I totally understand what you mean. And just the last few days (end of last week and beginning of this week), the market has been so crazy, I do not know how to trade it.
Cos even my consistent system that has been working for the past weeks is failing on me almost all the time the last few days.
Well, the only secret to be successful in trading is to be consistent.
And when I say consistent, you really, REALLY have to be consistent.
From all the trading I am doing, and the numerous back testing I am doing, recognizing certain chart patterns is really useful.
Trading, in my opinion, is mostly effort at reading the charts right (70%), recognizing the chart patterns that will most likely be positive trade setups (20% instinct and pattern recognization) and of course, luck (10%).
I just developed a strategy which I was using. Some how, I feel, it is still rough at the edges and not able to handle all the different scenarios that the market can throw at us.
I am still trying to fine tune my strategy. I am more than willing to share. Thing is, I am not really eloquent in writing. If there is a way to share, and get feedback from other people who tried my strategy and are able to improve on it, that would definitely be a win win!
I totally agree. I don’t think anyone here is actually making any real money. I’m still trying but it just appears that all we do is bounce ideas off of each other, try this, try that do this, do that, but that’s it. It’s rare that someone says I’ve done this, I’ve made this, I’ve grown my account by this, etc. On the rare occasion that someone does say something like “I make 100 pips per day” they start a thread, post for a little while then disappear. The thread might continue but the original started of the thread is gone. As if they’re now embarrassed because the system wasn’t as profitable as they originally thought. Then we’re back to a thread of people just bouncing ideas off each other. Then when I ask if anyone is keeping and log and tracking their progress - no one responds. As if no one is making any money off whatever system is being discussed.
I’ll leave and come back to these forums every couple of months looking for the same confirmation that I’m not just wasting my time, and I can never find it. Just people sharing ideas but no real solid proof that these ideas are working for anyone. If I’m actually successful at this one day, I promise to share the proof of my success to inspire the rest. After all this is all I’m looking for right now. Not a hand out just some solid evidence that this is possible.
I understand the frustration. That is why I was so grateful when I attended the recent investment fairs and found some very valuable sources of trading strategies which I have adapted to form my own.
All thanks to this site, which got me started.
Bouncing ideas off each other ain’t that bad. At least, when we share our ideas, we know if there are any loop holes that we did not see when designing our own strategies.
To be really honest, I met block after block when I first started out.
And after looking at the many various ways of trading, I can safely say, there is no one sure way to guarantee a working system.
Even for schools that teach their systems, charging a fee for it, they too cannot give the assurance that if you follow their system to the tee, you will become a millionaire.
No one can give you that assurance.
That is why experience and a healthy exchange of ideas is important.
Thanks for the reply, phil. Is the spreadsheet in the zip file? I can’t seem to open it. I have winzip, but I’m getting an error. However, I will be reading over the thread.
And the circle begins… now we have excel sheets telling him how to trade… in my own opinion, nobody will be successful at trading until they learn WHO they are, and what feels comfortable with them… until you figure out who you are, this circle will continue.
I know how that sounds, but thats why its important to find a way to trade that FITS you … and don’t give up until you do…
Sorry, I didnt’ want to leave you with that impression… but if you wanted to try a new system, just keep in mind that what works for one, might not work for you. Each has to be modified to work with the trader who is trading it… and no matter the system, there are just two things that make a good system work… leverage and good risk management…
Actually, spreadsheets is exactly what I’m looking for. Some documented proof that this can work, that you can make a profit trading forex. I may or may not use a particular system even if it is documented. I just want to see some documented proof. Thanks for the spreadsheet, Phil. Unfortunately, I still can’t open it. I downloaded it to my desktop and tried to open it but winzip just gives me an error message. In any case, thank you for sharing.
This is the exact reason I started this thread! I have experienced your entire post! There are members here that have been here forever that finally divulge their income and it’s not enough to pay my Netflix bill!
Part of the problem is that truly successful people are unwilling to reveal their income for a variety of reasons, such as confidentiality, concerns over giving away personal financial information, risk of being called fake, accusations of bragging etc. etc.
I think the truth of the matter is that although 5% make it, they only make it in a just-about-breakeven sense and that really less than 1% actually make it big time in this business.
For all those people who keep repeating the mantra ‘Forex is easy…’, even those who follow it with ‘…but only if you have good MM’ are frankly I think they are talking rubbish. Forex is not easy. It takes years of practice, hundreds of hours of learning, and many many losing trades just to make it into the 5% bracket.
The only way to succeed in this business is perseverance. Sure of course you need a good strategy and MM but applying those will only come with time. And lots of losses.
ok then let me be one of the first to divulge my true forex income, i have been trading on and off playing with forex for about 2 years in which time i suffered many losses and 3 wiped account equating to about �2k
this year my son was born on the 15th of february, there were complications which resulted in both my fiance and son being in hospital just over a month, obviously wanting to be with them i took much time off of work and lost my job which wasn’t that great anyway
late february i began trading with �400, i began making around 10-20% a week risking no more than 2-5% on any 1 trade, 7 months or so down the line i now have an account balance of just over �11k which allows me to make profits of �1k+ per week as of early this month
to begin with as you can imagine my profits were very small but now after many months of hard work i am seeing some substantial gains, still not quite rolling in it yet but from past performance i can begin to forecast my earnings in the future which will eventually be very significant sums of money
it has taken about 2 years, 3 blown accounts costing me about �2k ( i just consider this training costs ) but i believe i am finally there
if you have the patience, determination and perserverance to endure what i have over the last 2 years then you too will make it eventually, trouble is most quit within their first 6months or after their first blown account
i hope i’ve given a little spark of hope to some whilst still maintaining realistic expectations
Thanks for sharing. This is the kind of stuff I like to hear. I don’t even care what system you’re using - there are many systems to choose from. That’s not what’s important to me at this stage. Like I said, I just want to know that this is possible.
I believe what they are trying to do is look at who is not just making money, but making a living off it … and I believe their comments about how members that have been around here forever and can’t backup their statements are absolutely true.
In fact its not statistically possible. If 95 or 96 or 97 or 98 % fail (whatever you want to believe) … then 95,96,97 or 98% of the posts are losers wanting to sound like winners.
If you don’t believe me, then you must also believe that 32x2 = 168 … because you obviously don’t know how to do some simple basic math. ANd if you think this forum is different, and it holds all the experts, then again, you are on this road to failure.
So you see, 98% of the people out there are probably smart people, but they lack intelligence because they make comments like the ones that will probably be posted after I write this… Look… my evidence is about to be posted:
And when I write “YOU” I mean who ever is reading the post… not pointing at you cas
What’s that supposed to mean making a living of it…?
Paying your bills so you can trade full time…? Is that what it means…? Or does it mean to satisfy your phantasies and illusions in your head to become rich and live a life in luxury without care what you buy and how much you have top pay for it…?
Now, making arrangements in order to pay your bills from full time trading shouldn’t be that much of a problem as long as you have a sound foundation and really have command of the basics as every good tradesman had when he aspired to become a master of his trade. Regardless what trade he had choosen.
Every good tradesman was once an apprentice and had to take care of his living expenses while learning his trade and getting little for it. That’s no different from people learning how to trade, starting out and “making a living of it”.
[B]Because that phrase “making a living of it” is an entirely subjective matter and has got [U]nothing[/U] to do with trading in itself.[/B]
Well, I do make a little money off forex. The amount I am playing is still small as I am building my funds to something more sizable to see better profits.
But it is not impossible to make money off FOREX.
It is not easy. But not impossible.
Just check out my discussion on my strategy set up. I have posted some proof there to show that with the correct set up, you can minimize the risk of losing money.
In fact, I just locked in 161 pips with the announcement of the NFP!
I think this is my first post here but I’ve been around for almost 2 years but never had something to say.
First of all I feel the same as the person who started this thread, I’ve been going up and down with good earnings and bad looses, I went from test account to live account and back to test account.
I’ve found crappy system, decent systems and very good systems, I’ve tried them all. At the end I figure that no system is BAD, the problem is the trader, basically a system that is good for somebody is not necessary good for another person, because we have different minds and different interpretations.
I was trading mainly with the CWB system, but it was not profitable for me, even if it’s doing pretty good for some other people (or at least they claim that it is good), the style that it uses don’t suit with my style so that’s why I decided to take different Ideas and develop my own system.
For now it was working really good for me, not giving huge amount of PIPs but the earning were decent and constant (test account), unfortunately, I decided to go live last monday, but since the market was un-stable, I ended with 2 bad trades which took me back to test account so I can see what’s wrong.
After all this talking, basically what I think is that:
Not all the systems are for everybody.
A lot of people think that being a TRADER means reading babypips.com’s school and going to the forum to search for “Magic systems”, basically THIS IS WRONG. You can test other’s systems, take some ideas from it BUT NEVER based your trading on it. Being a trader means a lot more than that, it means Research, read and understand the FX world, understand how a system works, and why price reacts bullish or bearish.
There’s a lot of stupid people waiting for somebody to post a system and force them to show why is this system profitable. I;ve seem a lot of people asking for probes, account history, etc to make sure if a trader is really success with the system that he/she is sharing. Be serious guys, if a person come to share a system that he hardly build, be thankful and at least take your time to test it and see for yourself if the system works or not.
So DON’T spect that somebody will post a magic system, DO YOUR JOB and read read and read, and last but not least: BUILD YOUR OWN SYSTEM.
