how to start career as a Currency/Forex Trader?

[eooojj]

Hi,

I have been personally forex trading with consistent good success for quite sometime and would like to have a mid-career switch to be a Currency Trader.
But the problem is that my skills and knowledge is self-taught and i do not have paper qualification except a Master in design related discipline.
I would like to ask how can i start a career as a currency/forex trader?
How do i find employment? What company employs? How do i get over or make good my qualification issue?
Would be glad to hear valuable input from any of you. Many thanks in advance! =)
rgds,
Ed

[jpatokal]

I'm missing something here -- if you're already doing a good job all by yourself, why would you want to join a company who will cream off practically all your profits?

[eooojj]

hi jpatokal,

thank God i am having some reply.
Anyway....if you were to think carefully ...you will realise that its because i have very very low capital and am not trying to be unprofessional about forex by playing with huge leverage. My system works with progressive profit with small drawdown....therefore needs a bigger capital which i don't have now in my measly micro-lot account.
I was thinking of gaining some capital through my salaried pay as a career trader (hopefully getting good performance bonus too ) and at the same time gathering some forex work culture experience as a career trader other than just programming my system.
Do you think you can help answer some of my earlier questions?
Really appreciate if you can. Many thanks.

rgds,
ed

[shidal]

but gr career trader , after u become currency is that full time

[eooojj]

Hi shidal,
thanks for your reply... but i don't really understand your post.
Can you explain more?
Are you also a trader?
rgds,
ed

[huggybear]

Hi,

I have been personally forex trading with consistent good success for quite sometime and would like to have a mid-career switch to be a Currency Trader.
But the problem is that my skills and knowledge is self-taught and i do not have paper qualification except a Master in design related discipline.
I would like to ask how can i start a career as a currency/forex trader?
How do i find employment? What company employs? How do i get over or make good my qualification issue?
Would be glad to hear valuable input from any of you. Many thanks in advance! =)
rgds,
Ed

I don't know why you would want to trade forex. The industry at the moment is pretty much dying. Perhaps in another 4-5 years. there may not be any market making FX Traders. margins are undergoing massive compression, most of the trading is done automatically by computers and not humans, and the # of currencies traded drops every year (as more european economies join the euro), thus the # of traders needed shrinks every year too.

i don't understand ur comment about leverage. in order to go from a small potato to a large potato you have to use leverage. in fx everyone is leveraged. Goldman sachs leverages themselves 20:1 (and that is how they generate spectacular returns) where as the average person now a days is leveraged 5:1. as a forex retail trader such as ur self, some of the brokers alllow 100:1 leverage.

[eooojj]

Hi huggybear,

thanks for your reply... but i doubt fx market will diminised or die...if it does...everything from stocks to futures to etc...will die with it. Its quite scary or laughable to think that that would happen.
By high leverage, i meant some brokerages who are offering high of 1:500 while retail fx trader norm of 1:100 is already dangerous by itself...and i do not want to pay that game even with my small capital.

btw, its kind of disappointing that as of now, nobody is exactly answering my questions or helping in anyway in this forum...even the moderator himelf does not *as you can read from this thread). I appreciate everyones' comment...but hey...where is the help? I'm fine that some reply just to show how inform or intelligent their thinking is BUT anyone care to help answer or give positive input???
Thanks in advance.
ed

[jpatokal]

btw, its kind of disappointing that as of now, nobody is exactly answering my questions or helping in anyway in this forum...even the moderator himelf does not *as you can read from this thread). I appreciate everyones' comment...but hey...where is the help?

You're defining "help" as something that helps you become a professional forex trader. The replies here, including mine, are trying to help by making sure you really understand what this means and whether it's the same as what you expect.

[eooojj]

I am not a complicated person, the "help" i was expecting was pretty straight-forward when i posted these questions earlier. Have it been answered at all??

"I would like to ask how can i start a career as a currency/forex trader?
How do i find employment? What company employs? How do i get over or make good my qualification issue?
Would be glad to hear valuable input from any of you. Many thanks in advance! =)"

I don't need overly intellectual or indirect answers here if i may be direct about it.

rgds,
ed

[huggybear]

best bet for mid career type i would think are two avenues. join a banks middle or back office function and try to work your way up the ladder. this will take you about 3-4 years. maybe 1-2 years of working in the back office and then (if you get lucky) you're on a desk. and then u'll spend a year learning / fetching coffee for the senior traders and waiting to trade a book.

for reasons outlined above, it's going to be very difficult to do it mid career as most banks would rather hire a 21 y.o. college graduate for 85,000 usd per year (out of the analyst program) and for experienced traders, there are always laid off fx traders (for reasons mentioned in my previous post) so the banks would just hire another bank's fx trader.

oh the second avenue is you have a friend who has a connection with a bank and they can set up a meeting with an fx trader.

[eooojj]

Hi huggybear,

Thanks! finally got some of my earlier posted questions answer in this thread.

Wow, US85k is alot in singapore for a 21y.o. (if it does not include any bonuses).. I saw some job offers for "Junior Trader" at the robertwalters.com but think my chances are slim...sigh...but would hope to try. Many thanks again huggybear!

ed

best bet for mid career type i would think are two avenues. join a banks middle or back office function and try to work your way up the ladder. this will take you about 3-4 years. maybe 1-2 years of working in the back office and then (if you get lucky) you're on a desk. and then u'll spend a year learning / fetching coffee for the senior traders and waiting to trade a book.

for reasons outlined above, it's going to be very difficult to do it mid career as most banks would rather hire a 21 y.o. college graduate for 85,000 usd per year (out of the analyst program) and for experienced traders, there are always laid off fx traders (for reasons mentioned in my previous post) so the banks would just hire another bank's fx trader.

oh the second avenue is you have a friend who has a connection with a bank and they can set up a meeting with an fx trader.

[huggybear]

sorry. 85k USD is in new york city.

singapore people are paid a lot less because
1. cost of living.
2. the market isn't volatile during singapore hours (it's even harder when you're only working during sing. the most volatile time is london hours.

[Makan24-7]

US$85k is associate level pay for fresh MBAs from the top 10/20 business schools in the US. Associates who come through the analyst program usually get a bit less (analysts usually start at US$55-60k). The bonuses are completely another story.

Actually, unlike consulting firms, there seems to be no cost of living adjustment for associates based on the few Tier 1 banks whether you're in NYC, London, HKG or Singapore in terms of base salary. Your bonuses or to be more accurate, your minimum total comp is probably different. So an associate in SG will be earning US$85k (well, ~S$130 a year) too.

Oh, one thing I have to qualify about the no cost of living adjustment statement - these associates are recruited out of the top 10/20 MBA schools. You are probably right that those associates hired outside of these core schools might get much less in base salary.

[youdunsay]

I wasn't sure about if criterias are similar for forex traders but heard from walls that you got to prepare a huge sum of money to prove that you are able to sustain as a trader. Or was it a broker? Not to forget, pass through their tests.

[alvinh]

I am not sure about the rules in Singapore. But in most countries to become a Forex trader, you will need to hold / pass certain local authority examination.

As for the route into it, for newbie, just join any forex bokerages or banks as a 'boy', or join the dealing back office, slowly move up the ladder. It could take years.

You will learn about fundamental vs technical analysis, how different markets behave (Asia, Europe, US market), watching currency fluctuate more than hundreds pips due to single news and so on.