I'm a new trader getting into forex. Just learning and trading with a demo account for now. My capital won't be great as I'll probably only have a portfolio of around 10k starting out. I hope to improve upon that portfolio, gain confidence, and quit my 30k salary wagecage. So, if I can somehow implement a solid trading plan and have good results to impress someone after a year or two, do I work for someone else or keep trading for myself? I live in Texas so there are tons of energy trading related jobs that I could make a ton of money in. I have a college degree in business to at least get an oil company to look at me. Then hopefully with a solid trading plan and journal of all my trades I could impress someone to at least give me a chance. However, that would have some down side. I have a ceiling (a rather comfortable ceiling) on how much I could make AND I give up my ability to trade for myself for years even after I retire or quit my job. On the other hand, trading for myself, I could slowly build up my own capital and the sky is the limit. That said, I'm sort of putting the cart before the horse here in thinking this far into the future as I'm just an unproven noob who could fail like most traders. I guess I just want to decide what my long term goal should be. Anyone here trade for an institution? Energy field? Crude oil? Anyone here trade for another individual other than themselves and had to decide between that and trading for themselves?
Trading for yourself vs. trading for someone else
How do you plan to learn how to trade?
I do so networking with other traders who can answer questions as well as use the widely available resources on the internet. Learning to trade is not taught in university and is not a mysteriously protected secret. You don't have to pay anyone. You just have to put in the work to learn.
What's your edge
Why would you trade forex since your goals seem to focus on energy trading? You should start with the mini crude or nat gas futures contracts exclusively and learn everything you can about them.
>nat gas futures
mini also if it wasn't clear, please don't start by trading the full contract
Well I will be trading both currency pairs and some commodities like oil and gas. I also will learn options. Yes I will start with minis of course. Forex is the best to earn a living at because of it's volatility. My thought is, if I can learn to be successful in forex, I can trade any market. Technical analysis and risk management is used by all professional traders. Forex is the most competitive market in the world. Energy sector is not necessarily my goal, but it's just a local option and I can't see myself wanting to move to Chicago or New York.
Trading edge would be positional swing trading using technical analysis to assess my risk.
>My thought is, if I can learn to be successful in forex, I can trade any market. Technical analysis and risk management is used by all professional traders
This is somewhat true, but there is plenty of money in any one of these commodity or currency markets and I think most traders benefit from specializing in the particular markets they correctly understand.
swing trading okay but what kind of TA?
mostly Fibonacci retrace, fib channels, chart patterns, macd, and RSI. A few indicators but nothing overly complex. Learning that watching market maker square ups is big as well.
I agree, studying less pairs and getting good at trading less markets is the key to success. I guess I would specialize in energy if that was my goal. But I think overall this is a discussion of if I should make institutional trading a goal or not.
Good luck user and remember trading is about making money, not being right.
this helped me a lot
I guess I don't see that there is any difference whether institutional trading is the goal from where you are now.
Trading for yourself - need to get good
Trading for someone else - need to get good
Once that happens, it becomes a question if you want the additional capital and responsibilities that come with an institution.
>I have a ceiling (a rather comfortable ceiling) on how much I could make
Not with a hedge fund.
>AND I give up my ability to trade for myself for years even after I retire or quit my job.
Why would this be the case?
If you trade for another institution you give up your freedom as well as your family's ability to trade freely. You have to have everything approved by the SEC because you are considered an insider, even I think up to 5 years or so after you no longer work the job.
What do you mean not with a hedge fund?
it takes about 2 years to learn trading, and typically 5 years to become comfy profitable.
you could try to find a job at a prop firm but you have to pass alot of (not) aptitude tests and really really want it. To get hired at one of those places it really requires a decent track record of trading with real money.
Working at a firm is about working with a community of traders that help eachother with like real time calls and observations and stuff.
>wants to trade currency pairs
>hasn't mentioned fundamentals at least once
uhhh op maybe u need to buy some textbooks
fundamentals are huge in FOREX. I never said they were not. If you are trading the pound, you best be monitoring brexit for example.
OP, trade for yourself and if you really get good, become a money manager. Which means people give you money to trade and you divide the profits proportionally. It makes a lot more money than any job can offer you. The problem is with trading is that if you're good at it, or in other words consistent there's litterly 0 reason to work for a bank or institution.
A lot of billionaires are in fact money managers, Soros is an example of that.
I'm pretty sure 10 years from now I will still be learning how to trade. It doesn't seem that the learning every ends.
Yes, and I can be comfy away from other people living where I want to live.
prop traders dont share calls
Meaning there no profit limit with a hedge fund, but maybe I'm confusing things a little. I was thinking of every case of not trading for yourself as being institutional.
Oh I gotcha.
I'm using a secret trading strategy that I found in the depths of Atlantis. It's an universal strategy that works for every market. Unfortunately I fucking suck at decision making, what do I do guys?
>do I work for someone else or keep trading for myself?
That's fully up to you. As an introvert myself I have never even considered working for others, I earn enough to just sit on my ass and do what I want. I do know for a fact though that trading for someone while having an old veteran coach behind your back is much better than anything else. While on the trading floor you will learn a TON of secrets and other tricks&tips to help you find perfect trades. My friend from London actually retired at the age of 28 after he had been on the trading floor for only 3 years, he gave me a tip that changed my way of swing trading, which proved his point that trading floors are great.
If you like the idea of having clients and being very social/friendly/pushy, then try getting yourself on a trading floor somewhere. If you're an introvert like me and most of Jow Forums, then keep on trading and learning. There's plenty of youtube guides with good tips and tricks that you can use while teaching yourself to trade. I don't know where you're at right now in terms of knowledge, but there are always some videos you can watch and learn from.
You having a 10k portfolio is good, my friend from London started with 2k and myself only started with $800.
Giving a timespan like that is just stupid, you will never learn enough when it comes to trading and some people might learn enough in a few months depending on their brainpower. I know a guy that has been trading for 37 years or something in that range he still learns new shit from time to time. It depends on the person.
What was the point of this post
I'm a bored NEET but legit, anyone got tips on decision making? I let the chart tell me what to do but I often find myself incapable of reacting.
>Doesn't share the tip
Lol
thanks user, very inspiring
There is no tip that can make you successful, however, the tip given to him could have been an intangible way of thinking about things. It could be to use a certain indicator or it could have just been a psychological tip.
Makes sense. Trading is literally letting go of your petty emotions and feelings, so decision making in the real world can be much more complicated that financial analytics of price action. I think all traders are somewhere on the spectrum.
Well if you're having problems deciding to place a trade then i guess your strategy isn't very systematic so i don't know how to help
LMAO
You're late
You guys are all in xaviers room right?
Forex, stocks, crypto etc..
Discord.me/xavier
what do you mean with systematic?
If X+Z do Y
if a robot can do it its systematic basically
I'd like to ask, how do you guys manage your time? This market is 24/7, so do you pick specific hours to trade or do you set alarms at certain closes of candles?
No a robot would not be able to do my job. Maybe a sophisticated one that has AI.
I do my analysis on the daily time frame and place trades just before the london open
Well if you have stops and targets set, what are you worried about? Also if you swing trade, these trades can last weeks or even months. Some trades can last a few days. If you are day trading or scalping, you should probably have all your positions closed when you stop trading for the day. You can chose what days to trade and what days to not trade. I think the time frame issue of any market all depends on your trading plan. Have goals. If you are a day trader, stop trading when you reach your goal. As a swing trader I will still work my job until I can prove success. Swing trading, you want to be looking at the 4H and daily. You can dip lower than that if you want to day trade.
ok thanks guys
Who is xavier and why should I join? I'm very cautious of discord communities. They can be a time sink and have negative effects. They can also be a good place to share good information and TA though.
how do i find brokers with accurate charts? im demo trading with a broker right now and decided to check out another, the charts where different enough that a few of my current trades wouldn't have been placed on the other broker
I use tradingview for charting pretty much anything. But right now I have Oanda for demo account on MT4 platform.
Xaviers school.
They have all levels of users. And organized rooms.
Which everything you can ask for in a discord.