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Making an Income From Forex – It’s Not For the Faint-Hearted Self-described risk-taker Peter Gensch has been forex trading for more than 10 years, and loves both the challenge, and the community.
Five nights a week, Peter Gensch goes to bed at 5pm and gets up again at midnight. That way he can be ready in front of his computer when the New York Stock Exchange opens at 1.30am. For three hours, both the London and New York markets are open concurrently, and that’s when all the action happens for the serious foreign exchange (forex) trader.
English. His first job was working at a Mobil station in Warkworth, earning just $9.50 an hour. But he was always ambitious, and quickly found a sales job selling top-quality wrought iron gates. The job sent him all over the world building relationships with clients – improving his English, his sales ability and his people skills.
“Forex trading is a way to create an alternative income, but it isn’t as easy as people think because the markets can be wild,” Peter explains. “But if you know what you’re doing – if you’re sensible, stick to your principles, and do the hard work – it can create an income.”
A few years later, in the mid-1990s, when he heard that the telecommunications (telco) sector would be deregulated, Peter decided to start his own business; he describes himself as an entrepreneur at heart. He had been using various services to access cheaper calling back to Germany, so he already had some familiarity with telco services. He moved into the telco sector, running his own call centres, setting up
From petrol station attendant to business owner Peter arrived in New Zealand from Germany in 1989 as a 24-year-old with very little S P R I N G 2 0 2 2 | I N F O R M E D I NVESTO R 8 6
and selling several telco businesses over many years. Returns of between five and 10 per cent each month It was a telco business associate who introduced Peter to the idea of forex about 10 years ago. It’s a fast-moving, daily trading strategy, where you make money by trading pairs of currencies at the right time. A thorough and up-to-date understanding of global economics is part of the job and traders become part of a huge international community of enthusiasts. “I’m a risk taker, obviously, and I thought, ‘This seems to be easy’. I put money in and lost it straight away. Lesson learned,” he laughs. “I discovered more and did my research, and now it is a big part of my life.”
