The Active Forex Traders Discussion

[loop101]

EUR/USD finally went positive for me yesterday after approximately one month of holding this trade. This was the longest I have ever held a trade before. After seeing numbers like -$600 I feel like nothing can phase me anymore. I feel rejuvenated in trading and almost a sense of comfort now. I looked back at all my old trades and realized if I had held all of them instead of panicking and taking loses, all of them could have easily been winners.

I just want to give a shout out to @CarrieW, who help me stay strong and gave me confidence to keep going. I like how you put smiley face icons even when you are down in negative profits and make trading feel fun and light. And a quote that stuck out to me most



This.

Still stuck in a negative trade with GBP/USD, -700pips. But I am not as concerned anymore

If you trade a system that will allow, say, -500 pip loss to get a +50 pip gain, it will win 99% of the time. You can compound your profits and make a lot of money. Until you take the 500 pip loss, and lose all your profit. Unless you took money off the table, and out of the game, you will eventually lose. This strategy is what all the Forex bots, grid traders, and carry traders use.

There are two ways to trade. Make a lot of little wins, and take the occasional massive loss (described above), OR take a lot of little losses and make the occasional home run (as trend traders do).

The method you described is how I got wiped out in 2008, except I was doing carry trades. I was making the interest differential between the two currencies as I waited for a loser to turn in to a winner. The system had +100 pip take-profit, and unlimited loss. I was only initially betting .5% of my account. I was making winning trades for months. The only way I could lose was if there was some kind of worldwide financial calamity. Which is exactly what happened.

http://www.investopedia.com/articles/forex/09/credit-crisis-carry-trade.asp

I'm not saying you should avoid your method of trading, but just be aware of how you can be hurt. There will always be a "black-swan-event" where the trade just keeps going and going and going against you. If you've banked sufficient profits before that happens, you will be fine.

It is true that you don't take losses until a trade is closed, but you also don't take real profits until they are removed from the game.

Trend-trading is not necessarily better. Plenty of trend-traders "die of a thousand cuts" while waiting for their "home run", they just tend to be more aware of their losses because they are constantly taking them.

 

[DedicatedLester]

Hi everyone,

I've mostly been lurking in the entrepreneur side of the forum and never really knew there was a Forex thread/group until now! Here's a little back story on me on how I got into Forex...

Starting out:
I read MJ's book and Rich Dad Poor Dad in my last year in undergraduate. Got really into craving out my own path and actually quit my path on medical school to become an investor. Looking back on it, it was pretty crazy. I started out in real estate - wholesaling. Basically doing arbitrage for the real estate investors. I didn't like the whole scouting for properties physically and scouting for investor leads.

So, I looked into the financial markets. I picked Forex due to the low capital requirements, unlike the stocks where you need like $80k-$100k to day trade for income. Luckily, I found a prop firm to hire me. They wanted some of my skin in the game and taught me from a small account. Funny part is their trading system didn't really connect with my personality, so I quit to go on my own. This was like 2 years ago, and I only stayed with them for around a year.

Only recently, like 7-9 months ago, I learned how to be more quantitative in my approach and really got a system that I like to trade and can improve over time.

Fast forward to now, I am 4 months going with my system live. There's been a ton of volatility (getting like ~15% return monthly swings), but at least the portfolio is performing to expectations. If all goes well, I plan to market it to investors to start a trading firm and eventually hedge fund later down the line.

I'm just really happy to have found another group of like minded individuals in Forex! I hope to continue learning and growing with everyone here, for trading can get taxing at times xD

 

[DedicatedLester]

There might be a few beginner traders still around here. In my other trade groups, some of the newer traders got their accounts whipped out due to poor risk management. I hope everyone didn't get hurt by that GBP fall.

In my case, I got a nice ~20% gain from that dip (screen shot included from my phone). Remember, a good way to last in trading is to always risk a small amount and let those gains compound. It's not as sexy as making a million in a second from $1000, but it's a good place to start. Hope yall got a nice piece of GBP too!

 

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[Marquin Brewer]

i just started my forex journey so we will keep in touch!

Hey fellow trader, I have been trading for about 4 months now so I'm green but starting to change color...I use naked price action and one ema no fancy indicators or Rsi I ditched all that stuff the cleaner your charts are the better you can read price movement the better. Good trading bro..
keep me posted

 

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[Silver Silk]

You make a good point.

In the 10 years that this forum has been around, we don't have ONE Forex success story. Nor have I gotten wind of one.

In the time this thread has started to today, someone could have made millions utilizing a Fastlane strategy and already been set for life. But we're still talking about "I made $200 this week."

And a 60 page thread that is years long demonstrating nothing doesn't bode well.

Not trying to stunt anyone's preferred path for income (or wealth), but this just isn't something I'd be focusing on.

If anything, sounds like the people getting rich are the shovel sellers.

Challenge accepted, ill be the first one!

 

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[FastLaneUzer]

I feel like I can contribute here. I don't really know where to start but I've been trading forex for almost 9 years now and I've made money and lost money, ups and downs and throughout all these years I've come to learn that the biggest enemy of trading success is right there in the mirror. You can develop the most strategic trading method that has a high win rate and you can STILL become unprofitable. I did things the HARD way by learning everything on my own instead of seeking a valid mentor who has been successful trading but in a way I'm glad I learned on my own because it developed my character. Believe it or not trading exposes who you really are because the market does not give a F*ck who you are or how you feel.

• Can you handle being down thousands of dollars in a blink of an eye?
• Can you handle being up $10,000 during the afternoon and come back an hour later to be down -$3,000? or maybe up $100,000 and come back to see you are down -$50,000?
• Can you handle consecutive losses and battle doubt that grows with every losing trade?
• Can you handle getting into a trade and feeling nervous that you are wrong and close the trade only to see the market going tremendously in your anticipated favor?

These are just a very small list of examples but what I'm getting at is trading is one of the most difficult professions on the planet because you have to not only master your trading strategy but also your emotions and psychology. Learning overall take a lot of time but at the end, It can be very rewarding. Here's a few things you need to figure out on your trading journey and it cannot be answered by anyone else because it has to be designed for who you are:

1. What type of trader are you? Day Trader? Swing Trader? Long Term trader?
2. What time frame are you going to be watching? 1Hr? 4Hr? Daily? Weekly? Monthly? A mix?
3. What Currency Pair(s) do you prefer?
4. What tools are you going to use to identify trading opportunities? Indicators? Chart patterns? Trend Lines? A mathematical formula? Fib Retracements? Pivot Pivot points? (list goes on and on)
5. How will you manage risk to keep losses as low as possible? Will your trading strategy give you early warning that you are wrong and to cut losses?
6. What are your weak emotional and mental traits and habits? Do you feel anxiety easily? do you tend to fear missing out? Are you very impatient?
7. What are your strong emotional and mental traits and habits? Are you able to hit the Buy/Sell button without hesitation?(Can also be bad lol), You have no problem sticking to a winning trade? etc.

There's just so much more to add but it's hard to fit everything in one post and so many variables to consider. Again, The biggest battle with trading is not so much with the market and its participants but the battle with yourself. One might think how can the key to success be with mastering yourself? Well because if you don't have self control you will overtrade, you will make impulse trades, you will self sabotage yourself and overthink everything, You will watch CNBC, You will go on forums with thousands of people saying "Its going up! / Its going down!", You will enter a trade and get right back out only to get back in and decide to get back out again, You will try to FORCE the market to give you money but it wont and you can't work harder because you have no control over what the market is doing. All of these things can mind F*ck you pretty easily if you are not careful.

If anyone has questions, I can do my best to answer them and help others out. I know what it's like when you are first learning all this but really the best teacher is going to be Mr. Experience.

 

[CarrieW]

i was just wondering if there are any here. i didnt see any obvious threads on forex when i skimmed here.

i am studying (still) the currency market and would love to have someone to bounce ideas off.

 

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[MQL]

I am a complete newbie, but going through pipschool right now on babypips.com. It is a great resource to get started.

With regards to the brokers, I believe forex.com could be something, as they have a lot of training material, and what I was looking for a Trailing stop on the orders.

For free charts you can download Metatrader4 and open a demo account. I did yesterday and works like a charm. Now I only have to find a way to get profitable...

Good Luck.

Dick

 

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[6.0_bull]

I trade currencies when time permits and have been doing it for almost 7 years and can be very profitable if you know what you are doing , You cant be an engineer overnight and this is like anything else takes a long time and a big learning curve but well worth it. You could also loose your shirt very easley as well, allot faster then the equities markets.

As Shauna states you starting amount to open a trading account varies depending on with FX broker you use and depending if you are trading with a mini account or a standard account with determines your leverage ratio.

My advice is study and study some more and when you’re done that do it all over again, and always start with a practice account most FX brokers provide these types of Demo accounts ….

I would also suggest when you start to trade start with one currency pair, your best bet would be the EUR/US cross and get to know that pairs trends, patterns etc. before you try other pairs.

 

[AlwaysCurious]

It´s more fun than Vegas because intellectually challenging and more likely to be profitable than lotto. But that of course does not mean it is a guarantee for fastlane. The most valuable ressource of information regarding trading strategies, indicators, platforms, etc is definetly http://www.forexfactory.com Make sure to check the forums, the ammount of infos is huge!

 

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[CarrieW]

I had no idea hysteria was out and about!

yes it is very complicated. it takes a long time to learn the game. I have no clue about option trading so I cant compare that for you.

You can lose a boatload of money if your reckless.

if you feel more comfy sticking to baccarat great. go play it.
I dont know how to play baccarat. I do know how to trade forex. so in my head my odds of winning at forex are greater then me winning at baccarat

thanks for your thoughts. I think I will stick with forex!

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Carrie, where have ya been? Any updates on your Forex excursions? I bought some Euro at 154.26 ... now at 155.60!

 

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[Jonleehacker]

Probably going to stir up some stuff here but is it just me or is trading a bunch of BS and pretty much gambling with a whole bunch of technical nonsense? Every time I look into technical analysis that's what comes to mind haha

You're right, it's EXACTLY like gambling, just like running the casino at Caesar's Palace is gambling

 

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[Arturo-Jay]

This is not gambling for me:

JaysAccount System | Myfxbook


And now that I'm only working part time while going to school part time, that little bit of income from my trading business really helps me a lot. I'm pursuing an accounting degree after not being in school for 6 years. I'm now 24 and I was terminated at my full time, which gave me the benefits of being a dislocated worker. Now I have time to breathe, relax, and get my life together. Get my education and work on my own business...and should my own business fail, I will have my accounting degree to fall back on.

It took me about 4 years to be consistent with my trading.


How about that EURO last week!? Hope you guys cleaned up a lot better than myself...
Made some profit but nearly as much as I would have liked, that's for sure.

Last week I was mentoring an aspiring trader, I told him that even good traders can be wrong on trades and STILL make money. If you can't be wrong 10 times in a row, and your account is blown, you are gambling. Sometimes gambling pays off, many times it doesn't.

 

[CarrieW]

dont forget us girls

 

[Rawr]

But once you figure it out it becomes very profitable.

Is this your actual experience having great returns or is this academic knowledge speaking?

 

[garyfritz]

A basket of uncorrelated systems is a good way to protect against a drawdown in any single system, but it doesn't affect the risk issue. Whether you trade one pair/stock/contract or a basket of them, you still need to control your risk on each trade. If you don't have any discipline and you let trades get away from you -- "I'm sure the market will turn soon, I'll hang on a little longer" -- then any one trade can do huge damage to your account.

I believe in understanding and characterizing my trading systems very carefully. I look at the history of trades -- either live trades or a backtest -- and observe the patterns of wins & losses. Based on the #/size of wins vs. losses, you can tell how much is safe to risk on a trade. Risk too much, and you can turn a winning system into a loser. Extreme example: heads you win $2, tails you lose $1. That's a huge winning system, with an expectation (average trade) of $0.50 per coin flip. So you say great, I'll bet 100% of my account! And then you get tails, and you're busted. 100% was too big a risk. The "optimal" bet size can be calculated as AverageTrade / AverageWin, which is $0.50 / $2.00 = 25% in this case. Betting less OR MORE than 25% will produce lower profits. But that "optimal" level will have huge drawdowns, like 90-95%, on the way to making the "optimal" profit. Trading at 1/10 to 1/4 of the "optimal" level is a lot safer and a lot less likely to drive you to jump off a bridge!!

So if you're trading a basket of pairs/systems and your "optimal" bet size (called the Kelly value) is 25%, then you might risk 2.5% (Kelly/10) on EACH trade.

 

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[CarrieW]

I trade everyday I do not make a living from it... if I had to live off my profits id have died a long time ago lol.

I have been trading for awhile now but still learning. My account while live is very small just to practice. I haven't closed a losing trade in over a year but because I lost so much in the beginning I am still playing catch up

Sent from my SCH-I200 using Tapatalk

 

[Udine]

Hi all,

I have not been around for a long time..

Time for an update: have been busy trading and plenty other stuff. Was active with my thread on forexfactory, but there was all said so moved on to a private skype group, but it all took up way too much time. Now I simply post my trades on twitter (udinefx).

Besides I have been able to simplify my trading enormously, no more lagging indicators, limiting my trading to only two pairs (EUR/JPY & GBP/JPY) and getting my daily target withing the first two hours after London open.

From now on I will be around more.

I have finished the trading day with 6 trades.... 6 wins no loss!!

Stay green

Udine

 

[Udine]

The idea behind this trading is very simple... let me explain..

The markets get active when London, New York (Tokyo) open, as markets start moving when new money is added to the market.

Say the average trading range of a pair for the last 20 days is 100 pips.
Lets use the Daily open line as the centre... so the daily potential of the pair is going higher: daily open + 100 pips and going lower: daily open -/- 100 pips, although it almost never goes exactly like this...

If at London open my pair has NOT moved that 100 pips, I know I can make money !!
Besides I dont need much pips, not that hungry (read greedy) to eat the whole pie, I simply want a small slice of the pie (5 pips/trade).

And I only need 10 pips/day..

Remember:
10 pips a day is all you need to get rich. (A 1K account with 1 %/day compounding will grow into 1 million in 3 years)

Learn to take that 10 pip daily CONSISTENTLY during your trading career and you enter the Hall of Fame.
You wont be the next Soros, (who gives a damn...), but as an excellent provider to your spouse, children and grandchildren.

Think of this:
$ / £ / € 10K account @ 2%/day = $ / £ / € 200/day *5 trading days = $ / £ / € 1.000/week

So there is absolutely no need te become greedy !!!

If you use PDF (Patience, Discipline, Focus) & BCC (Belief, Consistency, Confidence) you will grow your account exponentially !!

You will be so CONFIDENT, that as soon as you get of bed, you SIMPLY KNOW, that you will MAKE MONEY THAT DAY and EVERY DAY AFTER !!

See the forextrading as the beginning, not the end: as the means to build your future, not a get rich quick scheme, treat it like a business, act like a professional and you can become very successful!!

to be continued....

 

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[Udine]

To summarize..

here a picture of my rules, I have permanently on my tradingscreen.



Stay green.

BTW.. If I can do it... YOU CAN DO IT FOR SURE !!!

Udine

 

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[Udine]

Well my daily target of 2 % = 10 pips... That is all I need / day

As soon as my account reaches a certain level, I will reduce my leverage and daily target %, to a level where I can live comfortable and invest in passive income...

 

[Udine]

Sounds like a good way to approach it! What fundamental skills do you think make a good Forex trader?

PDF & BCC

Patience
Discipline
Focus

&

Belief
Confidence
Consistency

that is my mantra

Udine

 

[Udine]

Nothing wrong with doing this as a hobby or just for fun. Or just to make some extra cash. But I bet some of the best traders are probably trading small amounts. And if they were trading higher amounts they would be worth $1 million or more.

I trade full time and doing nicely.. but not a millionair (yet)

ok lets grab this things at the horns..


Get ready for a long story

As so many people say they want to live of forex and trade fulltime..

First of all you must see forex as a start not a finish
Why do I say that...

Forex profits can build your future...
- pay off all your debts
- live of the forex earnings
- invest forex profits into passive income streams..

but the question is... how to start all that ??

suppose you have been demo trading a system (any system for that matter) and you consistently make 1 % a day.. day in day out...

In the meantime you have been saving up some cash to open a live account. Well I can tell you that trading demo or live is a whole different ballgame.

My advice is to start with a small account say max. 1K and trade the smallest lotsize possible, to get used to the mental stuff. and get consistent trading live...

I already mentioned that a 1K account compounding 1 % a day will make you a millionair in three years..

Now you say 1 % is not a lot... Well your bank might pay 2 % a year, so your doing better than your bank...so no complaining

I make 2 % daily, at least most of the days, so the odds can are improving

ok now some math. theory

if you make 2 % a day for 20 trading days, you multiply your account with 1.48.

Say you have 1.000 to start
month 1 1.480
month 2 2.190
month 3 3.241
month 4 4.797
month 5 7.100
month 6 10.509

so after 6 months you have 10K

10 K @ 2 % / day = $ 200 / day * 5 days = 1K / week

you let the account grow to say $ 60K
then you split the account in three equal parts

1 part goes into a seperate account for not feeling the pressure; in case you dont trade profitable you still can pay for food and shelter

2 part is for living expenses: 20K * 2 % (or even 1 %) = $ 400 / day * 5 = $ 2K a week, you should be able to live of
that

3 part for investing in passive income: by taking 50 % of the profits and invest in passive income so in the future you never have to work a day in your life anymore

Live below your means, pay off your debts and you will see you dont need that much to have a decent life ... so what if you aint the next Soros.. whogives a damn....

As long as you can provide all that is needed for your family and you can teach that to your kids... in my book YOU ARE A WINNER !!!


that is my humble opinion..

cheers

Udine

 

[Udine]

Something that just came to my mind, as I find this topic quite interesting. I'm doing a lot of ad buys, so I'm spending a lot of time per day in front of the computer. Analysing data, changing landing pages, optimizing etc.

However, I do have quite a bit of down time while I let the data simmer, then change something, wait, change it again and so on.

I did some reading around and it seems that @Udine is following a strategy that does not require him to be in front of the PC the whole day.

Do you think it is possible to incorporate Forex into my daily work flow? Or does it require all time focus for 8 or so hours a day?

Hi Gsuz,

sorry I missed your post.

You dont need to be glued to the screen all day..

I trade the 1H timeframe and I simply check 2 minutes before the end of the close of the hour the charts and am done in 2 minutes max.. until the next hour..

so depending on the system you trade, you can incoporate forext in your daily schedule.

cheers

Udine

 

[Udine]

first trade today of my 1H system..... GJ to TP...

Udine

 

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[Guest3722A]

I am too emotional for daytrading

to eliminate the emotion, try this: Find something that almost always seems to occur technically, something that seems more often than not to put the odds in your favor, and then build a system around that. A system where you can comfortably say that the chances of taking x number of ticks seems to always be greater than losing x number of ticks when this technical thing happens. From there, you'll be able to build your stop into this system as well as your target. If you are just paper trading you can forward test and adjust. the closer you get to a 1:1 risk reward ratio the better but sometime a profit factor is so outstanding that it's easier to take on a 2:1.

 

[CarrieW]

I think it's going to go up for a little bit more before it keeps its decline going. I would not trade against the downtrend just yet. Imo it's retracing only

 

[DiemTrader]

Anybody going long on GBP/USD potential pullback on the 4 hr chart? Would love some insight. Thanks in advance.

If this support level holds. I would be looking for a confirmation to go long as we are in a long term downtrend (short) on both the weekly and daily. In my strategy I would be looking to go short on the pull back and go with the major trend direction (short).

 

[Martinv678]

No i'm in the UK so it makes sense I suppose that I can trade these. Yea I think it'll stay that way for some time.