So you Want To Trade for a Living

I always enjoy Brett's books on trading psychology. While impressed by his ongoing sharing about this important subject, I emailed him recently to request an article for aspiring traders who want to trade for a living. This is not an easy feat, but it is not mission impossible. Trading the financial markets is basically trading your belief on the financial markets. It takes a disciplined mindset, proper money management and a good trading system to trade profitably. Most workshops teach you the technical skills, but rarely touch deeply on the subject of trading psychology. Therefore, I recommend you to read "Enhancing Trader Performance" by Brett N. Steenbarger to develope cutting edge of trading psychology. Below is an article he approved to publish at FX Operator:

I receive quite a few emails from aspiring full-time traders. Some hope to land positions with trading firms; others are looking to make a living by trading independently. Here are a few considerations for those thinking of making the leap:

1. Make sure you're adequately capitalized - This is, in my experience, the achilles heel of most traders who aspire to make a career of their market participation. If you start with a capital base under $100,000, you have to make a huge annual return on your money year after year to sustain a decent living. That leads traders with small accounts to take outsized risks, and those risks are what eventually blow them up. As a relatively new trader, you'd do *very* well to make 20% on your money per year after costs. If you can't make an adequate living from 20% returns, you know you're undercapitalized.
2. If you're not adequately capitalized, focus on building a track record - It doesn't matter if you're trading small. If you can show consistent returns from your trading and sound money management, you'll have something to take to a proprietary trading firm to land a position. They will front you capital, and you can get your start in the business. If you don't have the track record, however, you'll find many doors closed. Motivation and a passion for trading don't substitute for experience and demonstrated skill.
3. Make sure you have a durable edge - Before you quit your day job and pursue trading, make sure you've traded in a variety of market conditions over a variety of market cycles. Look at it this way: if a person with a track record of a few months asked you to give him money to trade for your account, would you pony up? Probably not. For the same reasons, you should establish a sound track record with solid profitability and good risk management before you make the full-time leap. Make as many of your mistakes as possible *before* you go full time.
4. Make sure you have reserves - Just as many new businesses tread water their first year, many traders struggle to cover costs when they go "live". After all, to cover commission, equipment, and software costs alone requires a fair return on capital. You should have more than a year's worth of living expenses available as liquid capital before you go full time. A second income (your own or from a spouse) also helps tremendously. This will take pressure off your early performance and help you focus on making good trades, rather than making the rent money.

The bottom line is that starting a trading career truly is starting an entrepreneurial business. The same dynamics that lead to success in startup firms--from knowing your markets to having a solid plan to being well capitalized to executing on details--apply to aspiring traders. If you can approach trading with the mindset, work ethic, and creativity of a successful entrepreneur, you have a real shot. And that's what entrepreneurs live for.

As a Forex trader, you don’t want your hard work to be undermined by substandard dealing desk staff. The ForexGen team of experienced dealers is dedicated to ensuring that your trades are executed in the most timely and accurate manner possible. Unlike some other Forex brokers, we will never execute a market order at a price other than one which you approve. In addition, our dealers will often execute your order at your original price even if the market has moved against you — another practice that sets ForexGen apart from the average broker.

The ForexGen dealing desk strives to provide its clients with some of the fairest and highest quality order execution in the market. Our dealing desk offers both online as well as phone based execution when necessary. Our dealing support team is available 24 hours a day to handle dealing related issues and disputes.

Market Orders
Market orders are created when a trader wants to open a position at the current market price. After the trader clicks on a price, he or she must confirm the price prior to execution. The price sent to the dealing desk will be the price shown in the confirmation window the moment the trader accepted the trade ForexGen will execute the trade in real-time if the available price is at or within a few pips of the requested price. Once the order is executed the opened position instantaneousely appears on the client’s trading platform.

If the market has moved and no price within a few pips of the requested price is available, the dealing desk will send the client a requote at the most current market price. The client can then either accept or reject the requote. Orders will never be executed at the new price without the client’s prior consent. This means that there is never slippage on market orders. Slippage is defined as the difference between the price approved by the client and the price at which the order is actually executed.

In an attempt to decrease the occurrence of requotes during fast moving markets and to help guarantee effective market entry during major jumps in market price, ForexGen has introduced a Trader’s Range feature in its VT Trader software. The Trader’s Range option allows clients to automatically approve requotes within a chosen range. For example, if Trader’s Range is set to 10, requotes within ten pips of the requested price will be processed without requiring the client’s confirmation. Please note that because orders placed by trading systems are classified as market orders, they are subject to requoting as per market order processing procedures.

Conditional Orders (stops, limits, entry stops and entry limits)
Conditional orders are triggered when the market price reaches the price specified in the order. When this happens, the client’s initial order is activated, requesting that the order be filled at the specified price. Under normal market conditions, ForexGen will honor the specified price on conditional orders of up to 100 mini or 10 standard lots. Larger orders as well as orders executed in extremely volatile markets will be executed at the next available quote if the market has passed over the requested price. This is known to occur over the weekend, when Sunday’s opening price is sometimes significantly different from Friday’s closing and during major market moves.

Many Forex dealers widen their spreads prior to a major market move, thus making market entry more difficult. As ForexGen offers fixed spreads, ensuring that you can always expect quality prices, we may limit the placement of new conditional orders to at least 35 pips away from the current market price for approximately 15 minutes before major news announcements. Under normal market conditions you may place conditional orders as close as 5 pips from the market price.

ForexGen has some of the most competitive Forex trading terms on the market today! Learn more about each of our trading terms below.

Minimum Initial Deposit – Open a live account with CMS with a low minimum initial deposit of $200.

Universal Accounts – Unlike many Forex brokers, CMS Forex allows you to trade both mini (10,000) and standard (100,000) lots under a single account.

Multi-Currency Accounts – Open an account in one of eight base currencies, allowing you to avoid exposure to exchange risk when depositing and withdrawing funds.

No Commission† – CMS charges no commission on your trades; we are compensated by the Bid/Ask spread.

Spread – CMS offers competitive fixed spreads on 19 currency pairs, even under volatile market conditions.

Order Processing – We pride ourselves on fast, fair, and reliable order execution. We fill your orders at the best available market prices in seconds.

Order Types –  CMS Forex offers an array of effective order types that help you enter the market efficiently, manage your positions, and minimize losses.

Rollover Interest Policy – CMS Forex pays and charges clients rollover interest at competitive rollover rates for all open mini and standard positions.

Interest on Unused Margin‡ – CMS Forex offers our clients the benefit of earning interest on unused margin for accounts greater than $10,000 USD.

Leverage & Margin – CMS gives clients the opportunity to trade at a maximum leverage option of 400:1. Leverage may increase potential gains or losses on a given position.

Margin Calls – We have a policy in place to protect you from losing more money than you have in your account by automatically closing out positions that activate a margin call.

Hedging – Hedging a trade allows you to maintain both a long and a short position on the same currency pair at a given time, at no additional margin.

Maintaining the security of your money is a top priority at ForexGen. No Forex broker can truly guarantee the safety of a
client’s Forex deposits. Therefore you should choose your Forex dealer after
close consideration.

Quite often the best way to judge a firm’s financial
integrity is by its reputation and the commitment it shows to its clients
through its service and business decisions. Our devotion to our clients has
made our firm a respected industry leader. Investors must be prudent in regard
to where they hold their funds and it is vital to consider the integrity of the
firm and its management when making one’s decision.

Furthermore, our firm holds all deposits with only highly
reputable financial institutions. Our firm is grateful for the trust our
clients place in us, and we do everything in our power to preserve the safety
of our clients’ funds.