Why do YOU trade?
its a very simple question although please note “to make money” does not suffice as a proper answer
the intention of this thread goes deeper than just a curious question, i will elaborate more as you begin to answer the question
lee 
Because its fun, its another hobby of mine that has great rewards, i enjoy doing it just like playing ball.
To eventually live a life of leisure. I have pursued this dream actively for the past ten years, starting and building my own businesses online. From web design to e-publishing to affiliate marketing (yes, I actually made money at it) to selling wholesale electronics and women’s designer fashions, I have seen the highs and lows and managed to enjoy that life of leisure for several years in the mid aughts.
But everything I’ve done in my life as an entrepreneur has brought me here. I’ve always wanted to be a trader and - going back 15 years ago - I always thought the enterprise I’d enjoy most was commodities speculation. I even took courses back in the pre-internet era, doing well paper trading.
However, I discovered Forex this year and felt it was my best chance to do what I love: running an enterprise like a strategy game. No customers, no inventory, no accountants, no spending all my hard-earned cash on thousands of dollars’ worth of advertising. Just focusing on the charts and strategy, making decisions entirely within my own headspace and seeing the results before me.
So I do it to live the life I’ve always wanted: an exciting business to manage that gives me free time, great income and the chance to control my own destiny with as little moving parts as possible.
can everyone sense the passion in this post? 
thanks for sharing merchantprince
Because its my job and beats digging ditches… sometimes!
Seriously, I can’t top Merchantprince’s post! 
Great post Merchantprice! Although I have taken a very different path than you my goals are the same.
My primary reason for wanting to trade for a living is that I do not want to be dependent upon anyone (other than God) for my income. It is about independence. After working for others for the last 30 years or so, I want to be able to take the day off if I feel like it without having to ask permission or call in. It’s a lifestyle choice.
But mostly, trading is fun.
No so much to live a life of leisure as such but to give me choices.
To me an ideal place to be would be doing something I really do find fascinating. Making a good living and hopeful securing long term financial independence. Being beholden to noone. Being able to fit it in around other interests.
I actually have my own business already which I generally enjoy but would prefer it if I didn’t have any customers or staff (iyswim).
And perhaps not having to work huge hours for average reward and having to commute.
All of the above
In grade 12 a teacher taught us how to read the stock listings in the news paper…yes newspaper…lol. Then gave us a lesson in trading with how to plot prices on a graph, and then with an imaginary $10K and a timeline, challenged us to see how much we could turn it into. I did ok with it but being a teenager in the late 70’s I wasn’t really focused too well on school in general. :o
So during the years later, I kept revisiting that lesson, but always thought I needed a lot of money to start with that I didn’t have, and didn’t know much about getting a broker etc. Then mutual funds came into my life, and with $50 per month, it turned into $5k in a very short time. But I cashed it out for some necessities and with my parents being into stocks told me I really didn’t need to since they’re portfolio was quite healthy, and I’m an only child. 
I too went the entrepreneurial route from programming applications for others, to retail sales on ebay, to my own website selling stuff. Did ok but I’m rather lazy and the work was becoming more than it was worth…too many moving parts as MerchantPrince calls it…lol. Besides it was taking me away from my family & friends.
I could go back and finish a few more years of school and get my accounting designation, but again that is quite intense and would take me away from the family, and in the end probably won’t make that much difference in the income department later down the road now anyways for the time I have left before retirement and the job I have now is good and only a few blocks away from where I live.
But again, that trading lesson kept it’s place in the back of my mind and lo & behold a couple of years ago, online forex trading came along…how convenient!..lol. So I decided to spend a few years really learning it instead because I feel it could make a much bigger difference in the income department later down the road, as well as allow me the time I want to spend with family & friends now.
SweetP you sound like me, teen in the 70s and selling on ebay. I still sell on ebay as I ease into forex. That’s where I get my play money.
I’ve heard the quote from a bankrobber when asked why do you do it. and he said because that’s where they keep the money. lol
I’m smart (and modest too) and love to solve puzzles and problems, that’s what makes me a good programmer at work. Forex is a puzzle to be solved, to be analyzed and figured out. I see repeating price patterns and the charts are adictive. It’s fun! It’s challenging!
I have a one track mind and once I latch on to something like forex I never quit till I reach my goal. Actually I have an eight track mind, they just don’t make the tapes for it anymore.
… FREEDOM …
I don’t have a bad life… 75k is a pretty good living where I live. but… would love to have one of those hyper cars as RC calls it…
I trade because I have a passion to prove to myself that I can succeed when the normal odds are against me. It suits my personality. I have been very successful in my career, and in what I do I can count myself (modesty forbid) as an international figure.
Above all trading gives me the opportunity to use my skills in this domain. I do not subscribe to the theory that you can succeed in this business with no particular skills except being able to toss a coin. Neither I think I can spend my time in front of the monitor following candles and indicators mechanically. I would not get any satisfaction from it. Everything has to have an aim and purpose. The worst thing in life is being aimless regardless on how deep is your pocket. Call it job satisfaction.
I also agree with the sentiments that trading allows one to have an independent career with minimal interaction with office politics and dealing with undesirable people. It is a great plus. I also have a two months old boy that wakes up us every three hours at night to be fed and it is a convenient excuse for me to observe the trading hours of Asian markets (talking about London time). How about this challenge: to hold the baby in one hand and try to open a position at the same time!
Cheers
I trade for the excitement!
I’ve always had a keen eye on business although studying I.T in school seems a lot different. I began trading a few months ago, mainly because the draw factor was one day having a job where I could emjoy what I was doing, while living comfortably.
I am only a student and still hold a part time job. Experiencing just this sales job I currently have has helped me realized I don’t want something in sales as my future. Having already narrowed down what to do, I found forex as a way to be independent all the while learning in an everchanging market.
Yes, making money is a draw factor, but the fact that I can’t pull myself from watching / analyzing charts makes me feel like one day I may reach my goal.