Full time traders --please respond

Discussion in 'Professional Trading' started by pbw, Dec 23, 2005.

  1. esmjb

    esmjb

    i agree,Tiv you are a maniac. i used to trade 2am straight through to 1pm eurex close. it was just too much, IMO an active trader cant be effective much more than 6-7 hours a day. anything longer actually makes people counter-productive and decreases profits.
     
    #31     Dec 25, 2005
  2. vinceb

    vinceb

    im not a full time trader,since I go to college, but on the days when I have no school, i usually wake up at 8am (market opens 9:30)

    I dont trade premarket and I just get a list of stocks looking close to breakouts and put them all in my alert system.

    I love this job.
     
    #32     Dec 25, 2005
  3. Mo06

    Mo06

    OK here goes, this is a fairly typical day:

    0700 Alarm goes off.

    0710 Alarm goes off again.

    0720 Grab alarm and hurl it across the floor.

    0915 Wake up.

    0920 Think... aren't weekends wonderful, time to relax and forget about trading ...

    0922 Listen to radio and read a old trading magazine.

    0923 Leap out of bed naked, thinking... 'It's NOT the weekend !'

    0924 Tread on mysteriously located alarm clock, slip and hurt toe, breaking alarm clock in the process.

    0925 Grab dressing gown, switch on kettle and PC screen.

    0926 Collapse in chair, cradling head in hands, in futile attempt to soothe the pounding effect in skull. Experience flashbacks of just how drunk I was last night.

    0927 Get data connection & charts up, notice that the market is selling off very heavily this morning. Sit back and sip coffee. Rub eyes. Breathe slowly.

    0928 Idly consider a small long here, as the indices are down a heck of a lot.

    0929 Drop coffee and stare in horror at broker live position window, which shows a LONG POSITION and a negative equity balance.

    0930 Frantically request execution window, which does indeed show a long placed late last night before the close. There is no exit shown.

    0931 Spend five minutes on 'phone to broker, finally manage to appease them by transferring a large amount of cash into brokerage account to cover margin.

    0932 Stare at chart and will it to change direction.

    0950 Lie down on sofa and occasionally look over at screen, just to confirm that the market is stil headed lower.

    1010 Return to desk and check account margin.

    1011 Transfer more cash to brokerage account.

    1030 Return to sofa.

    1031 Fall asleep.

    1255 Wake up. Return to desk. Notice that position has been closed automatically due to insufficient margin. Retrun to sofa.

    1330 Return to desk. Decide market is falling further. Open short position.

    1331 Notice spike up on futures.

    1338 Watch as position moves very rapidly into red.

    1340 Close position. Watch as market immediately drops 20.

    1405 Wake up seated at desk. See that market is now down 60. check margin.

    1406 Transfer more cash to brokerage account.

    1407 Receive call from bank saying that overdraft limit has been exceeded.

    1408 Transfer cash from brokerage account to bank.

    1500 Decide that hangover is so severe that remedy is called for.

    1505 Open a beer.

    1530 Open another beer as first one seemed to help a lot.

    1600 Open another beer as second one was even better.

    1610 Collapse on sofa. Notice that market is now 75 points above original long entry level.

    1630 Discover an unopened bottle of bourbon behind sofa. Open it.

    2358 Fall asleep on sofa fully dressed, dreaming of the big time.
     
    #33     Dec 30, 2005
  4. Up @ 7am.

    In the office @ 8:30.

    Orders entered for the open @ 9.

    9:30-4 watch the tape in all open positions and hedge with ETF`s accordingly (my only intra-day trading).

    Leave the office @ 4:30, home by 5.

    6pm run EOD scans for next trading day.

    Repeat.
     
    #34     Dec 30, 2005