# How many of you trade as a profession?



## OGRooney (30 July 2012)

I don't mean people employed by a company to trade with client/company funds, I mean people actually trading with their own equity and who would consider their primary source of income trading on the foreign exchange market. So yeah, how many people here (if any) fit that description?

PS Please also post if you earn wages/salary at a full time or part time job but EARN a similar or greater amount trading on the side


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## tech/a (30 July 2012)

Have my own Civil Construction Company.
Couldn't think of anything worse than trading for a living.

Turn a pretty good extra income each year.
TAX is a killer!


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## wayneL (30 July 2012)

I Traded for a living from 2001 til early 2010, initially because of injury I couldn't work.

However having moved to a new country and having recovered my physical integrity, I wanted to get out of my cave and redevelop a social network, so I started a business and traded on the side.

There are pros and cons of each, but my advice would be that the best application of trading is developing wealth rather than earning a living.

Also, missus thinks I'm much hawtter with a six-pack and big arms.


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## skc (30 July 2012)

OGRooney said:


> I don't mean people employed by a company to trade with client/company funds, I mean people actually trading with their own equity and who would consider their primary source of income trading on the foreign exchange market. So yeah, how many people here (if any) fit that description?
> 
> PS Please also post if you earn wages/salary at a full time or part time job but EARN a similar or greater amount trading on the side




I am a full time private trader but only in equities and not FX... going to join the dark side soon though.


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## notting (30 July 2012)

I'm an invester who likes to play when things get crazy.
Haven't really worked since I was 37.
Check these guys.  



Talk like mobsters.
It's the street, it's alive.
Beats bridge and you can die!


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## CanOz (30 July 2012)

notting said:


> I'm an invester who likes to play when things get crazy.
> Haven't really worked since I was 37.
> Check these guys.
> 
> ...




Ahh, the Auction Market....Great link Notting, TA!


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## OGRooney (31 July 2012)

notting said:


> Talk like mobsters.
> It's the street, it's alive.
> Beats bridge and you can die!




Sounds like you wanna be in the drug game :


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## pixel (31 July 2012)

skc said:


> I am a full time private trader but only in equities and not FX... going to join the dark side soon though.




ditto, since 2001
still no FX, but the occasional CFD short or protective cover


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## OGRooney (31 July 2012)

This movie is off the hook


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## TulipFX (31 July 2012)

Full time forex algorithmic trader. Manage my own and other's funds. Have offered a retail product. 

Wasn't easy though. Like any field it follows the customary logic that you need to rack up 10,000 hours to truly know what you're doing.


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## Steve C (1 August 2012)

notting said:


> I'm an invester who likes to play when things get crazy.
> Haven't really worked since I was 37.
> Check these guys.
> 
> ...





Great video, but I couldn't help but feel a bit disheartened and depressed after watching it, these guys just don't seem like "good people." My impression was that they all seemed self obsessed, arrogant and unhappy.


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## Steve C (1 August 2012)

Steve C said:


> Great video, but I couldn't help but feel a bit disheartened and depressed after watching it, these guys just don't seem like "good people." My impression was that they all seemed self obsessed, arrogant and unhappy.




edit - comment above mainly relates to the people in the first half of the movie.


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## OGRooney (1 August 2012)

Steve C said:


> Great video, but I couldn't help but feel a bit disheartened and depressed after watching it, these guys just don't seem like "good people." My impression was that they all seemed self obsessed, arrogant and unhappy.




Yeah give me MT4 and a beer any day 

If your not a bastard with your money when you do make it, your probably more likely to find fulfillment/happiness/contentment


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## Steve C (1 August 2012)

OGRooney said:


> Yeah give me MT4 and a beer any day
> 
> If your not a bastard with your money when you do make it, your probably more likely to find fulfillment/happiness/contentment




Off topic a bit here but the top 3 trading programs on here would be:

1) amibroker
2) metatrader
3) ?


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## waza1960 (1 August 2012)

> Off topic a bit here but the top 3 trading programs on here would be:




Have a look over here ...........https://www.aussiestockforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21274

Depends on what you need it for :discretionary trading, auto trading,short term trading,long term trading


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## CanOz (1 August 2012)

Steve C said:


> Off topic a bit here but the top 3 trading programs on here would be:
> 
> 1) amibroker
> 2) metatrader
> 3) ?




3.) X - Trader
4.) NinjaTrader
5.) MultiCharts
6.) IB TWS


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## TulipFX (1 August 2012)

Steve C said:


> Off topic a bit here but the top 3 trading programs on here would be:
> 
> 1) amibroker
> 2) metatrader
> 3) ?




Do you mean top as in best, or top as in most popular?


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## Steve C (1 August 2012)

TulipFX said:


> Do you mean top as in best, or top as in most popular?




Lets hear your opinion on both... In the short term future I be looking into one of these programs but I have no "programming" experience....I have also heard people say that IB has really good charting facilities for an online broker nearly as good as these programs.


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## OGRooney (4 September 2012)

Hearsay but apparently there are blokes in Wollongong under the age of thirty that have made their millions through FX...


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## Trembling Hand (4 September 2012)

Steve C said:


> Lets hear your opinion on both... In the short term future I be looking into one of these programs but I have no "programming" experience....I have also heard people say that IB has really good charting facilities for an online broker nearly as good as these programs.




IBs charts are rubbish. But you can connect lots of good charting programs to IB.


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## TulipFX (4 September 2012)

Steve C said:


> Lets hear your opinion on both... In the short term future I be looking into one of these programs but I have no "programming" experience....I have also heard people say that IB has really good charting facilities for an online broker nearly as good as these programs.




Well MT4 is what we use. It has its limitations and is 'old' technology but has a huge amount of code written and a good community of coders and developers throwing ideas around. With some manipulation of the MT4 itself you can get over some of the issues it inherently has.

Ideally I'd love to use http://www.deltixlab.com/ . However the cost of a license runs into the multiple tens of thousands.


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## tech/a (4 September 2012)

Trembling Hand said:


> IBs charts are rubbish. But you can connect lots of good charting programs to IB.




Agree 

MT4 for FX


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## >Apocalypto< (17 September 2012)

tech/a said:


> Agree
> 
> MT4 for FX




if you use IB dont use MT4... use IB our ami as you have IBs prices on your chart.


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## LawryDowner (12 October 2012)

Part time profession!! A good secondary income anyway and I personally like the ability to trade from anywhere in the world..


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## tonythetrader (24 November 2012)

I would like to trade as a profession, but I'm not quite there yet. Maybe someday and maybe sooner than what I was expecting.


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## Crom (24 November 2012)

I run a personal training and exercise therapy buisiness, which is wonderful for being out and about interacting with people.  As such while I love the share mkt and staying very current/up to date on domestic and international affairs (political and economic), I just couldn't imagine trading for a living.

I do trade as a side line through an investment account and do pretty well.  I also run my own SMSF and have really done well not just in making money, but also in creating tax losses to offset profits.  Miles and miles ahead of where I would have been letting someone else do it.

I do love the spec side and researching the wonderful little companies out there.  Some fail and others roar.  For example I killed the mkt with very cheap entries on SDL, WDR, but struggling with FML, MYG for example.  It is enormous fun and I bore my partner on a regular basis talking about it!

The changes to the tipping comp I suggested are making excellent reading for those like me who like to flirt with speccies.  Great entries guys!


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## AverageJoe (31 January 2013)

Curious to see who use indicators among the professional traders and who use price action?

MT4 for me because it is not resource intensive and robust and the added bonus of having code written for almost anything I can't think of.


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## TulipFX (1 February 2013)

For manual trading - price action on the 4 hour charts (and small/thin bars to get a broad historical view of the movement). Humans can process price action, judge support and resistance, weigh up fundamental news and have 'gut feel'.

When developing automated traders, indicators need to be used. What manual trading lacks automated trading is strong in (unemotional, strict rule adherance, historical testing, 24/5 operation) and what autotrading lacks manual trading is strong in (whole view, complex price action patterns which humans can view with experience easily, fundamental news influence, gut feeling).

One is not better than the other, but one may be better for you. I/we trade almost exclusively automated. My weakness is emotion. For others who have the manual trading gift, it is the opposite. Manual trading requires a lot of self training in not only reading graphs but coping with the emotions of trading. Automated trading requires a lot of system development (training). 

Each requires a lot of effort to do successfully. 95% of forex traders lose money. It is said 10,000 hours of practice is required to become an expert. Neither is easy. If you're one of the 5% congratulations


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## AverageJoe (1 February 2013)

Thank you for that wonderful insight to the mind of a professional trader. 
I think I fall into the manual camp for the lack of programming skills required for algo trading. I use the less is more attitude on larger time frame, 4H/daily purely price action, S/R lines simple stuff. Love to be consistently in the 5% 

Would love to hear what others are also doing and how they do it.


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## AuthenticFX (7 February 2013)

TulipFX said:


> For manual trading - price action on the 4 hour charts (and small/thin bars to get a broad historical view of the movement). Humans can process price action, judge support and resistance, weigh up fundamental news and have 'gut feel'.
> 
> When developing automated traders, indicators need to be used. What manual trading lacks automated trading is strong in (unemotional, strict rule adherance, historical testing, 24/5 operation) and what autotrading lacks manual trading is strong in (whole view, complex price action patterns which humans can view with experience easily, fundamental news influence, gut feeling).
> 
> ...




- perfect description, and I can so relate to auto/manual trading tradeoffs as you outline


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## WestCoastWizard (31 March 2013)

I trade forex on daily basis and it contributes about 50% of my _irregular_ income. I don't know whether that qualifies me as trading for a profession.

I didn't mean to start trading full time so soon but circumstances forced me. I had to drop my full time job and I couldn't get a new full time job because I have to be glued to the screen from 1-5 pm & 9-12 pm Perth time.

It was scary at that time, because I was using my life savings and my 2 options were either: be successful or visit the nearest Centerlink office. But one thing I learned about human potential is that you only get to develop it to the max when there is a sense of urgency to call it out. So when I was cornered, I burnt my bridges and I was surprised on how quick I became profitable. 

I'd be lying if I say I didn't lose, and lose big. But if your aim is to humbly understand the market and trade with it, instead of putting your own thinking on it, you'll make it.

Most traders do not understand why price moves and behaves in certain way that it leaves the trace on the chart as candlestick patterns. They get into a trade and HOPE price will go their way. Whereas successful traders get into a trade and UNDERSTAND that price will most likely go the market's way.


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## AverageJoe (22 April 2013)

WestCoastWizard, I take it from your brief description that you use candlestick patterns or price action. Do you use any other tools to help with your setup? Looking at your trading times, seems you trade the London and NY open so are you scalping on opening momentums? I am always curious how others are doing it.

Cheers,

AJ


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