Who is Trading at Work?

[jchatel 10]

Hi all,

 

Not everyone has the chance to trade full time. I trade options on EUREX, but I also have a full time job, which means I kind of have to trade while at work (because of market opening time colliding with my daily job).

 

Do all people here trade full time or is there people that are in the same situation as I am and have to adapt their trading strategy?

 

Also, for those in my situation, I'd be curious to know how people are trading while at work, because I can't launch a NinjaTrader or other software while at work!

[Dinerotrader 10]

I trade at work also. I just started a thread today about watching futures on the web since I have the same problem with using Ninja at work. My hope is to become a full time trader as soon as I can prove that I can make money on a consistant basis. This forum has been enormously valuable to me in determining where to focus efforts to this end. Hopefully within the year, I will be posting as a full time trader. Only time will tell if I have the talent for it.

Welcome to TL.

[youri 10]

i trade at work as well.irun a shoe shop in the city and ihave a laptop running e-signal and ts.I have my strateges in place,alerts but every time i have a signal customer walks in and i miss a trade.:crap:

[jchatel 10]

i trade at work as well.irun a shoe shop in the city and ihave a laptop running e-signal and ts.I have my strateges in place,alerts but every time i have a signal customer walks in and i miss a trade.:crap:

 

Haha, I feel the same, when I have to go to a meeting and I see the index going fast in a direction I don't like

[DbPhoenix 42]

Just out of curiosity, what compels people to trade during the day when they're unable to trade during the day? What does one learn by viewing the action only intermittently? Why not just trade off the daily charts?

[jonbig04 10]

There is always the replay function. Set ninja to record the day and when you get home, just press play and trade normally. I believe freestockcharts.com offers free streaming charts. It's not ninja but IMHO you could plot price with a pencil and graph paper and not be at any real disadvantage regarding learning about price movement, which is of course what we're all trying to do. Everything else is extra.

 

just my 2 cents

[atto 20]

Newbies typically gravitate to two things that are quite counterproductive: leverage and action. However, during the learning process -- which never stops, but at least during the beginning stages -- you want to have little leverage, and more time to think about what's going on. Day trading appeals to so many people, but it promotes quick and often hurried decisions.

 

Rather, I truly believe it's better to start at a slower pace, and with as little leverage as possible. Your money will last longer, and you can even trade live while carrying on a full time job. You do not need much money to begin trading a few shares of an ETF, and the analysis is identical. Set aside a few thousand as your tuition / learning money, and trade it slow. Once you've established an edge, understand market action, and have gained confidence in your trading, then you might want to consider moving up.

 

Also, swing trading ETFs is a great way to practice your understanding live, while you record the intraday session (with free software like the NinjaTrader demo) to trade in the evenings. With NinjaTrader, you can speed up the replay for when you're less interested in price (in between support/resistance, perhaps), and slow it to normal speed when you're considering a trade.

[wjrusnak 10]

Considering that trading, especially day trading, can be very demanding, I'm not so sure that it is a good idea at all to trade from work. I know from experience that you cannot comprehend or get into the feel of the market if you're constantly losing focus by helping a customer, tending to a family member, cooking, etc. The market is not generous and it requires your FULL attention. If you cannot provide that, don't trade. You're trading against a variety of people, and believe me, a majority of them are not losing their focus and are very determined to get money out of the market from less focused, less experienced traders.

 

If however you can set side 1-2 hours, to completely shut yourself off to the outside world, you may be ready to engage in some trading, but you have to be completely transfixed by the market action. This might mean waiting until 6-8 pm to trade some forex pairs. Either way, price action is all the same, so you'll be getting better and better.

 

Also, I'm not sure about your job, but I know if I traded during work, I'd be completely out of touch with both my job and the market. It is simply too much for one person to handle. And if you're trading on a lunch break, I do not envy you. It's a break from your job... enjoy it!

 

IMHO, of course. Good luck to you all.

Edited July 18, 2009 by wjrusnak

[slackjawedmonkey 10]

I had tried to figure out how to trade during work. Was never really able to find a viable solution. I was full time trader a few years ago, for about two years, I was never really consistent.

 

Currently I get up early (5am CT) to sim trade the EuroFx for a few hours. Hopefully, soon I will be live. Just need a few more weeks of consistency.

 

I find trading in the morning works for me. I am not really a morning person but its nice to have a few hours that I can focus on the markets before the wife and kids are up.

[jchatel 10]

I'm trading for almost 2 years while at work. It has its ups and down. Watching always the market will precipitate my actions, which I do some time but regret most of the time

 

I enjoy trading but I'm not skilled enough to full time trade like some of the lucky one here. Instead, I develop professional trading applications in my spare time (that other can download) to help me follow the market while at work and place a few trades when I spot an oppotunity. That can be once or twice a month.

 

I'm not playing on forex and future, just options on stock and recently on index too. So it's like gambling really to some extend.

[youri 10]

Just out of curiosity, what compels people to trade during the day when they're unable to trade during the day? What does one learn by viewing the action only intermittently? Why not just trade off the daily charts?

I do trade from daily charts. But I start my work 3 houres before market opens and I finish my work 2 houres after market has closed.

[DbPhoenix 42]

I do trade from daily charts. But I start my work 3 houres before market opens and I finish my work 2 houres after market has closed.

 

That's not what is meant by "daily charts". Daily charts are interday charts composed of bars which each represent a day, i.e., not intraday, just as weekly charts are composed of bars which each represent a week.

[markl67 10]

Hi all,

 

Not everyone has the chance to trade full time. I trade options on EUREX, but I also have a full time job, which means I kind of have to trade while at work (because of market opening time colliding with my daily job).

 

Do all people here trade full time or is there people that are in the same situation as I am and have to adapt their trading strategy?

 

Also, for those in my situation, I'd be curious to know how people are trading while at work, because I can't launch a NinjaTrader or other software while at work!

 

My current job is being phased out which I've known about for many months. After that my plan is to trade full time, so to gain experience I've been watching the markets during the day for the past year or so when time allows, but have not tried to trade as I know it will only cause frustration/losses. I have an account at Tradestation, which I can't launch due to firewall restrictions at work. So, I leave my computer on at home during the day and gain access to it from work via a remote connection (LogMeIn.com).

[Soultrader 12]

I also trade at work but the firm permits me to do so. I have access to real-time data for most exchanges and I use the wall in front of me to display quotes and charts from a projector. The environment suits me well but it would be hard to trade from work if the firm was not this compromising.

 

Snapshot of my wall:

 

[jchatel 10]

wow! That's really cool