“Forex Trading is as good as gambling and it never pays”
How true is this statement?
If it is I might as well stop trading 
Going to work at a job everyday is gambling. How do you know it will be there tomorrow?
Trading is gambling to an extent. But your money management shouldn’t be.
And yeah, it’s more risky working for someone else these days, especially with the economy in the crapper and Obama planning to make higher income brackets pay more taxes (not that I’m opposed, I don’t care either way, opportunity exists in all conditions for those determined enough to succeed).
Place a trade is a game of picking higher probabilities. Your money management will make or break you.
[QUOTE=Caesar95;81361]“Forex Trading is as good as gambling and it never pays”
How true is this statement?
If it is I might as well stop trading
If you�re smart, is not true at all. Don�t stop trading (unless you�re not smart) 
Going to work for someone else is gambling as well. I’ve been laid off more times than I care to remember. I’m laid off right now as a matter of fact. I hope to start trading with a live account in a month or two & work in my pajama’s instead of commuting & working for somebody else & making suits rich. What an attitude I have eh? LOL
I’m still learning the ropes & trying to be patient. I should be fine though. I research the hell out of things before I do them. (or buy big items) I’ve been demo’ing for about 8 weeks now & made some really good gains. I’ve also had a couple BIG losses that I learned from & have made adjustments. So far so good on those! Time will tell.
You can make money, even at gambleing, if you have a consistent edge that you know how to execute. I’m not a professional gambler, but when I go to a craps table I can bet 5 $500 dollar chips, one at a time, and often come away with $1K total…if I’m not drinking and I execute my edge properly and some dumbass doesn’t throw the dice off the table and screw up the probabilities. (Please lady as much as I appreciate your boobies jumbling around while you cheer lead, you are really screwing up the table, leave!!!)
I’m actually finding trading forex easier to do than craps. There are far less distractions. (If you are going to gamble at a casino craps is probably one of the few games where you can do really good if you know what you are doing)
By the term gambling, most people who say that are trying to imply that every trade is just throwing money at the market and hoping it goes in your direction. (That is how most people, who aren’t any good at gambling, gamble.)
Basically, when learning to trade, find an edge. Something that has a higher probability of winning than losing when you execute it properly. You will lose, but you win to cut your losses and wait for the next time your edge comes around. When your edge has a high win/loss ratio and the losers don’t eat all your winnings, you have a nice edge that you can keep refining and changing as the market changes.
I recommend a marvelous book: Trading In The Zone, by Mark Douglass.
It’s not about strategy or money management, it’s about how to properly think like a successful trader. So, far it has helped me quite a bit.
I don’t remember who recommended it to me, but whoever it was thank you.
forex, if you just take a trade cause you “think” it should go up and you havent the experience to make that decision is GAMBLING !
making a trade on experience and knowledge, is NOT gambling !
become a REAL trader after a year or so, and then see what the answer is !
KNOWLEDGE and EXPERIENCE are the handmaidens of the riches of forex, and i buy them roses every day, with many a thank you !
enjoy and trade well
mp
[B][I]Within the great hall at Elfinore stands a wondrous coffer, precisely four cubits square and securely latched against the outside world. Inside that repository, shut away from impertinent eyes, abides many an intriquing trading secret garnered from around the world and over the ages !
As a child, i used to watch from the darkness as the secrets were debated and annotated by the elders. No one there held a single thought of my presence – BUT I KNOW WHERE THEY HID THE KEY !! [/I][/B]
I fully agree with ThePhoenix. I also saw someone recommend “Trading in the Zone” and it completely changed the way I think about trading. Before, I would lose a trade and then divert from my strategy in an attempt to make back what I had just lost. That sunk me deeper into the hole. I was ruled by my emotions. Well, I read that book last weekend and now I realize it’s not about individual trades, it’s about the probabilities and the way to see if your edge will play out over a larger sample size. So, I went into the start of this week with a clear strategy and the promise to follow that strategy regardless of wins or losses for at least 20 trades. The result, in three days I took my account out of the hole and into profit for the first time in weeks and I grabbed 215 pips in the process, only trading for about 3 hours each day. Awesome! Now I just have to keep the excitement from causing me to make stupid decisions. Another thing I’m doing is quitting while I’m in positive territory and not getting too greedy. Right on!
So, in response, I don’t feel like trading is gambling in the most basic sense of the word. That is, of course, if you follow a clear strategy and use sensible money management, know and accept your risk before a trade, and don’t let the market eat money that you need to live off of.
Trading is not gambling. You can always exit a trade after you enter it for whatever reason or no reason at all. Once you place your bet, you have to wait for the outcome.
Depends on the game. Which is one of the reason I only play craps. If you aren’t hit for a loss on a roll and of course havn’t one, you can take your chips off the table inbetween rolls of the dice. Which I often do when someone does something stupid like throwing the dice off the table. Well, that and the nickel slots, but that’s for the free drinks.
The boobies would mess me up too! 
I’m reading “Trading in The Zone” right now, excellent book. I just wish I would have done it sooner.
I was thinking more about jobs; very little is within your control (yes you may make decisions, but not whether they keep you or how much they pay you).
With trading you are completely responsible for your results (win or lose).
I think that’s what attracted me to this more than anything else.
I’ve done both, worked for some other company for over a decade and run my own businesses. There is pro’s and con’s to both. With a decent job at least you have a little security and some money expected to come in regularly for how many hours you work or what you salry is. But, it can get tiresome to listen to bosses you don’t like or a agree with, or deal with co workers who are douchebags. The security you thought you had can dissapear very quickly. I worked a job for ten years and thought I was in good, got laid off when the company had to tighten it’s belt. They got rid of me and kept the good old boys in the office who did nothing but drink coffee and gossip.
I’m much happier working for myself, but when things are slow it makes you worry unless your business has done so good you have developed a huge savings. That and paying for your own medical insurance is a *****. O, and try to get a loan the first two years you are running your own business and the money isn’t much yet.
Still, for me, life is too short to slave for someone else and wish I was running my own business and being successful. So, I’m doing all I can to stay self employed, instead of wasting my energies at a job I really don’t care about. Someone said JOB, stands for, “just over broke.” I’ve learned you live by what you make and unless you are someone who makes $100+K a year working for someone else, you are likely to be broke after all your living expenses.
The biggest thing about running your own business is that you have to run it strictly as a business and not take it for granted. Had one of mine almost fail because it was doing good and thought I could just let it go on autopilot.
COMPLETE agreement Phoenix
and remember, you need to make a whole lot less than if you worked for another — what with tax deductions thru the commute to your in home office, theres savings a plenty ---- it even adds a new meaning to “trading naked”, or at least in pajamas and robe, with pipe and slippers !
not me to EVER go near someone elses business, except to steal THEIR talent pool !
mp
I became self-employed last year when I realized I could do the same job by myself that someone else was paying me to do for them. It was extremely difficult at first but the freedom is amazing. It takes a whole lot of drive and discipline but I feel those same traits that I developed starting a business are helping me with my Forex trading. Also, the fact that I can adjust my business hours to fit around trading is a huge benefit. I read a post on here where someone mentioned trying to trade on their cell phone during 5 minute breaks at work. I can’t imagine how that would mess with your emotions and cause you to force trades just cause you wanted to grab some pips before going back to work.
Greetings,
I’m interested to purchase a copy of the “Trading in the Zone” book.
However, on Amazon, there were 2 seemingly similar titles by 2 different authors,
So which is the right book to buy?
[I]Trading in the Zone: Master the Market with Confidence, Discipline and a Winning Attitude by Mark Douglas
Trading in the Zone : Maximizing Performance with Focus and Discipline by Ari Kiev[/I]
The one by Mark Douglas
It was on my christmas list, hope I get it!
So true …
With like running a business. Need to know when to cut your losses, manage your money and when to get smart and go into it with enough knowledge to succeed. I see a trend here most people who fail at forex are not walking into it with enough knowledge. Then again most people do not have that mentality and are better off trading 40 hours a week of their time for a paycheck. After all all you have to cough up is a measly 40 hours of your week for that check … not much to ask.
It was not until I broke free of the 40 hour a week mentality that I was able to see success with my own endeavors. It really sucks relieing on the sole hand that feeds you and determines your financial/social status will axe your job next week. I really pays to have a backup plan or two. Most people do not realize this until its too late such as a foreclosure or declaring bankruptcy after a job loss.
Well to answer this question, you simply have to use your brain (no offense intended).
Go and search about famous investors and traders. Go and read about guys like Warren Buffet, George Soros, Paul Tudor Jones, Richard Dennis, etc and tell me the answer to your question.
If you can’t research, analyse something and form your own opinion about it then maybe you shouldn’t be a forex trader because you need to be able to do all those things