I have a few Litecoins, so I guess you could say I'm a pretty serious Trader.

Basic stocks and bonds depending on the market. Why?

I am, so I was wondering if this type of site would draw some

This type of game ,it seems to me, would draw very analytical thinkers, so I thought there might be a lot of people who might be in my business.

Well, this site has a ton of college kids as well as scientists, engineers, software developers, and a few PoliSci folks too.

I understand. I also think it's great,to get to know new and different people from all walks of life. College kids have to go do something(hopefully)

You won't find too many people doing active trading anymore. It's too expensive unless you do it for a living.

Draug - from what you've said, I think you're an investor, not a trader. Unless you flip your position within a week or so, or are much more active than you've let on.

ssorenn - as Draug said, there aren't many business types on here. They're much more into software, engineering and the hard sciences. There's quite a few econ majors here, but not many in business.

But I keep up with the market, ssorenn. Borrow some yen, convert to dollars, invest in S&P = profit (until Abenomics ends)

"I understand. I also think it's great,to get to know new and different people from all walks of life. College kids have to go do something(hopefully)"

Excuse me? We HAVE to go do something? What if we want to do nothing?

Just kidding.

Gold finger sell the yen buy the dollar and buy the Japanese stockmarket

I want to become a trader, could you tell more about what you do and how you got there? Also, assuming you are a market maker, do you think it is realistic for anyone to think he could beat the markets consistently and what would it take?

Trading costs have gotten cheaper, it's the higher tax rate on short term trading and the possibility that Congress might not renew lower rates for long term trading.

Beating the markets consistently requires a decent investment strategy and the ability to follow it and not get emotionally involved so you change strategy over the long term. For example Martin Zweig market indicator strategy told him to buy options to short the stock market in 1979 just before the major crash, however emotionally he couldn't believe the market would fall as much as his indicators suggested so he didn't get out and only bought a few short options.

Of course shorting the market is risky because even of you are right on direction you might be off on the time and it's costly to keep that short position.

I just wonder how one might conceivably come up with an investment strategy to beat such a complex 'game' consistently?

I started 25 years ago on the Chicago mercantile trading floor. I learned the business from ground up. Today getting into the business is a little tougher as the costs are higher and the capital needed is greater, Pending on what you would like to trade. Trading equities might be the cheapest way to figure out if you like the profession -- but trading commodities is an expensive venture in capital required

Both equities and commodities require to much of an investment for me right now, the only viable option I have is FX. But I am sometimes wondering if it's all a goose-chase. Cutting trough all the bullshit sites that are around about FX-trading, you aren't left with much useful information unfortunately.

So I assume you started as a clerk in the pit and then started trading some small time amounts for yourself and gradually expanding on that? How did you make the transition from the ground to trading trough computers? Could you give me an idea of what techniques you utilize to trade. Are you reading market sentiment, technical analyses, fundamental, order-flow, what sort of system do you have roughly?

The long and short of it is that I trade the short end of the yield curve. As 30 years bonds and 10 years us govt notes are the long end ( in duration ) I trade 3 month notes out through about 5-7 years Within this environment I spread the values of different expirations ( meaning I buy 1 and sell another) to be what's called spread neutral ..the spreads trade on historic value. That's what I do in a nut shell.

@ssorenn - wouldn't any gains made in the japanese stock market be wiped out by the depreciating yen, since that investment is denominated in yen?

@Lopt - it depends upon the strategy you take. Right now there are so many arbitragers out there that the only way to beat the market is to try and find imperfect market valuations, which requires a fundamental analysis. Also, never do technical analysis. Markets follow a random walk, so technical analysis theoretically should be useless.

As for fx - cross trades are probably the best options right now. Future fx rates depend upon interest rates and inflation in each country. Look at places where inflation is expected to get higher (Japan) and that currency will depreciate in the future. Based on that information, you can buy/sell the currency as needed.

Interesting, so do you look for fundamental changes and anticipate there impact?
For instance you'd anticipate a certain end date for QE and come up with a thesis about the expected impact it would have on the curve at the short end and trade accordingly to stand to take profit?

Or are you doing arb. and trade on-the-run off-the-run, trading to the mean and the like?

I agree that TA is probably pretty useless, I think there is done some research on the matter which stated that most tools have no predictive value of any meaning.

However I feel like fundamental analysis is only useful over longer-term (3-months to a year or so) and to be able to live of that I'd need an even bigger capital then if I would become a day-trader.

Also there can be a lot of reasons why market prices would contradict fundamental forces, so I feel that is not a perfect way either. Markets can after all stay irrational for pretty long..

goldfinger---yes you would have a long put spread in the yen or outright short a small position

you would have to offset your currency risk somehow

you could also just get long the hang sang through index funds denominated in us dollars. they will lag though because of the currency. best to do it yourself if you know how

you could buy Nikkei and sell yen futures.

yes

I don't know enough about futures to dabble in them. Forward contracts are much more common.

Ssoren - do you only trade govt paper?

I run a private hedge fund, the center piece of which is a proprietary counter-trend futures trading strategy. We currently trade the ES, and logged an 8% net return for our investors in 2013.

Did you automatize your strategy? And congrats, that is a nice return.

Thanks. Our strategy is "automatic", technically. But, it's completely under human control. We're counter-trend, ie, we made 8% short on an irrational bull run in '13. We're hoping for more volatility in '14.

I only trade govt paper. I know what I know and has worked for me. There are gypsies traders who can trade anything under the sun but that is not me. I have tried and it did not work after the monies I designated were gone I threw in the towel. I have watched people give away fortunes trying to figure out another trade. I prefer to spend my money other ways