Understood. When your livelihood depends on it you must find out. To the original poster: I would simply research different major cities around the world and determine where there is an active trader group. Generally speaking I would imagine the number of independent non-corporate traders will be pretty sparse outside of the US, England, Germany, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan and other major financial center countries. For personal safety, Japan, Singapore, and Korea can't be beat. I've been to the absolute worst part of major cities in Japan and Korea at the worst possible time of the day and nothing happened. Try doing that in New York, Chicago, LA, or DC.