Think you have what it takes to be a real-life Gordon Gekko? A currency strategist at Vantage FX, Gregory McKenna has traded since 1988.

He gave AskMen a glimpse into his typical trading day:

Trading is the best job in the world. Well, maybe with the exception of being a pro-surfer,

But being a trader means many things to many people. If youre a stock trader, you’ll have a different day to me because I largely trade currencies, commodities and equity indexes. Macro trading, I guess you might call it, differs to share trading, which is more specific and individual stock based.

Riding the Ocean

First of all, us currency blokes and blokettes work much harder than the Lords and Ladies of the share market. They’re lucky if they are open 6 hours a day, 5 days a week.

Currency markets open at 5am Monday, Sydney time and are open 24 — yes, 24 — hours a day, until 5pm Friday New York time, which is around 9am Saturday morning in Sydney. So it’s a relentless 5 and a half day week where the markets are open 24/7 for trade.

So my set up and activity during my day is different to other equity traders. But then again, my approach is different to many FX traders I know as well.

The Early Morning Wave

It starts around 4.30-5.00am each day when I get up, make a plunger of coffee and start my daily research.

When I was an institutional trader and strategist this meant Bloomberg. But now that I occupy a retail trading world with an MT4 (MetaTrader 4) platform, I have to work a little harder to get the information I need before I start trading.

The first thing I do after coffee is look at all my charts — the daily charts for all of the markets I follow — so about 20 markets or so. I start here because Im a visual trader. My process and systems come from 25 years of sitting in front of screens, identifying recurring patterns and price actions that fit my process.

When I identify something interesting, I scale up to the weekly chart and down to the 1 and 4 hour charts. Once I’ve had a look at the charts, it’s fundamentals I’m interested in.

Leonardo DiCaprio films a scene where he gets out of helicopter and is arrested by the FBI in ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’. Picture: Splash Source: news.com.au

The Impact Zone

I’m not sure I could have gotten the depth of research coverage I needed 5 years ago (and certainly not 10 years ago) without my Bloomberg.

But nowadays, there’s Twitter and the big newswires like Reuters, Dow Jones or Market News International. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and Financial Times (FT) are also great and now, of course, you also have Flipboard and Pulse. If you can’t get the information you need from these guys, then I’d be surprised.

After I’ve done my research, it’s time to write my morning reports. When I started at Westpac as a Currency Strategist back in 1988, morning reports weren’t as ubiquitous as they are now, but all I did was put on paper what I’ve done since I started in the financial markets. So at about 6:30am I start writing. I find this process really worthwhile as it gives me a certain coherence around my thoughts and gives me a clear trading plan for the day.

Catching a break

Once the Morning Call is written I know what trades might be on for the day and then I wait and I wait. And I wait. There is a lot of waiting on trading. Many new traders can’t sit still or keep their hands in their pockets. They want to trade. Then, they over-trade. They force trades.

I just wait, and wait and wait — go for a run or a surf and pick the kids up from school — and wait.

Most days a couple of trades present themselves, but some days they don’t. So I research and back-test and theorise and work on new strategies. I’m happy with my process. It works across multiple time frames and multiple markets, but in the same way I have a quiver of boards for different conditions, its important to have other systems and styles you can trade on.

There’s always room to move, something new to learn and something new to test.

Depending on whether were in daylight savings mode or not, I’ll either get ready for some action between 3 and 5pm, or if it’s summer, a little while after that. The action comes from the UK/European open and those traders sometimes like to play odd moves when they paddle in, which can trigger or set up trades. It can also stop you out, so be careful.

Then it’s time to leave orders overnight. Place your stops if you have positions and take your profits on some trades. Others I just let run and take what the market gives me.

The Endless Summer

Soon itll be time to hit the hay for the crucial rest needed to regenerate and do it all again in the morning.

It’s a great day and a great thing to be a trader. Like surfing though, it’s not a job, it’s a calling. Perhaps on reflection, it is better than being a pro surfer. I can trade and still surf — and no one will force me to go to Teahupo’o. Thats just too much risk for me to handle.

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