I would like to think that I am good company, but too much of anything is a bad thing.
I have been trading from home for a while now and I am coming to the conclusion that i am probably going to go insane from boredom/lack of interpersonal contact.
How do other people cope with this? For the hardcore few on here that do this full time do you have anything built into your trading plan that makes sure you dont go mental?
I’m glad you’ve asked this, look forward to hearing some people’s experiences and advice.
Working from home has always sparked an interest with me, not specifically for trading, but for other IT related professions. I’ve always thought it would be amazing, be your own boss and do whatever hours you please. Although i’ve realised recently how important it is to have that human interaction on a daily basis, something you obviously miss out on working from home…besides the dog (he’s nearly human) and I’ve come to the conclusion, that I too would probably end up in the nut house. 
EDIT - Perhaps something to over come the boredom and lack of human interaction is to have some sort of comms channel where you can invite friendly regular traders who work from home too…least you’ve got one thing in common. Who knows, could make life long friends!
insane? thought you are already in such state (!?)
neways, here are a few ideas:
Yeah it can get like that, although I currently trade exclusively on the daily and weekly timeframe. I also currently work. But during time-off, if I find myself getting lonely while backtesting etc. I usually grab my laptop and travel to a library or the local uni campus and work from there. Wasting time on babypips / facebook / youtube / wikipedia is also another routine.
Surely you must be at a stage in your life where you can get on with yourself? Its not like you are sitting in a cave for months on end with no human interaction.
Happy v. day to you too!!! The irony is you have no idea how much of the crazy i hold back…
When I first started trading forex I used to spend 8-12 hours a day in front of my computer and/or reading books about success, personal gain at every level and so on…get the pic?
After 5-6 weeks I started to feel alone…very alone. The only humans I saw during the days was my GF and my kids, but when they came home after work and kindergarden I was exhausted from all the hours spend in forex and books telling me this and that all day.
I quickly understood that I had to get in contact with other humans and do other things to… or I would go insane 
So…
I have a kind of system that works very good for me and my family.
I now trade ONLY in the morning when Europe session starts, I begin one hour before Europe sesson opens, probing ground and descide which 2-3 pairs I will trade for that day. I spend 1-3 hours at my computer, doing a quick upcomming news research for the day (making sure I don’t get f*** up by news turning my short/long into loss, throw a few technical analysis on my charts and make my pips. I always have a goal for how many pips I’m making that morning and when I’ve reached my goal for the day I turn of the computer and leave it for the rest of the day. I do NOT sit around anymore looking for the next setup. There is TWO reasons for this.
First of all, in the morning I have the clearest mind and best consentration after a good night sleep. My trading decisions are best made during this time… If I try to trade later in the day after my “morning trades” I tend to screw things up because I then trade because I’m bored and my earlier well earned pips gets wasted…
Second reason why I only trade in the morning is that I have my own garage downstairs where I have some projects going and I get to spend more time on my cars. I even have time to visit a friend or two around the district during the day.
When workday is over for my GF and the kids return from kindergarden I’m not exhausted from trading all day and it’s easier to focus on joy and fun with my family:)
And THAT works for me
Try some of this. Babypips chat, you can get a group going and talk about whatever. 2. Use skype to live or message. 3 Post in baby pips forum. 4. Brokers live trading rooms; for example I think Oanda as a free live trading room where you can watch and interact. All of this can be done while watching or not watching your trades.
As part trading plan include a psychology plan.
I for example don’t trade on Fridays or do any work. I go sight seeing in London or just randomly take my daughter or wife out. Or sit on the sofa an watch movies or play a bit of battlefield 4. My best friend and business partner comes round and we have lunch at my local Turk restaurant. I really live on Fridays.
Well during the week it is all biz. I close my laptop at 5pm without fail. Cook some dinner for my family. It helps me relax…
It can be fun if you don’t get attached to a trade. A strictly beginner problem.
Have an indicator that alerts your smart phone when your conditions arrive. There are many ways to do that without being a programming genius.
Then get out.
I do all kinds of things through the day/night without being chained to the screen. My computer stays on at home, sends me alerts, and whether I’m golfing, shopping, having a glass of wine, sitting on a beach, or working in my shop I get a text message that tells me when my conditions are met and the pair the conditions happened on. I look at it, make my choice to ignore it or open a trade, and continue whatever activity I was doing at the time.
Don’t be a slave to your computer screen. Learn to let technology work for you, and live.
The irony is I had to move out of my cave because the wifi was terrible!!
Thank you for the replies. It was a lot more than I was expecting.
I suppose I wanted this post to be two parts. One, that full time trading has its own unique set of challenges that go beyond just “how do i make money”. These are better challenges than normal working ones as youre in control of solving them. The other was how people go about solving them.
I think the main point that has come up is to have a balanced life style and making sure that trading is only a subset of that lifestyle. To be fair, I dont know if i expected the anwser to be anymore complicated than that.
Hello PipWhip,
what an interesting thread!
Trading full time presents a number of problems:
I am painting a worst-case scenario, here!
I am just saying that we must not forget our health, and the time we should dedicate to nurturing our human relationships (with our loved ones)…
Happy trading!
Congratulations. You’re exactly right. It only took me 3 ex wives, and losing almost everything twice, before I figured it out. Money, Method & Mind is only 50% of being a successful trader or successful anything, the other 50% is balance.
Gp
HOMERUN!
The reason why most of us trade would be to get a better economy, we want to work less and feel successfull.
The money earned alone will not make us happy and successfulll, but when money is no longer an object we are free to do whatever we please instead of working all day to keep our heads above water
Trade to live, don’t live to trade… Just realized that could be a great motto for anyone!
If you trading from home than you might don’t have proper market research and knowledge so to avoid risk take advice for trading.
I think what you can take away from this, is that everybody has their own way of staying balanced and find a way to combine trading with other things that are important in your life. I fully agree with Master Teng, if possible with your strategy, get your computer to send you alerts. I trade of the daily and my phone will send me a message to watch a certain pair. I can do that even on my phone where ever I am. I try to be behind the computer from 2pm-4pm (3pm is european opening time here) and I might stay there, but I’m probably going out to get some food, meet friends or GF, but I will be back home around 9, before the US market opens. I then usually call it a day around 11pm. As you see my mornings are free, so I sleep in, spend some time with my GF, watch a tv show, enjoy my breakfast, and then VERY IMPORTANT to keep me balanced, around 11-11.30 I will go to the gym. Afterwards grab some lunch or coffee with friends, as long as I am home around 2pm to start my day. It’s my routine that balances the necessary hours spend on trading with other things important in my life. Good luck finding your own !
Hello Master Tang ! Can you please suggest me a couple of those indicators for MT4. I am already looking for such tools.
Awesome thread and exactly what I was looking for at this time in my trading endeavours. I gpt that balance is the key and something I seem to be having problems with. I have been spending 14-16 hours a day looking at charts and reading whatever I can find on the internet on trading. I have been doing this for the last two months and I think I’m gonna go loopy.
I am still trying to become consistently profitable, but I think I’m on the right path. After reading all this, I’m convinced I need to resume back my current occupation and get in touch with people (I’m coming from sales, where I deal with people all the time, so go figure!!). I was hoping I could do this for a living, but I just can’t spend this many hours infront of the computer if that’s what it entails to be successful making a living as a trader.
So having said that. I wanted to propose a follow-up question to Pipwhip’s question, if I may. For those who make a living solely by trading, [B]How many hours do you spend infront of the computer? Do you have to concentrate on smaller time frames so you can trade enough times for you to derive an acceptable monthly income? On average, how many trades do you make a day?[/B]
Ok, I know it was more than one question :). Thanks in advance. And thanks pipWhip for proposing such an insightful question.
Best
Go out and get drunk at night and then teach her to trade in the morning? Just a thought…