This week’s question is for all traders - whether you trade crypto, equities, currencies, or commodities!
What do you love about trading?
Is it the money? Is it the fact that you don't have a boss? Or is it that you're just a natural risk-taker?
Is it the money? Is it the fact that you don't have a boss? Or is it that you're just a natural risk-taker?
9 Likes
I love trading because you can call it side job which you can do anywhere and anytime that doesn’t disturb your work.
3 Likes
Definitely that it can be done anywhere.
It can be done alone.
it’s always changing, so you have to be able to adapt to the markets. That’s also what makes being successful so damn hard.
4 Likes
I first come to Forex trading because of money. Many times I was about to give up because of failure, stress. But after all, I have come back and I’m now enjoying trading as a part of my life. It’s flexible, no more deadline, no more meeting, no more boss,… I can work anywhere, anytime I want. The most important thing is trading give me more time to be with my kids. I can take them go to anywhere they want like park, swimming pool, library, shops after school.
2 Likes
I have to say for me it’s the “Potential” , I’m always in awe, from the impact that trading could bring onto someone’s life, we’ve seen millionaires and Billionaires born from that.
Other than being an Entrepreneur, I can’t think of a “Job” that gives you this kind of potential. It amazes me.
3 Likes
Same for me. The possibility that your entire life can change in just a few years, it’s intriguing.
Also, the flexibility. It can be done anywhere there’s wifi. I appreciate the challenge as well. David versus Goliath.
In the case of GBP/JPY, the mouse versus the dragon. You win, get some crumbs, and you run.
You don’t need too many resources to get started. And you don’t need to defeat anyone except your own demons.
4 Likes
Flexibility! If my kids are sick or I need to be off for some reason, I don’t have to answer to anyone. If I want to go on vacation, I can go without a notice. I don’t know what I would have done otherwise because my kids keep getting sick this month, if I had a real job I’d probably be fired after all the days I would have missed.
3 Likes
Seems that a lot of the replies here are listing the sort of things I used to imagine that I would love about trading…
…before I could actually do it consistently well…
…before I learned that almost everything that I paid good money to an educator to learn, and spent countless hours haplessly trying to enact in the markets in real time, was bunk.
…before I realised the intense levels of focus and scrutiny of the markets that are required to have a good call on the markets.
…before I understood the never ending doubt and uncertainty that a trader has to live with
…before I had the head banging frustration of missing lots of good trades by an ants ball hair whilst of course always getting a fill on the losers, thus, before I realised that when you are right, you very often don’t get paid, but when you are wrong, you always get punished.
…before I experienced the severe boredom of trawling through charts looking for something to trade, when there is nothing really on…and then snatching at half opportunities and getting stopped out.
…before I realised that winning resulted in an emotional +1, but losing resulted in an emotional -3.
I hate trading. But I have put so much blood and sweat into it, that I can’t stop now that I have finally gotten proficient at it.
4 Likes
I know that with freedom comes responsibility. But aside from that, it’s difficult to imagine a downside to having more flexibility. haha
¨I hate being able to go on vacation anytime I want.¨ You’ll never hear anyone say that.
These comments really caught me. I’m not proficient yet, but even if I didn’t enjoy it, I’ve suffered too much to just walk away empty handed. Which I think is the case for many traders here. If you’ve gotten this far, why not get a reward?
I think there is a point where the excitement wears off, and all you’re left with is the work. Once the work starts, that’s where the grind is. It’s not fun. It’s filled with mostly losses and lessons. The occasional win gives you just enough motivation to keep going until the next rare win. And it certainly does get boring. There are many days I procrastinate.
Yes, there are days I’m excited. And I need those days to help endure the losses.
@MatDerKater It seems like you’ve been thru the grinder. What helped you endure to the level you’re at now?
2 Likes
Obsessive compulsive personality is probably the main driver that has kept me at it, and then when I started to see that it is possible not just to make a living doing this, but make a small fortune trading, allowing for all the perceived freedoms of not having to go out and work for The Man, it became an ambition into which too much effort and attention has went, to even consider just jacking it in.
…and overtime, eventually, taking far far longer than I would have ever originally have imagined, almost certainly hindered by the Red Herring packed trading course I paid to do (which is still tripping me up to this day), it starts to come to you…but it is a fragile body of knowledge and a fickle skillset, always vulnerable to brain farts, flippancy, emotions, moods, and all other kinds of weird metaphysical factors. It aint ever like a well built machine where once it is done, it is done, just works, and you can start to relax. It’s a never ending treadmill/tightrope walk.
3 Likes
I see. When you learned that the concept of trading wasn’t imaginary, you jumped in 100%? I can imagine people around you thinking you must be either lost, or just plain old crazy.
Ok. This here…This is where you separate the winners from the losers. I don’t mean winner as in 1st place. I mean getting what you want.
There must have been countless opportunities for you to quit. You may have even quit for a day or two during the process. But you didn’t give up.
¨Don’t give up¨ is the most vague and generic advice anyone could receive. In reality, however, it’s the most helpful. Lots of people give up far too early. Probably most.
Lots of people say they want to start a business. Most don’t even fill out the paperwork. Of the ones who fill out the paperwork and open a business, most will fail in the first year and never try again. Same for most endeavors.
It’s all about not giving up and learning from your mistakes.
I can imagine. I’ve heard the quote, ¨it’s not about getting success, it’s about keeping it.¨
We always hear that the biggest losses usually come after the biggest wins. Traders win a few times, then they think they’re invincible and become wreckless. So, your analogy of a treadmill/tightrope walk is perfect. Thank you for sharing!
I have two more questions if you don’t mind.
1: Did you have moments where you wanted to (or felt like you should) quit? How did you face them?
2: Were people around you supportive? Did people discourage you at all? How did you handle that?
Full story, I got into Bitcoin during the 2013 bull market, made a sh!t ton of money, thought I was a genius, and without having any market knowledge, even called the Bitcoin top, got out, and then started arguing with forum members on Bitcointalk.org. Me saying Bitcoin was going down, them saying it was going to the moon. It was suggested to me that I put my money where my mouth was, so I started shorting Bitcoin, getting stopped out all the way down from $1200 to $150, losing waaay more money than I originally made. So I decided to learn to pay for a trading course, where I was still haplessly in and out of Bitcoin performing waaay worse than simply buying and holding, and then in 2016, my Kraken account got emptied, and the exchange basically said “Sorry for your losses”. Then 2 weeks later, was the big heist from Bitfinex, who took it upon themselves to run a bail in scheme, taking 40% of the USD value out of all their client’s accounts, and giving them ‘Finex’ tokens in exchange.
At this point, with Bitcoin at ~$550, I ‘gave up’. I have never touched crypto since, and I stopped trading until I picked it up again in the spring of 2019, this time with a much more serious approach, but this time only ever running demo and/or small FX accounts. Previously in Bitcoin I would be winning or losing $1000 per trade. Now, £1000 GBP was the size of my entire account with a typical £10 bet size. In my previous stint of ‘tardeing’, this would have bored the hell out of me and I would never have found the motivation to persevere with ‘meaningless’ amounts of money and/or paper trading a demo account, but now, it wasn’t about the money. It became about (attempting to) nail the process with the motivation most likely coming from the fact that I got my arse kicked in the past. It was no longer about the emotional roller coaster of winning and losing money, but about having something to prove.
My partner tolerates because she is also of the belief that the key to success in anything in life, is perseverance. This has certainly been true in my case, as I certainly amn’t a natural at trading. If I worked at a financial house, I would be one of the smart intellectual types that could talk a good game about all the different aspects of the field, but would be routinely out performed by the ‘dunce’ who sat reading comic books in between his trades a few desks down.
I also do a line of work that allows me to work ad-hoc, being away offshore for several weeks at a time, allowing for extended periods for being at home, which has allowed me to work on my trading full time for extended periods over the past 3-4 years, most of that time for little to no reward. Most people don’t have this luxury of being able to work full time on their trading. If I had a regular 9-5 job (and the rest), no way would I have either the time nor the appetite to put in the necessary screen time that is required to get good (enough) at this.
3 Likes
Ouch!! Talk about adding insult to injury…
This part is my favourite. It became an internal struggle. This is pretty much Rocky vs Clubber Lang. It wasn’t about anyone else–just about you.
I have a friend who doesn’t tell anyone he trades. He told a couple people at first, but they just asked why he was doing it and told him it’s too risky, blah blah blah. Nothing encouraging. So, now he just doesn’t tell anyone else. Same for me. There are four people total in my life who know I’m trading; they’re supportive without judgement at all, as they invest as well. That’s all I need for now.
You must feel lucky that your partner is understanding about perseverance. That’s a great benefit.
What an inspiring story! Thank you so much for sharing!
I love the complexity behind trading. All the details you need to get correct. I love above all analysis. Then backtesting and statistics as number 2 and 3. At times it feels like trading takes too much focus in my life though.
2 Likes
basically making money
What I love about trading even though I’m still new. You are your own boss no one tells you what to do signing warnings and all that staff. You just bringing food for your family.
i love it course i believe is going to change my life to good !