The Active Forex Traders Discussion

[CarrieW]

Finally some movement

 

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[DiemTrader]

Yeah no. I don't do stops... I have done immensely better without them. Even if I get stuck in trades

I get that thought process actually, although your margin is your stop I'm playing around with wider stops which works. But I've margined too many account using no stops. It work well for a while but then BAM Although if you use super low leverage you can ride a lot of things out.

 

[CarrieW]

Technically yeah. Unless a snb Move happens haha. I am at very low leverage. Stops are for sissies lol. Just kidding, but I don't like them...

 

[M&A]

Yeah no. I don't do stops... I have done immensely better without them. Even if I get stuck in trades

I agree, I had a short EUR/USD, I woke up and it was 70 pips against me, I would have got stopped out if i had my usual 50-75 pip stop or had some fearful response, instead I traded around the position and waited for Eur to fall 100 pips in my favour for a $3000 profit

I could have been -$2100 but instead I profited $3000, a difference of $5100 in my pocket.

When I first started trading I realised more often than not I was right at calling the market direction but usually I was a day or 2 early and would get stopped out.

When I stopped using hard stops it changed my equity curve dramatically.

The only exception is when I am highly leveraged on a short term <12 hour position.

 

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[CarrieW]

Exactly... I lost money consistently using hard stops. Since trading without them I have been doing quite well... The only part I dislike is getting stuck but if I stopped out I would have kept trading and losing it anyway. So it makes no difference. This works for me... I have a handful of followers on Myfxbook now and people asking me for signals or if I manage private accounts. Lol.

 

[P3HSB]

Quick update

EUR/USD dropped like a rock this week and I wasn't able to get a single piece of it. I placed entry orders for 3 days straight and none of them triggered on the retracements. If I was ballsy, I would of just created a market order and just ride it down. This is what happens when you are too cautious

On the other hand, I jumped into a GBP/CAD long trade (3/31/2015) and now I am down -856.00 pips. So price broke through the 1.86000. Also the stochastic indicates oversold on the weekly. Can anyone share some analysis on GBP/CAD? I am confused now. This can be the end of my trading career. I am starting to feel mental fatigue holding a trade like this....

@CarrieW are you still holding your EUR/USD since the last time we discussed? If so, you are one brave women lol. What is your strategy for staying calm and knowing that price will come back down? Do you check the charts often? I'm surprised your emotions do not creep in and you take a lost. Seems like you are always able to gut it out and remain positive

 

[Casper]

How do you trade with out stops? The softwares that I have tried forces you to have them. And It always makes me lose money. That's the main reason I stopped playing around with forex. I would put the stop as far down as it would let me, and magically it would always manage to reach it anyways. Frustrating.

 

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[CarrieW]

I am sitting in the neg still I entered at 1.05100. But we're getting closer. I check my trades multiple times a day. And if I wake up I will check them during the night too. I can stay calm because it's all money I don't care about losing... As for trading with out stops. I have never had to set one to place an order. I just don't put one...

 

[CarrieW]

I don't watch that gpbcad pair at all. It looks like without a strong reason it's Not going to go up higher than it's resistance there. Again I don't watch those pairs in any combo. I really have only been watching the EUR/USD and the aud/USD. I am working mostly off my phone these days.

 

[Casper]

Hi Carrie!

Which software do you use so you can run it of off your phone?

Thanks!

 

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[CarrieW]

Metatrader 4 for android. It is compatible with most brokers but not all...

 

[Casper]

Thanks Carrie!

 

[CarrieW]

I just got an update from fxcm saying we are now responsible for all negative balances... Lol. Wonder how many other brokers are doing this?

 

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[TennisOrDie]

anyone trade futures?

 

[CarrieW]

Not yet. I do want to look at other trading I just haven't had time.

 

[TennisOrDie]

Not yet. I do want to look at other trading I just haven't had time.

Forex and futures are the way to go. The leverage is huge. It's the only way to make real profits trading without dipping into options which I think is more risky. How long have you been trading and which currency pair do you trade?

 

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[CarrieW]

I have been live trading since 2008 I think(I can look it up I forget lol)... I trade eurusd and audusd.

 

[Maxjohan]

I haven't put any analysis in to that. All I know is when the federal reserve have cut the bond buying people started after a while to put trust in the USD again. And USD have become stronger and stronger.

So, I guess, I am more of a fundamental analysis guy.

Not to brag. But I said this on December 29, 2014. See how the economy in the USA and the EUR/USD have gone since then???

EUR/USD then: 1.2180564678
EUR/USD now: 1,07245

I really don't see why more people look for long term trading. Sure I could have sold the USD at 7,4. But if I had gone in on December 29. I could have made some good profits up to now. With EUR/USD.

Why anyway wants to guess how the market are going to go on a daily basis is beyond me. All you need to do is go with the flow. If there there seems to be any. And it was loud and clear with the USA economy. Jobs where getting better and the federal reserve was cutting the bond buying.

All it takes is one trade. Watch the trade for say 15 minutes a day. Then, you can do what the F*ck you want with the rest of your time. But of course. The market conditions are not always like this. Or I mean. How it was. Because I am pretty sure things are going to change now. And it will probably get harder to see these kind of insane long term spikes on a currency against another.

 

[Martinv678]

Why anyway wants to guess how the market are going to go on a daily basis is beyond me.

I agree so much! Day trading is a one way journey to an empty account. I like trading the day candles sticks and above.

Has anyone here checked out FxKeys?

 

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[M&A]

Not to brag. But I said this on December 29, 2014. See how the economy in the USA and the EUR/USD have gone since then???

EUR/USD then: 1.2180564678
EUR/USD now: 1,07245

I really don't see why more people look for long term trading. Sure I could have sold the USD at 7,4. But if I had gone in on December 29. I could have made some good profits up to now. With EUR/USD.

Why anyway wants to guess how the market are going to go on a daily basis is beyond me. All you need to do is go with the flow. If there there seems to be any. And it was loud and clear with the USA economy. Jobs where getting better and the federal reserve was cutting the bond buying.

All it takes is one trade. Watch the trade for say 15 minutes a day. Then, you can do what the F*ck you want with the rest of your time. But of course. The market conditions are not always like this. Or I mean. How it was. Because I am pretty sure things are going to change now. And it will probably get harder to see these kind of insane long term spikes on a currency against another.

I agree with some of what you said but the reason people tend to go for short term over long term is because it is very difficult to hold trades on leverage through the drawdowns. 99% of retail traders can't do it and they "cut losses".

Another reason for short term trading is the compounding effect. I shorted 100k of EUR and GBP in May, had I held it all the way to the lows I would have made $60000 give or take but instead I would short take profits, wait for another large move, increase bet short, take profit, increase bet short, take profit , repeat, in an endless money making cycle avoiding pullbacks and mental stress and the agony of watching position go heavily against me.

Trading is like 3 dimensional chess, everyone has their own style and personality, ever heard of guy Jimmy Balodimas ? He would add to losers, sell into breakouts, buy into crashes, his screens were a sea of red but he never had a down month in his career simply because he traded around his positions, 99% of traders can't do that. But it works for him.

Long term trading becomes investing and investing will never yield fastlane type money unless you invested in an apple, google or Microsoft before anyone heard of them, unless you are levered and in that case you will most likely get wiped out due to the long holding time and exposure to timing risk.

My $0.02

 

[Maxjohan]

I agree so much! Day trading is a one way journey to an empty account. I like trading the day candles sticks and above.

But if you trade the "day candles sticks". Aren't you then trading daily and guesses how the market goes on a daily basis? Maybe you were sarcastic? Or I am missing something here?

 

[Maxjohan]

Another reason for short term trading is the compounding effect. I shorted 100k of EUR and GBP in May, had I held it all the way to the lows I would have made $60000 give or take but instead I would short take profits, wait for another large move, increase bet short, take profit, increase bet short, take profit , repeat, in an endless money making cycle avoiding pullbacks and mental stress and the agony of watching position go heavily against me.

If you can time all that. Then you will of course make more money than someone who just sit with a trade for 2 months and then closes it. But you will sit glued to a computer screen much more I guess too. I rather work like 15 minutes a day. Checking trades and make 2000 pips a month. Than to work 4-8 hours a day and make 3000 pips a month. Just me though.

Long term trading becomes investing and investing will never yield fastlane type money unless you invested in an apple, google or Microsoft before anyone heard of them, unless you are levered and in that case you will most likely get wiped out due to the long holding time and exposure to timing risk.

I don't agree with this. Had I got an investor that could put in maybe $50 million. Then I/we had made $7,280,300 from December 29, 2014. To yesterdays exchange rate. That would be around a week from a 4 months holding time. With a return on investment of 14.5606%. According to my calculations by using a profit calculator. But I'm not sure they include broker fees? So maybe $10,000 deduction for broker fee?

But I guess. You maybe mean long term. As in several years? Yes. Then it's hard to trade currency pairs that way. But a couple months could be very profitable in my opinion. If you got some capital and knows what you are doing.

 

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[CarrieW]

I am going crazy lol. My One trade aud/USD went positive some and I didn't close it it's neg again lol. Grrrr. I hate being stuck.

 

[TennisOrDie]

If you can time all that. Then you will of course make more money than someone who just sit with a trade for 2 months and then closes it. But you will sit glued to a computer screen much more I guess too. I rather work like 15 minutes a day. Checking trades and make 2000 pips a month. Than to work 4-8 hours a day and make 3000 pips a month. Just me though.

I don't agree with this. Had I got an investor that could put in maybe $50 million. Then I/we had made $7,280,300 from December 29, 2014. To yesterdays exchange rate. That would be around a week from a 4 months holding time. With a return on investment of 14.5606%. According to my calculations by using a profit calculator. But I'm not sure they include broker fees? So maybe $10,000 deduction for broker fee?

But I guess. You maybe mean long term. As in several years? Yes. Then it's hard to trade currency pairs that way. But a couple months could be very profitable in my opinion. If you got some capital and knows what you are doing.

You talk a lot on this forum. How successful are you in real life? Not trying to come off as a dick.

 

[Maxjohan]

You talk a lot on this forum. How successful are you in real life? Not trying to come off as a dick.

How successful are you?? Just wondering. Nah. I am not that successful. But I will be. So it doesn't F*cking matters.

And what do you mean with "talk a lot"? I have around 300 posts since 2011.

Had to edit my post. To what I really feel like it should be like.

 

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[bringitnow28329]

How successful are you?? Just wondering. Nah. I am not that successful. But I will be. So it doesn't F*cking matters.

And what do you mean with "talk a lot"? I have around 300 posts since 2011.

Had to edit my post. To what I really feel like it should be like.

The reason for day trading over swing trading or position trading, is because you can have more of a salary. It's not a guaranteed 9-5er slave worker salary, but your "average" daily profits can add up to for example $1000 per day to a fixed amount, if you learn to be consistent (which most people don't ever become for several reasons.) At the same time compounding means that as your account size grows, the risk you can accept becomes larger, and therefore your expected returns do as well. When you swing trade, position trade or buy and hold for the long term, you don't have any sort of salary so to speak.

On top of this as another person said, when you don't have thousands of dollars on the line, it's much easier to sleep at night. Also a strategy has to suit a person personality. Some people will never be successful at day trading, but when they don't have to look at the screen all the time they will thrive due to their patience. Other's will be successful in the short term taking profits quickly, due to extreme discipline (like myself), but in the long term they will want to take profits to fast and swing trading just won't work for them due to the fact you must let profits run for days weeks or months.

And yes I am a full time professional trader with 12 years experience so I am not just pulling this out of my @ss like some people here who have no experience and are just regurgitating what they read online.

 

[TennisOrDie]

How successful are you?? Just wondering. Nah. I am not that successful. But I will be. So it doesn't F*cking matters.

And what do you mean with "talk a lot"? I have around 300 posts since 2011.

Had to edit my post. To what I really feel like it should be like.

I mean that you seem like you know all the right things to say, but do you take any action? If you're so positive you know how currencies will perform then you would have to be a dumb a$$ to not invest.

My problem with you is that you seem to be all talk. You talk about trading as if it is easy, yet you have no money on the line. Trading is simple, not easy.

How successful am I? I'm a 19 year old college student. Every day I wake up and trade. I love what I do. So I would say I am very successful.

 

[TennisOrDie]

The reason for day trading over swing trading or position trading, is because you can have more of a salary. It's not a guaranteed 9-5er slave worker salary, but your "average" daily profits can add up to for example $1000 per day to a fixed amount, if you learn to be consistent (which most people don't ever become for several reasons.) At the same time compounding means that as your account size grows, the risk you can accept becomes larger, and therefore your expected returns do as well. When you swing trade, position trade or buy and hold for the long term, you don't have any sort of salary so to speak.

On top of this as another person said, when you don't have thousands of dollars on the line, it's much easier to sleep at night. Also a strategy has to suit a person personality. Some people will never be successful at day trading, but when they don't have to look at the screen all the time they will thrive due to their patience. Other's will be successful in the short term taking profits quickly, due to extreme discipline (like myself), but in the long term they will want to take profits to fast and swing trading just won't work for them due to the fact you must let profits run for days weeks or months.

And yes I am a full time professional trader with 12 years experience so I am not just pulling this out of my @ss like some people here who have no experience and are just regurgitating what they read online.

This. It's not about what is the best way to trade. It's what is the best way for ME to trade. Browse any trading forum and you'll soon realize that trading is a game where you learn about yourself. The market just reflects back at you your beliefs and your actions.

 

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[bringitnow28329]

Technically yeah. Unless a snb Move happens haha. I am at very low leverage. Stops are for sissies lol. Just kidding, but I don't like them...

If you place a stop in an obvious area like the most recent support, you will be stopped out every time. If you place tight stop you will be stopped out every time. If you trade without stops you can get by, but what happens when a situation like several months ago when Switzerland pulled out of the Euro and the currency shot up 15%. You blow up your account. The key to stops is making sure you know the patterns and the markets internal framework. Once you know this you simply just wait for the proper setup (and no I am not talking about head and shoulders and cup and handle and all that useless bs that the guru's spew out. You have to make sure before you enter that all of the retail stops have just been triggered. The way as you are entering you have the odds in your favor. You still will get stopped out sometimes and that's okay.

 

[Maxjohan]

I mean that you seem like you know all the right things to say, but do you take any action? If you're so positive you know how currencies will perform then you would have to be a dumb a$$ to not invest.

Nah. I don't feel it's my thing. Morally. I think it's too rigged for me. I wouldn't feel good knowing how many people lose their money.
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/sep/26/banks-fine-currency-rigging

My problem with you is that you seem to be all talk. You talk about trading as if it is easy, yet you have no money on the line. Trading is simple, not easy.

What do you mean, trading is simple? Do you mean trading is simple but making money is hard?

It's not that hard. Unless you are going to specualate on a daily basis. Which I don't think is easy. All you need to do is find all fx bank forecasts from banks around the world. Then compare previous months and years and see which banks made the best predictions. That's what I would do if I was trying to make money from Forex. Then. Bet on the currency pairs yielding the bigggest future gains for you.