How many of us will succeed in Forex?

Hi Edward,

Thanks for the good wishes.

Now I am trying to learn some strategies, try them out on demo a/c and see which suits my profile. I am trying to learn the Floor Trader system now and see if it works for me..

Also, I would like to emphasize that for new traders, please start using trailing stop. I didn't knew about this before, but I guess this somewhat helps new people in locking there profits.

Thanks again... Hoping to break the ice one day..

Hi Gryb,

One of the secrets of mine is: "Stop trading, make a pause once encountered a streak of losses."
Through time I found one of my weak spots and managed to gain control over them.
My short story:
when losing a trade after a trade, I always looked to get back into the market in order to waste no time and recover the loss.
I was wrong. Not only I kept on losing more than winning (even thought I followed the strategy thoroughly!), I gradually stopped bothering about losing the money.
The fact that my strategy was no longer capable of producing winners, should have warned me that there were unfavorable conditions on the market: sudden changes of price direction, choppy moves, weak support/resistance levels etc. In times like these one should simply STOP trading. And wait for a day or two or even a week or two, when we talk about 4 hour or daily charts.
The fact that I stopped caring about the money being lost kept me in the game, where my account continued to suffer losses. It was my fault that I didn't switched the monitor off before I realised I no longer interested in being a serious investor... When you are no longer a serious investor, you're a gambler...

I've learned this facts about myself and put all efforts in to eliminate this behavior in the future. My trading and emotions are in control since then.

Hope this gives you a prospective of how to approach and evaluate yourself.

Regards,
Edward

Hi Edward,

Thanks for posting my previous comment. I've got an update. I've gone bankrupt (well almost). Even though I started trading semi-profitably using two strategies from your website I got a margin call from my broker. I hoped a position I had taken 2 weeks before would finally go my way but it didn't. It significantly went the opposite way. So here's a lesson - do not hope while trading, put a stop loss and don't hope. Make decisions based on what you see and not what you'd like to see. I know it's easier said than done as I'm still having a difficulty with this.
Now I'm left with 5% of my initial fund. I need a break and sound learning so I'm switching back to my demo a/c.
I'm pretty sure many of you guys have been through it before - you lost all and then you managed to get back to the surface. I'd love to hear from you how you did it. What did you find most difficult? What do you recommend I do now? I haven't given up yet but I'm not gonna enter a live trade before I manage to fully recover the equivalent of my initial fund using a demo a/c. Any comments, advice, suggestions or secret strategies are more than welcome.

Cheers,
Gryb

An incredibly useful story!
That's another best example of how it really "works" once you go live in Forex:
at some point a greed kicks in,
a winner turns into a loser,
then there is a hope it'll come around,
then denial of the loss and delaying an exit,
and finally the exit with an even larger loss.

I learned those steps on my own skin when I was a beginner. The story is sad, but the lesson is priceless. Thank you so much for your feedback!

I wish you all the best in your learning and trading!

Regards,
Edward

Hi Edward,

I started on demo account(s) about 3 months back. In those 3 months I tried 3 different brokers. In the demo account, when I first started, I made huge losses and lost all the virtual money. I learned that I was being greedy (as said in a lot of posts here) and that was the reason of losses. So when I started with second company (demo account), I thought I will pay a max of +- 30 pips. So I tried that, controlled my emotions (even though it was a demo a/c) and made some good profits over the next 3-4 weeks. I did the same with the 3rd broker and did quiet well with demo accounts.

Now the bad part.. I opened a live account and in first 36 hours lost 80% of my capital. PURE PURE GREED. I forgot the principles I learned earlier, kind of became overconfident. I opened a trade at 1.00 PM, was 70 pips UP at 4.00PM. I thought let it be open and I will reach home and then will close. I reached home and when I opened my m/c at 6.15 PM, I was DOWN 80 pips. My inner self (GREED) said no, it will go up.. but sadly by 11.00 PM the loss was 130 pips. I put a stop at 180 pips and a limit of 20 pips and went for sleep. In the morning I was down with 180 pips.. trade closed. Having lost almost all of my invested money, I am back to demo a/c, trying to get to a strategy before going back LIVE.

So guys, please stick to basics, No GREED and yes practice more on demo accounts. Money is hard earned, so don't let it go like this

Hi Gryb and George,

Thanks a lot for your great feedbacks, guys!
Your live examples provide a remarkable insight into Forex trader's real practice.

I highly appreciate it and hope it'll send a message to everyone looking to become a Forex trader.

Best regards,
Edward

Hi Edward,

Originally, I thought the the poll was incorrect. That was 2.5 years ago! Even now, I have not gathered enough information or practice to make me feel confident enough to go live. You were correct for saying that it really does take a long time.

For preparation, I thought that theoretical as well as practical knowledge were needed in order succeed. I decided to take some graduate level courses in investment management and trading and must say that I was very humbled indeed by my lack of knowledge. In addition, I did an enormous amount of supplemental reading into different trading strategies including the ones listed on this site to find the trading method and strategy that I was most comfortable with. Then, I had to choose the time frame. Finally, I had to understand about beneficial hedging effects offered by negative correlation, the pitfalls of trading psychology, entries, exits, positions sizing models, whether to be a fundamental or technical trader or both and the list goes on and on!

To conclude, I think that I am finally ready but it was not an easy road. You were correct for warning people about how hard it is to trade.

Thank you,

George

Hi Edward,
Thanks a lot for this fantastic site! I do agree with what you wrote in this article. I'm a miserable example of what greed and emotions can make. I'm now 3 weeks into live trading. I started with with £3000 and now I've barely got £1000 despite being over 1200 pips positive! I wish I'd known what a stop loss and a strategy were when I first entered live trading. I would let a loss run hoping it'd reverse and lose £500 in one trade. On this other hand I would take a profit of £20 in case the market suddenly reverses. Having lost 10 trades in a row I decided to take opposite positions to what I initially thought would be right. I lost subsequent 10! I'm now learning strategies and how to stick to a plan. It's a hard time I must say. I hope I can use it profitably. I really do. Cheers Gryb

i am also forex noob,I have to learn lot to be a successful trader.

Anil Kumar Raju
http://forexfapturbo.blogspot.com

I am a newbie and burnt off two micro accounts of $100.00 each already. I followed the advice of a mentor who adviced against usage of stop losses. I learnt my lessons in a hard way. Until I start increasing the balance on my demo accounts profitably, now learning on my own, I will not go life again. The mentors entry method works over seventy percent of the time but he claims is 100 percent if you allow it to turn in your favour. Now I know better. The wasted time, emotions,hope...I vowed not to quit anyway. I will be part of the 6% winners in the end. God willing. I will work it and not just pray it.

Although your arguments are good, I'd disagree with you in general.

Who is going to count the number of demo trades?
How to classify what time frame had been traded while demoing? Demo traders chaotically switch from one time frame to another and it takes some time to settle down on a single one or a few.

Poll doesn't take into consideration how many hours a trader spent every day, everyone sets his/her own goals and time for studying Forex, instead the poll counts how long it took/will take a trader to master what he learned before trying live trading.

Polls are good because they are simple. If to make them collect every single piece and variation of data, it would be long, complex and impractical.

Kind regards,
Edward

This poll is unclear about how many hours trader spend trading.

If a trader demo for 3 months and spend about 10 hours per day VS a trader who demo for 2 years but spend only 1 or 2 hours per day, who will end up been a good trade ?

This poll is unclear about which time frame trader used.

If a trader who trade based on daily chart, he would need a year or two for trading before going live whereas a trader who trade based on 1 min chart only need 1 - 3 months of demo.

I think the poll should be based on number of demo trades instead of number of months. This poll just doesn't make any sense

hi,

i'm new too to forex. admittedly, my main reason for taking forex is the possibility of making insane amounts of profits!!!

after reading of the 'sobering' comments, i believe it's a long slog. even with an initial capital of USD2k and 10% monthly compound interest, it will take about 2-3 years to reach 1 million.

i signed up for a course which taught me a trading system(which meant they took my money and taught me a system)a lot of frustrations were coursing through my veins... why this rule, why that rule e.t.c. also, when i profit, i felt like a hero but when i lost a trade, i became doubtful of the strategy.

i guess i want to profit all the time. later, i learnt that the strategy is not 100% but will give profits OVER time. even then, there's the urge/pang to profit all the time, whenever I want to.

i agree to continuous learning and being humble... and not greedy

many seem to believe it's a road to riches with no effort but that's not true. sobering but true :(

I would like to see what the ratio of successful to unsuccessful would be if your numbers were filtered to eliminate the people who go into Forex because they think it is a get rich quick, cute little home based business opportunity, which requires little if no effort on their part.
I have visited websites with FAQ's that clearly indicate that the questions are being asked by people who have done no homework whatsoever, and I believe this is skewing the numbers.
I believe the numbers are much more favourable for people who actually put in the time and effort to become knowledgeable and proficient, after all, even the experts had to start somewhere.
Perhaps the numbers are generated this way to give all the internet scam artists an opportunity to try and suck money out of people honestly trying to work hard and learn.

Hi All,

I am a newbie at fx, and have traded live for less than one month.

On a demo account I earned $850 dollars in one day. With the live account, I lost
80% of my capital in six days. Then I discovered the Trailing Stop and how to trade in small amounts.

The message? Dont't Be Greedy.

Happy trading,
JMV