How many of us will succeed in Forex?

thanxxxxxxx

Hello,

I've been trading forex for a six months at a rate of 4 hours a day. My goal has been to make every mistake possible in order to learn what doesn't work. Last month I discovered what does work, and since then I've been profiting steadly. Instead of consistently losing money, I now do marginally better than breaking even, which I heard is wonderful progress. But it depends on what time frame you use. Some weeks I can bring $4000 up to $8000, and other weeks I just bring $8000 back to $4000. It is ridiculous! I either do consistently well or consistently poorly. It is almost as though I were using two strategies, one for making money and another for losing it. I know, however, that it is really one strategy, namely the one that leads to profits half of the time and losses the other half of the time. If only I could eliminated the second of the two. I know, I know, use stop losses. The problem is they don't work, because of the spread. When I open a position, I'm instantly down 2.5% to 3.1%, which exceeds a typical 2% stop loss, and if I simply add 2% to the spread, then that's a 5% stop loss, which is way too large. A 5% loss is $100! My friend tells me I need to trade less units so that I can easily tolerate a typical 20% retracement; but then there goes the profitability factor! I'm starting to think the solution is simply to be wrong less often, which is where experience comes in. That is why I'm still trying to make every mistake I can make.

"When I open a position, I'm instantly down 2.5% to 3.1%, which exceeds a typical 2% stop loss, and if I simply add 2% to the spread, then that's a 5% stop loss"
So all it takes is to open a position and you lose 2% FROM spread? By the way, I am not here to criticize you, but instead to tell you that you already answered your question. You are wayyyy overleveraging. if 2% is equal to spread then you are gambling.

Solution, use money management where 2% is the maximum you can use, and the stop loss has to be based on the right previous peak or base. The space between your entry and your stop loss "pips wise" has to be equal to 2% risk.

Just do it this way, let say you have 4000 dollars capital and you want to risk 2% which is $80 dollars. Now how far is the stop loss located, let say 30 pips. Now dived $80 by 30 which is equal to 0.26 Lot when 1 pip equal to $1.

This way, you will have proper money management whch calculates your risk and how much leverage you can afford based on 2%.

I hope this helps.

good

PERHAPS it's only 5% who try hard that make it but you make it sound an impossibility as if you are the Forex god. Any good gambler can make money at forex in a month or even less.Bye for now Luke

Thank you from bottom of my heart for putting this site together and thank you to all traders who have been kind enough to share their very valuable insights and knowledge.

Thanks to you guys I've had considerable success. Although I still need to improve my game psychologically, but still i'm making a profit.

I've learn't some pretty powerful concepts here. All I would say is "NO SURRENDER". FX Trading is just like any other competitive business/sport. It takes time, will power and lots hard work. It's like anything if you love it then you don't feel like you are working.

It is 90% psychology in my humble opinion. I would say the most important thing is your self belief. Total belief in your ability to learn the craft.

To obtain success you need eat,sleep,drink FX.You need to have unquenchable hunger for success and knowledge. Also you I would say one need needs to eat lots of humble pie. Calculated risk is the name of the game.

In my experience I would say keep it simple as possible. Don't over do indicators/Oscillators..... FX trading is a art. Familiarize yourself with technical trading. A good start would be to take a professional course in Charting. One last thing. It took me 3 years of constant struggle before I started doing well. As a newbie I lost all my capital ($24000). Had to start from scratch with $700.

NEVER EVER GIVE UP. It is the most amazing field in the world that I know of where a ordinary person can train and become so successful.

If any one has any questions I'd be happy to help when I can. There is no magic formula. Almost everything you need is available from places like this site.

Good luck to every one.

That's what you said:
"In any field professionalism is never achieved in no time. Students study for 5-6 years in universities to obtain a profession..."

I graduated in economics and I can tell you that some exams are really more difficult than understanding candlesticks, indicators and strategies. And you have 3-6 months to prepare them.

Maybe I speak this way for my background, but for someone with no economic knowledge 6 months are enough for a demo account. Them I suggest to start with a micro account. You can have a better perception of the risk without risking too much.
After that, if succesfull, you can invest more.

Max

There's more to trading than just understanding the charts, indicators and strategies, but even those elements will take more than one year to learn. It probably takes a year just to sift through all of the info to start working out what actually suits you as an individual, then another year to focus on the specific techniques of how you have decided to trade. If you get through all of that without a hitch, then you've got your dreaded emotions and psychology to contend with. Another year to work out how to deal with them so that your emotions don't impact your trading and you've become a well rounded trader in three years.

If you manage that, you're at the top of the game and you've done really well. I know some people will do it quicker and that's great for them, but they are the exception. I've been at it for four years, but only got serious 12 months ago. Once I decided to get serious and put some proper hours in, I started to get some success and am now profitable. I predict another 3 years of hard work before I will be able to consider myself good enough to become a professional trader.

Leigh