I mean, if everyone is using technical analysis then how can you truly get an edge over anyone if everyone is using the same tools/indicators as you?
Well I don’t think that everyone uses the same tools/indicators. You have to remember that there a vast amount of traders so even if 100,000 traders are using the same system, that still only makes up a small percentage of the entire Forex world.
I’m total noob in Forex but i think this :
Forex include every one that buy or sell curency no matter is he/she use internet or not.
I mean if i’m Mr . X and i trade with ceramic tails and i buy them from China for USD ,that make same reaction as some one siting behind his PC and buy 1 lot.If i’m rigth market is much more liquid and fundamental dependable than how many ppl use that tool for trade or another.In short i think that Forex is too complicated and huge to be able to any group of ppl to manipulate it.
If i thing right or wrong please discuss.Thank you in advance.
People don’t look at the markets the same way. Even though they might have the same tools, every person has their own view of how to interpret the market using those tools. It’s kind of like those weird sillhoute pictures where doctors ask what you see. 2 people can look at the same picture but see different things. The same applies to charts and technical analysis.
If you want to be consistently profitable using TA, you have to be aware of its limitations. Technical analysis can only give you probabilties of where the price will go based on what the price has already done. Fundamentals will ultimately drive the prices. Use indicators as guides, not as hard facts and don’t try to see what you want to see on a chart. The more you do it, the better you get. Remember, it’s an art, not a science 
the market is not run totally on technical analysis. even if everyone one gets tought the same techniques i doubt that this 90% of traders fail would decrease. this is because not everyone is built for trading. technical analysis requires interpretation and many people can interprete the same tools differently. TA only gives you possible opportunities and warnings but you have to interprete what they mean to you. trading is a personality game. not everyone is suited to be a trader. but people will always trade based on the kind of personality they have. what really runs the market is greed and hysteria. if you allow your trading to be diven by these two then you will end up in the 90% pool who are just trying to gamble and get lucky.
anyone can play poker. its easy to learn and once you got the basics you can start playing right away. now just cause you know how to play doesnt mean you know the game. you need to understand the fundamentals and be able to analyze what hand you have infront of you and predict what the other players are doing. also you need to come to the table with an adaptable stratagy. most gambling games are games that dont nessasarily work on pure luck. some people have come up with creative ways to beat the house consistantly just by using their brains and knowing how to play the game. now in the world of casino thats called cheating. the casino house want you to know the rules but they dont want you to play the game. now with trading most people how how to play but very few know the game. two trader can be taught the same techniques but after 1 year of trading you will find that they will make different results.
when you first learn the forex market you only hear how profitable it it. th possible returns are just outragouse but what you dont hear is that its only profitable to the 10% that know the game and its the 90% that ends up paying the 10%. the trick to technical analysis is being the 10% that know the game. thats all.
We have to remember that technical analysis is only a part of consistently winning in FX or any kind of trading. Trade management skills play a big part in success after the trade is on. The FX market is fast and constantly changing, so your initial analysis of the market might change as well. If you know how to correctly adjust positions (i.e. scale in and out of positions, adjusting stops and limits, etc), then you can turn a losing trade into a winning one and create risk free trades. Like pristen mentioned, trading is an art, not a science, so learning to adjust trades will take time and a lot of experience.
Couldn’t agree more to the statement above.
Technical analysis is a part afterall. You can be a technical hero and still lose due to poor money management, or emotions.
A good trading system in my view is that one which will bring to you more winners than losers. That is what named “Profitable”. But will the trader follow every signal from his system? and I mean every signal. Will he follow the stoploss, profit projection? An example would be. If you start trading a system, and you get some losses in streak. That does not mean it’s over, with proper stoploss and profit level in place, a good signal can let you recover what you lost in bad signals and more.
I wanted to say it in one word. Discipline. Some people are not very talented in Technical Analysis but with discipline, they make more money.
Almost all traders will use the same tools, but strategic plans play the big role in winning and losing.
is it true ?
Money management is what will make a difference between a profitable an unprofitable trader. There is no technical analysis or fundamental analysis strategy out there that will let anyone profit consistently. You need to control emotions and have money management skills. Technical and fundamental analysis is just a small step to being successful. Learn to control emotions and money management, then you stand a chance.
To be consistently profitable, regardless of the approach you use, you need to have a system/method/technique that is a net winner over time. If you do not, the best money management approach and the most rigid discipline will do nothing more than slow the process of shrinking your account. You cannot turn a losing system in to a winning one through money management and a good trading pyschology - though you can turn a winner in to a loser if you don’t trade control your risk and keep your head on straight.
yes of course having a decent system makes a difference too but I was mainly trying to make a point that without money management, it’ll be hard to be successful. Let’s say 2 people were given a same strategy that includes the same entries. One person with good money management will make money but if the other person allows his losses to run and cuts his profits short, he’ll lose money, even with the same exact system. Both system and money management go hand in hand but money management in my opinion carries a lot more importance than any system alone. There are many systems out there that people would classify as a losing system, such as a 20-30% winning ratio strategy but with proper money management, it can indeed be profitable if done right. What one person considers a losing system can be different to another so it really depends on a lot of things. Just like they always say, one man’s garbage is another man’s treasure
Hi guys,
so far very good general suggestions from everybody…ie Disciplene , money management , system etc…
Could any body please provide specifics …? ie. what are you doing for money management and the results ? what % or your account total do you trade ?
What kind of leverage ? What kind of stoploss…is it in % or by pips ?
Would be helpful to know what others are doing …thanx
btw, i’ve started a USD500 ac wth FXCM wth a 200:1 leverage,a mentor suggested I trade no more than 30% of my account value and do a stop loss at 35pips of th opposite direction of my trade.
What do you guy/gals think…?
tqs again…
kem
Sorry, this just made me laugh, i know you meant ceramic tiles… just can’t get the image of a ceramic tail out my head lol.
james
Money management is about one thing, and one thing only - your position size. That, in turn, comes from your risk profile.
Letting losses run and cutting gainers short is not money management. It’s system execution, or maybe more in the area of trader psychology.
A trading system should have rules for both entering and exiting trades. If it doesn’t, it’s not a complete system. Granted, in some approaches the entries and exits cannot be cleanly articulated, but that doesn’t mean the basic rules don’t exist. The trader who lets his losers run instead of getting out when the system says to get out has a breakdown in execution, not in money management.
Now if he traded too big (or too small, for that matter) then you have a breakdown in money management.
Losses that are too large in pip size - larger than would be accounted for by the system rules - are the fault of failed system execution. Losses that are too large in terms of % of account balance (assuming they aren’t the result of losses too large in pip size) are the result of faulty money management.
You make a valid point rhodytrader. Cutting losses and letting profits run is more to be considered as risk management but the term money management can be very general in nature. Some people will consider money management differently than others but in the end, it all boils down to controlling emotions, managing money, managing risk, and having a system that works for you to be profitable. Hopefully what you and I discuss here will help some new traders understand some of the important factors in becoming successful.
Actually, I use money management and risk management interchangeably when talking in trading terms since most folks don’t differentiate between the two (unless they’re an insurance professional maybe 
).
To me, cutting losses short and letting profits run (and anything else in that respect) is a function of the trading system the trading system being the rules which indicate when you enter and exit positions.
Risk/Money Management, the way I define it, is the process of sizing one’s positions based on a predefined risk parameter set. This is not just about ensuring the avoidance of excessive losses. It’s also about maximizing return given the risk you want to take.
Poor money/risk management, to my mind, is the failure to have and abide by a well thoughtout risk strategy, which means a failure to properly size each position. I do not put failing to close out a position when a stop level is reached in the category of poor risk management. That is simply the inability to follow your trading system. Of course failure in either means a breakdown in trader psychology (so to speak).
Even if I was to tell you my style of trading doesn’t mean you will succeed with it. because trading is like boxing, you have to develop your own style to be successful. The questions you asked are good ones. But you have to ultimately make those questions into answers which produce results.
Other peoples methods can give you a guide. Read as much material you can get of forex trading methods. Learn the market your in. Because different strategies apply to different currencies. Risk no more than 5% - 1% of your over all account. Meaning your stop should make you lose no more than $25 per trade until adjusted +/- $500. If you risk $25 to make $25-$45 you are not making good trade ratios. A ratio of 1:2 is the lowest you will go. So if you risk $25 to make $50 or better, you are doing good.
It seems your new to forex. Do yourself a favor and save that $500 till you become a decent trader. Practice practice practice on a demo accout for 6 months with the design trading method that you adopted. You should beable to look at your records a see the results of all your studying and analysis.
You can use that six month learning to curve to learn with real money or play money. Its up to you. 
a picture is worth a thousand words (or more ) so here’s how I do it. This was today, basically for 5 min charts I set stop loss 1/2 of the channel for longer time periods I set it to 1/4 or even 1/8. For this trade I didnt actually set a stop loss but still
9/06/2007 20:15 Sell GBP CHF -10,000.00 2.4287
9/06/2007 20:43 Buy GBP CHF 10,000.00 2.4268
9/06/2007 20:43 Total: 15.81
hope this helps
Well, that is a basic thing that you have to understand about technical analysis, otherwise you will miss the whole point of it. The reason why moving averages or any other common indicators works, is because traders believe it works, so they use those indicators. For example, the 200 MA known as a powerful resisting/supporting indicator, and many traders set their orders near the level of the 200 MA because they learned that it has technical impact. Therefore the 200 MA becomes a powerful resisting or supporting indicator. On the same weight, the 145 MA could have the meaning, but everybody uses the 200 MA since that is what they learned. In other words, if everybody did not use the same indicators, or look at the same potential break up/down levels, the entire technical analysis system wouldn’t work.