5 Things Successful Forex Traders Won't Say

carol1992

Trader
Jan 21, 2021
4
3
7
32
Most people know that forex trading is a profitable investment, but in fact, it also has its dark side. So, if you also want to learn more about forex trading and the secrets behind it, here are 5 things that you won’t hear from a successful forex trader.

No. 1 “My strategy is profitable in all market conditions”
When it comes to forex trading, there is no such thing as an infallible strategy that can be successful in any market climate. If there were, all traders would be millionaires by now. Indeed, It takes a lot of practice and hours of trial and mistakes to establish a successful strategy. And yet, this strategy cannot be profitable 100%.

No. 2 “I am 90% accurate”
In fact, 90% of traders lose money and quit, while the most successful traders usually don’t hit a success rate of 70%. You can lie to people, but you can’t argue with numbers. The market is so dynamic that a success rate of over 90% in the long-term is highly unlikely.

No. 3 “I don’t need risk management”
While losing money is inevitable in forex, risk management can reduce losses. Without a risk management strategy we will become irrational and emotional. Thus, a successful trader will never tell other traders that risk management is unimportant.

No. 4 “I never lose”
It is not possible to win all the time and never lose money, even for a successful trader. Being able to win and lose is part of the forex trading game. It is something you should accept in order to become a good forex player.

No. 5 “I’m self-taught”
Proper trading education is crucial to success. Because even if you have a genius IQ score, there’s no way you can learn everything about forex by yourself. Don’t expect your learning journey to be smooth. A truly successful forex trader will be willing to use different learning materials and learn from other traders as well as his own mistakes, which makes him stronger in the long run.

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hk_09

Banned
Oct 30, 2020
89
12
19
40
Agreed, those things come out of those trader's who either aren't too good with their trades or they haven't gone through the real stages of achievig success in forex. Every beginner, before he becomes a successful trader, has to work very hard and he knows exactly what is required of him to achieve further success here.
 
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vicjon1995

Active Trader
Sep 29, 2020
217
30
29
28
100% Correct. People who say “I never lose money” are a scam. It can be a goal and one must give his/her all to minimize the losses, but the truth is every trader has had losses, be it very small.
 
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Dora_WalletInvestor

Active Trader
Aug 17, 2020
301
46
44
I think if you learn from online materials and trading books and videos, you are technically self-taught. I don't want to sound nitpicky, but this is different from learning through school or from a mentor.
I agree with the rest. Especially the "I'm 90% accurate" part. Even if it is true, accuracy is not a good measure of your actual profitability. You can be 90% accurate and still lose money if your risk management is off.
 
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sunar14

Banned
Jan 17, 2021
77
9
19
29
It's hard to find quaility books on trading, most of them touch basic levels which you get familiar online for free. Books that work involve pretty complicated stuff like statistics, stochastic calculus, optimization, programming, etc.
 

Jerry_Ken

Trader
Dec 11, 2020
57
5
9
33
100% Correct. People who say “I never lose money” are a scam. It can be a goal and one must give his/her all to minimize the losses, but the truth is every trader has had losses, be it very small.
True mate. Its not like all too glittery in forex. Losses are a part of every trader's journey. We have to learn to accept them and try to minimise their occurrence but cant eliminate them altogether.
 

KahoFXPrimus

Newbie
Jun 7, 2021
2
1
1
36
I agree with you. A lot of people that I speak to on a daily basis believe that Forex can be a get rich quick scheme. This kind of mindset that they have adopted is usually the reason they lose their money fast as they take on high leveraged positions that end up going badly against them.

Losing trades are part of Forex, and no trader can win 100% of the trades. Drawdown is a normal part of trading so understanding risk levels is crucial to becoming successful in the long term.

It takes a lot of patience to refine a trading strategy, and to get it profitable. This is not done over 5-10 trades, but more like 50-100 trades. This will give you a decent sample size for your strategy so you can better understand win rate%, profitability, drawdown etc.

Another thing I have noticed is that a lot of people seem to have issues sticking to one strategy. Even if I were to write down a set of rules for people to follow, they tend to break these rules over and over. Rather then jumping from different strategies, learn to refine one, and become an expert at that. Once you understand your strategy like the back of your hand, it will become easier to refine it.

Patience is the key. Learning to be patient when no trades are available is a game changer. Avoiding a bad trades will save you lots of money in the long run, wait for your ideal set up, stick to your rules and let the markets play out, don't force trades in bad market conditions.
 

e_abrams

Active Trader
Dec 11, 2020
451
31
39
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One should never beat their own drum too much in this business, because everyone makes mistakes, I think.
 

{0v0}

Trader
Dec 12, 2016
20
8
19
EU
Understanding the role of losses in trading is very important. It is not a negative issue, it is an integral component of what we do. Whatever instrument we choose to trade we are all actually trading the same product - probability.

Any market can only move in two directions (standing still is not a movement) i.e. either up or down. It is not difficult to design a strategy to identify entries but whatever strategy we build it will produce both gains and losses. This is inevitable because all entries are based on an assessment of its probability of being correct - and therefore sometimes it will be wrong because the probability is never 100%.

But this does not matter at all. One cannot make profits without being in the market, and being in the market means losses. This is exactly the same principle as any business. There are always overheads/costs involved in any business and the objective is to ensure that the profits are greater than the overheads. We need to think in terms of net profits over time.

But this is where, I think, many new traders go wrong. Whenever losses occur there is a tendency to blame the strategy and try to add more and more indicators in an attempt to "plug the leaks". The end result is an overdose of chart info and indecisive signals. A better approach is to accept the inevitability of losses and focus of money management instead, keeping exposure within acceptable limits and optimising the gains from the winning trades, etc.

Naturally, it is also important to monitor one's strategy and identify weaknesses or possible improvements and/or adjustments due to changing market structure and behaviour. But this is not normally a very frequent process and is not intended purely as an attempt to eliminate losses, rather it is an optimisation process to minimise "overheads" and maximise profits.
 
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fxplayer

Newbie
May 27, 2021
19
2
4
32
Understanding the role of losses in trading is very important. It is not a negative issue, it is an integral component of what we do. Whatever instrument we choose to trade we are all actually trading the same product - probability.

Any market can only move in two directions (standing still is not a movement) i.e. either up or down. It is not difficult to design a strategy to identify entries but whatever strategy we build it will produce both gains and losses. This is inevitable because all entries are based on an assessment of its probability of being correct - and therefore sometimes it will be wrong because the probability is never 100%.

But this does not matter at all. One cannot make profits without being in the market, and being in the market means losses. This is exactly the same principle as any business. There are always overheads/costs involved in any business and the objective is to ensure that the profits are greater than the overheads. We need to think in terms of net profits over time.

But this is where, I think, many new traders go wrong. Whenever losses occur there is a tendency to blame the strategy and try to add more and more indicators in an attempt to "plug the leaks". The end result is an overdose of chart info and indecisive signals. A better approach is to accept the inevitability of losses and focus of money management instead, keeping exposure within acceptable limits and optimising the gains from the winning trades, etc.

Naturally, it is also important to monitor one's strategy and identify weaknesses or possible improvements and/or adjustments due to changing market structure and behaviour. But this is not normally a very frequent process and is not intended purely as an attempt to eliminate losses, rather it is an optimisation process to minimise "overheads" and maximise profits.
Very well explained buddy!
This will really help newbies here.
 
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{0v0}

Trader
Dec 12, 2016
20
8
19
EU
This will really help newbies here.
Thank you, that would be wonderful if it does. I think losses is understandably an issue that bothers new traders a lot. Certainly, "damage limitation" is an important aspect but hoping to eliminate losses totally is neither possible nor even necessary. As soon as a stable winning strategy is achieved it is surely only a question of increasing position size and/or scaling in/out in order to improve earnings.

At least, that is how I look at it! :)
 

{0v0}

Trader
Dec 12, 2016
20
8
19
EU
Another thing I would hope that traders wouldn't say is:

"It is never wrong to take a profit" or "No one went broke taking a profit".

In my opinion this is not actually true although it might sound sensible and logical. The point is, a trader might take a string of successive small profits and then lose them all in one stop loss.

It is important to monitor and manage one's account equity and that means giving your winning trades room and time to achieve their objectives. If you keep cutting profitable trades off prematurely then your account balance is not going to grow and, in the worst circumstances, can even disappear as the inevitable losing trades engulf these small winnings.

The money management side of trading is really important and your strategy should include an anticipated gain/loss expectation as well as R;R settings per trade.

However, this does not mean one should stubbornly sit and watch trades drift off towards one's stops when it is clear the trade is not performing as expected! In general one could say that a trade is exited at target, or at stoploss, or on a signal reversal, or when the price action indicates that the trade is not doing what was initially anticipated and has nullified the reasons why it was entered in the first place.

Just some thoughts on the matter :)