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Currency traders???

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PuckOff

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Any currency traders here. I just found out on the weekend that one of my neighbours is a currency trader. That's all he does. He said he stays away from binary options and just focuses on currency trading. Actually he also keeps an eye on gold and silver.
 
I'm just starting to read up on it, not necessarily to start trading currency, but to learn more about it.

Do you know what time horizons your neighbor is trading on? I have great respect for anyone who is able to be profitable day trading; your trading costs become a much larger issue. I am, on average, holding positions for a month so I really couldn't give a shit about a few ticks in slippage or a slightly wide spread, but for the guy who is trading on a 5 minute chart (or even less), that adds up fast. On top of that, if you are trading during news times (e.g. when they release the Non-Farm Payrolls report) on a short time horizon you can get absolutely buried.
 
I have 10 centavos (Cuba), 1 koruna (Czech Republic) and 10 groszy (Poland) to contribute.

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Do you know what time horizons your neighbor is trading on? I have great respect for anyone who is able to be profitable day trading; your trading costs become a much larger issue. I am, on average, holding positions for a month so I really couldn't give a shit about a few ticks in slippage or a slightly wide spread, but for the guy who is trading on a 5 minute chart (or even less), that adds up fast. On top of that, if you are trading during news times (e.g. when they release the Non-Farm Payrolls report) on a short time horizon you can get absolutely buried.

I know he mentioned he does 1 hour, 4 hours etc. Not sure what time zones or anything like that. I assume EST. He did say he puts in his "trades" and just waits around. Apparently he is successful in doing what he is doing. He basically works for himself now and not for any financial institutions. I was really intrigued by the conversation I had with him so I started reading up on it on Forexdotcom.
 
I know he mentioned he does 1 hour, 4 hours etc. Not sure what time zones or anything like that. I assume EST. He did say he puts in his "trades" and just waits around. Apparently he is successful in doing what he is doing. He basically works for himself now and not for any financial institutions. I was really intrigued by the conversation I had with him so I started reading up on it on Forexdotcom.

Yeah, "1 hour" and "4 hour" would normally refer to the length of a bar or candlestick on a chart, so he is most likely doing what most people refer to as "swing trading" (fairly short term trading but not always in and out during the same trading session).
 
Thanks. Trading is a huge amount of work because most price movements are random and so you have to spend a ton of time analyzing data to find those few situations in which you can find an edge, and you need the necessary emotional control when you are running bad (very much like in gambling).

Forex trading's strength is also its weakness - you don't get as strong a correlation to the S&P 500 as with most stocks (naturally), but you also don't get the inherent positive expectancy of buying and holding most stocks.