Paul Rotter

Paul Rotter- "As a trader you should have no opinion. The more opinion you have, the harder it gets to get out of a losing position."


I constantly try to read the psychology of the market and base my decisions on it.

Paul Rotter

As a trader you should have no opinion. The more opinion you have, the harder it gets to get out of a losing position.

Paul Rotter

I was allowed to start trading in a Japanese bank. I was very lucky here, since I was allowed to gain knowledge through learning by doing.

Paul Rotter

Today, the brokers offer you all kinds of trading software where they can set your limits based on your buying power or position size. Therefore, I think as a high frequency intraday trader, you could start with e.g. 300,000 EUR and aim for a profit of a few thousand Euros every day.

Paul Rotter

I was exchanging ideas with the chief trader Ajiasaka, who was constantly profitable… …I had many conversations about market psychology, which proved to be very helpful, especially after bad losing days.

Paul Rotter

When I get heavily involved in the markets, I executed hundreds of trades quickly, in a few hours.

Paul Rotter

I was doing 100 – 150 round turns a day after a short time.

Paul Rotter

I had no losing month with the first 3 years of my trading. later on with bigger position sizes i took occasional hits.

Paul Rotter

I usually have lots of orders in different markets at the same time, pretty close to the last traded price. the resulting trades are usually a zero sum game, but I get a pretty good feeling for what is going on and then ultimately can make a decision for a larger trade.

Paul Rotter

When some sudden unexpected event occurs, it could blow out a lot of traders even though their risk models were working just fine for a long period.

Paul Rotter

I strictly close my position when they start going against me. with bigger positions this is not that easy, because I move the market against me, which could cause other traders to get in the same situation like me, which could accelerate the move. however.

Paul Rotter

Before the open I check all the economic reports that are about to be released, speeches of central bankers – simply anything that could move the market. then I try to define important levels in the markets I trade.

Paul Rotter

On day I had a blackout and after losing 2,5 million I was seriously thinking about stopping. I still had enough capital left to live without having to worry about financial issues and i just wouldn’t want to take those psychological hits anymore. After taking 4 weeks off, I regained my motivation and returned in the ring. I was able to make up the loss in a relatively short period of time, so that I came out stronger than before.

Paul Rotter

My guess is that 70% of the volume is generated by algorithmic trading systems, so you can be sure that there will be more ”Flash Crashes” or ”Flash Squeezes” in the future.

Paul Rotter

I think it will be more and more a battle between machines, where the better ones try to destroy the smaller ones by learning from their behavior and trading against them.

Paul Rotter

I think the best place for traders right now is Singapore – it is growing rapidly and has a great lifestyle, very safe, with the best schools and world-class infrastructure.

Paul Rotter

I set daily goals for my P & L, whereas the most important thing is the stopping limit, the maximum loss I take, before I switch off the screens.

Paul Rotter

The advice I would give others in a collaborative effort is to clearly define your objectives, make sure you will be fairly compensated for your best efforts, stick to what you do best, keep the structure lean, and don’t depend on others to make it happen.

Paul Rotter

With the experience of bigger losing days coupled with good phases right afterwards, I’m not so sensible for losing days anymore. I know that I can make it back.

Paul Rotter

This has lead to being able to switch off the screens on a day with medium/small losses more easily, instead of forcing the way back into positive territory.

Paul Rotter

The best thing is to have somebody around who is neutral to trading, that switches the terminals off, when a certain loss level has been reached for the day.

Paul Rotter

It’s the ability to get more aggressive in winning phases, taking bigger risks, and scaling back in losing times. this is against human nature.

Paul Rotter (on his strenghts)

I am motivated all the time…I see trading more as a sporting challenge and try to erase the thought of the money.

Paul Rotter

I do trend plays very seldom and actually scalp the market, i constantly get fills in different markets on both sides which can cause constantly changing positions for hours. sometimes i change my opinion several times within a couple of minutes, which is not pretty hard for me, since I’m only looking for the next 3-5 ticks.

Paul Rotter

If you are not just a gambler, you need some professional equipment like news feeds, etc., and then, with the right strategy, you might turn even a small amount into a fortune.

Paul Rotter

Today, the algorithmic systems permanently enter orders and delete them very quickly to enter them again a second later…so what is manipulation? In my opinion, there should be very clear and specific rules for this topic.

Paul Rotter

Generally, I like markets with high liquidity.

Paul Rotter

I have always been a scalper, but I am adjusting my strategies to different market situations all the time. on volatile days I of course have less orders in the market and do more ‘single trades’, although I usually hold them only for a couple of seconds.

Paul Rotter

In the old days, there were quiet periods with no data flow but, today one machine can create a trend and the others will follow. Today´s ”sheep’ are also machines.

Paul Rotter

In my opinion a single player cannot influence the market around the clock.

Paul Rotter

Today the herd is the computers, and I think they are doing very well being the herd. The trends created by them are more dynamic then before. They can reverse their mind very quickly and follow the opposite trend immediately, so I would call them the “dynamic herd”.

Paul Rotter

He has to watch the order book for a very long time.

Paul Rotter (on what to do in order to become a scalper)

The fast spikes caused by stops are not happening that often anymore. apart from that, that stops often are not where you would suppose them to be.

Paul Rotter

I have always had worries about other participants watching my activity… …The main protection is to have accounts at different brokers so nobody knows your exact position.

Paul Rotter