Story of NYC Trader - Bank Compliance guy
i am in NYC working for int'l bank (correspondent bank) 9-5 for past 6 years. I am in bank Compliance field. I do OFAC clearing and investigate int'l wire for suspicious activity. Salary underpaid 35K. I didn't mind the low salary as long as i had job security, saving $1500 monthly. Traded spot forex market from home, made lot of money in 2010 & at one point turned trading acct of 10k to 244K, yes all in a month. As 26 year old kid thought it was just a game, wanted bigger score(1M) quite easy once 244K is in bag.I always had good offense but lacked defense, so blew up lost it all in a bad trade (greek crises fresh)market went one sided on euro, got caught on wrong side. Anyways,i kept on trading trying to repeat but market changed since kept losing thinking i will reconquer. I did couple of 5K to 30K months n gradually keep loosing it on extreme volatile days.
At moment,i am 30 and broke. I didn't care as long as i had job security and trading account with 20K,thought i could always make comeback now armed with defensive trading,i am aiming for 100K in one year span. Yea, slight of a market wizard i am/was but market can be brutal. I always considered trading my REAL job(2am to 7am) and neglected the career management of my day-job which financed my trading.
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NOW just recently my boss resigned, new management in and offloading work shifting people left and right and not to mention it has become an unbearable TOXIC environment WOW what a difference 1 month makes. All of sudden i am on backfoot, halted my trading for past 2 months saving every dollar i can because career looks unstable at moment. I wish to get out of this toxic workplace ASAP. i know i have the 6 years work experience but i am not good at selling myself or brag about myself
What i regret is that i wasted 4 years of my career development neglecting it completely, putting all my eggs in one basket(night trading) checked out my former colleagues linkedin pages,one who concentrated on just 9-5 moved on to finding jobs with great banks earning them 70-90K salaries where-as i am stuck in 35K n toxic work environment. If i could only turn back the clock 4 years.
Any career advice? i know shouldn't quit current job because no one hires unemployed ones. So, i am applying through job boards with slight fear in back of my head. Fear of job interviews,fear of explaining to interview why am the best candidate? i am not good at selling myself, i am slight sensitive n soft spoken. Nice-Guy finishes last type hehe..
any advice will be appreciated..
The boy is back in business.haphazardly traded 500 acct to 1500 in a week, felt encouraged. 2 weeks ago added $3000. Armed with 4.5K now sitting on $16,026 400% return in 3 weeks. Decent capital now, need to slow down as lessons from past has been to avoid big candle days which are set to arrive this week in form of japan elections, FOMC, oil droping to extreme levels,russian ruble alltime lows, aussie massive year lows,usd/yen 7 yr highs, stocks are hammered this week globally (unusual for December seasonals) giving hints,Fed ready to change of tone for hiking rates sooner? Dragi wants QE as well european union think it can eat the same medicine(QE) and recover like US, i doubt it 21 nation-states at odds with eachother, interesting times ahead. Recommending during next global equity market crash: long euro,gbp,yen & metals.
Seems like you have a solid fx Spot Trading skillset with a killer intuition. Just wonder whether you use your margin aggressively, since your profit level is super high. I am planning to run own fx account as well, so i would really appreiciate some tips for a beginner. Thanks
Streetwisely, well can't call it intuitition because i trade based on technical analysis. My charts which I daily update (trendlines angular channels on high time frames). Many traders fail because they use lagging indicators where-as real traders use price action n understand structure of market(know what swing or wave is..no u dont HAVE to know elliot wave but know what a swing/wave is) Good traders anticipate moves, pro-actively not re actively and most important part of trading is managing your trades once u have open positions because one second dragi opens his mouth your winners can turn into losers in no time and you have to cut your trades & accept losses at times. So you can wait for another day. So its a mixture of things, skills,emotions, management. I usually scalp market after it gets exhausted on some levels. Main things u wana learn in trading is price action, trendlines, fibonacci levels, pivot points and lastly scaling in positions..anything else is over-information which is distraction n hurt you. Also u have to be well capitalized to trade on margin. what acct size u starting with? if ur beginner you should be trading demo. only go in live when you can be consist in profits.
Thanks for sharing ur insight. I had managed my trading account is currently at $5,000 level and I am a huge fan of technical analysis. I've managed my trades pretty well with technical analysis in overseas equity market for 5 years, but pretty new here in the States. And could u share some insight about how u r using ur margin? I feel comfortable with leveraging since I am somewhat more than a beginner. What is a likely timeframe for each of a trade? I prefer not to open my position for more than a day, so I usually scalp based on 5min candlestick chart and try to close my trade within an hour, but would the spread kill me in such a way? Thank you. Really appreciate ur comment
Enjoy reading your contributions, definitely interesting to see how things are going for you.
obviously you have trading skills, by looking at the returns you got there is no denying that. what i think you should do is keep trading but every time you turn profit save a % of it and lock it away. as a trader i can tell you that you should never go totally all in you can go close to it but you should always have enough saved so that if the investment takes a shit you will still be able to put food on your table and pay your rent that month.
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