MoneyTec 2.0 - Online Forex Traders & Brokers Social Networking Community » Trading Talk » Career Trader

[Isamu]

Hi guys,

Just read a thread that was really interesting, and touched on something that I would like to ask.

Someone said that they will be trading full time for a living later on this year, and I find myself in the same position. The question that I have is:

When trading for a living, how to do you pull your profits out and still have your account grow? (I'm not sure if I worded that correctly, do you take out what you need each month for bills and let the rest grow?)

Thanks for you imput!

~isamu

[doc]

If your questioning these things, don't trade for a living just yet. Make sure of your equity management system prior to even considering trading for a living. Perhaps you're in a position to jump right back into your career right where you left it if unsuccessful at trading for a living. If that's the case please ignore this post.

The other thing you must consider is the market will do what the market will do. Do Not be too eager to leave something secure and jump into something not so secure. Your emotions and therefore your success are directly tied to the size of your margin account. If you see you're account dwindling for whatever reason and also know your bills are do next month, then your emotions will interfer with your ability to trade affectively. You will start breaking all your trading rules and find yourself pounding the pavement for another full time job. Greed will keep you in too long and fear will take you out of a trade too soon leading to breaking your well proven trading rules.

If you want to trade full time you must ask yourself how much you need in the bank to be comfortable psychologically. Once you have answered this honestly and completely accepted this, then and only then trade full time. You must be completely honest with yourself. The amount is up to you. And when you only have that amount left because your trades/methods or whatever has gone against you, then you must get another full time job while re-establishing that comfort zone.

What that zone is...well that's up to you. You can not ask anyone else what it is for them. Some might say 1 year's salary, others 5 year's, others, a guaranteed retirement sum of cash...is it 50 thousand, 100 thousand, 1million, 5 million, 1 billion? That's up to you.

You must look at trading for a living as just another job. There is nothing special about it. You must manage your finances just the same as if you worked at McDonalds flipping burgers for a living. You must ask yourself among other things; can I afford to work at the job for my lifestyle, am I willing to adjust my lifestyle if needed, and am I guaranteeing myself a retirement with the lifestyle I want for my future.

Good Luck on Your Trades, Enjoy Riding Those Waves, and Remember We Are Our Brothers Keeper

Take Care

[Isamu]

Thanks Doc,

Your posts always are well thought out and require thought and time to digest. I must say I am able to jump back into my career should my trading not go as planned the first time around, I don't intend to go full time right away, but in the near future. Yeah and I can honestly say that I have a buffer built up that I'm comfortable with and can also honestly say that I do follow a strict equity management regime.

I guess what really answers my question is your last paragraph, it's nothing special, just a job like any other, except maybe the "freedom" that everyone would associate with trading. But yeah it made me think.

Thanks for your reply Doc.

~isamu

[cambista]

Hello everyone,

I’m a forex trader beginner and I’m going to take a Three-Days Workshop in Quebec, Canada, and I have to decide between 2 companies that are giving the workshop:

The first company offering the workshop is: Market Traders Institute. Web site: www.markettraders.com
CEO/President: Jared F. Martinez. Course: The 10 Keys to Successful Trading

The second company is: Profit Trade FX. Web site: www.profitradefx.com
Name of the course: ProfiTrade FX's 3-day workshop. Giving by Michel Julien (a professional trader)

As you must know those workshops are expensive and I don’t want to waste my money with bad course. However the second company is offering the course 1,000 USD cheaper than the first one…

Please I would like to know if anybody have already taken the workshop with one of the companies mentioned …..Does anybody know those companies ? Are they reliables companies?

I have to decide by next Wednesday, so please help me…

Thanks a lot for your help,

Cambista

[slowtrader]

Hi, I think you should not put yourself under this much short time limt to take decision (to spend big money). Shop around, take people's opinion who took course. There's always another train to catch. These seminars are not going to go away. They will continue to offer. So step back and get more info. I have no experience with these seminars. I went to Market Traders free one hour seminar. Didn't impress me, so decided not to look further. So in short this is not exact answer to your question but opening another direction to think.

Thanks.

[eternalfuture]

Hi Cambista,

I'm curious. If the second company offers USD1000 less than the first, then how much is the fee for the first?

FX trading is mostly learned through trading, not just reading books or listening to people or attending seminars/workshop.

Throughout the internet. There are free learning resources.

For semi-real-trading experience, you can use demo accounts.

When you established some kind of trading methodology that suits your personality, step further. Try mini account.

When you still successful in trading mini account, try regular account.

I'd rather read books, but not all books, about trading, than going to seminars.

Save your money for buying books AND trying trading mini account, after you tried demo accounts, of course.

Hope this helps.

Good luck!

[James]

To be honest with you, I agree with Eternal Future. Most seminars and courses are expensive, devoid of useful information and hardly worthwhile attending.

I used to run 2 day seminars which I believe were the genuine thing, as I am a professional trader. Whilst the material was good and I taught from experience, I am not sure that it was possible to convey all the essentials, even by way of introduction, in such a short time period. I know that some people who attended my courses are still trading and making a living today, but others are not. Despite my ability as a trader and a teacher, it was still very difficult to pass on years of learning and experience to new traders in 2 days.

The real problem is that the majority of these FX training companies are NOT the genuine article and most (maybe all?) of the presenters cannot tell you in truth that they are active and successful traders. In fact I personally know of at least 2 companies run by "traders" who simply can not and do not trade (and who can barely teach on top of that) The knowledge you are paying them for comes from books and lacks practical, experiential application to the real market.

Quite simply put, most of them are unable to teach you anything useful and are more likely to teach you erroneous interpretations and fanciful ideas from the books they have read. I am not sure what the answer is, but probably it is to try to teach yourself though reading, forums like this one, and practice, practice, practice…

Allow 2-3 years to get it right...

[OldChiGuy]

You can see these courses if they are even run by professional traders can only tell you how they did it. You need to learn how you trade and adapt your style to find the best way to make money in the market. If you can't make money in the market, then you always have the option of running seminars
. If you want to learn it takes time, If you can't have patience in learning the market you may have problems when u trade it.

[eternalfuture]

Cambista & all,

Well, I just want to add something, too.

I've had several times training others in my company (training new AEs), and I found out that no matter what, it takes time even to teach basic knowledge of FX market to people who has no knowledge whatsoever about FX market.

If the courses claim that you can do it after the course, well, I don't think they are telling the truth.

It's not just simple knowledge to absorb. You need a whole lot more than just three days to master the basics.

I found out that teaching them people too much/session may confuse them, while giving too little/session will also uneffective and may took too long to complete the overall tutorial.

So, I used to tell them that the best teacher is experience, and experience can be acquired only through practice. And before practicing it for real, I told them to simulate trades, while learning to observe the market.

When they feel they're ready, then they can trade for real.

Like OldChiGuy said, when you want to learn, it takes time, but if you don't have time... sometimes you end up buying signals or leaving your money to some brokers.

But let me tell you this, when you learn, trade, and manage your account by YOURSELF, and make money, I guarantee that your satisfaction will be far exceeding than if you let others trade for you or analyse the market for you. Trust me.

Anyway, good luck!

[mig928]

When trading for a living, how to do you pull your profits out and still have your account grow? (I'm not sure if I worded that correctly, do you take out what you need each month for bills and let the rest grow?)

I just turned fulltime Oct1. I created a budget to live on. Then based on past performance I projected when I would double that before going fulltime. I wanted to take half of the profits and keep the rest to re-invest.

Now that everything is on the line, I'm finding that I've become a little more timid or not able to pull the trigger as I use to. Thus I'm not hitting my income goals. I know it's only been a week but the pressure just mounted and I'm trying to deal with it. The other thing that happened is I have more free time and I'm probably doing way to much analysis than I used too. This is probably contributing to my inability trade also.

[Eriksson]

I know I am a newbie so .. perhaps I should not post?

However, judging from your input to this forums it seems like you know what you really need to know, over analysing any situation is never good

Sure pressure is piling up, but you have proven to yourself you can do this.... right? You do not have to go thru that again, nothing has really changed, the marked has no idea you are going fulltime

You must also know that some weeks just dont work out according to plan... relax and in the next few weeks your plans will be on scedual!!

Good luck to you

[mig928]

I know I am a newbie so .. perhaps I should not post?

Why not? If you never post, you'll always be newbie according to the numbers. but I think you already have the wisdom to trade.

I saw on another post that you have a system already. Your comments above tells me that you also have a grasp of the pyschological factors on trading.

All you need to do now is put in some cash and try it out for real. If you treat your live account EXACTLY the way you treated your demo account, why would the results be any different?

[eternalfuture]

Mig928,

There's always a period when a trader endure a transition process, from paper-trading to real trading. You've just started, so take your time. Some people take more than a month to adapt, some others never adapt at all.

Just keep on trying, and see how things go a few months from now.

Good luck!

[mig928]

[Eriksson]

Originally posted by mig928


Why not? If you never post, you'll always be newbie according to the numbers. but I think you already have the wisdom to trade.

I saw on another post that you have a system already. Your comments above tells me that you also have a grasp of the pyschological factors on trading.

All you need to do now is put in some cash and try it out for real. If you treat your live account EXACTLY the way you treated your demo account, why would the results be any different?

Thanks pal

I wired Oanda some funds today, my real trading should start very soon. I am not too exited, I am just going to trade my plan, no more no less. The marked will decide the outcome.

I really wish you the best of luck, still... I am not sure you need luck

Best,
Eriksson