Questions about Forex

Hello, I just recently started looking into to Forex and wanted to know some basic statistics on the industry and had some basic questions. Hopefully someone can point me in right direction:

Approximately how many Forex (independent) traders are there?

What is the approx % of traders that actually make it (stay) in the industry?

Why is it that I haven’t seen any active traders with more than 3-5 yrs experience in the industry? The industry has been around forever. It seems as if there should be a ton of veterans still trading.

There are some very good questions Joyful.

There’s really no accurate way to count the total number of independent traders especially since forex is a global market and there are traders spread out across many countries.

Approximately 90-95% of traders lose all their trading capital within 3-6 months mainly due to lack of money management. If they had traded smaller with better position sizing such risking only .25% of total capital per trade, they’d still be trading even they still don’t know what they’re doing. It takes time to learn how to trade and most newbies are bit by the greed bug and try to get rich quick and end poor fast instead.

While foreign exchange has been around “forever” or 30+ years, [B]retail[/B] forex is almost a baby when compared to the stock market. It really wasn’t until 1999 when the currency markets were open to smaller players. Before then, it was only open to banks, institutions, or anybody willing to trade $10+ million trades. Of course, as a market starts, it takes awhile for it to gain traction and attract traders, figure out rules and regulations, establish dealing/broker processes, etc. so it really wasn’t until 2002-2003 when retail forex brokers become more commonplace which allowed people with less capital access to the forex market.

Unless you’ve worked with these big banks or companies, 3-5 years experience is about right or that person would be lying.

Right before our eyes, the forex market is still changing with non-dealing desk brokers becoming more popular and stricter rules and regulations to protect the trader. When compared to stock, options, or future, the foreign exchange is not as well-known to the average Joe Trader even though its the biggest market in the world.

I’m not sure on the exact figure on independent traders but I do know that the amount of independent traders is rapidly growing.

It’s sad to say that only a small % of Forex traders actually make it and stay in the industry but here is why: Many traders are drawn by the idea that they can make money very quickly because of the amount of leverage they can use. However, they quickly realize that you can also lose money very fast and then all those dreams of making it rich in the Forex quickly disappear and they give up. The ones who do make it do their due diligence. Trading is an art and they learn and practice everyday in the Forex. They understand that becoming successful in the Forex doesn’t happen overnight, but that it takes hard work because it is a job just like anything else. Think about it- You didn’t get to where you are in your professional career overnight. It took you what…16 or so years in school?

And the reason why you might not see too many veteran traders is because although the Forex has been around for a while, it’s only been open to the retail public since the 90’s. It’s still a relatively new market when you compare it to the stock market, which has been open to public trade forever.

Hope that answers some of your questions. Welcome to the board :slight_smile:

Funny. Right after I posted I look up and see that Dr. Pipslow has already stated what I just said, haha. Oh well, at least it drills the point home!