Is forex for real, seems too easy to make alot of money?

Beginner Questions
#1

Hi everyone,

This is my first ever post on babypips. After 2 days of trading on AVAfx using a 100k demo account my balance had increased by 2.7k. My first day trading was relatively poor and just getting a feel for forex. As you can imagine on my 2nd day i thought that what I had achieved was fantastic (hit me emotionally too), too good to be true. It made me think that forex in the right hands is a licence to print as much money as you could make in the time you have? I could tap a broker dry surely? there not going to want to pay out on my winning trades surely?. I found out that AVAfx might be dodgy so i probably wont trade with them?. I thought it was very easy to make big pip gains regularly, am I trading in the real world.

#2

Hi there, now question is, is that how much you plan to start with if you did this for real? If not, try it again with the amount you would… and then let us know how it went…:smiley:

#3

i think most people who trade will agree trading is not easy, if it was the market simply would not be here. 2 day is no where near enough time to prepare you for trading with real money, tradeing demo is good so longs you are realistic, there is no point trading 100k demo if you have only 10k to invest, that would be like putting a pilot into a Cessna flight simulator then expecting them to fly a Boeing 747 in the real world, i would reserve your cash, learn everything you can about forex then when you feel comfortable go live

ill look forward to hearing how you get on

#4

We see this same question at least once per week here. :slight_smile:

The truth of the matter is that once you learn how to trade properly then trading is easy, but what you’ve experienced after 2 days is not trading, it’s luck.

Forex is hard to learn, but easy to do. The trick is to not loose all your money before you learn how to trade properly.

If you keep going for a number of weeks you’ll see what I mean. You’ll hit a losing streak eventually. :slight_smile:

#5

Admittedly my trading strategy was very labour intensive and was along the principles of scalp trading.

I alos hit a huge loss on a commodity i traded in error, bout at the top limit on crude oil and lost 800 pips but managed to weather that one out and took a loss at 400 but offsetting this loss with a sell on crude oil with a 200 pip gain.

I was thinking about using 1000$ initial outlay, thinking Im getting confused being a newb, the leverage is 100:1 so presume you get 100 000$ to trade with.

#6

put simply if you start with 1k you need to demo with 1k not 100k, leverage doesn’t come in to it at that point

using 100:1 leverage- to get a 100k that would mean you would be trading 1 lot which is the eqivilant to $10 per pip, you would need a more than good strategy to get away with that with out blowing you account, im not going to say its impossible but 2 bad trades would wipe you out at an average of 50 pip loss

that would be more of a gamble than a investment

try changing your demo account balance to 1k and use micro lots, see how you get on with that for a while.

#7

Yes, you would have $100,000 to trade with, but you wouldn’t want to use anywhere near that amount.

If you have $1000 in an account you should be risking $20-$50 per trade, even though your leverage will allow you to do much more.

If you go any higher than that you’ll end up hitting a streak of bad luck and loose all, or most, of your money.

Also, please don’t trade any real money until you’ve demoed a while longer. No offense, but you’re not ready for real money yet. :slight_smile:

#8

Yes I think to start a demo account with a realistic sum sounds like the best way to do things. I would get an idea of what I can win/lose over an evening.

Does forex give you the biggest bang for your buck, in terms of being high risk and potentially high returns (not forgetting the losses of course) or are there even higher risk means of trading?

I guess i am a gambler but very much risk aware and like to be well informed before using my own money.

#9

If you’re a gambler then forex is not for you!! This isn’t a casino where you at least have a chance of winning big. If you gamble here you will lose. :smiley:

#10

Thanks for that. Of course I will demo longer but my strategy with 100k was really successfuly and my losses were very minor. I was trading USD/JPN mostly. As I got more confident, I traded using bigger sizes which magnified things but I had bigger gains.

#11

Please don’t take this the wrong way. As a full-time forex trader I’m just trying to help you out…

You don’t have any successes or failures! You have two days of playing around with forex charts, and that is not a basis for saying your strategy is good or bad.

But as long as you plan to demo it for at least a few months, and get a solid money management plan before going live you’ll be ok.

I just don’t want to see you jump in and lose your money. We see it happen all the time on these forums. :slight_smile:

#12

well more often than not we don’t see anything because they are too ashamed to come back and admit we were right :smiley:

unless you have a detailed, and committed money management plan, then you are sunk before you even deposit your first dollar.

#13

you are right at the point when trading will be the easiest for you. Enjoy this moment now as from this moment on it will take you about another 2 years of study, determination, commitment and pain to return to this state…ffffffffffaaaaaaaaacccccccctttttttt…you may give up in three months though…blaming everyone/thing but yourself…see how you go though - it is good fun

#14

I am a newbie as well and so far it is not easy at all. It is A LOT of reading and study. It is also very very hard to control emotions, at least it has been for me and that has been on of the biggest downfalls I have experienced so far. It is rewarding in the regards that you are making your own money by the effort you put into it, no bosses, if you fail its on you, if you succeed its on you. good luck trading!

#15

MrGreener
It is very easy as long as you win, win, win, win, …
Wait till you start loosing, I bet it will sound differently. :smiley:
Sooner or later you have to learn the hard way and it happens to all of us. Hmmmm, maybe I should not say “us” the “always” winners will be all over me.:wink:
Sorry to say you start already with the wrong account, you have to adjust your demo account from “100’000” to the amount you are planing to start out with. The real account you open with 2000.- $ then adjust the demo to that amount too.
Compare apples with apples, not fantasy with reality otherwise you deplete the real thing in 1 day or less.
After adjustment keep on going, when you blow out the demo (adjusted) then you know your trading is wrong and the system may need some tweaking. :slight_smile:
Then open a real account and that’s when the nerves come into play.
For me it is very important the money in my real account is strictly “gambling” money. If I loose it it will not affect my life. Also very important I have left over money to fund a other account if I want too.
If you don’t have a little of reserves and you put everything on one card (trading) then you are a real gambler. If you are a gambler (nothing wrong with that either) I also agree FOREX is the place to gamble and not the Casino’s.
Hope this helps and keep on reading and learning I do it every day.
My 2 cents, Happy Trading

#16

Thank you everyone for your posts, much appreciated. I found babypips really cool from an education perspective but also the contributions made by everyone in the forums really makes this site a dedicated home to forex. Of course I want to win trades and have a good strategy too. I dont really fancy the idea of 2 years study but forex lends itself to that, I find it fascinating. I dont like the idea of losing (nobody does). I wish everyone all the best of course and i will post my updates as and when. Just got to find myself a good broker (if ever there is such a thing??).

#17

I assume that you’ve heard the saying “A broker will only make you broker” :smiley:

I strongly advice you to heed the caution given by Phil and others. Believe me - they’re 100% right.

I guarantee you that your account will blow up in no time if you don’t treat this as the thing it is - hard and difficult work.

In forex you can either get poor fast or get rich slowly. Which do you choose?

#18

I expected forex to be hard and have to work too. I will be very careful but at the same time learn from my experiences , to treat forex with respect and to have fun doing it :slight_smile: