I faced a big dilemma last year. I loved my job, but hated my boss. I studied hard to get my degree in computer science and was very proud on graduation day. I knew it was an uphill battle for a young computer scientists without any experience in a tight labor market, but I welcomed the challenge. My other choice would have been to study geology, get a guaranteed job while still at university and work the rest of my life in a field which doesn’t interest me. My dad is a geologist and loves it, my mom is a biologists and loves it and I wanted to work in a field I love as well. My name is Wang Xiu and I now reside in the UAE after moving here last year on my 28th birthday.

The reason I hated my boss is because he was clueless about what he was doing. The only reason he was promoted to the position he abused was because his wife’s father was part-owner of the company. I am not even sure that he finished his degree and suspect his parents just bought it for him. I was not alone with my line of thinking as the entire department was unhappy with him leading us. I struggled a lot with this. All the hard work I put into studying what I love to do and then getting a job in my field was a dream come true. My boss quickly turned this dream into a nightmare.

One night out after work, three colleagues of mine and I talked about ways to solve our problem. We need the income our jobs provided, but all agreed that we could not keep coming into the office for this boss too much longer. Our savings were poor as we all just graduated less than two years ago and got hired less than 10 months ago. We needed to start something on the side, something we could grow over time which would help us focus on the love of our careers rather than on the hate of our superior. Venturing out was an exciting idea, but we needed something we were good and passionate about.

We made a list of our knowledge and strengths in order to see which direction this may take us. With our backgrounds in computer science, numbers come natural to us so we focused on the financial markets. We zeroed in on forex trading and selected this specific market due to its big turnover. When assets exchange hands, opportunities arise. Forex was also easier for us to get started in as we didn’t have the ability to go with both feet in and trade full-time. Economic reports are cyclical which made our approach easier.

We divided our research into four parts, each one studied by one of us and then pooled together. Our focus was on creating a simple but effective technical trading strategy, trade management, trade execution and risk management. While we studied those fields, we also pledged to save $250 from our monthly salaries for our venture. This was probably the hardest part as we had to cut our lifestyle down. We rented a four bedroom apartment which saved us a lot of money and had to reduce our other activities. We sold our cars, stopped ordering food and became extremely frugal. We know we needed capital, didn’t want to borrow from the bank and wanted to plant the seed for a life changing endeavor.

Nine months later we were ready to get started. Our savings stood at $9,000 plus we had another $6,000 from the sale of our cars after we paid our debt so we were free of the banks. The opened an account with $15,000 and took advantage of the bonus our broker offered. We had no intentions to make any withdrawals any time soon. With the total bonus money we started our venture with $25,000. Prior to this we tested our strategy in smaller live accounts which went bust one after the other until we fixed our trading strategy to the point we were satisfied it would work. Our goal was to earn at least 2% per month. This may not sound like much, but doing so consistently makes a big difference.

PaxForex is the home we chose for our forex trading operations. We now earn over 3.2% per month and our trading account is growing steadily. We continue to make contributions to it on the form of deposits in order to grow our capital base. This is probably the most important thing we are doing. We all left our jobs and found other positions where we enjoy our work. Our goal is to increase our portfolio to $100,000, then split it into four so each can do as they please. We have learned a lot over the past five years trading forex part-time. One day I want to open my own company so I can work for myself, while forex trading provides me the security I need. Without forex trading this would have never been possible.