Are forex traders all losers?

Hello everyone. This is my first time posting on the forums and I am brand new to forex. My biggest question and or concern before dedicating all of my time to this is why does it seem like there are so many losers in forex? I see post after post of “I lost all my money” or “no one makes money in forex”. How is this possible or is this even true? Judging by the posts, am I too assume that if a person had a 10 or 20 thousand dollar account, that they can’t manage to make a profit? I know trading is never a sure thing, but on a yearly timeline, these people can’t win more than they lose? Are these people just bad at trading? Sub par IQ? Approach trading like playing black jack? or what? I just find it hard to believe that if a person is smart and disciplined, that they can’t turn a profit. I am not naive and I know that though it is theoretically possible, a person is not going to become a millionaire from trading forex overnight. But is a ~5% ROI a month really such a mythical creature? I know you can’t win all the time, but I would assume that you can win more than you lose. Thanks!

Not all, but nearly all
http://forums.babypips.com/newbie-island/39-90-traders-lose-money.html?highlight=90+traders+lose

and here 301 Moved Permanently

and here are just some of the reasons why 301 Moved Permanently

Forex, rather than any other kind of trading, because of its combination of high leverage available, and there being so many “scammy brokers” (who are actually counterparty market-makers) offering “promotions”, attracts a constant turnover of aspirants with no education, wildly exaggerated expectations and a gambling mentality.

That means it’s inevitable that there’ll be a lot of losers.

There are always of thousands of new participants available, and most just don’t understand the importance of the statistical/probability knowledge, which anyone needs, to have a realistic chance of becoming successful.

People are also typically impatient to acquire “practical experience” rather than “theory education”, and in this world that stacks the deck firmly against them.

There are some exceptions, of course.

Here are the main five mistakes people make and the reasons why they make them.

No; it’s an exaggeration, but based on a grain of truth.

The size of their account isn’t [U]the most[/U] important thing (though it’s undeniably true that undercapitalisation [I]is[/I] a problem for many, as it prompts a combination of impatience, unrealistic expectations and frustration).

What [B][U]matters[/U][/B] is whether they know how to avoid those five mistakes mentioned above. If they do, they have a chance, but that’s not very easy, otherwise more would succeed.

Some of each of those groups, doubtless, but many more who just have unrealistic expectations, lack of education, lack of patience, and so on.

[I][U]Just[/U][/I] being smart and disciplined isn’t quite enough. They need to learn some specific stuff, too (which nobody was born knowing) and that’s sometimes difficult for them because there’s more misinformation around than information.

Recognising/learning “who to be guided by” is [B][U]enormously[/U][/B] important. And many people don’t have that skill, and never quite acquire it because they have little judgment and measure things by “weight of opinion” ([I][U]not[/U][/I] a recipe for success!).

No, it’s not mythical; but it’s not a formality, either.

And it takes time.

It took me years, and I had many advantages available, when I started, that most people don’t have.

If it helps, this was how I learned and these were the resources that helped me most.

Welcome to the forum. :wink:

Thank you for your response. And I figured as much. Just doing some preliminary searches I found countless “turn 100 dollars into 1298127139712987312983192 dollars while you sleep” type “services” and “gurus”. I personally feel that many people look at investing as a get rich quick endeavor, and it most certainly isn’t. Just like most things, people want the return without the work or effort. But because I don’t know forex from Adam, I just wasn’t sure if there was some systematic flaw with forex specifically that had made it exponentially harder for everyday retail traders to turn a profit. And now that I’m saying this, I also think the minimal capital required for forex also attracts far less experienced traders which adds to the body count of blown accounts. I would also wager to say that most successful traders are enjoying being successful and wouldn’t waste much time posting on forums about how successful they are. Rather it’s the people who blow their accounts that are filling up the forums with negative perceptions and stories. Anyway, thanks for clarifying. Cheers!

And thank you especially for the resources you linked.

If people realised from the outset that to reach a point of consistent success in trading it can take as long as, if not longer than, a serious university degree, then many would not even contemplate trading in the first place . The 95% failure rate would then no longer be a valid figure.

The reason of high percentage of tradersfailure is the fact, that people think, that Forex is a way to gain "easy money". A lot of newbies start trading without enough knowledge and experience, so they lose money and keep saying, that "Forex is a scam", "Forex is for loosers". The truth is that trading on Forex is not so easy, as some people think. But if you ready to spend a lot of your time to learn all the theory, to try demo-accounts, youll become a professional and succesful trader.
First, I also was inspired and stupid, thinking, that Ive found a "goldmine" :)) Ive lost all my deposit, but didn`t give up. It was a great lesson for me.
Now I wanna learn more about different types of technical analisys, I experiment, trying to find the right strategy. And of course, practice. But at first, it is better to try demo or cent accounts, just to feel the market.
So, Forex is not for losers, it is for ambitios, hardwarking and balanced people!

It’s not like that that in forex all traders are losers. Usually in forex most of the beginners just enter the market without sufficient knowledge in lieu of earning profits and hence they turn out to be losers. These people post on forums. But I would like to tell that genuine traders do exist and they are the ones who trade professionally with proper knowledge of the market.

You are right that trading is not a sure shot thing but with deep insight of the market and experience you can certainly make win trades. There is no certainty of winning more than you lose as it all depends upon your trading style and strategies.