Iām posting to this thread out of confusion, and a bit of frustration, because my experience contradicts what I see all of the more experienced traders on here adamantly insist upon with regards to trading forex. I didnāt come in here looking for the āholy grailā, because I donāt think such a thing exists, but was curious to see what others were discussing about trading systems.
My confusion stems from this: all the people that I see describing the need for systems, methods, lots of technical analysis, and a million different jingoistic terms make trading sound extremely complex, and I want to believe it is complex, and that it is possible to do relatively accurate technical analysis to squeeze out profits. And if statistics are to be believed, it would seem this is true, since I keep hearing the figure 90%+ bandied about as the percentage of people who have blown their accounts. But my admittedly limited experience is saying otherwise, that it can be relatively simple, that it is possible to not do any highly technical analysis, and still come out ahead. I am not talking roulette. I must have what would be described by me as a āstrategyā, and I am honing it, but it is all in my head (along with some trading logs in a word editor) and would definitely be labeled by most any trader here as āflying by the seat of your pantsā. But it seems to be working. I have taken a demo account in a matter of weeks from $8500 to over $11,000, and I think I have a better than 80% (possibly 90%, not sure how to track this) success rate over the course of 30 to 40 trades. And this isnāt looking for massively over-leveraged gains. I am working with 50:1 and not running the account on the bleeding edge, and Iām just grabbing roughly $100 profit at a time, I think roughly around 10-15 pips. Sure, Iām paying more than most would like in commission, but Iām moving forward consistently, and if I remember correctly I have a win on at least the last 20 straight trades. And yet I know Iām going to encounter losing trades again and again (but hopefully not account net losses), so I donāt have a Pollyanna view of forex.
Perhaps there is a better thread to submit this to, but Iām looking for more than the standard āyouāre an idiot and you should use xyz methodā, but Iām also looking for less than the patronizing pat on the head, ārun along now and trade your demo account some moreā response because Iām interested in putting cash on what Iāve been doing and seeing if it continues to work.
And maybe you will think this confirms that I am in fact an idiot, but what is wrong with buckscoderās notion that the goal is just to trade into profits, rather than trading into losses? In other words, just stop losing and start winning? Iāll wager that a large percentage of those 90%+ forex losers, lost because they didnāt have the cojones to withstand the inevitable swings that come with trading forex, and stopped out their losses waaaaaay too early, and with way too few pips. Rinse, lather, repeat, and you can kiss your account goodbye.
Am I missing something, or does my experience show that whatever Iām doing is working, and I should just stick with it? There is just way too much information out there that I think overwhelms new traders, and I think they drown in the glut of itā¦ātrade the news, donāt trade the news, use MA, donāt use MA, use MACD instead, trade the gap, gap is too risky, use low leverage, use high leverage, grab fewer pips, grab more pips less frequentlyā and on and on. It is no wonder that new traders flail about searching for the āholy grailā.
Any input is appreciated, as is constructive criticism.
Thanks!