Could one truly be successful at trading?

There is a lot about the successful traders that forms them different from the rest. There is a well known figure in the Forex market that says 95% of Forex traders fail. However, there is no real proof that this number is actually correct or its just word of mouth. I believe it’s nearly close to 99% (especially in Forex). So how these 5% of top traders are different is a big question? 1. Successful Forex Traders think differently. 2. They determine themselves that they are profitable 3. They are always in control-one who has always been & will always be. 4. They don’t give up.

I agree with what you say. I’d add: 5. They’re [I]numerate[/I] people, and 6. Many of them are perhaps people who would have been a lot more likely than average to become successful at whatever else they might have done instead of trading.

I instinctively agree, and I think it depends who you include as “traders”. Most are not really “traders”, arguably. This point has just been very eloquently made here, in one of the forum’s very best posts. :cool:

It’s word of mouth. It’s information we all perpetuate, but whether it’s true or not can only be proven by a large-scale survey done by a professional statistics agency. For all we know it could be worse, but it could also be better. One thing is pretty certain, I think, the percentage of people losing money is very large.

I agree with you, but this doesn’t mean people don’t succeed in the market. So many mistakes and improper planning has cost many dearly in forex.

Every business has 2 parts, one is success and another failure. So do your best to be part of success so that you can make something with your hard work. Not every one can win the race, same in for Forex, Not every one can be successful.

Yes maybe this is the fact, might we also can use own selves as example, whether along our trading career already become profitable or still on treat forex as hobby, which will deposit if having free money and will stopped if no money as capital.

Forex trading can change our future but it’s not for everyone. Not everyone can succeed in Forex trading. It has a great profit potential due to which we all get fascinated towards it. But just like any other business, you need to put a lot of efforts and time in order to make profits. It can only be profitable if you have realistic expectations and initially put a lot of time in building, testing your trading strategy, understanding market philosophy. And once you gain confidence then you can invest your real money.

I strongly feel that one reason why many persons don’t succeed in the market is because they are not 100% committed to it, it could be they have something by the side and just don’t want in when it comes to forex.

Absolutely Right! Don’t get fascinated by the luring profits. Entering the market with the objective of making money is not the right approach. Only the person with passion to trade ad can eventually make huge profits. Hence, it takes time, knowledge, experience and confidence to become successful in forex trading.

If somebody sat you down and handed a book with all the information that you would require to trade well it would take a long time for you to fully grasp the concepts.
A large part of trading is knowing how not to trade, so often the weak info out there which makes logical sense but doesn’t really work is important.

It’s important to have an understanding between right info and wrong info. A lot of wrong info is actually useful under certain circumstances, there are people who use it successfully.
It requires a tremendous amount of growth to become a successful trader.

What does this mean please Nyad55? I could only follow your thoughts as far as how important it is to know how not to trade…

I think he’s pointing out that there’s a lot of garbage out there, on the Internet, youtube, from so called trading schools, etc and we need to be able to sort out and ignore this misinformation.
Some stuff is just the right information used incorrectly, and only experience will help you put it into the right context

I’d certainly agree with that.

I think this is back-to-front: one needs to gather knowledge [B][U]before[/U][/B] trying to use a demo account. In practice, doing it the right way round determines the difference between “someone who’s had a year’s experience” and “someone who’s had a month’s experience repeated 12 times over”.

I also think it helps hugely to avoid online “information” because it isn’t quality-controlled or peer-reviewed and a lot of it is directly or indirectly published for promotional/marketing purposes, it’s terribly unreliable, and because of her/his inexperience the aspiring trader isn’t equipped - more or less by definition - to distinguish information from misinformation (of which there’s a huge amount online). It’s much more helpful, for all these and other reasons, to stick to mainstream, established, authoritative, accredited textbooks published by mainstream, established, authoritative, accredited publishers (not the “self-published” ones!). But - again - this needs to be done [B][U]before[/U][/B] experimenting with a demo account, not “after” or even “while”.

It means that the line between right and wrong information is very blurred in the markets.
Eg, someone says that buying retracements is dangerous because it might keep going down but buying when the price is higher is good.
And another person will tell you that it’s bad to buy at a higher price because it might be spiking up and then suddenly shoot down.

Both methods are right at different times for different reasons, neither is completely wrong and neither is completely right.

You need to educate yourself and treat no information as gospel.

To be successful at trading, one not only needs to learn numbers or spelling. But one should also have complete knowledge about the market movements, trend and techniques that define the change the market trend. As mentioned above, one should be thorough with the knowledge of product, instrument, economy, market forecasts, market sentiments and the risk involved. Learning by step to step and gaining knowledge can definitely be helpful to be successful.

I agree with all that you say. I just want to add that for being a successful trader you have to follow the money management that suit better to you. The correct strategy can drive to the best results.

Generating the correct strategy that is where the problem lies, how do we create a stable strategy that can be viable. I gues we have to be very patient and build one gradually.

You don’t have to create a strategy from scratch, you just have to find one. There are a lot of available strategies out there.

While you select the strategies to trade, you would have the complete choice between buying one off the shelf strategy and trawling the Internet for freebies. The problem with the free Forex trading strategies is that they would usually be worth with the how much you pay for it. If you have not testes and there is little evidence for this reliability.
While on the other hand, the strategies that are covered are the ones that either I or successful traders I know have used are in consistent profitable fashion.

Not all paid strategies are worth their money. Unfortunately there’s no right answer to this. I think it is a matter of chance – you will either find a good strategy or you won’t, regardless of whether it’s paid or not.