Is this some kind of fluke?

Beginner Questions
#1

New here to the forum. I have always had a kind of obsessive interest when it comes to finance and investments. I would always think about the dynamics of how the economy works. (For example what caused the real estate collapse. Hint: It was inevitable)

I have been thinking of opening a trading account for a while but just always put it off because of my job. This past Thursday I saw a pop-up for FXDD and I decided what the hell; Lets play with it a little. I opened up a demo account with $5,000.

In 3 hours my account was up to $5,944. I was ecstatic so I decided to buy more positions not knowing that at 2 o` clock the volatility starts to slow. In short, i was margin called and my account went down to $4,730.

The next day (Friday) I opened a new account and loaded it again with $5,000. This time I watched my leverage, was moderate on my profit targets, and didnt make any new trades after 2 o clock. By the 3:30 all my trades were closed and my account was up to $5,712.

My question is this… is this some kind of dumb luck? Do professional traders consistently make these kind of returns? Does the demo account operate differently then a regular account? Im really left scratching my head. Everyone keeps saying you have to work your ass off to even beat a saving account return but I made more in a couple hours then my best friend makes in a whole week.

#2

It’s not a fluke, it’s just the nature of probability.

No offense intended, but if you’ve only been trading since Thursday you probably have no clue what your doing. I know I didn’t!! Your trades are basically 50/50 chances and you’ve hit winners so far.

Keep going like that and your losers will come.

I’m a full time trader, meaning I make my living by trading forex, and I can tell you those are not the kind of returns professional traders make all the time.

There have been weeks, days, and even hours when I made those kinds of returns, but it doesn’t happen all the time. The winning streaks plus the losing streaks add up to be a nice, steady profit over time…

I’m not trying to discourage you though, you’re on the right track… Keep reading, learning, and playing around with a demo account and you’ll learn how to make good money.

#3

I’m not sure why, but many people I’ve spoken too (and myself included) started out with awesome winning streaks in our first Forex demos. Then came the false confidence, the opening of the live account, and then the rude awakening. Learn and practice sound money management and don’t expect to make a lot of money fast. Continue with that demo for a while and you’ll soon find it’s not as easy as it seemed those first few days.

#4

One more thing on that comment.

In my opinion, you don’t have to work your ass off trading forex to beat a savings account. I did work my ass off to [I]learn[/I] to trade, and I was way too gung ho when I started trading. But now, after the excitement has worn off, I make an average of about 5% return per week. It took me over a year of learning to get to that point, but now I work about 30 minutes per week. :slight_smile: