Computer Setup

Ah yes, another EVE player.

What do you do for a living?

He's a professional graph watcher.

As a currency trader myself that's pretty much what I tell people I do. I stare at lines and wait for one to cross the other.

I don't have the programming knowledge to do it and it requires a large bit human intuition.

I knew something was fishy about those lines on the screen.

I trade crude oil, wheat and soybean futures for work. But I enjoy trading currency and index futures in my spare time.

How did you get into that line of work? Do you enjoy what you do? What sort of skill set is required for your work?

My dad traded the USD/JPY for UBS and i was always very intrigued. My obsession with skiing is what really drew me into trading at a very young age. I wanted freedom and I saw trading as the means. I was introduced to my boss when I was a junior in college and i worked for him during summer and after college.

What is your job title and your degree called?

Title: Futures Trader . Finance Degree.

Sweet, I'm getting one of those.

You want to pick your niche don't try and follow 1000's things at once because then it will be difficult for you to spot trends over long periods of time. From 14yrs old to 18 I followed 10-15 stocks in 8-10 different sectors. Ie healthcare , defense groups, shipping companies, steel, automotive, insurance. Then you follow these 80 stocks every single day for a long period of time to see why they move the way they do.

That sounds like an awesome way to practice; I'll definitely give it a look; if you've got any suggestions for software or the other stuff I'd be super appreciative; may as well practice with the industry standards.

Download ThinkorSwim. it is an invaluable charting and learning tool.

What are the salary possibilities. Is this (or does it have the possibility to be) a high paying job? Six figs?

My boss makes anywhere from $40,000-$300,000 a week. Less then 5-10 losing days a year.

A WEEK?! $40,000 a week on a bad day? Good lord.

Either what you do is as simple as what I've just read (you move money around), or I don't understand what it is you do....

Algo enters the trade at $100 per barrel if it goes below by .30 cents then your automatically taken out and same thing if it goes by 30 cents in your favor. You must decide right then and there whether to add more if it goes against you with the risk of a decent loss or just cut the trade before the 30 cents is reached. now if it goes 10 cents in your favor when your target is at 15 cents- do you take the 10 cents or do you wait. But now you have waited too long and its going 20 cents against you. Now thats its 20 cents against you and your never intended to add your in a bind. Take the loss or try to buy more in the hopes of breakeven. Not so simple.

Can't all this be automated nowadays with algorithm's, past data & using social media? I know nothing about stocks in the slightest, but I started reading up about them last night via a section post, Looks like too much of a learning curve to jump in and learn.

I second this question....if you don't mind me asking, what is your pay like.. nice setup.

My base pay is a joke but that's not where I make my money. $4,000 a month + 35% commission, with access to firms algorithms.

A joke as in too much? Or not enough? Because I personally would call 4k a month "fucking amazing".

A joke as in too little. Taxes are very high in NYC and so is the cost of living.

Do you have to stay in NYC for trading due to the market there or could you move away and do it remotely perhaps?

Technically no but my boss prefers that I do. Which means he would not be happy if i decided to leave and my life does not work out when he is upset.

Can you recommend any good reading for someone currently working in Financial Operations (investor relations) looking to get to the buy side.

To be honest I did not read so many books on the market. I just started playing around with charts on ThinkorSwim at a young age and learned through that process. Many of the things Investment Bankers do is over my head. John J Murhpy books on Technical Analysis is helpful if you would like a technical foundation.

I can't tell from the photo, what trading application are you using?

Sierra charts with infinity futures platform.

What pairs do you trade? I do USD/JPY, AUD/JPY and AUD/USD. What's your charting program?

I do not trade cash forex only futures. So i trade USD/JPY though /6J and AUD/USD through /6A GBP/USD through /6B. Im using Sierra Charts- most of the charts you see are tick charts with some larger time frames.

Ah didn't catch the futures part on mobile. Cool. Nice rig.

I wish so much to know what the hell you just said!

Which part would you like me to expound on and i will do my best to explain.

At this exact moment in time the AUD/USD is trading at 0.9420. Meaning that for $1 Australian dollar you will be receiving .9420 American cents. Meaning the USD is stronger at the moment.

Economically speaking, why the hell would you want to devalue your currency?

Also, he spends his nights making threats to the FBI!

Your CPU cooler is mounted the wrong way, and I think Gigabyte usually color codes the DIMM slots for dual channel, so you might be running in single channel right now

Thank you. It was my first build and I had no clue as to what I was doing. It has been working quite well for the last 2 years so I may just keep it as is. Too scared if you know what I mean.

I think douchecanoo is right, you're probably not getting use out of your RAM. You really should look at your mother board's manual, it could be as simple as switching the ram in the white slot to the black one slot over. Nice setup though!

Dude, seriously, put your RAM one slot over. You are only getting half of your RAM usage!!!

I will do this by the end of the night. Thanks again to you guys for the help. I am an idiot.

Thanks for the AMA! =D

No sir I am not. The price action is not as technical in comparison to futures. I do not understand what drives the moves in price. It seems that news can have a detrimental affect on price and the illiquid nature of it would make an exit at a desirable price slim.

What do you net per year for income

$115-135,000. I am 25 so I trade 1/300th the size of my boss. As time progresses I will be given more buying power.

How much stress do you experience? You always hear about high stress with these jobs.

I no longer drink caffeine and I stopped smoking weed because of my job. Caffeine made me jittery. I used to smoke a considerable amount but it causes cessation in thinking and I have to make split second decisions sometimes. Additionally I tend to over analyze when I smoke and if you harbor to many thoughts regarding prior trades that did not work as you would have liked, your not going to follow your plan.

Today I learned im in the wrong business

Things always looks rosy from the outside. Constantly observing and absorbing all the craziness that occurs on a daily basis because you must know as it pertains to your job is a large burden. Sometimes I just want to say what the fuck am I doing life is so short I want to just go hiking, surfing and skiing and live a non stressful life but things don't always work out the way you would like.

Hey! Another futures trader I also trade crude and the dollar index primarily. Nice setup you've got!

I'm curious as to what program that is that displays price of stocks

I use Sierra Charts. I actually follow zero stocks, only futures.

Thanks, What are futures? like projected price?

There are index futures. Where you can trade the SP500, Dow Jones, Nasdaq, and Russel 2000.

I think Lewis Black once said something like this:

TL;DR they are the cancer that is killing humanity

Interesting, this is something completely new to me, does the sierra chart only focus on futures, or regular stocks as well?

To be honest I am not sure but I think it's safe to assume they have it for stocks.

Alright, thanks for replying, kick ass set up by the way!

Do you beat the market?

Our primary goal is not to beat the benchmark. We aim to be consistently profitable over a long period of time. We do very well.

Are you technically a prop trader? I've never heard of a firm sponsoring somebody and then trading from home. I have a few friends who are traders (a few, in fact, trade your futures) but they all work for the larger firms and trade from their floor in the office.

The firm i work for requires zero sponsorship. I was talking about in the past. When I passed my series 6 years ago I was allowed to trade from home also.

That's pretty cool! Thanks for the impromptu AMA... Good looking trade station!

No problem and thank you - very much appreciated.

What charting software do you use? I've been looking from moving from QuoteTracker to something else.

I use Sierra Charts. I like them but tradestation charts are just as good.

What are you using to mount the monitors on top?

A few years back I found a big trading firm getting rid of all their ergotron arms so i bought 4 sets- two of which came with free samsung syncmasters.

Hi nice setup! just a couple questions tho:

Yes, if you have a working strategy try and get it automated or commission to code the algorithm for you. Tinker with it and behold you can have a profitable trading system.

I trade Forex with two monitors...I'm very jealous. Hopefully I'll be able to get a decent array soon.

I would have imagined that an anon mask would somehow conflict with your profession, since they tend to be quite anti-establishment.

Just watched Money Never Sleeps. Literally every desk looks like a copy of yours.

Once again another stock station, and another mess.

You are right. I need to re-arrange some wiring but the desk and area is usually clean at the start of the trading week. This is weekend aftermath.

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