Forex trading?

[fivestarredflag]

Anyone here does forex trading? I've been stock trading from time to time and average a gain of about 20-35k per year. Most of my friends recommend that I start looking into forex when I have more capital. Ive probably read a few articles on forex and dont know much about it. Anyone doing well with it?

 

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[ddinnov]

I trade a 5 figure live account. FX has lots of volume and volatility so really read up and thoroughly test a strategy before going live.

I love it

 

[Martinv678]

I recommend it, I have a demo trading account and have done a handful of successful live trades. I would definitely say learn the ropes before you go in and also learn about good money management other wise you could find yourself with no trading capital! Good luck.

 

[Singularity]

When I asked about Forex on Reddit, one resource was pointed out to me: http://www.forexfactory.com/showthread.php?t=2331

There is a lot of information to absorb but I've learned a lot from it!

 

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[Berters]

I've spent a lot of time studying Forex and would definitely like to pursue it further. As Singularity mentioned it seems like there's a strong following for James16's charts, I've only really demo traded with clean charts myself looking at strong support and resistance levels. Very volatile and a lot of potential!

 

[ddinnov]

When I asked about Forex on Reddit, one resource was pointed out to me: http://www.forexfactory.com/showthread.php?t=2331

There is a lot of information to absorb but I've learned a lot from it!

That's where I learnt as well. I'm also a lifetime member of James' private forum. There are not many good guys in FX but James, Mike, Jaroo, Ghous etc are some of the nicest guys I've met online as well as some of the best traders. The private forum has a guest section with a ton of free videos which will cut the learning curve significantly. The link is at the bottom of the guest disclaimer page:

http://www.james16group.us/guestdisclaimer.html

This link takes you straight to the videos:

http://www.james16group.us/Guests/guestmaterial.html

I have the same forum username over at FF - must stop by and say hello to the J16ers

 

[Guest3722A]

@Berters I'm not so keen on private messages until someone has quite a few posts here. It's not a biggie, just sayin'. Also, my focus isn't on trading at this point because I have some other lovin cookin in the oven. With that said, the best advice I can give for finding an edge would be to identify something that happens all the time in a price chart. Whether 15 minute, hourly, two hourly, daily, weekly, tick charts etc - whatever fits in with your gut, and then figure out all the ways necessary to harness it, using rule based mechanical stops (trailing stops don't work for me) and other additional protections to save you from the tyranny of the media.

I can give you a quick example of an idea of where to start, but this example isn't something new, and has flaws (major- but i think can be controlled), but hopefully will show you a basic edge.

Take any time or tick framed price chart, i don't know, maybe a daily?? Put a moving average on it that touches each and every bar, making sure its not too sensitive. When a new bar starts, and isn't touching that moving average, take a position that profits when the price goes towards that average. edit: this works best with something that isn't volitile but boring. I'm adding this because I know where the thought process will go with some

Then add things to reduce your risk. Like, knowing the average trading range of each bar, and calculating that in prior to taking a position. Knowing when helicopter ben (or whoever the new person is) will be speaking. Have protective stops in place to get you out quick when your EXACT SYSTEM TO THE TICK shows something uncharacteristic. etc

I also have found auction market theory to be really interesting with tick charts on the euro/dollar , but it has to be in combination with other technicals.

Personally though, I think you'd be better off selling things like the big dogs on this site do. THAT is control and seems to be more liquid than trading. Trading will always be there for me because the puzzle of it is what i enjoy so much, but I've got something else going that I think will blow it out of the water, and if that fails, I've got 3 back up ideas I believe could potentially do extremely well with the right execution, all of which fall into the perimeters of CENTS. And I have more actually brewing.

Changing the world I think is the real puzzle to solve

 

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[Berters]

@topherea I appreciate that, thanks. I'm already on my way to getting products manufactured, it's just something that has always interested me in my spare time cheers

 

[PV123]

Hello everyone.. How is your trading? I am looking for someone here that has follow trading to the fast lane to millions.

 

[BlokeInProgress]

I've attended a seminar and had a private lesson with someone active in the market yet unfortunately I couldn't start due to my slowlane job. How much time a day do you guys trade?

I was told that 3-4hrs is quite a start.

 

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[loop101]

I would first determine how frequently you want to trade, and then see if you can find any edges in that timeframe. It also helps to evaluate other systems that operate in that timeframe. Ideally, you will have a way to test ideas out, which implies having software and historical data.

What I suggest, is read some of Larry Connors books on "high-probability trading", and then try to replicate his process in Forex. Connors stuff was published in 2008, and still works. I applied his approach to Forex and eventually found an edge which I am currently in the process of vetting. I don't mean apply his ETF systems to FX, I mean take his general approach to finding edges and apply it to FX.

The certainty of your edge will determine how much leverage you can use. When I trade my edge with 8 pairs simultaneously, the gain is small, but accuracy is very high, and allows me to use 50:1 leverage.

If you want explosive profits, you will have to accept that there will be no safe way to do it. You will have to be willing to risk all your money if you are trying to go from $1k to $100k. I am personally seeking unsustainable short-term profits. One last thing, since Forex is decentralized, remember who you are taking money from - your broker! If you get too successful, they will watch what you are doing, and plan accordingly.

 

[BlokeInProgress]

If you get too successful, they will watch what you are doing, and plan accordingly.

Thank you for the reply and the warning @loop101

 

[Nicoknowsbest]

If you want explosive profits, you will have to accept that there will be no safe way to do it. You will have to be willing to risk all your money if you are trying to go from $1k to $100k.

This is totally true. I have some experiences in forex and also worked with a broker for quite a while. Before you start, you have to accept that what @loop101 said: if you want high profits in a really short period of time, you have to risk all your capital. In this case, you would not be trading anymore, but simply gambling, and we all know how this can go. The problem with this approach is that you might get lucky a couple of times when starting out but it only takes you to be wrong on time and you will burn all your capital. If you have a proper trading strategy including money management, you will never risk losing most of your capital at once.

If you get too successful, they will watch what you are doing, and plan accordingly.

I highly recommend everyone that is starting out to study the system behind. You have to understand why people with small pockets can suddenly trade forex (before the progression of the Internet, you needed around 10-15 million bucks to seriously think about trading fx). You have to be aware why brokers give you leverage of up to 1:500 - do you think it is healthy to trade a volume of $ 500.000 with a $ 1000 deposit (it is NOT). You need to understand how and why a broker makes money from you and your trading activity. As @loop101 mentioned, certain types of brokers will move you to different accounts. Keyword: market maker. A market maker in forex basically takes liquidity from the biggest banks and creates his own market for his clients. A market maker basically matches the opposite sides of trades (buy & sell) among his clients. If there is no match to be found, the market maker himself HAS to take the opposite side of a client's trade. This is one of the reasons why market makers move very successful clients to other accounts (ECN or STP) or might even close their accounts. They are simply too expensive. The alternative is an ECN or STP broker. ECN - Electronic Communications Network or STP - Straight Through Processing basically connects you as a trader directly with the liquidity pool of the big banks without having to go through a market maker. Why can people start trading with $ 100 and a leverage of sometimes even 1:1000? Because the market maker creates his own market and therefore has the power to do these things.

This was just a short intro to what you should know according to my opinion. If you want to know more, just let me know. What is the conclusion? If you want to be on the fastlane, I'd rather focus on building a business (my personal opinion). If you want to go with FX, just be prepared to lose - the leverage you use in fx brings too much risk. The leverage you create by building a business is much healthier and more sustainable.

Hope that helps

 

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[ddinnov]

Haven't posted here for a while but I'm testing out edges based on Elliot Wave principle combined with Fibonacci numbers.

No Holy grail but - wow, establishing where the trend is and where it's likely to pause/reverse is really nice.

I'm doing very well in impulsive (5 wave) moves and getting my arse handed to be in choppy sideways corrective moves.

Elliot wave/Fibonnaci is a big subject with a lot to learn and a lot to practice - but for anyone who's prepared to put the time in I can recommend it as a way to analyse the bigger picture and even develop a strategy around.

I'm calibrating/testing on a simulator called forex tester - just the ticketr although I'd like an easy way to import stock/commodity/index data.

 

[CarrieW]

I wanted to post a link to the other BIG forex thread that has been going for a long time... https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/any-active-forex-traders-here.4419/

there is A LOT of stuff discussed in that thread.

I haven't traded my way to the fast lane but I am always watching and always have trades going

I love forex. I have been watching it for a long time I am curious to see what I can do in the tamer markets now. I will never stop forex but I want to branch out into other markets soon

 

[Nicoknowsbest]

Haven't posted here for a while but I'm testing out edges based on Elliot Wave principle combined with Fibonacci numbers.

This is a very food way to start. Just be careful with the pitfalls of Elliot Waves (e.g.: it is hard to decided whether a wave is a retracement or a reversal in the beginning). Best thing to do is to test everything on demo accounts, which are usually for free.

I wanted to post a link to the other BIG forex thread that has been going for a long time... https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/any-active-forex-traders-here.4419/

Thanks a lot for the hint, will read through it!

The thing with trading and especially forex is the following: what do you expect in terms of annual growth potential? What are your goals? If you don't use a lot of leverage (which you shouldn't!), you have to start with quite some capital. If you want to grow your investment by hundreds of percent a year, you have to be aware of the fact that one wrong trade can cost you a lot, if not everything. I'm very interested in FX too, since it is a fascinating market. I just decided for myself that it won't be my road to the fastlane, which doesn't mean that I will stop trading

What do you think is a realistic annual growth rate for a good trader (not gambler)?
Let me know your thoughts

 

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