A question came up on Trade2Win recently on a new thread. It asked the question of the membership, what do you trade and why? In many ways this is a fundamental question that every trader needs to have a strong answer to in order to be on the right track. So to that end, let me address it for myself.

I have traded just about everything you could think of a retail trader trading. Basically, it’s about finding good opportunities. I’m primarily a technically driven trader who operates mainly in the swing to position time frames, so I don’t need to have the narrower focus of someone who trades in the shorter time frames.

That said, stocks and forex are my two main markets.

In the case of stocks, that’s what I came up following. Back in the 80s when I got started it was still the main market available to retail market participants. I didn’t have the funding to effectively play in the futures market (there were no mini contracts back then). Also, when I read How to Make Money in Stocks it really resonated with me in terms of approaching the market. The strategies I use to this day have a foundation in what I learned from that book.

I got active in forex in the early 2000s. This was as online trading was really starting to develop and I was covering the forex market professionally at the time (as I am today). I liked that I could trade at any time of day or night, which you couldn’t really do in other markets at that time. I also liked how technical the forex market was. It suited my trading orientation very nicely.

These days my #3 is stock indices. I go through periods where I will lock in and fairly actively trade the likes of the mini S&P 500 futures. It’s very much a market conditions and available focus sort of thing, though.

What about you? What market(s) do you trade and why?