Here’s the thing: forex is brutal if you’re expecting it to behave like stocks. There’s no “buy and hold” safety net. But the flipside? 24-hour trading, go long or short easily, and you don’t need a massive account.
I know traders crushing it in forex. They’re not doing anything magical - they’ve just figured out what works NOW and manage risk properly.
The real question isn’t “is forex wrong?” - it’s “is my approach wrong for forex?” Because I’ve seen the same people struggle in stocks, crypto, whatever. At some point you gotta ask what’s actually going wrong with your trades.
This is wild… never saw this perspective how unreliable forex can be long-term. Appreciate you sharing this. Maybe the real edge is in specializing in just a few pairs and mastering intra-day patterns with strict risk control. Quality over quantity, always.
The S&P has not fallen any further since Friday’s action. No buy orders set yet. I am waiting for at least 2 consecutive days with progressively lower highs and lower lows. Day 2 will be the new putative swing low.
The pattern doesn’t have to breach Friday’s low, but until it prints a new putative swing low I won’t trust the bullish price action that follows.
Waiting.
I think you have certainly identified the core issue in this thread. Forex per se cannot be “wrong” or “right”. It just is what it is. The issue is how do we trade it.
When you say, "is my approach wrong for forex?” then there are two solutions: 1) change one’s approach and continue with forex, 2) continue with one’s approach and change the instrument.
The latter is more appropriate in this instance because the thread is focusing on long term trading rather than intraday, for example.
Yes, absolutely. And I think it is good to keep an active, open, and objective assessment of one’s strategy even when things are going ok. Markets do change and issues like major trends, volatility, consolidation phases, etc will inevitably affect the effectiveness of any strategy from time to time.
For example, trading gold recently could have been a simple case of buying in and then going fishing for a month or two. On the other hand, looking at Bitcoin after last week’s drop is a bit like trying to play football in a thick fog with a blindfold on. There is nothing solid to base any directional decision on and perhaps the best approach is simply to scalp it for a while (or go fishing!).
I guess no markets are “easy” and certainly “buy and hold” is not a good option for traders, even with stock markets because their timeline is usually not even a few weeks let alone many years like with investors.
Interesting contribution, @JamieHouston, thanks for the inspiration!
Just a heads-up. Today’s early S&P action is already forming a third consecutive day with lower high and lower low. If that pattern persists to tonight’s close today will be the putative swing low I have been waiting for and I shall set a buy order (to be A1) just above today’s high, stop-loss at -2xATR14.
