TOTW What's your average trading day like?

[Sharky]

This week's TOTW: What's you average trading day like?

Last week's TOTW: What's the dumbest trade mistake you ever made?

 

[Forexmospherian]

What's your average Trading day like ?

Fairly consistent and boring really .

I intraday trade the FX markets full time and have done now for approx 7 yrs from an home office.

I am purely a retail Fx trader - never worked for a commercial trading operation and initially got into the forex markets approx 13 years ago after I saw an advert in the Sunday Times for a company called Next 24 hrs.

At that time I had just sold out a couple of businesses and was semi retired with loads of time on my hands.

It took me another 4 / 5 yrs plus before I started to see "light at the end of the tunnel" and then eventually went full time - ie trading approx 25 hrs to 40 hrs a week ( part time compared to my previous business career). I have now perfected my own methods - but am still learning - its a never ending evolving journey.

I start most days between 6 15 am and 6 30 am

On average, I take between 10 and 20 trades a day - covering normally 3 -6 main key FX pairs. I am an expert scalper ( well anyone would be after 15k+ of trades) and expect most days to take scalps normally every 30 mins in time windows either side the half hr and hr frame changes - off the tick and 1 min charts

My daily target is 50 pips on 100% scalp stakes - some days its easy and I double or treble my targets - other days - I struggle to get to 35 pips after even 14 trades.

If I leave scalps on with 30% stake size and stops in a small profit these trades are really win / wins - ie I either end up with just a small 2 -5 pip profit - or the trade keeps going and I move my stops up or trail and end up with anything from 100 to 1000 pips over a few days or weeks.

They do not need to be micro managed ( like my scalps) - and are less stressful

I have regular breaks normally every 90 mins to 2 hrs for anything from 15 mins to 1 hr - to take the dog a walk and read the papers

Whilst I trade - I also listen to Talksport radio and watch Sky News - and have the odd bacon and egg sarnie in the morning - and chilled rose wine after 3 30 pm

I cover a 10 to 12 hr time span -ie from pre European Open to after London close - but I don't sit at my desk all day - staring at my screens - I normally check about 15 -20 mins per hr at key times - so a normal day is less than really 3 -4 hrs of actual work and placing trades and exiting them

Most days I will have a loss - sometimes just 1 loss other bad days 4 -5 losses - normally all under 5 pips - but easily covered by my multi wins

I don't trade over 12+ lot stakes per pip nowadays - I am more comfortable with 3 to 10 lots - not so stressful and well within my money management levels.

As you would expect Monday trading might be different from Wednesday or NFP freaky Fridays. I do adjust to the dynamic markets and have been in the summer having 2-3 hrs off in the afternoon.

I am my own boss - in control to set my own work rate and load- and because trading is really boring after many years - I find blogging helps my keep focused and its great to have interaction with other traders etc etc

In a nut shell - I do a 6 30 am to say 5 30 pm day job - which entails about 3 to 5 hrs of actual work - with the rest of the time - being a taxi driver for the kids and grand parents etc and getting told off by the wife.

Being over 60 yrs old - I no longer go to the gym or jog every day - I leave that to the weekend - walking the dog - 2 - 4 miles every day in the countryside air - refreshes my brain and gets me back focused into my trading zone

Told you - fairly boring in reality - but I don't think I would swop it - sailing for weeks and months and relaxing sunbathing on the beach can also get tiring - except maybe in the topless areas

Regards


F

 

[robster970]

Likewise, on a day when I am trading it is quite banal:

Wake up around 6am - this is a habit that is never likely to change.

Watch European open some days to see how it is testing levels from US RTH.

Day really starts for me at lunch. Get some lunch, start mentally preparing myself. Read some analysis from other that trade in a similar way to me. Sometimes it is interesting, sometimes it throws nothing up. Tune into the news events but in reality I know what is coming up in the week anyway. What I do with this is look to see if news is being used to mask trading motivations from institutional participants.

Open up charts/etc if not already open from the morning. Take a top down view from daily through to 3 min/ 2 tick chart and come up with a couple of hypotheses that might be in play for the session.

Get some coffee shortly before 14:30, sit down get ready. Make a mental note of overnight volume and anything that might be setting up beforehand.

Market opens. Then wait patiently for a set-up to occur.

Trade.

Unless it is a runner, usually finished by 17:00 as it moves into lunchtime doldrums.

Assess performance, update some excel sheets, make some notes on things that are important to me.

Dial out of the zone - this normally takes me about 1hr before I become a normally adjusted member of my family once again.

 

[NVP]

Fairly consistent and boring really .

I intraday trade the FX markets full time and have done now for approx 7 yrs from an home office.

fairly boring in reality - but I don't think I would swop it - sailing for weeks and months and relaxing sunbathing on the beach can also get tiring - except maybe in the topless areas

Regards


F

so don't sunbath topless F.........

also looks like most doubters have disappeared from your threads as well now...........that's a shame as I know you were enjoying the banter

N

 

[lloydbee]

Dial out of the zone - this normally takes me about 1hr before I become a normally adjusted member of my family once again.

That's a great mention and a fact that most people never mention, well that's if it is the norm which it is also to me. I too have noticed it can take some time after the markets close to normalize whatever that may be.

 

[robster970]

That's a great mention and a fact that most people never mention, well that's if it is the norm which it is also to me. I too have noticed it can take some time after the markets close to normalize whatever that may be.

On 'normal' days the dial out is quite quick. On 'good' days and 'bad' days it is pretty noticeable to my wife what has happened in the trading session. You cannot help but carry it with you in my opinion.

 

[postman]

On 'normal' days the dial out is quite quick. On 'good' days and 'bad' days it is pretty noticeable to my wife what has happened in the trading session. You cannot help but carry it with you in my opinion.

The old "had a bad day at the office dear" syndrome.

Still it could be worse...

 

[drtro]

Mondays? I wake up in the morning feeling like Jim Cramer. By the end of the day, I feel like Eeyore.

The rest of the week is usually positive.

 

[Sharky]

Thanks Forexmospherian and robster970, anyone else willing to share their daily routine?

 

[drtro]

8AM
Wakeup. Occasionally I wake up as early as 7AM or as late as 9AM

8AM-9AM
Shower/Breakfast. Daily stuff. Put in a load of laundry, clean a little, etc.

9AM-9:30AM
Open up my software. Will usually check pre-market data on my watch list. See if any of them have any news. Look for any stocks +/- 3% or greater through the stock screener. Will look at their technicals and see if it's too late to make any high probability play on them. Check StockTwits. Etc.

9:30AM-10AM
Will usually sit back unless I'm trying to get in on a stock I found from the screener. The volume and volatility has hit big for me both good and bad. I just stay out of it now.

10AM-12PM
I'll start "scalping" AAPL on 1 min charts and TSLA on 5 min. I just look for very basic candlestick patterns and scalp a few cents per share here and there. Usually end up having $1-2/share profit or loss by the end of it all. 77% successful.

12PM-2PM
I'll take a break. Have lunch, watch TV, do some cleaning, etc. Recently it's been taking a nap. Haven't been sleeping well at night.

2PM-4PM
I'll come back and watch the market. I'll watch some high cap low beta stocks on 30 min charts with a 20 period RSI to try to spot any potential high or low of day that's tending to roll into a closing bell reversal. I'll usually make or lose an extra $1-3/share. It's sort of a swing or miss, so I don't do it if I'm already down on the day. If I'm not trading, I will just lurk various chatrooms and watch YouTube videos.

I don't do much in the evenings related to trading. I'll watch that Jim Cramer show if nothing good is on the History or Discovery channel. I'll check forums and what not.

Pretty much a day of my job. When I get into trading, I was addicted. I'd wake up at odd hours of night to trade Forex and Futures, then trade stocks. I'd only sleep maybe 4-6 hours a day. Now I've toned it down a lot to taking it slow.

 

[0007]

On a trading (for me) day: (UK times)

just after 7.30-ish: Her Ladyship brings me cup of tea in a favourite mug, and toast and we have breakfast in bed.

7.30-8.30 Radio Four listen to papers/Thought of the day/weather/news and main interview of the day. Make a mental note of what rubbish the BBC might be peddling that day and whether they give the subject of the main interview an easy or hard ride. See how far the narrator of Thought for the Day spent dispensing sugar coating before bringing up religion or their preferred agenda. If main interview is its usual boring self, then when I can stand no more switch over to Radio Three or Classic FM dependent on what's playing.

830-ish: think about getting up, usually get another cup of tea and put breakfast stuff in the dishwasher while leaving the PC to warm up. By 9:30: cleaned up/dressed/ready to face the day. Check emails/quick flash round favourite websites then get the trading stuff out.

10-ish: update records/charts/analysis of yesterday's trading including market announcements and share payouts et cetera. I trade a pool of 8 x SP 500 shares so that's quite easy to keep track. Shares drop out either due to being non-productive or having reached their limit of profitability. They are then replaced with new ones from the pool of trawls which is itself updated daily to ensure potential profitability. This is a nice simple system which my brain can keep track of. Allocating capital to just eight shares in roughly equal proportions and using sensible stops makes risk and money management quite easy.

11-ish onwards: if I'm not planned to exit/enter any trades I will do other things for the rest of the day but possibly have a quick look at the markets when open if it's convenient. The aim of my system is to leave it on autopilot. If I anticipate making trades I'll have a look at what the markets have been doing so far with special attention to the SP 500 – try to make an assessment of the long-term trend and also the very short term trend. Remind myself not to trade against the trend.

1430: watch the market open but don't usually touch anything for the first 30 minutes. See which way the market wind is blowing and then exercise my preplanned exits and entries. Watch the chart though, in an attempt to get decent entry – not too important with swing trading but it's just nice to get in at a decent price. I'm not a golfer but I would imagine it's a bit like hitting the ball correctly. Very often wait until midday USA Eastern time to get a better idea of what's happening. If I entered that day I'll look in from time to time to see how my new baby is behaving and also to see if I made the right decision on my exits.

2000-ish: look in to the markets again in the pre-close hour to see what's been going on. Occasionally exit in case of any disaster trade that is gone wrong. If any big news of uncertainty et cetera close out on all trades and come back in another day.

2200-ish: download end of day data and start the cycle again.

The above routine is deliberately designed not to require screen attention all day and to allow the trades to look after themselves in the main. With lots of other interests to attend to I can't really afford to be locked in to trading only.

 

[gerryg]

6.00 am open charts
6.05 check news
6-10 check levels, notate daily trade plan, each chart levels, potential entries etc.
6.15 bash one out
6.20 incorporate dogs daily ablutions.
6.25 check asian o/n ranges, against touches.
6.30 put orders in
6.45 bash another one out, open and ready for biz..
7.00 - 7.15 watch interbank open action , check orders for activation.
7.15 - 9.00 check and adjust levels, bash one out when appropriate.
9.00 -11.00 bashing freestyle
11.00 -5-00 monitoring,bashing,monitoring,bashing.......

Sleep seems to be out of fashion..
P.S. solid instructive plan, would be definitely helpful for newbie trader. Gonna take it into account..

 

[Sharky]

Thanks for sharing drtro and 0007. Really insightful.

Tomorrow I've got a new thread of the week lined up, so last call for submissions this week....

 

[bredin]

I get up and check the charts around the daily open.

I adjust my positions if necessary.

See Ya Tomorrow!

B.

 

[Sharky]

I get up and check the charts around the daily open.

I adjust my positions if necessary.

See Ya Tomorrow!

B.

How about a little bit more meat on the bone?

 

[bredin]

How about a little bit more meat on the bone?

My trading day literally takes that long.

I heard a very wise person once say "if you spend 13 minutes analyzing a market, you've wasted 10 minutes."

All the real work is done on the weekend, when the market is closed.

I draw lines i want to trade away from (S/R or S/D, whatever you want to call them), and boxes of "close enough" for exit and entry.

I plan the positions (lotsize adjustments etc) at this time. I have developed a mathless shortcut for altering position size on the fly.

I bail if price closes on the wrong side of the line.


Seriously, who wants to spend 12 - 16 hours a day in front of a trade screen? I trade because I want to do less work, not more. I dont want to exchange one job for another, even if i can do that job with no pants on.

G.

 

[bredin]

I can't get your point

Any professional sportsman understands that the majority of the work is done away from the sportsfield, in training.

Trading is the same.

I put all my effort into preparation, and gametime is easy, stress free with most contingencies planned well in advance.

Lets face it: there only a few things price can actually do, and only two that matter. I'll see if I can find the pics...

G.

 

[richieforex]

0600 - Wake up, turn my computer on, make a strong filtered coffee and check what happened overnight and set alerts for news releases

0700 - Shower and have a hearty breakfast

0800 - Manage any open positions, analyse my charts, check for potential opportunities and carry out my AM forecast

1000 - Respond to emails

1200 - Lunch

1300 - Back to the desk, check for opportunities, afternoon forecast

1500 - Work on website

1700 - Finish for the day!

I only place a couple of trades a week and wait for the market to come to me! That is my daily routine, sounds boring but I enjoy it! Try and interact as much as possible with other traders during the day through IM, skype, forums, emails and phone!

 

[globalarbtrader]

Crikey you guys work hard!

0600: - get up and go for cycle, jog or rowing machine
0630: log in and check system running okay.
0645: get breakfast ready
0700 - take my wife a cup of tea (doing something wrong here as I notice another poster gets the tea taken to them)
0700 - 2000: get on with my life: writing, gardening, school runs, kids homework, ... (I don't work).
Sporadically check p&l, depending on how busy I am.
2000: Check automated emails showing trades, p&l, risk, system status etc. Post trading journal.

Roughly 30 minutes a day.

Sometimes I do more. Rolling a market (usually every quarter, for 25% of markets every month) takes a few minutes. I do occasional bug fixes, bits of research, work on improving architecture. That probably adds up to another 3 or 4 days a month; but I can go for many weeks without doing any of this.

 

[0007]

0700 - take my wife a cup of tea (doing something wrong here as I notice another poster gets the tea taken to them)

Much as I'd like to, and fortunately her Ladyship understands this, I'm just not capable of getting up that early to make a cup of tea!