I’m spreadbetting (I’m in the UK - unlike most countries, the UK permits financial spreadbetting). If you’re in the UK, its worth looking into - strongly regulated, negative balance protection, and not a single penny of tax.
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Who’s signals were you following? I’m about to join someone who provides signals and don’t want to make the same mistake?
See my reply to the original posting. Your first mistake is to think that the short cut to profit is to pay someone else for signals.
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Unless you happen to get good at it 
- bit of a double edged sword that one - as you cannot offset your losses against other “Investments” either. - The Tax Man is no mug !
Has anyone ever been found who pays tax on SB profits?
The stock market s or forex would not exist if it was as simple as just following singles to become profitable
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Which also brings up the question as to why exactly anyone who was dishing out “Profitable signals” - would sell them rather than keep them secret and take huge profits on their own account ?
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It probably won’t make you feel better, but my worst trade of the week was the GBP/NZD , I lost 75.1 pips, literally placed it 10.00 p.m. and by open of the UK markets was out, in fact I lost 2 kiwi trades, did back up my trade, and had a AUD/NZD running along side.
All I can say was the trends and signals were for a positive result, the Asian markets seem to take a dim view of the news out of New Zealand, followed by other markets.
Not sure how new you are to trading, this is what saves me a lot of pips and adheres to my trading plan, if a trade is going south I cut my losses when it gets to 50% of the S/L.
I would say 9 times of this works, with experience you;ll see the pace a trade goes and judge this action.
The one thing you’ll find in trading is to minimise your losses, cut a trade if it’s not working out and especially if it’s going against your trading plan.
It can be hard, I not a technical trader, I’m swing trader and use this with looking at events and news to make my calls.
Mentally you have to toughen up, again if it helps everyone would have been where you are at some stage.
Yes it would contradict why 95 or possibly 99 per cent are not consistently profitable over say 10 years or it’s just down to the 95 per cent just not having self discipline,so there obviously a skill and an awareness involved
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Hi Risky,
Looks like you traded 3 mini contracts with your Broker which is around £0.52 per contract on the GBP-NZD pair. So, the total position was 3 x £0.52 = £1.56 per point. That’s way too high for that account size, over 10% risk.
The other point is this.
There is no guarantee on any single trade, whether it comes from a professional advisory service, your own strategy or wherever the source of that trade idea.
This means, the outcome of any single trade is purely random.
The only thing we as traders can control is how much of our trading capital we RISK to discover if that trade idea is going to work.
Try to keep your max risk per trade below 1.5% of your account.
Risking 10% can wipe your account quickly should you endure a run of losing trades, and this can happen, even if using a strategy with a high hit rate.
Hope this helps.
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I understand why you are skeptical about signal providers moving forwards.
However, this was not their fault and you cant judge based on the outcome of one trade. The outcome of any single trade is random. you have to see how a system or strategy performs over a series of trades. Because it is all about probabilities and certainty doesn’t exist.
Furthermore, you have to take responsibility for the outcome of your trading decisions if you want to improve and become a better trader. Risk is something you have direct control over.
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Ask for a track record of performance,
The outcome of one trade is inadequate to make an informed decision.
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Thank you 
Well, DON’T… First of all, find as many free signal providers as you want(i’m guessing the one you are about to subscribe to also provided free signals at first?), and join their telegram or whatsapp groups
- Start placing, monitoring and testing all the free signal providers’ trades on a DEMO account and begin ELIMINATING them one by one using this criteria -
- If their signals hit YOUR stoplosses
- If their signals are generally bad
- If their signals conflict with other providers’ signals(for example if one says BUY this pair and the others say SELL, if the sellers are wrong then eliminate all of them, and vice versa, keep note of the time frame too because they could all be right but just on different timeframes).
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Exit and delete the eliminated signal groups and unsubscribe from their emails until you’re left with only ONE signal service provider. Having eliminated all but one of them means that the final one probably has 90% accuracy on their signals/trades.
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Continue testing their free signals in the demo until you’re confident that their signals are good.
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You probably thought I’d say that you can finally subscribe to that signal provider but no, DON’T. Just keep using their free signals, on a live account if you’re confident enough even if they only do as little 3 signals per week, but keep the risk small.
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Finally, stop being lazy and learn how to analyse the markets and trade profitability by yourself, and use the signals as a booster or when you’re having lazy days and you don’t feel like looking at charts but you’re down for small profits. Or alternatively use them to slowly grow your capital on your live account as you keep learning and practising on a demo.
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I don’t think you should be upset. Look where you could be wrong, do an analysis and go ahead - work.
Hi Falstaff, I had sat down for an evening on School of Pipsology but watched this instead. Thank you for sharing. I was aware of this ruse by con artists, but this was a very detailed (and probably costly for the programme makers) production. I appreciate your sharing.
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No stop loss
Hi Mondeoman - thanks for sharing that. - Love the name - I nearly bought one of them once - so I guess that makes you pretty new to this particular form of gambling and like me from UK ?
A couple of hints if I may ?
- This whole thing is hugely psychological - so it is important that you get to know as much as you can about yourself and also about the psychology of others - since GRoup Psychology has an effect on “buying” and hence prices.
- trust your own judgement and resist “What others think” - they know no more and probably less than you do - and at the major turning points the “Herd” is ALWAYS wrong.
- Analysts - Respond to movements by trawling through “News” and there is always something to support a view that “it went Up because” - or “It went down because…” - Analysts are rarely correct in their predictions.
- This game is NOT a benevolent society - for you to make money - somebody has to Lose money Plus “spreads” have to be taken out of the transaction - so just to survive your judgement has to be right more often than it is wrong - by a significant amount. Brokers (The bookmakers ) expect that if most bets are “up bets” - the market will go down !
- there is debate about whether the markets are “manipulated” or not - but if your thought process is such that you act “as Though” the markets were manipulated - that will stand you in good stead.
- stops, lot size and exits are very important and something most of us still struggle with - as in most things “forex” - “Conventional wisdom” is not necessarily correct - but that is stuff for later in your journey - This is a “Long haul” journey - most people give up and wander off - or go bust - a Long while before they know what they are doing. - it is NOT easy !
- Babypips school is a good place TO START - and I don’t think they will mind me saying that a lot of the stuff in there is treated in greater detail in the “Stockcharts” site - so when you have been through Graduation and “Post Grad” - you will be able to know where your interests lie and further your knowledge of individual parts over there - (There are parts of that site which are “Paid for” - I never have entered them )
Anyhow - I hope I’ve not put you off too much and that you do “make it”. Wishing you well
F
Al Brooks on risk :-
“I don’t usually use a fixed percentage - sometimes it might be 1% 2% even 3%. The important thing is - my risk must always be a figure that I couldn’t care less about losing.”
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Hi again,
Horse racing has a very sweet spot in my heart. My father (sadly passed away 2 years ago) was a lifelong Gee Gees man. Though I lived and worked a lot away from home, I remember days when he’d tell me "just had a yankee at the bookies and got four our of six. Just bought your Mum a new washing machine. His best ever was a 1976 3p accumulator in which five from six had won. He pocketed about £850 at the time - about the remainder amount on his mortgage so he paid it off. Recently, I was so proud to drive him to the bookies to collect his winnings. Happy days. When I returned to the UK in 2000 after two careers overseas, I bought an old Sierra when I moved into our home, and with a touch of reverse snobbery, called myself Mondeoman some years later. I now drive a Merc but Mercman just doesn’t cut it. This is my fourth foray into Forex, since 1988, and like many on here, I think this time it will be different. This time is more serious, I wish to find a meaningful future for my son who has just graduated, and doesn’t have a clue what he wants to do, but as long as it it not accounting - the subject of his degree. So if I can lead by example, I’d love that he may become an independent trader. Will cost me less to keep him at home too 