Hi folks I would like to know different perspectives and opinions from you. A little background about me, I've been trading the spot currency market on live retail accounts for 5 years now , the first 3 years was on and off, turning my 1,000 accounts into 0 a few times, basically no edge nor strategy neither plan while I was @ university studying finance and banking. 1 year ago I decided to plung very deep into the art of speculation and stop thinking about it as a ''hobby''. After 1 year of ups and downs, and with a defined system , money and risk management rules as well as an edge, I managed to end the year flat on terms of ROI but very possitive in terms of learning experience . With the start of the 2014 I decided to take this speculation game into a more professional tone, I opened a 3,000 usd account with IC Markets using the ECN platform cTrader, which I btw I now believe is the best retail platform to trade the spot market. 6 months into 2014 and now I can finally say that I am profitable on a consistent basis , I no longer trade with emotions as I have plenty confidence in my edge and system, to be honest I am talking holy grail level in terms of psychological mindset. Today I now have 5k usd in my account and I am in a little bit of a crossroad from here. It turns out I've just recived my ''papers'' of my finance and banking degree so I am ready to apply for any job opportunity in the investment banks industry, problem is I now have this -idea- stuck in my head that I can turn those 5k into 500k in 5 years from now. I know I know, there is a lot of traders saying this and almost 1 per cent really do it, this is not the point. The point is that if I want to continue with the project and reach that 500k in 5 years goal I will need side-income from a part-time job. This will be necesary because I won't be able to withdrawl any profit made because -compounding- is what will-would get me to my goal. So, with all this in mind, I don't really want to join the investment banks industry at the moment, I want to give myself the chance to succeed in my goal. But then the fear of losing my money and more important my time becomes really hurtful, if I don't succeed in my project I would have lost 5 years of my professional life. I am 23 years old and today I have the energy and motivation to wake up @ 4 30 AM to trade the mid London session and remain in my home-desk untill 3PM untill NY session closes. I don't really open a new position everyday, I basically wait for my determined zones on hourly charts and then search for 15 and 5 minutes set ups @ those zones, so is a 80 per cent watching - 20 per cent trading business for me. What would you do? Stop trading and go work for a bank where I could not be speculating at all on a newbie position OR keep dreaming big and keep trying to reach the goal, while working on part-time jobs nothing related to trading and-or finance ? Your words would be much appreciated, Regards from Mexico
Yes you can do it. It will be hard and psychologically taxing are you ready for extreme highs, lows, and lost confindence? Those will be the main things to worry about if you have a nice trading edge.
Take the investment banking job. Its a lot easier than trading your own account and you'll make a lot more money. You can always trade your own account on the side or retire after you have $500,000 saved up and trade your own account then. This is the best advice I can give you. I hope you take it.
+1 BTW, who starts looking for an investment banking job after graduation? Maybe it's different in Mexico than the US.
Good thing you are starting out small and on ForEx. To get bigger has a lot of future hurdles and hopefully your edge and the rest of your trading context and gradual and careful learning experience can manage through. Here's a young guy who graduated with similar credentials and tried to start out making the big bucks. Started his own small two man firm trading other people's money. https://www.bigmiketrading.com/trad...0-futures-contract-trading-69.html#post269267 https://www.bigmiketrading.com/trad...0-futures-contract-trading-76.html#post276306 (lost a lot of people's money) https://www.bigmiketrading.com/trad...0-futures-contract-trading-78.html#post300753 https://www.bigmiketrading.com/trad...0-futures-contract-trading-80.html#post334966 https://www.bigmiketrading.com/trad...steptrader-combine-journal-48.html#post325580 So the guy with all his hundreds of posts and analysis didn't have that great an edge or failed to follow his edge and take his stops when he had to manage increasingly larger size. Increasing larger size is a big psychological hurdle especially when doing it with real money. The "steps" of retail trading: https://www.bigmiketrading.com/traders-hideout/1454-38-steps-trading.html "interventional" about a young trader who blew big money on his first year live. He had quit his decent paying job in investment banking to trade: http://www.simplicitytradinghost.co...entional/2011-09-1-Trader-Interventional.html (he didn't follow his stops either and in the end of the discussion he admitted he practically gambled the rest of his whole account averaging down and lost it all in the end) I guess my thoughts are in general is to get started on your career in investment banking if you can. Investment banking sounds like a decent paying job to get started on. Too many new college graduates these days are forced to work at minimum wage jobs. Decent paying jobs are extremely tight for all as a whole. Try to make your trading part-time around your main career for now in your 20's. if you are "waiting" too long to wait for setups , maybe adjust your edge or trading methods to be able to take more trades per hour etc. There is some talk about how rarer it is to have traders who have traded all their life for a living, or even lasting longer than 20 years to their social security age. Always better to have some professional career or alternative to fall back on. Good luck.
First, if English is not your native language, you've learned it well. You might feel on top of the world now because you're up a significant percentage in six months, but it's still a very small account. And you may think you've mastered the emotional aspects of the 'game' and perhaps you've made a lot of progress, but until you've gone through draw downs while having to support yourself, you haven't really been tested yet. You're young, you're probably bi-lingual, Mexico's more promising than it used to be, etc, etc. Go have a normal life for at least a couple of years. Put on a suit and tie and make your family proud. If they paid for your education, that's the least you can do to show your gratitude (as opposed to staying home and trading in your underwear). You might enjoy finance & banking and decide to stick with it for a while. But even if it seems like a drag while your dream simmers, once you leave to chase the dream you can start with more cash as well as a better resume and more business contacts to fall back on if trading doesn't work out. The markets will always be there, but if you start with self-employed trading first, the corporate jobs won't.
Get a career in investment banking. If you have your choice - go to a trading desk or capital markets desk. Learn how the markets really work and build relationships and contacts. In 10 years you could be managing 500MM instead of 500,000.
Thanks for the encouragement! Yes, I think I could handle it, I would have a part-time job in the afternoon (during the Asian session when markets are very quiet) to support any drawdowns a long the way. Thanks again, mate!
Very nice advice, thanks! Like you said, I could trade my own account on the side (basically just going from day trading to swing trading). I would need to test my strategy on longer-term charts though. Thanks!
I was meant to say "in the investment banking industry" , here in Mexico you have to start from the bottom and work your way up. I am talking maybe a newbie position or an internship