Rhody Trader
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Only you can decide how much time to spend trading. If you think you're trading too much, you probably are! 
Seriously, though, consider your other commitments and priorities and allocate your time accordingly.
Seriously, though, consider your other commitments and priorities and allocate your time accordingly.
timsk
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None. Never have and I doubt I ever will!
Opps after reading this I need to adjust my answer. I read the question as trading not fx trading.
So - very little indeed.
timsk
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It's one of my pet hates Jason - the idea that forex is the only market there is - or the only one retail traders bother with!
I do trade forex but nothing intra-day - trend-following off daily charts plus weeklies for overview.
Spend about half an hour per evening on TA for my target pairs, adjusting stops or entering positions. About 2hrs at weekend taking a longer perspective view, watch a few videos, glance at DailyFX.com, how closed trades performed etc. Plus about half a day per month reviewing strategy, what TA criteria working well, etc.
The FX markets are obviously open during my evening updates but time spent price-watching = 0
Time spent on Financial Times, Bloomberg, WSJ etc. = 0
(sorry, I mentioned stops - that will drive some people absolutely nuts)
Spend about half an hour per evening on TA for my target pairs, adjusting stops or entering positions. About 2hrs at weekend taking a longer perspective view, watch a few videos, glance at DailyFX.com, how closed trades performed etc. Plus about half a day per month reviewing strategy, what TA criteria working well, etc.
The FX markets are obviously open during my evening updates but time spent price-watching = 0
Time spent on Financial Times, Bloomberg, WSJ etc. = 0
(sorry, I mentioned stops - that will drive some people absolutely nuts)
@ Tim, to trade fx, for me it has to be a steady 45 degrees.
Most of my recent alpha has come from fixed income (gov bonds),
ETF's and some stocks.
@ Tomorton, you're making me feel really lazy!
Good trading to you both and have good weekends.
Most of my recent alpha has come from fixed income (gov bonds),
ETF's and some stocks.
@ Tomorton, you're making me feel really lazy!
Good trading to you both and have good weekends.
scott_miller
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2 to 6 hours, almost every week day.
Samsu_samsul
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You mean daily trading? I'm not taking time too much since I still have 9-5 job, 1-2 hours is more than enough to see charts and put some long term order...
arigoldman
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Always be the hardest worker in the room, right?
victoriajensen
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2-3 hours per day. Sometimes more, sometimes less, it depends on the market.
Surprising responses. I had thought most forex traders would be daytraders, and most of them would report at least 8hrs/day.
Alright, time spent might be not wholly relevant to how well you're doing but are the full-time daytraders just too busy to post on this?
Alright, time spent might be not wholly relevant to how well you're doing but are the full-time daytraders just too busy to post on this?
Forexmospherian
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Hi Tom
I think it all depends on so many factors - ie do you have a full time job and can you only fit it say 10 -15hrs a week trading ? If you never want to end up full time and ideally just supplement your income - then you are bound to look at being time efficient and just work off the daily / weekly charts and hope you can have successful trades over days and weeks.
If your plan is to leave your job within 3 to 5 years and go trading full time - then to replace you current income - means you have to be confident that you can get it to work on a consistent basis - and not 3 months of wins and 2 months of losses and then 2 steps forward and 3 steps back etc.
Also I do think nowadays most newbie traders who are savvy are fully aware than 80%+ or even 95% ( that's put out by the losers) of all traders will never make it and be consistently profitable. I am a great believer in the 5k and 10K hour commitment required on any real skill - and thats not just 5000 hrs reading books etc - it 5000hrs of watching live charts and trading.
You cannot buy experience - you can shortcut it - but it will still take years. I am not surprised some part time traders need over 5 or 7 years to find their feet and find a successful method that suits them and makes them consistently profitable. Think about it at even 20 hrs a week over 45 weeks a year is only 900 hrs - so to get 10K hours in total you need over 11 yrs part time.
Then you still need to accept you will have losses etc - that's so difficult for many to take on board.
When i started not long after the start of the new millenium - newbie traders just did not have all the information that is available today - and a lot of it is free. I was misinformed by brokers and the industry that only 60 -70% of traders did not make it - and those where the ones that thought it could all be learnt in 6 or 12 months and where only prepared to blow up 2 small live accounts - and then they gave up. If you had told me and other newbie traders at the time it might take 3 or 5 years or more - I would have stopped then.
Luckily - I was semi retired - after being used too working anything from 50 to 70 hrs of demanding stressful work ever week - and so the idea of just spending 25 -40 hrs a week trading - seemed a doddle - ie just part time.
It took me over 5 years before I went full time intraday trading and in the first 2 years I would spend anything from 6 to 10 hrs a day trading and learning - only forex though - and at the time only 3 pairs.
Nowadays I still only really part time - my trading normally only takes 2 to 5 hrs a day ( some days targets reached in one hour before London open - other days i need 5 -6 hrs and all day to exceed my target ). At present i work 18 to 23 days a month and have normally 5 to 7 weeks off during the year. Next year I might drop to just 10 days a month and ideally I retire in next 2 years anyway - but saying that I cannot see me retiring completely.
Intraday trading FX pairs is boring - Ok when you easily exceed your daily targets by 100% or more and you are on a roll - you do have a smile on your face and in my case my focus and concentration seems more intense. But then when it not going right and it a boring morning - I am thinking can I really get my self into a really focused trading zone for 2 or 3 hrs in the afternoon. If its the first part of the week - normally I can - by Thursday - I just want a long lunch and a few drinks and a nap in the afternoon etc etc.
I think it like everything in life - it's how much you are prepared to put in - and how much do you want out of it? I was no way going to spend 30 or 40 hrs+ a week ongoing for years unless I knew I could make 6 figure annual income off a decent size capital account but certainly not off having to commit quarter or half a million to do it.
I dont really like the Banking Industry and I dont trust the trade etc so everything I hear I take with a pinch of salt - knowing that really you need to find out yourself. If you can make the returns you want on just a few hrs everyday etc - good luck to you and also to all other part timers. If you are full time and need it to work to live off - then just dont think it will be easy and a walk in the park - it won't be - you need to put the hours in and the commitment etc etc
Regards
F
Thanks for that F, a really open and thorough statement. So much resonates with my own journey, though we set out from different places and have ended up in different places.
Trading for me has not worked out to be a cost-effective way to self-employment / retirement for me. Too much time, too much capital needed. But having invested so much resource, I ain't gonna stop now, even for the modest returns I personally see now. But for a random aquaintance / friend / relative who sees trading as a way to happiness? - no, I would advise them stick with employment but forget about career, just get the highest salary you can, and preferably in an employment where you can turn freelance.
But I think you've personally got a rather nice work / life balance in realistic grasp. A few hours work a few days a week, a long weekend with long lunches and a nap - I'm envious of that already. I'm going to keep that in sight and I am going to get there. Raising a glass to you later after a visit to the wrinklies.
Trading for me has not worked out to be a cost-effective way to self-employment / retirement for me. Too much time, too much capital needed. But having invested so much resource, I ain't gonna stop now, even for the modest returns I personally see now. But for a random aquaintance / friend / relative who sees trading as a way to happiness? - no, I would advise them stick with employment but forget about career, just get the highest salary you can, and preferably in an employment where you can turn freelance.
But I think you've personally got a rather nice work / life balance in realistic grasp. A few hours work a few days a week, a long weekend with long lunches and a nap - I'm envious of that already. I'm going to keep that in sight and I am going to get there. Raising a glass to you later after a visit to the wrinklies.
alexaherself
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I thought the same. (I typically do more than 8 hours per day, even allowing for breaks, on my trading days, which are normally 3 days per week).
It's perhaps too small a sample-size to draw any meaningful conclusions, Tom, I think? To have become full-time daytraders, they probably tend overall to be reasonably successful traders, and clearly there aren't so many of those left, here. :|
