Trading and Poker

[sierikas]

Isildur = Viktro BLom? is that really you in these forex forums?

[GuyM]

also trading and blackjack! you have to work the probabilities!

[Skretcher]

IMO, trading and poker can be considered financial ‘games’. Games where insights into the human nature and into our own emotions are crucial.
The trader/player knows when it is time to push hard and time to retreat. Some of the traits that have to be developed if one aspires to succeed in the long run are alertness, relaxation, detachment and other complex mental traits.

Poker is more game than a job. Forex is more job than a game. This is the difference. In trading, you have your own plan you should follow, plan based on your knowledge and indicators. You deal with emotionless currency market. When you play poker - you deal with other people.

[MR_Flump]

I use to be a good poker player, I haven’t got back into the game for some time now but I love the game, maybe the journey how I have gotten into the forex market?.
I would say that it is about 70 % luck and 30% skill, there are only so many times you and bluff no matter how good your poker face is, if you have a bad run of cards you will eventually get caught out.
The way I use to play was to keep changing my game around so that I wasn’t a predictable play.

I see this in the forex market to you should away be on your toes and ready to change your game at any time, because you can only play the cards that you have been dealt.

The forex market is not gambling if you know what you are doing, just as said earlier you should have good money management, as you wouldn’t go all in on rubbish hand because you WILL get caught out and this become gambling,. Some times it pays off but in the end you will be broke.

[mrbreadfish]

I’ve been a poker player for quite a while until a bunch of thugs decided to shut it all down. Hopefully they don’t after Forex soon.

Poker and Forex are very similar in psychology. In poker we can’t go on tilt and lose our rolls. We can’t also lose confidence and not be aggressive in +EV situations. It’s a huge balance which can take a very long time for some players to get right. Some players have really good math, memory and reading skills but always lose money due to going on tilt from a 1 or 2 outer. Every player has this problem, the players who do this the less have a huge advantage. From what I noticed, you can’t get shaken up in forex after a bad trade by either entering more trades, bigger trades and you also can’t just avoid trading all together when there are clear good reasons to.

In poker we have to be glued to our screens all the time. In forex you can enter a trade and place you TP or SL and go take a poo or pee, feed your dog or do whatever. The traders that trade longer TFs can even go to bed while they are still playing. You can’t be in the game and be away from the keyboard in poker which is a huge pain that I don’t go through with forex. This is a huge upside to forex.

In poker there are clear paths to follow much like a video game and move up in skill. Players can start by buying in for 2 or 5 dollars in a table and slowly move up to 10, 15 and hopefully to the 100, 200 dollar tables within a few years. In Forex you are playing against the best and the worst from the start which is very frustrating.

Poker is truly 24/7 and Forex is not. For people who have a job and have time on the weekends then trading Forex will likely not work because it closes from Friday to Sunday morning; at least for US traders. I’m not even quite sure if Forex is something that is even beatable on a part time basis. Is it something that requires 100% devotion for profitability? In poker I could log on and play a couple hours a night and still be profitable as long as I’m playing within people of my skill level.

My biggest fear is that the govt will come after forex traders next and traders will be forced to either move out of the US or money launder. I don’t want to spend years learning forex only to have it taken down. As of now, US poker is pretty much dead. Hopefully, we can see some poker players take on forex and see how they do. Any 2p2 people here?

[mrbreadfish]

The only thing Poker and Trading has in common is that you need appropriate money mangement. Meaning spreading you load wisely. If your average skillset beats midstakes(200nl-1000nl) than it is very foolish to sit @ a 2knl table or higher if there aren´t any fish on that table(meaning you are actually the fish at this table). Even if your bankrollmangament is good and you can afford it. Thats money management in poker in general. Sitting in games that are +EV for you. Finding out if this game is +EV or not is a whole different story I´d say it takes a lot of hands and experience to know if this game is profitable and within your money/risk management.

In trading there is a similar aspect regarding money management and risk management. You have to know in what situation you will enter according to you rules if the rules doesn´t apply you will not enter the market.

But I would guess that if you understand risk management in poker you have an advantage over other starting traders. But it doesn´t mean you beat the game.

I think if you want compare other aspects there is a lot more psychology in poker than in trading. I don´t want to offend anyone but if you play like 4 heads up tables at once you know what I mean.

Conversly you don´t really know your opponent in trading. You don´t know who took the short if you are taking the long. The main difference is that in Poker you can quit and there is another day. In trading if you have your trading plan, you have to stick to it even if you have 10 losers in a row otherwise you will lose the game.

I´m sure I could come up with other aspects regarding MM in poker and trading but I´d say it that way: My trading isn´t anywhere near to my poker game.

I find poker to be a lot more psycological as well but for different reason. In poker if you fold a hand that you had half your stack in you don’t know if you had thrown away a winning hand. This can really get to a player and affect his play. In forex when you get out, you can always know what happens.

In poker, it’s an actual person with a screen name or face that’s going against you so it can get a lot more personal unless you are multitabling 10+. In rush poker this was less of an issue. In forex there is no concept or feeling of getting hit by a 1 or 2 outer at the river again and again.

[mrbreadfish]

I use to be a good poker player, I haven’t got back into the game for some time now but I love the game, maybe the journey how I have gotten into the forex market?.
I would say that it is about 70 % luck and 30% skill, there are only so many times you and bluff no matter how good your poker face is, if you have a bad run of cards you will eventually get caught out.
The way I use to play was to keep changing my game around so that I wasn’t a predictable play.

I see this in the forex market to you should away be on your toes and ready to change your game at any time, because you can only play the cards that you have been dealt.

The forex market is not gambling if you know what you are doing, just as said earlier you should have good money management, as you wouldn’t go all in on rubbish hand because you WILL get caught out and this become gambling,. Some times it pays off but in the end you will be broke.

This is a genuine question so please don’t take it the wrong way. In poker if you hold AA against a KK you have a little less than 20% of get beat. And, when you do it’s considered just bad luck. Now, in forex, if all your indicators and trendlines tell you to buy or sell and it doesn’t work out, how do you say it’s bad luck and not a lack and improper paramaters you had set up?

[FinCi5t]

[QUOTE=Clint;251989]At the poker table, there are certain “distractions” which you don’t have to contend with in forex trading:

True, but there are certainly other distractions:

[FinCi5t]

I’m surprised no one mentioned this (or maybe I missed it), but there is also “bluffing” in trading as well; particularly by market makers. There are tons of “fake” breakouts and setups. And commonly you see the immediate reactions to announcements be bluff events as well.