Full time traders

antonb1985 · Mar 21, 2021

Hi all, Is anyone here a full time trader. I've been at this for about 5 years on and off. Never able to make profits. I never lost anything but I never made anything either. One of issues I keep running into is I make trades, make some money. Then flow up with bad trades always coming up to 0 over a period of time. For those you who are profitable and I mean over a long period of time, how did you solve this problem.?

MasterOfCoin · Mar 21, 2021

In one word, perseverance

.

tomorton · Mar 21, 2021

The way I found to make profits is through simple solutions, so simple many traders will discount them right away.

Start with the principle that your losers are limited but your winners must be free to run. This means two things - firstly always use a stop-loss; secondly, don't set TP's. If you're not setting TP's and you want your winners to run this means you must be trying to get into a trend - so be a trend-follower. Avoid trading ranges or patterns - these approaches inherently limit your gains per trade.

I am good at TA but find it unreliable to try and pick the best forex pair or stock to get into. So I take all the entry signals available, aiming to see the losers cut or stopped out and the winners run on. So I had to reduce my position sizes to allow multiple positions.

Because these are small positions I am now able to maximise gains by pyramiding the winners. You can do this as aggressively as you like but you must keep a maximum aggregate risk in focus, which might be for example, 2% of your account capital per pair or share.

Finally, I started taking profits earlier. If you look at a forex D1 chart you will see its not common for prices to close higher in an uptrend for more then 3 consecutive days. so I aim to exit at the close of the third day which moves in my favour. Remember that this chart would have been a trend so as soon as a subsequent day with a lower close or a lower high prints (which should be very soon), that is a re-entry opportunity.

Henow1969 · Apr 14, 2021

Patience is the key and without patience, it will be difficult to make a proper profit in forex trading.

AttikusFinch · Apr 19, 2021

I personally know guys who raise large amounts of money from trading. It is imperative in this area to have perfect emotional control and not allow yourself to influence some of the falls because this is an unstable market, and many give in to market pressure. I have a friend who is an online broker and tells me that many sells when the market price falls, which is a huge mistake. The cryptocurrency market needs to be analyzed first, and if you look closely, the cost can always fall even after it doubles. This is also a statistic about it. Read about risk management because it is the basis for trading.

1nvest · Apr 19, 2021

that guy is a genius, you need to hang on to people who can give you that information.
when the price is falling, people sell. priceless

ARBinstruktor · Apr 19, 2021

Hi Anton!

If you really manage to break even, you are already on good track.

Remember the Vegas veteran's weekend prayer. "Oh Lord let me break even this weekend, I really need the money next week..."

But to get serious again, it is a good basis. Normally risk management can help in such a situation. You have to skew your trade results. Let the profits run a longer time and higher size, and cut your losses earlier.

mpups · Apr 19, 2021

Hello, your question is so generalised that all you are ultimately asking is "how do I become a profitable trader?" don't you think?

Delilah_10 · Apr 28, 2021

I completely understand what you're trying to say and all i would say is forex is quite complex and you only learn when you fall. For me, on ething that has worked is practice. Even when i made losses i began my next day with enthusiasm and without regrets. Another thing that i kept in mind was to never risk more than 2% whatsoever. So if you want to be profitable too, you'll have to yourself identify your weaknesses and work on them.

Mart Beeb · May 2, 2021

Hello. I'm also a full time trader. The reason most traders make zero or little profit is because of the kind of currency they trade. It's not just about trading, it's about trading right to maximize your returns on capital.
Before going into a trade, the first thing to measure is the level of lucrativity that's how lucrative the trading can be over time. The best kinds of trading is medium term

mpups · May 2, 2021

the kind of currency they trade...

what does that mean?

jonfuentesx · May 7, 2021

Do you have a diary? Keeping a journal and doing a weekly review helps to identify mistakes. Write each operation and do a review on Sundays and then on the last day of each month, you do a review on the four reviews of the month. Little by little you will solve errors and apply optimizations that will slowly improve your trading.

ridgeback · May 7, 2021

Took me about 5 years. It has nothing to do with forum posts, entries or exits, indicators, blah,blah.
When I ignored all the junk spouted about these forums and online and made up my own rules, only then I began to work things out. It is 100% about trade management, margin management and having the discipline to trade your account to survive another day. Everything else is plain BS.

LuckyMac · May 9, 2021

Completely agree it is the one trait you need, you need perseverance. It's key to belief in yourself and stick with it

ffsear · May 10, 2021

Keep a trade Journal. Don't rely purely on technicals. Take a fundamental view also

Mark-Mckensie · Sep 15, 2021

Can I become a full-time trader even if I have a day job? Is it safe, or is it risky?

kevinkdog · Sep 15, 2021

"Full time" implies that you do it as a day job. If you already have a day job, then you will have 2 day jobs. More power to you if you can perform well at 2 full time jobs simultaneously, but chances are you will underperform at both.

If you want to trade - day trade or otherwise - I suggest you do it part time at first. Maybe eventually it could replace your current full time job. But in the meantime you could keep the two jobs separate.

tomorton · Sep 15, 2021

Use the daily charts for trade decisions, set your entry orders and stop-losses (and take-profit orders if required) in the evenings. Refer to the weekly charts to confirm if the market is trending and make sure you're not long when the weekly says sell. A very historic strategy is buy-on-the-pull-backs - if a market is in a consistent uptrend, set a buy order above a recent low daily high - if the order is triggered, you're long in an uptrend, if price doesn't go up your order won't be triggered and you're safe. Trade small.

Jim B · Sep 15, 2021

I’m not full time either not ready to fully commit to it. I’ve been making small profits quite consistently but it’s a side earner for me, would like to go full time one day though.

kevinkdog · Sep 21, 2021

I know people who have been trading 10-15 years, and are still not profitable - much less consistently profitable.

For 90% of traders, long term profitability is a myth. And for probably 99% of traders, long term consistent profitability is an even bigger myth.

I know it seems like everyone on Twitter, Discord, YouTube etc is crushing it, but the reality is MUCH different.

One example: look at the results of pro traders (CTA, Hedge Funds) on sites like iasg.com, autumngold.com or barclayhedge.com. They track actual results of PROFESIONAL traders. You'll find most of these guys are not consistent, and often times not even profitable.

Trading is a tough world.

Edit: these percentages are guesses, but educated ones. I have literally spoken over the last 30 years to dozens of brokers and thousands of traders. FWIW.

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