Journey to the Center of the Trading World

[RealFX]

Happy 2005 all,

Do the people who make a career out of trading eventually have to move to NY or CHI?

I mean if you really want to be an actor you gotta move to L.A at some point.

Or is that analogy not applicable to trading??

I know many of you make good trades from wherever you may be in the world, but does that model really work with hundred million/billion dollar deals???

It just seems the really sucessful traders either live/work there or lived there until they could stand on their own trading legs. I'd like to know what I might be in for if I really commit to this profession.

[autofx]

You don't have to trade in hundred million/billion dollar lot/share
sizes, nor move to those cities, to make a living at trading.

You DO need to be ultra confident in your trading methods before
you quit your day job. You also need a reasonably sized trading
account so that you don't have to trade in lot sizes too big for
your equity in order to generate the income you need to live.

[jtb790]

Originally posted by RealFX
Happy 2005 all,

Do the people who make a career out of trading eventually have to move to NY or CHI?

I mean if you really want to be an actor you gotta move to L.A at some point.

Or is that analogy not applicable to trading??

I know many of you make good trades from wherever you may be in the world, but does that model really work with hundred million/billion dollar deals???

It just seems the really sucessful traders either live/work there or lived there until they could stand on their own trading legs. I'd like to know what I might be in for if I really commit to this profession.

I live and trade from California, trading the graveyard UK/NY session (it should rather be called the deathyard shift).

Some of the most difficult work I've EVER done.

I'd prefer to trade from about 4AM or 5AM a 12-hour shift UK/NY market session time but do not see myself ever moving to Europe to do so.

The other part of it is that since forex trades 24-hours a day I can always find a trade to make when I am awake during the week, or some news event to track, making for an easy 90-hour work week.

[jtb790]

Originally posted by autofx
You don't have to trade in hundred million/billion dollar lot/share
sizes, nor move to those cities, to make a living at trading.

You DO need to be ultra confident in your trading methods before
you quit your day job. You also need a reasonably sized trading
account so that you don't have to trade in lot sizes too big for
your equity in order to generate the income you need to live.

I agree but what do you consider to be a "reasonably sized trading account?"

[autofx]

jtb790,

That's for you to decide. How much do you need to live your
desired lifestyle?

Here's a spreadsheet that might help you.

You can edit all the yellow fields.

As an example from the spreadsheet, let's say you use 30-pip
stops, and don't like to risk more than 2% of your account on
each trade. You know from experience you can average 200 pips
of profit per month. You want to make around $12K per month
to cover your lifestyle.

This means you need a trading account of around $96K, and will
have to be comfortable trading 640K lot sizes.

If you assume something other than a dollar per pip because
of the currency pair(s) you trade, or you want to express lot
size in something other than $1k units, you can unlock the
spreadsheet protection and change the cell forumulas.

[jtb790]

Originally posted by autofx
jtb790,

That's for you to decide. How much do you need to live your
desired lifestyle?

Here's a spreadsheet that might help you.

You can edit all the yellow fields.

As an example from the spreadsheet, let's say you use 30-pip
stops, and don't like to risk more than 2% of your account on
each trade. You know from experience you can average 200 pips
of profit per month. You want to make around $12K per month
to cover your lifestyle.

This means you need a trading account of around $96K, and will
have to be comfortable trading 640K lot sizes.

If you assume something other than a dollar per pip because
of the currency pair(s) you trade, or you want to express lot
size in something other than $1k units, you can unlock the
spreadsheet protection and change the cell forumulas.

" How much do you need to live your desired lifestyle?"

About $5,000,000 a month.
_____

So, let's say someone has a $100,000 trading account.

Each position then would be how many units?

1000 units?
10,000 units?
100,000 units?

(thanks for the spreadsheet link!)

[astrosmurf]

Originally posted by RealFX
Happy 2005 all,

Do the people who make a career out of trading eventually have to move to NY or CHI?

I mean if you really want to be an actor you gotta move to L.A at some point.

Or is that analogy not applicable to trading??

It helps living in England, as you catch the highest volume throughout the working day.

[KPcurrency]

Our friends across the pond my not like it but the truth is, as goes the U.S. so goes the trading world. When the E-mini S&P is in its' day session, that is he best time to trade the forex market. So that would be from 9 am EST to about 4:15 EST.

This also happens to be the time period when the NYSE is open, Currency futures are open for part of this time, and a couple of European exchanges are open. GTF has a graph on their site that shows volume which bears this out.

So while you don't have to move to Chicago or New York, It is good to adjust your trading day to theirs. Unless of course, you want to be a floor trader or " upstairs trader". There are alot of proprietery trading firms on the east coast, but agian they can be found anywhere-they're just busy during "New York" hours.