Need some information | FOREX Trading

[bringitnow28329]

What do you when you lose your internet connection while watching a trade? I mean completely lose access to the internet, for hours or days.

I have access to my trading platform on my phone. I also use a battery backup unit . Otherwise call the broker and have them liquidate positions.

 

[V8Bill]

companies spending billions to get their computers in the same cabinet as the exchange so they get less latency and make more money.

I have a rented computer within 3 miles of the NY exchange so I can get a 2ms ping (sometimes better). It's not that expensive (quite affordable actually) and I run some automatic trading scripts off it. It's all within grasp of the normal trader if they wish and it does make a difference. It trades really fast and has made up to 5 pips difference from a copy trading local machine that just couldn't keep up. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. I chose to join 'em.

You're right about the demo accounts. The dealers put them on the slowest connections and aside from the wrong use (they should be used to test new strategies - not learn real life trading) they can be slower and have frequent stops in trading.

 

[ALC]

I've been casually reading through this thread, but didn't really have anything to comment on. I traded foreign exchange back in 2004 and then I did some futures trading in 2011. Trading is a difficult endeavor, but it can be managed if one doesn't go at it with the intention of making millions of dollars in one day. The idea should be that you find your edge, create your system, and then trade your 'signals.' If you have a system that is profitable 70% of the time, but you're only taking 10% of the signals, you're going to have a bad time and say it's too hard.

Secondly, I found the best angle to take is that you think about a daily goal and then you stop trading when you reach that -- unless the trade is wildly in your favor. If you try to profit $10 million a year, you may always feel like you're behind. If you try to profit $100 per day, you are setting smaller goals that are more achievable. Even on a smaller account, maybe you go for $5 or $10. Whatever. I learned this a little too late and never got ahead. String a bunch of wins together and you're going to make a ton of money.

The great thing is that if you can trade 1 lot, you can trade 2 lots. And if you can trade 2 lots, you can trade 3 lots. It's hugely scaleable. Then, before you know it, you'll be trading an amount that actually affects the fills you get! What a great problem to have!

I'm just going to leave a few resources here:

I'm a huge fan of trading on Price Action using Support and Resistance zones. I highly recommend the book, "Reading Price Charts Bar By Bar," by Al Brooks.
For some mindset issues, "Trading In the Zone" and "The Disciplined Trader" by Mark Douglas.
Lastly, read through this thread regarding Forex Price Action: Forex Price Action
I'm not sure you'll find a better resource on how to trade foreign exchange. It took me awhile to find because they redesigned the website so I wasn't familiar with what it looked like. Anyway, it is the most viewed thread on that forum with 5.2M views. Once you get an idea of what he is teaching, you can tailor it to your own trading. If I got back into trading foreign exchange, I would probably do what he teaches. I actually set up a demo account a couple years ago when I was going through it and made some profitable trades. I got bored with it after awhile, though, because it wasn't real money.

All of this talk of day trading is getting me amped up. I loved it when I did it, but I could never get past the psychological hurdles. I was using money I didn't need, but it was money I didn't want to lose. I will probably get back into it some day. Maybe I'll get into the micro-lots when I have the time and focus to dedicate toward it.

And, just as a short disclaimer, I've traded stocks, foreign exchange, crude oil futures, foreign exchange futures, the e-mini S&P. I've made every mistake in the book. I almost lost $8,000 in one trade in 2004 because I traded minutes before a Fed meeting and the EURUSD bounced around like a pinball machine. I still don't know how I didn't get a margin call. Don't do that!

Many thanks for the advice I'm looking at his Forex Price Action thread, it look interesting!

 

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[ALC]

Hi,

I've been very interested about Trading currencies / cryptocurrencies and FOREX for months, training with a demo account but not regularly but i'm curious about the subject.

I got some questions for those who are actually trading and are successful in this domain :

- To make good profit, do i need trading with hundreds to gets thousands or i must put thousands to get thousands ? (Making 40k per year would be a good thing and then growing slowly but surely the account)
- Can you do Forex Trading for a living ? I love the idea of working at home and make the same amount that i'm currently doing or even more.

-Do you got some recommandations before starting ? (Books, websites, stories...)


Thanks !

 

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[amp0193]

@putinwork

 

[ALC]

Horrible advice. Where's your 100 million? Odds of winning 100 times in a row = 1 / (2^100) in theory. You'd be much better off playing the lottery because it has a much higher standard deviation. People who trade Forex typically lose all of their money because they don't know math.

If you lose 15% of your balance you need a 17.64% gain to break even. The bigger the lot size the faster you'll be losing money. Below is a chart that randomly has -15% or +15% account performance which is realistic as to what you'll be getting without any trading fees/spread. My advice to OP is to avoid Forex daytrading or have a position larger than account balance because it theoretically has a negative rate of return.

View attachment 16099 View attachment 16100

Horrible advice. Where's your 100 million? Odds of winning 100 times in a row = 1 / (2^100) in theory. You'd be much better off playing the lottery because it has a much higher standard deviation. People who trade Forex typically lose all of their money because they don't know math.

If you lose 15% of your balance you need a 17.64% gain to break even. The bigger the lot size the faster you'll be losing money. Below is a chart that randomly has -15% or +15% account performance which is realistic as to what you'll be getting without any trading fees/spread. My advice to OP is to avoid Forex daytrading or have a position larger than account balance because it theoretically has a negative rate of return.

View attachment 16099 View attachment 16100

Of course you won't be winning everytime, of course making 100 millions in a year is impossible in Trading when you're just getting started, but his point is that i need to learn the basics and then start to trade on a daily basis, learn how to react and control the emotion of winning/losing money.
Then go deeper and everytime, trying to be familiar with every technics and try to see where i fail, and try to avoid the same fail.

By the way, i will bet only 3% of my account in any trade.
Being supported by a confirmed and successful trader would be very nice, to be able to learn the very essential and master the craft and got someone to correct you when you're going wrong or entering a losing trade..

Hope i'm a natural ! If not i got work

 

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[Alexo]

I work for an Investment Company but our strategy is investing in stable long term quality companies and we don't trade often. I don't know of anyone that was able to make a living trading daily on small amounts of money.

I am not saying you can't do it but what you need is some insight or system you can trade off of and you will have to be able to cover the trading fees which is one of the downsides of trading constantly. There are some hedge funds that trade on algorithms like Renaissance Technologies where they try to identify events that make the market/stock move and then back test for significance. These algorithms make money on average and Renaissance's returns have been spectacular (30-40% compounded) for some years but I recently read that they have been struggling, probably due to low volatility in the market and algorithms slowly losing strength.

I personally would not trade daily because it is in my too hard basket but who knows, maybe you could find a system to make money.

 

[PersistentlyHungry]

@V8Bill you seem to know a lot about this subject, can you recommend any tutorials for beginners? Hoping to avoid false advice here.
Thanks!

 

[ALC]

@PersistentlyHungry There ya go. Follow @MidwestLandlord lead for lessons.

@MidwestLandlord ; It is a lot of fun and I know exactly what you mean. Like I said, I think it's the best show on earth. I also used to trade options almost exactly as @MJ DeMarco does now - selling Credit Put Spreads. I actually coached it for a while back from 2005-2012. It's a good safe method. Selling options is one of the best and safest money making methods I've come across.

Back to FX; Lately I've been trading naked (but fully clothed...lol oh the horror) charts. Indicators are tempting but can be sirenic in nature (they lure you onto the rocks). I'm generally focusing on M1 and M5 and I only trade EUR/USD and sometimes GBP/USD (M5). As for lot sizing, I use 1 lot per k (about 1/3 the account balance) which naturally compounds and cools as I win and lose.

What about using support/resistance levels, candlesticks and crossovers ?
I mean that help a lot, but does not work everytime, unfortunately.

So with 100$ in the trade account, how many do you put in the trade ?

 

[V8Bill]

Scalping on 1 and 5 minute time frames? Intense!

So when you are not actively trading, you have no positions on at all, no?

Scalping the M1 and M5 is a rush!

No, I never leave the computer when a trade is on. I went for a piss once, lost thousands. The opposite has also happened...lol but seriously, no, no unattended trades. That's kooky talk.

 

[Baku85]

Hi Man,
actually I have some experience in this area.
about 8-9 month ago, I decided to give trading a chance. For some many years I had this feeling in my body, that trading, market is so exciting!
Ive started reading books, Murphys technical analysis bible, trader Vic, about candle sticks and some others. Many blogs, many articles, forums.

In daily job Im software developer, so of course I was doing automated bots, MT4 gives you feature that you can test your strategy over past time.
And guess what, 1-2% depending on currencys pairs - 1-2% yearly, just count how less it is then sub inflation.
But it was just technical analysis of course, of course there are better algorithms, look at current IT industry, machine learning everywhere!
If still some traders are doing money in scalping etc. its just a matter of time they wont.
Trading on M1-M5 - tell me what under it ? Are those real market situations moved to this graph ? Or its just some random stuff.
Dont believe in stories that you can learn 100.000.000 - come on ? Really ? If you can make on forex so much money, just using simple price action, candles , or SMA ? I will repeat my self - really ?
You know who earn money there ? People like - Warren Buffer, Gerge Soros.
But its not directly they can earn money there, by for example lowing down some currency, they can invest later in this country, as prices went down etc. Then they can earn 100.000.000.

If you dont belive me, and for what I encourage you is to check your strategy by your self , damn simple even if you can not code.
Print out for example 5h of M1/M5 EUR/USD. By using another piece of paper cover the graph, and move and move, look for signals, note it, note how much would you put there, then lost or won - its so simple, give for it even 10h , whole weekend even, but CHECK IT.
You will see then if your dreams can come true or not.

I dont want to say that oh this market is so bad etc. NO - Im still reading one blog, this guy is investing not in forex but in market exchange in one country, he is doing great great fundamental analysis, always checking his strategy etc. He is putting 10% of his wallet there, 15% there etc.
He is earning +/- 10% yearly, always putting his results in internet.

He lives from it.
Now ring bell in head, 10% yearly, well its nice, but ok to make living from it, how much money in investing wallet I need to have ? Plus how much money I need to have as savings, for living ?

But DONT read, hear people who are saying you can earn money there, and do it - NO. Its so easy to check, print graphs, cover and start trading on paper. Btw there are even softwares to make forex trading, maybe invest 50$ ( I don't remember how much it was really ) for such soft, and make there your trades on some past scenarions, train there. It will be X invested for checking, but better put 50$ and see you are losing in trading, then lost 500$ there and then say ah Im loosing...

EDIT:
Ok Ive found this software: Forex Tester - professional forex training software, simulator and backtester

well its much more than 50$ 299$.. Anyway I still believe its better to put money there , then lost much more. But this paper covering is free.

 

[Baku85]

Really? Based on what? Your feelings? The fact that you couldn't? There are thousands probably millions of traders all making money "scalping" or taking small bites at the market. To say they will all eventually lose is ludicrous and based on nothing.

And its matter of time machines will do it better then them. Machines will do strategy in 100%, without emotions, or going to toilet.
This is my opinion, I can of course be wrong

Yes, really. Why not? Because you haven't done it? Because you've never seen anyone do it? Is that the extent of the evidence upon which you base your disbelief? A bit poor.

Also, you should read what I wrote a little more carefully and not just look at the one hundred million dollar example and balk insultingly just because it's a big number. There are just as many people who don't believe that making $1,000 is not possible. Just because someone thinks it's too good to be true doesn't make it false. It just means they have to lift what they think is too good. I've done plenty of impossible things in my 50 years on this earth and the only thing that made them impossible is that humans said they were "impossible". I did them anyway. There are plenty of 4 minute miles.

If people think the Forex market won't deliver you millions you're sadly mistaken. Sorry. It's not only possible it happens daily. Doubts don't make it untrue. I've personally made tens of thousands of dollars in just a few minutes and personally witnessed many multi million dollar (profit) trades. If it doesn't suit you that's fine but to discourage others just because you failed isn't very cool. Caution, warn, advise and tell us about your experiences - that's fine. But don't mock based solely on your experiences alone. It isn't helpful and really only achieves one thing.

Maybe you are right - btw. whats you last year ROI in % ?

I think I agree with this. I always advise to start with small amounts and compound to the larger amounts.

Well for this my post coming to, look at my story I had strategy making 1-2% in year, which is not good. But what I wanted to say by this is that I have checked this before putting money into. Who knows maybe he will do even 15% yearly or 150%. Checking on backtesting before believe in stories about easy money.

 

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[V8Bill]

And its matter of time machines will do it better then them. Machines will do strategy in 100%,

Can't wait! I'll be the first to buy one.

Maybe you are right - btw. whats you last year ROI in % ?

None of your god damn business. I'm not selling anything here. It's irrelevant. Was I a full time trader all of last year or part of it? Did I use Forex to make some money to spend on other things? Did I make money or lose money? Which day? Which week? Which month? Which hour? Which minute? Asking such an inane question lowers you to the level of a scoundrel mischief maker who's run out of argument.

Who knows maybe he will do even 15% yearly

I did 15% on Tuesday, 32% last Wednesday and 65% on Thursday. Means nothing without context. Anyone who doesn't believe you can make thousands of percent return in the forex market in a year doesn't know the forex market and is a dabbler at best. Ask serious questions and you'll get serious answers.

 

[Baku85]

Can't wait! I'll be the first to buy one.

Come on, doing trades based only on graph can be easily replaced by machine..
Doing trades based on informations rather not.

None of your god damn business. I'm not selling anything here. It's irrelevant. Was I a full time trader all of last year or part of it? Did I use Forex to make some money to spend on other things? Did I make money or lose money? Which day? Which week? Which month? Which hour? Which minute? Asking such an inane question lowers you to the level of a scoundrel mischief maker who's run out of argument.

omg man, why you so overreacted ? I only wanted to help this guy before loosing his money.
Many ppl over internet are claiming they have earned much money on forex, many of them works for brokers etc.
I wanted give this guy only advice, to CHECK.

yes its not my business , but you said about earning 1000$ so I thought question about ROI is not so bad.

I did 15% on Tuesday, 32% last Wednesday and 65% on Thursday. Means nothing without context. Anyone who doesn't believe you can make thousands of percent return in the forex market in a year doesn't know the forex market and is a dabbler at best. Ask serious questions and you'll get serious answers.

Btw. its difference by having ROI 50% in week vs year.

Do you think its wise to believe someone on internet forum that he is earning good money on forex, and put own money there ?
In my opinion not, Im not saying you are not doing, if you are than great, all the best, really. I did not wanted to attack you man.

My goal of post was to open thinking to this guy, to check everything by him self, use some backtesting methods. I dont care if you earn 10%, 100%.
My post was to this guy, and please stop overreacting.

I did not wanted to be rude, sorry if you got it this way.

 

[V8Bill]

Ok fair enough but I'm not really just "some guy on the internet" I have a little reputation here and have written many times on stock market. If he does his research into who's talking it'll give him a little confidence. Your question about "so how much have you earned last year" came across as hands on hips tongue poking out. What I earn is irrelevant unless I'm trying to sell something which I'm not. I'm sharing my real experience and beliefs based on my own real trades and thousands of hours of trading and screen time. Tens of thousands if we go back to when I started in 2004.

Also, I'm deadly serious about the machines. I can't wait and I'll be buying a full trading machine as soon as it's been proven reliable and I can program it with reliability and my own personal goals in mind. I've tried many EAs and some do well and some don't. I'm actually using half a machine right now and doing quite well. Parameters still have to be entered each morning but I have a good conservative operator with many years experience assisting me. Machines don't have emotions (as you pointed out) and can act much faster than mere humans. That's why I can't wait for a decent trading machine to be invented that suits my style.

I'll stop "over" reacting when you stop thinly veiled casting aspersions. I've dealt with hundreds of hecklers who's personal failures prevent them from believing any claims, projections or ideas that are bigger than they can comprehend. I've had the "so how much did YOU earn [insert time period]?" many times. It rarely comes from a good place. I can hold my own and if I'm not selling anything I don't have to prove anything. Everything I've said in this thread can be checked in a few minutes with a calculator and a live day chart. I presume the OP will do exactly that.

 

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[Baku85]

@V8Bill
As i said, my intention was not to offend you, Im sorry that my posts were not clear in this and you could get this in this way.

Good luck. It can be done but you have to like doing it and you have to know why and how to size your trades. As a guide; when you're consistent you can often trade 1 lot per $1,000 at 500:1 leverage which sadly you can't get in the U.S. because your government wants to protect you from yourself but for the rest of us out here it's the norm. As for which broker to use (they're actually called dealers not brokers) I can't advise unless you're an Australia in which case I'd suggest IC Markets. There are a few dealers who'll accept US traders and offer 500:1 leverage - look around and believe in yourself. You can do it.

Btw. are you not scared that you inverst 1$, of course you can get 500$, but end with -500$, or thats why you play in M1/M5 because of not big changes in this time period.

 

[Rabelo]

and oh yeah, you probably gonna want to delete smaller time frames from your MT4..NEVER use those. Use 1H, 4H,DAILY,WEEKLY AND MONTHLY

 

[ALC]

Thanks for your answers guys, i will surely have a look at everything asap, been busy contacting/meeting everyone for my business.
I really think his way of trading and compounding wins is possible, but only is you're good enough to win 2-3 times a day, but if you lose 2 trades in a row, than you might have to double your effort to get to the point you were before losing money.(normal)

@Rabelo Why ? I use all of them but it depend if you're looking for short term or long term trade. For short term trade i will look at all of them but only taking my decision with M1/M5.

I think using indicators are a great way to see where the trend is going, but maybe i'm wrong ?

 

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[V8Bill]

and oh yeah, you probably gonna want to delete smaller time frames from your MT4..NEVER use those. Use 1H, 4H,DAILY,WEEKLY AND MONTHLY

I rarely look at the longer time frames (maybe the 1 hour occasionally) but I do all my trading on the M1 and M5. In and out - all done. But what matters in the end is the results. If you can make tiny trades go a very long way then you might get ok results leaving your trades on for such long periods of times but all the big fast money is made in the shorter time frames in my experience. Then again, I'd never ever leave a trade on overnight or if I'm not sitting watching it and I never use stop losses. Still, I'm open to being convinced - especially if the results are overall better over a week but if I have to wait a month for a tiny weeny little trade to come back with a 1% return that's still better than leaving it in the bank I suppose but not for me. I have much more work I need my money to do.

 

[Baku85]

@V8Bill - I know you wont ofc share your strategy. But what Ive read in this thread, you dont set your SL and use high leverage right ?
It sounds damn risky I assume no SL to avoid some situations like one big buy/sell after which after is not going, and you are before screen anyway all the time, bit this big leverage interest me. You must have some strategy which have very good signals right?

 

[ALC]

@V8Bill - I know you wont ofc share your strategy. But what Ive read in this thread, you dont set your SL and use high leverage right ?
It sounds damn risky I assume no SL to avoid some situations like one big buy/sell after which after is not going, and you are before screen anyway all the time, bit this big leverage interest me. You must have some strategy which have very good signals right?

I don't see many people being lucky with trading that's what scares me, but trading is very interesting

 

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[Baku85]

More clear - thanks

 

[ALC]

So are you trading by your own mainly or are these traders doing it for you?

 

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[loop101]

A note about trading systems. There are no trading systems that work or do not work. There are also no trading systems that are currently working, or are not currently working.

There are trading systems that are either currently working or not currently working, for you. This is why famed trend-trader Ed Seykota focuses on Fred:

"Everyone has a Fred, and all the Freds connect together. Under Fred is the primary communication network that connects all the Freds. Fred instinctively knows if another Fred appears to be a good ally, in creating a drama to help communicate a PW experience to CM. When Freds recognize each other as useful to each other in this way, we feel "chemistry." People from abusive childhoods typically find an irresistibly strong visceral attraction for an abuser, and may even select one for a mate."

How other professional traders see Ed Seykota:

Seykota is focused on a trader's emotions. He mastered the technical aspects of trading in the early 70s, when he invented systems trading. He gives away his systems on his site. My point being, don't really listen to me, or anyone else, about what is possible. If something is working for you, then it is working for you. If someone says something does or does not work, they don't know what they are talking about. Just be aware of the odds at work in the game you are playing.

 

[bringitnow28329]

It is risky and yes I use 500:1 leverage. All trading is risky to some degree. Stop losses have their place and I sometimes set one but very far away so I'm not totally wiped out by a freak wave but that very rarely happens in my experience and these waves tend to generally be somewhat predictable at news events.

One example was when some lunatic decided to fire a missile over Japan but that was a wave that happened over many candles and given that I trade super short term I saw something happening and we pulled out within our parameters although it went against us. **it happens. It's gambling and unexpected things can happen. But stop losses make more money for the dealers than they save the traders. If I was to rely on stop losses it would mean I wasn't confident of my trade which also means I probably shouldn't be in one.

But you're right, as I mentioned earlier, these days I'm mostly (cautiously) using other people's signals or I have traders trading for me. Traders I use have very high success rates and they trade my money for a share in the profits. We've been doing quite well lately but ask me to explain their system and I would have a very hard time. I don't really need to know. All I want to see is blue numbers on the app. I wish I could be more help.

You don't use stop losses most of the time and you trade 500:1 leverage. That is two pieces of information which should make every person run as far away from what you say... It's funny how a person can go online and talk nonsense about anything and have a group of people believe their bs.

 

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[bringitnow28329]

Whatever you do, in my 2 cent opinion, never use indicators, i have been trading Forex for 3 years and my advice would be , start to learn PRICE. any market with buyers and sellers, price is what matters.study price action never put an indicator on your charts.

I've been trading full time since 2002. I use indicators, but not in the way that the technical analysis books say you should. All these oscillators are useless for the most part but statistical indicators can be very useful and they have allowed me to earn a living in the market.

 

[ALC]

I've been trading full time since 2002. I use indicators, but not in the way that the technical analysis books say you should. All these oscillators are useless for the most part but statistical indicators can be very useful and they have allowed me to earn a living in the market.

I think the only solution to make an opinion of everything we've said from the beginning is to start Trading and use every strategies i can find online and try different techniques.

 

[Baku85]

Well for me 1:500 leverage + no/big stop loss at first sound crazy also, but it have some sense.
Trading on M1:M5 has less chances for HUGE changes than on H4,D.
It sounds crazy but have some logic in it

 

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[V8Bill]

You don't use stop losses most of the time and you trade 500:1 leverage. That is two pieces of information which should make every person run as far away from what you say... It's funny how a person can go online and talk nonsense about anything and have a group of people believe their bs.

I was just thinking the same thing.

 

[V8Bill]

I think it's just as crazy to get up and walk away from a trade and rely on stop losses to do your thinking for you. That, to me, says you have no idea what you're doing and just rolling dice and playing the odds. I sit and make decisions on the fly every second based on many different aspects. To me that means more control, not less.