Article A Day in the Life of a FX Spot Desk Trader (Part 1)

[T2W Bot]

06:00 Alarm goes and I’m out of bed. Hopefully I have managed to sleep all through the night, although on odd occasions I will get a phone call or a text message if anything particularly important is up. Not so often these days though. The people I work with know how much I value my beauty sleep. Quick shower and shave and I’m usually out the door some time before 0630
06.30 On the way to the tube station I will have a quick scan through the news headlines on my phone, check my e-mails, check the spot market levels in Asia etc. By the time I get to the tube station my phone has downloaded all the early morning research pieces that I’ve been sent so I have something more stimulating than the free papers to read on the train. It’s a pretty short hop down to Bank (usually around twenty minutes), but by the time I’m there I usually have a better idea of what has happened of note overnight. Over the years I’ve found I have improved immensely at...

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[0007]

Extremely interesting (for me - a small-time amateur). What a hectic life! Reminds me of the difference between professional military combat flying and being down at the local flying club.

Great stuff, well written, look forward to more.

 

[MrGecko]

Recommended.

 

[SvenFoster]

Very interesting but I didnt really have a baldy clue what was going on with your early trades and Meat definately coped better than I would have...

I was however a little surprised to find out that MACD doesnt move the market

good stuff, keep it comming.

 

[gooseman]

nice GJ. good post. what some folk don't get is how connected things are-you buy one thing, offset elsewhere, remember who had what prices in what etc.

 

[Mr. Charts]

Enjoyable read - a 10 for me FWIW
Richard

 

[Black Swan]

Do we have to say "pretty please with sugar on top, clean the fookin car" to get the next instalment? ;-)

 

[elitejets]

Very highly recommended. Looking forward to part 2.

 

[Largesse]

It would seem as if you have left out the bit where you drive fast cars and ride fast women.

I'm sure this is just an oversight though, and it will be included in part 2.

 

[gc1]

Yes, a nice read but not much the retail trader can learn from this. €6.8K on a €55M trade, a scalp of less than 2 pips, did I read the numbers correctly ?

 

[Martinghoul]

GJ is the man! It's real good stuff and very well written...

 

[Trader333]

It is less than 2 days since this was uploaded and as it says Part 2 will be here soon and the preference is to leave a new article on the homepage for a while before uploading a new one. I also have to edit all articles and need to do this for part 2 before it will be ready.


Paul

 

[shadowninja]

"I'D RATHER BE LUCKY THAN GOOD"

Interesting. I always thought that I'd rather be good but I was thinking just now (while walking up my stairs so it wasn't a long analysis... and so I'm happy to be corrected)... in my time, I've seen many very skillful people in my previous career who were better than me for whom success wasn't something they really enjoyed as much as me... so maybe the quotation is right after all.

 

[Mr. Charts]

Paul,
The policy of leaving an article up on the home page for a week seems sensible as it gives most readers an opportunity to see it before publishing the next one.
Eat your heart out, Michael Lewis
Richard

 

[Adamus]

I was surprised to learn that these big forex players don't use Interactive Brokers too :jester:

Seriously, it's interesting to hear about the different trading mechanisms. Voice brokers - what are they? Maybe a term refering to trading on the phone?

They do electronic trading as well. I wonder if there is the same relationship as there with pit trading.