That is a very good idea. I taught a course at work to the new guys on the spot and forward market. Thanks that is something to think about. I got My CFA and I am working on my CMT so that may give me even more crediability.
gwac, I think you should go all out. $75k is more than plenty, I think, especially with 100 or 200:1 leverage that most brokers give you. Be careful which broker you use. One time I had both OandA and GFT platforms open. They provided different quotes at the same time. Best of luck!
Actually when u read an article about the canadian $, they probable refer to it as the loonie. It is in the interbank market they refer to it as funds. So traders will use this name.
There are 2 main rates feeds that everyone uses including the banks. EBS is owned by the major banks. It is the where the banks cover most of their exposures. Reuters matching is the other. The rate feeds comes from the actually bid /offer in those systems. Oanda and other will skew the price to reflect their position. Oanda for example uses UBS and others to cover their positions they do not have acces to ebs or reuters matching. How oanda works is there systems mointors their position and covers automatically with best price being feed to them by their five or six banks. No human intervention, unless they turn it off and go manually. Oanda and others use the feeds but adjust them for their benefit at any given time.
I did the same thing and would say go for it. There is a huge difference though although it is the same job in reality. As I came from a small bank background I did not miss the flows or anything like that but for the first 6 motnhs or so I was trading real money rather than just paper. That adversly affected my performance at first. Now it is no different to trading for a bank in terms of I don't think of each trade as what it is in real money and hence the emotional side has been cut out of my trading again. Also don't forget as you are not a bank you have no get out trades where you manage to nick a bit off a client! If you make the move I would start out almost as if you are a trainee again and so set aside enough capital to not only trade with but also to live on for a year. If you want to ask any further questions feel free to PM me (I worked for a bank for 15 years as a trader and was the Treasury Director).
Keep the job....if you can do the following and that is. 1. Create your own black box or see if you can automate your trading system. 2. Find a hedge fund that meets your expectations on drawdowns and rate of returns(the only problem you might need more than 75 grand). and if this options are not suitable for you, then go for it! Good luck