A Day in the Life of a Professional Forex Trader

Professional status as a forex trader takes years of commitment and is backed up by clearly-defined strategies that show consistent profitability. But the rewards are worth the considerable effort; professional forex traders can earn a high income and a lifestyle that most folks can only dream about. Opportunities abound for these full-time players; they can choose to work for international banks, hedge funds, or just put on their pajamas and work out of a family home office.

Let’s look at a typical day in the life of a professional forex trader who manages private accounts. These private accounts may include family funds or a share of other people’s money. This is the goal for millions of at-home players who want to earn their livings by trading currencies but without the restrictions of a more traditional forex workspace, like an international desk.

At-home forex traders can also use this guide to examine their current progress in creating their dream jobs within the worldwide flow of currency exchanges. Of particular interest, this article will cover workflows that traders can use for morning preparation and end-of-day examination, attitudes, and strategies during the trading day that can impact performance, and lifestyle choices that either assist or undermine profitability.

Defining Market Hours

The professional forex trader is usually forced to specialize due to the currency market’s enormous complexity. In addition, this is a biological, as well as logistical, imperative. Forex trades 24-hours a day, from Sunday evening to Friday afternoon in U.S. time zones. This around-the-clock action makes it impossible to watch continuously in real time, encouraging a razor-like focus on specific time frames and forex pairs.

Most U.S. professionals start with EUR/USD and USD/JPY, adding other pairs as they fit into timeframes dictated by these popular instruments. This often includes other euro and yen crosses, as well as Australian and Canadian dollar crosses. They choose wisely, often swapping out closely-watched pairs over time because they understand that tracking too many markets will dilute the reliability of their strategies.

Euro price action picks up between 1:00 a.m. and 3:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. As a result, local professionals may get up earlier than equity or futures traders. This timing takes many of these folks out of the game after the New York lunch hour, triggering a noticeable drop in forex volume and volatility during U.S. afternoons. This lifestyle works perfectly in conjunction with the timing of key economic reports in Europe and the United States, but it fails to capture Asian developments, which can move world currency markets for months at a time.

In general, this leaves two other specialization choices. Traders can match market hours with other U.S. traders, aligning activities with the New York stock markets and Chicago futures exchanges.

Alternatively, they may decide to bend the sleep cycles further, awakening for the Asian session and completing the market days early after the U.S. sunrise. In all specialties, professionals focus their efforts on currency pairs that provide the most profit potential for their strategies. This inevitably changes over time, forcing them to adjust market and sleep hours to manage profitability.

Trading Day

Trading screens are turned on soon after waking because currency markets are open and prices have been driven higher or lower during sleep hours. However, stress levels are low because well-trusted brokers are holding their capital while carefully placed stops are guarding against outliers, like China’s devaluation of the yuan in August 2015.

In addition, they always review exposure at the end of the market day in order to ensure that losses taken during the sleep cycle fall within the confines of their risk tolerance.

Research

Forex professionals hold a deep interest in economic and central bank policies around the world, understanding how the Federal Reserve (FOMC), European Central Bank (ECB), Bank of Japan (BOJ), and Peoples Bank of China (PBOC) impact currencies. They keep a detailed calendar of economic releases and central bank meetings that will impact their strategies, often foregoing sleep when a key meeting is set outside of their normal market viewing hours.

They examine the latest economic releases while having their first cup of coffee, adjusting stops, and exiting positions if needed. Time frame now comes into play because many professionals hold a large core of smaller-sized positions for longer holding periods. This allows them to keep stops loose and away from predatory algorithms, which dominate modern markets.

These efficient robot-traders predict price zones where retail stops are clustered and hit those levels during less active trading hours or in response to economic releases.

Market Day Activity

Market day activity depends on current strategies. Professionals who manage a core of longer-term positions may be surprisingly inactive in a typical session, waiting for key price zones to come into play.

It’s a different story for day trading strategies that demand fast and furious participation. Even so, these positions cluster around the hours of major economic and central bank releases, with the balance of the session set to observation rather than action mode.

Professionals choose specific times to end their market days rather than letting circumstances and price action make those determinations. A 24-hour environment changes continuously and there’s no good time to walk away, but humans require other activities to maintain balance. The New York lunch hour offers the most popular choice for local professionals because it also marks the close of trading on the European stock exchanges.

The trading day ends with a performance and session review, noting characteristics that may impact future strategies and outcomes. Professionals also take note of economic releases scheduled for their off-hours, adjusting stops to account for the greater risk. Finally, they take a last look at forex pairs not closely watched that day, checking for trading opportunities they may have missed.

Lifestyle Choices

The 24-hour forex grind can be tedious. So proper lifestyle choices are needed to build discipline and focus because this is what ultimately impacts the bottom line. The forex professional takes as much time working on relaxation and personal health issues as they do watching world markets. These folks also know how to have fun, taking regular time to get away from their trading screens and unwinding with friends and family.

Many traders take physical and mental conditioning even further, quitting smoking, limiting alcohol use, and maintaining a healthy diet that keeps weight under control and the mind in an alert state. They also understand that problems with interpersonal relationships can translate immediately into performance shortfalls, so adequate time is taken to deal with spouses, parents, and children.

The Bottom Line

Professional forex traders live an affluent lifestyle but pay the price with many hours of research and market watching. Sleep deprivation is common for these individuals until they build the trust required to allow their trading strategies and risk management to work without constant monitoring.