Hello, I am simply looking to get answers to those questions to know more about professional traders. This is an interview related to my studies. You can send in your answers to forexmam@hotmail.com or post them here! Let me know your name and location also. Thanks! Questions 1- Is most professional tradersâ income really unstable or do most of them manage to keep things steady? 2- What schedule do you have for your trading? 3- Do you allow yourself some vacation? 4- Did you receive personal training from other traders or did you mainly educate yourself on your own? 5- What do you consider the best type of education for a trader? 6- Do you ever do any traveling related to trading? 7- For how long have you been trading? 8- How were your first steps in the trading world? 9- What do you dislike about your job? 10- What trading strategy do you prefer over others? 11- How much time does it take to become a profitable trader? 12- What is your favorite market? (Forex, stocks, futures etc.) 13- Did you ever consider quitting trading for a standard job? 14- Do you create your own strategies or use the ones that already exist? 15- How do your family and friends react toward your job?
Let me short circuit this. Trading is a terrible job. No security, months of steady earnings can disappear in a flash of poor judgment or lack of discipline. You cannot really construct a reasonable scenario for doing it. Some people though just have it in their blood and really have no choice in the matter. If you don't, be honest with yourself and find an easier life.
Answers (forgive me for not repeating the questions, as others do without regard for space): 1- Pro traders use steady systems over time, but that is not to say that any system is without dry spells. 2- Weekdays, no Fridays, 0930-? 3- Long weekends every week. A few weeks a year away from the computer. 4- Learned stocks and options from Investools. Learned futures by scouring the web for data, then backtesting for a few years. 5- Best or most critical? Best would be applying what you learn before trying to learn it all. Most critical would be stepping out of the sim zone to learn how cash trading is different. 6- I attend a few private conventions in Vegas and other spots. 7- Started in 2001. 8- Unprofitable. Blew my small account a few times because I should have been on a sim, but let my ego take control of my trading. 9- My job is trading. I love it. I can work at will or take the day off. I can even work while sitting on the pot (I trade on a laptop). 10- Scalping. I do not allow my money out of my sight or control more than seconds to minutes. 11- Until your own systems are consistently profitable, you are able to adapt them to different markets over time, and you are disciplined enough to follow your own rules and subdue emotions in trading. 12- Futures. Forex has its attractions, though, like foreign girls... 13- Only every time I blew out my account in the beginning. 14- I make my own so I can change them or abandon them in the future, if needed. 15- They like long weekends. They like me not commuting to work. They like four-day weekends after I have a losing Wednesday. They like dad raising them with mom helping him. I am on the West coast, so they really like me being done with work in the morning, so I have all afternoon and evening with them. They like knowing even if they rebel against their mother, they get to wait until AFTER dad trades before they get spanked. What the hell good is ANY job if you spend half your life away from those you love and/or enjoy? Friends sceptical when I started now ask for stock tips. LOL
If a trader is so careless to lose months of earnings, they deserve a lashing with a cat of nine tails, then banishment to the doghouse. Agreed that some traders are simply not happy in traditional employment or self-employment, and are wired to do this and nothing else.
dog fish you serioulsy watch the flow for 10 - 11 hours a day? holy crap.. what an opportuniyt cost. Heed this statemnet my friends... You are better off trading a week at a time instead of a day at a time. Do your home work at nihgt and make adjustments on the computer while you build a business or get a salary somewhere else... even the brightest minds of wall street at one time or another lose almost everything, but the difference is they have millions socked away in real estate and t-bills.. so they are just fine unlike the average mortal who will be bagging groceries when he si 60 years old... oops .. i mean on the street now that many groceries are scan and bag yourself.. whats an old loser trader going to do for work now?