What's the #1 most frustrating thing about forex?

I’m brand new to forex trading and I haven’t invested a dime yet. I’ve heard it’s a tough game and that most people just get frustrated, burned out, and lose all their money!!

So to learn from others mistakes and to know what to expect…I just want to hear from traders…what makes it is so frustrating and hard? What are the biggest problems and challenges you guys face as traders? I mean it seems simple enough, right? Buy low–>sell high, right?

What are the top problems a newbie like me is bound to face? What should I do about all those? Is there a way to avoid the painful learning curve and make some real money?

The two biggest problems any new trader faces are learning to deal with their emotions and learning proper money management.

I won’t go into details on what these things are, just do a forum search if you want to know that. But I will tell you how to avoid losing your money because of them.

When you start trading live you need to start with a small amount of money, but not too small. You want your first account to be small enough that you can afford to lose it, but large enough that you don’t want to lose it. :slight_smile:

Once you’ve proven yourself successfull with this smaller account then add the rest of your capital to it. If you do this then I can 95% guarantee you won’t blow your second, larger account down to nothing.

The biggest source of frustration for new traders is their expectations. They come in expecting to make loads of money from the markets quick and easy. It doesn’t work that way, but generally speaking it takes a considerable amount of losing before people figure out that’s the case.

wibble’s first post and right on the money :smiley:
That’s a good start

I think that for amateurs the biggest problem is to struggle with emotion during losses; I mean this is such a volatile markets that an strategy that you had an hour ago might no work later�.
I think that is hard for them to understand and that is why they get frustrated with lost trades, and might take stupid fast decisions trying to recover�.

The most frustrating thing for me is to trust my broker! Or to find a trustworthy one! I don’t know but I’m paranoic with such things.

In the other hand, this is a very lonely carrer so many times I feel bored and with no one to hang out at work!

Emotion during losses is very commen! You learn from your mistakes! I’ve lost my shirt but I just cant seem to stay away!!

Totally get your broker issue, everybody goes through that. I already have one that I like, ACM, but when I first started I opened like 4 demos with 4diff brokers before actually risking my money.
That was a mistake I definitely didn�t wanna make �.:cool:

The most frustrating thing is TO GET THE RIGHT INFO as 90% of what you may find in the net is just useless junk, so the hardest part of the job IMHO is system searching/development.

Everyone will keep telling you that money management and psychology are the holy grail and blah blah blah: GARBAGE, pure and utter garbage. The real thing is to have a methodology/system which does have an edge (it consistently makes much more than it loses). With that in hand, the psychology will take care of itself as the odds will be known approximately. As for money management, it only works when your system is a winner, otherwise you will only lose money at a slower rate. If your system does indeed work, adequate MM will greatly improve results as it will accelerate your way to riches while avoiding going through a major mess when your system has a bad day.

As you can see many members have several reasons and I agree with all, but I deal with the emotional factor too the most. You are asking what problem you are bound to face… believe me, it will be your emotions, in their different facets: like to take revenge of your last loss in order for clawing back, like to think that the same strategy that gave you a good bunch of pips will work when you move to the next (making you think this is a piece of cake), like struggling to fall asleep late in the night because you are thinking you are losing good trade opportunities and many many others.

But let me tell you a thing: ANIMO AMIGO!, stay if you have a real hunch this is for you. aGAINST aLL oDDS

To me the most frustrating thing in forex is that prices move way too randomly making it hard to form an opinion about the next move.

you can’t control your speed all the time
1-rush to learn
2-rush to blow up your account
3-rush to leave demo and practice to real
4-rush to enter
5-rush to exit
6-rush to lose
7-rush to win>>this will mostly lead you to #6

frustrations?
-the most frustrating thing is loosing.

why?

  • the reasons tend to follow the domino effect,
    one thing leads to another.

eager to make money > thinks forex is easy > skipping forex school/learning > not enough time on demo > GO LIVE > make bad decisions > BLOW AN ACCOUNT. that’s why only 2-5% make it in forex trading.

luckly for newbies there are site such as babypips that compiles previous mistakes and spreading awareness in the new generation of forex traders. :slight_smile:

frustration? Being in a sitiuation were you lost money but it either A) could have been avoided or B) would have made profits. usually these mistakes are purely my own errors. So i guess the most frustrating thing for me is making avoidable mistakes that cost me, and then knowing it was me that caused it.

In a word: ‘TRADING’!!! Period!!! And I’m talking about ALL trading not just FOREX trading (I don’t, or hardly ever, trade FOREX anymore, hence my ‘ALL trading’ note)!!! LOL!!! And in all probability: (frustrating) for almost all the reasons already mentioned on this thread.

Actually: I wasn’t going to post here but this sort of ‘spoke’ to me:

Agreed and I feel the same way. Were it not for the likes of these and other forums, the Internet, Bloomberg TV, and my dogs: I think I would have landed up in a lunatic asylum by now!!! LOL!!!

And it goes deeper than that too (in my opinion). When you’re making money: you dare not boast about it or tell someone how well you’re doing because your can ‘bet your ar*e’ you’ll start losing from the very next trade. And when you’re losing money: you dare not tell anyone about it because in most cases you’ll be told that you’re gambling and asked ‘why not get a REAL job’. And nobody that has not traded can ever understand the emotional ‘ups and downs’. And it’s easy to say ‘you shouldn’t be emotional about your trades’. Sorry: but being human I don’t see how this is possible (not unless you’re psychopathic and even THEN I’m not sure you’d be able to ‘keep it together’)!!! LOL!!!

I believe ‘first prize’ would be to be a floor trader. You know: ‘ye olde boyz club’ (and one or two girlz too)!!! LOL!!! But thanks to ELECTRONIC TRADING the pits are slowly dying.

I know I’ve brought this up before (posted about it) but if you’re interested in ‘anything trading’ then watch the movie ‘Floored - The Movie’ (it’s ACTUALLY a documentary not a movie and to this day I don’t know why they included ‘The Movie’ in the title because it’s misleading). I was horrified the other day to see that the original links had been removed but I’ve worked out that it was Bablegum’s ‘Featured’ movie when I found it so it’s now in the archives but it’s still there so here’s the new link:

FLOORED | Babelgum

Watch it. You want to know what’s frustrating about this business. Well there it is in FULL COLOUR!!! LOL!!! As told by REAL traders!!! And take note: the SAME emotions come into play both on the floor and in your little ‘home office’. The only difference is that you don’t have the luxury of being able to kick the guy standing next to you in the gut when the mood takes you. And then, when the pit closes, you and your buddies go out for a few drinks and talk about ‘everything trading’ with people that understand you. ALSO take note of what this business CAN be the cause of (bad things). Don’t think ‘that only happens to floor traders’ and you’re immune because you’re all ‘warm and cosy’ in your ‘home office’. SAME principles apply I’m afraid.

Now on a SERIOUS note (after ALL of that): probably the most frustrating thing for me (all of the above aside) are those days when the markets go NOWHERE. Those days where the Dow has a daily range of two points (exaggerating but you know what I mean). The problem: it does this a great deal of the time!!! One can sit for HOURS without being in a trade (and sometimes for a whole day). And of course you dare not take your eye off the screen because for some uncanny reason: the moment you do that, and when you look again, it’s broken out and started to trend for hours (days) on end!!! LOL!!! That’s why it’d be REAL handy to have some ‘like-minded buddies’ to ‘hang out’ with at work and ‘shoot the breeze’ on days like that!!! LOL!!!

By the way: there’s a new ‘doccy’ that SHOULD be being released this month (if it hasn’t been already and I’m about to go and check now that I think of it). It’s called ‘The Pit’ and it’s a documentary about the floor traders at the NYBOT. Cannot wait to get my hands on it (I’ve been waiting for its release for over a year now)!!! LOL!!!

Here’s a link to it’s website: TRAILER | THE PIT movie (at least you can watch the trailer and they’re on FaceBook too).

Have fun.

Regards,

Dale.

There is high risk in forex trading respective to other trading format and therefore I think, it is the most frustrating thing about forex.

Itchy fingers - forcing trades when you shouldn’t be trading. I began my forex career scalping on the 1M TF, then I moved on to 5M and 15M TF. Last month I progressed to the 1H TF and now I trade the daily TF and maybe execute 1-2 trades per week. As a newbie trader I found myself frustrated if I didn’t have a trade open but now I only enter when I see a high-probability signal on the daily TF.

I think the most frustrating thing for a new trader is to realize that he will never get his loved million within a few days :stuck_out_tongue:

I think the biggest issue is doing everything in your power NOT to let so-called “Experts” cloud your judgement. For those that watch CNBC…when the euro is going down, we see “Experts” claiming that new lows will be reached! The following week…when the euro is climbing, the SAME “EXPERTS”…are on saying that they predict we will see new highs. Most recently, that fool Dennis Gartman (so-called commodities expert) was on CNBC telling the world to dump their gold…the bubble was over…run for the hills. Today…he was on saying that he is long gold. 200 points AFTER he told us to sell it…he is getting back in? What happened to that BUBBLE DENNIS!!! Dont let these people cloud your judgement!

Having knock back “expert” forecasts because I always seem to follow the wrong one. Also, wanting to be “in the action” and not being patient to wait for setups.