Does one really makes money in Forex trading?

[Claud Lepathy]

I have been studying forex trading for the past 3 years and have been trading both live and demo accounts. After many sleepless nights I have to say that one can never make money in Forex. Price movement is at random, and nobody can predict the direction it will take. The more you study and apply indicators, the more money you lose. There could be gains, but only to lose everything in a week or two. Why are the so-called gurus teaching forex trading on YouTube? Answer is simple. They get paid more through your subscription than trading forex online. Why are those companies paying you to trade their money? Because they know you will lose your registration fees. Try placing trades without thinking with stop loss and take profit. You might end up winning more than if you have given some thoughts

 

[Enivid]

I earn consistently with Forex trading if by consistency we mean positive years with chances of several negative months during that year. But I am trading medium- and long-term strategies, so this is expected.

 

[Claud Lepathy]

I earn consistently with Forex trading if by consistency we mean positive years with chances of several negative months during that year. But I am trading medium- and long-term strategies, so this is expected.

So what is the purpose of trading forex if you lose several months in a year? If you have a strategy that works, why losing?

 

[Enivid]

So what is the purpose of trading forex if you lose several months in a year?

To earn on the capital. I don't mind having 3 months of -2% losses if I end the year with +15% profit.

If you have a strategy that works, why losing?

Because not every trade is a winner. I'd say that in my case, the majority is losers, but the winners earn much more than the losers lose.

 

[Jajaofopobo]

I have been studying forex trading for the past 3 years and have been trading both live and demo accounts. After many sleepless nights I have to say that one can never make money in Forex. Price movement is at random, and nobody can predict the direction it will take. The more you study and apply indicators, the more money you lose. There could be gains, but only to lose everything in a week or two. Why are the so-called gurus teaching forex trading on YouTube? Answer is simple. They get paid more through your subscription than trading forex online. Why are those companies paying you to trade their money? Because they know you will lose your registration fees. Try placing trades without thinking with stop loss and take profit. You might end up winning more than if you have given some thoughts

Following all those youtubers will just drive you insane/depressed if you don't really know what you are looking for in forex.

Only a small percentage live on their profits. Some are still trading cos they have "unlimited access" to money (Subscription/mentorship fees, YouTube and ads fee from brokers etc).

My 2 Cent
1. Forget about going Live and keep on studying with demo.
2. Formulate a Strategy. (A trend following one not a Reversal one)
3. Focus more on RRR and the Win rate of your strategy.

 

[Haruto]

Please don’t be desperate here! Don’t try to focus on only technical tools to take your trade decisions; try to learn Price Action & support-resistant trading; actually chart reading is such an important skill here!

 

[volta]

did you scalping or swing?

 

[Claud Lepathy]

This is exactly

To earn on the capital. I don't mind having 3 months of -2% losses if I end the year with +15% profit.

Because not every trade is a winner. I'd say that in my case, the majority is losers, but the winners earn much more than the losers lose.

To earn on the capital. I don't mind having 3 months of -2% losses if I end the year with +15% profit.

Because not every trade is a winner. I'd say that in my case, the majority is losers, but the winners earn much more than the losers lose.

This is exactly my point. If the market moves randomly, over time it should be a 50:50 game, and not losing more than you win. After all, with all the technical and fundamental analysis, where is your edge on thr market if you lose more than you win?

Post automatically merged: Nov 12, 2022

did you scalping or swing?

Both don't work. The end result is always negative.

 

[Enivid]

This is exactly my point. If the market moves randomly, over time it should be a 50:50 game, and not losing more than you win. After all, with all the technical and fundamental analysis, where is your edge on thr market if you lose more than you win?

First, the market doesn't move completely randomly. It moves with a degree of randomness. Second, even if it was a 50:50 game, it would be a losing game due to spreads and commission. Third, even if it was a positively rigged random game with a huge advantage to a trader, there would still be losing streaks.

 

[Silverlining]

This is exactly my point. If the market moves randomly, over time it should be a 50:50 game, and not losing more than you win. After all, with all the technical and fundamental analysis, where is your edge on thr market if you lose more than you win?

To answer your question I will put in my 2c in by recapping a short story from a book written by a famous day trader printed out only 3 months ago. Not sure if I'm allowed to mention the title here, so I'll just hold it back. A friend of the author ran a hedge fund which had a 25% hit rate. I'll say it again: 25%!!! That means 75% of their trades were losses! Despite that, they were wildly successful. Why? Because the 25 winning trades out of 100 more than surpassed in profits what the 75 trades generated in losses. Apparently they expected to make 25 times in profit what the risk was. And by the way, they were trading on a very short-term time frame.
So the direction where to look for your edge is clearly not in the hit rate, but in the money and trade management. Food for thought...

 

[fargana]

In medium-term I think I'm slightly above the breakeven but month-to-month performance is unstable, I have up and down periods.

 

[Dora_WalletInvestor]

Enivid put it very well, overall consistency is what's important. If you are losing a lot of money, that can indicate that you need to change something. Do you apply any kind of risk management? I'd say that is one of the most important pillars of trading. It's how you can ensure your losing trades don't wipe out your winning ones. What percentage of trades you win is a lot less important than how the amount of money lost vs won.
Fundamental and technical analysis are both important. You have to accept the fact that it's impossible to predict price movements with 100% accuracy.

 

[HeavenLeighGill]

You're correct about the forex gurus. I think a lot of those people see that they can capitalize on beginners or those who are frustrated after having losing streaks. They are experts are hooking people so that they think they've found the answer.
It's possible to make money, but losses are also inevitable. You just have to come out with more profit than losses in the end. Trading is difficult for sure.

 

[fargana]

In the long-run expected value your wealth that you gain from trading is negative so I guess it all about timing when you need to quit position.