higher. Your opponent (the market) is the same. If you can trade profitably with a 10k account you can do it with a 100k account. (barring psychological issues.) In poker, there is a huge increase in difficulty as the stakes get higher.
Russian roulette is a game of chance where you’re essentially all in. Target shooting has no risk unless you start betting on the outcome. Can’t see where you’re going here…
In poker, I find weaker opponents and play more hands with directly with them. In forex, there is no way I can find bad traders and make trades exclusively with them…
While some poker players are gambling (some forex traders gamble on forex trades) the fact that the top poker players consistently make money indicates to me that poker is a game of skill (like forex trading)
I think we differ in our opinion of how to define gambling, this is mine: “Gambling is the wagering of money or something of material value on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods.”
There are no certainties in Forex, one of the most common new trader mistakes is to assume there is. “Stochastic is oversold, well I believe its time to sell this sucker…”
While it is true that Forex trading in real sense is a online business and gambling is just a luck play and nothing else. But many traders are using Forex to try luck and this in effect becomes nothing more than a gamble for them
Anybody who ever made a living playing online poker will tell you it’s about analyzing the site, the players and the game. Then create a strategy to win at the type of game you’re playing. To be successful in trading you have to have the proper mindset, proper method and proper bankroll management. To be successful at online poker you need to have the proper mindset (patience and discipline), proper method (strategy plan) and proper bankroll management. The successful poker players look at poker as one long session with individual hands coming and going but applying the proper principles gets you the rewards long term. I hear it’s the same with trading; that individual trades come and go, but by applying the proper principles traders get the rewards in the long run.
By the way I think that some traders, brokers and financial advisors would disagree with your belief that financial market movements are predictable. Look at recent crashes because of some idiot’s hacking, tech crash etc.
