You’ve lost me? 
I’m thinking 1% of balance trades and compounding from a $1k start with a consistant 20 pips a day. I have an excell sheet somewhere I’ll see if I can find it and post.
EDIT: BP doesn’t seem to like uploading it. PM me your email address and I’ll bounce it over. 
I do see 5% drawdown from time to time and that is where the hedging comes in, this actually just happened this morning. The big spike in the EUR/USD came as quite a surprise and caught me going the wrong way but when it peaked I had taken 70 pips on the way up with my safety pending hedge, which I placed at a logical point in the same way that a SL would be placed. Now I just need it to get back to 1.26 to be good for the week, which is very reasonable. But this is definitely one of those times where I have to work for my 40 pip week.
I am not trying to be stubborn and not listen to your advise at all, I just wanted to make that clear in case my conviction and dedication to my plan comes out that way. I have learned some very hard lessons and have built my trading plan around those lessons and from the good advise on Babypips. Check this thread out for my biggest lesson which was my personal “pivot point” in my trading life: Warning for Newbies
This Forex thing is wonderful because each person can build a system that works for them or it doesn’t. There really isn’t much middle ground, you either make money or you don’t. It really is self-critiquing and dealing with that is the only way to make it in this business.
I will still be around Babypips for a long time even after I am successful and doing this for a living. I don’t think my 10 pips per day plan is all that attractive to most new traders but I will be here to throw in my opinion and help out. I don’t have years of experience in trading but I a lot of personal experience and maturity that I have gained through many years of mistakes and lessons from some very hard schools.
Well, that is a lot of words to say this, a living can be made from Forex with the right approach and exactly what that may be is up to each individual trader. I only hope that I can continue to make a positive contribution to this community.
Wow, someone is in a talkative mood…
20 pips a day for 1% of your account balance per day compounded for the year
Initial balance $1000.00
Day 1 $1010.00
Day 2 $1020.10
Day 3 $1030.30
Day 4 $1040.60
Day 5 $1051.01
So if you did this 5 days a week for 52 weeks (260 trading days) you would end up with $13,290.00
Hmmm… I see what your saying. I think on my sheet, I’m talking 1% a month. I’ll wait for Carter’s sheet to see where I’m going wrong with the math.
I would raise my hand to say 16% weekly minimum, but since I’m not going to want to prove it further, I’ll rest it at that. So long as one can beat the annual rate of interest its a viable business, according to the banker.
@ROMAD7 - curious what did you hedge? or does your broker allow for 2 positions on a single currency pair?
does anyone use MACD??? I coded my own with some added features … was wondering if anyone wanted to try it and give some input
I am trading EUR/USD with MIG Bank, I can have as many positions in either direction as my free margin allows.
A living can be made from forex if you’re in the top 2%-3% of traders working for a bank or institution. For retail traders, it’s a hobby that will likely (95%+) take every penny you put in.
I’ve never heard of a retail forex trader making significant money over the long term. To contrast, thousands of people make it as pro athletes, win the lottery, or hit the jackpot in vegas every year. Trying to outsmart institutions with billions of dollars, political connections, and rooms full of PHD’s programming super computers is like trying to win the lottery. Only worse odds :rolleyes:.
How many retail forex traders do you know?
I will sleep easy tonight knowing that i did out smart the institutions, for yet another day…
What’s your implication? Out of the thousands of members here, there are maybe 2-3 successful traders. Notice they are/were institutionally employed?
I love trading and will always be involved in it, but thinking there’s riches to be made in a rigged game is the road to mental and financial ruin.
Well then I guess its game over for me, those darn PHDs with their supercomputers are always ruining it for the little guy!
Seriously though, assuming that you are right and this is rigged by the big money guys then that is the best thing for me. If the market is manipulated by the players then they will most likely make it easy for them to make money by inducing patterns and making it predictable. Since I only react to the moves that the price is making and not trying to predict them then I will be able to profit off of whatever it does. I am definitely not trying to outsmart the market or whomever is moving it, I only use what the market gives me as to avoid being ran over by the market.
Also, I feel much better about myself now, I must be a freakin’ genius for making about a 20% increase last month. Thanks!
Well that is a silly question. I think his implication is crystal clear.
Unless you have seen everyone’s bank sheets, you speak your “feelings” and nothing more.
Negative evidence does not prove a positive. For example, you can’t disprove god by a lack of evidence in favor of his existence.
LOL… 30 years as a pro … from the pits up and way before computer charts. Now retired and trading a retail platorm. Guess I’m throwing my money away like the last 30 years!
EDIT: Can’t speak for Vagas but winning the lottery? Your twice as likely to get struck by lightening (4 mill to 1) on the way home from buying the ticket as winning! The lottery is for people who are bad at math!
With a positive attitude like that QUIT trading and BP now.
Of course I get your point and granted it’s a hard game to play, one of the hardest out there. I was implying your numbers might be a little off. For example, if you counted the percentage of athletes who went on to make a living from their sport, it would probably be about the same.
It’s difficult to know even if the people on this forum are successful…it is the internet after all
There are a few forums with a higher percentage of professionals on than babypips but sure it takes hard work. I make money off it but have only done in the last 6 months and I still struggle from time to time with the discipline needed.
I don’t think the game is rigged, well maybe more in stocks than forex, but even those who know what they are doing lose money…look at the Swiss national bank recently buying loads of euros to keep their currency (chf) from getting stronger - did nothing. Brown (ex PM of UK) sold gold just before the bull run started, Asia buying treasuries from the US all of which could be considered bad trades for the future.
As a retard trader you have to get in with trending markets to increase your odds and also at the right entry time to decrease draw down something that many institutional position traders can cope with much more easily.
Fair enough. I am considering the following:
I make rounds to all the forums, and over the years, I’ve tried to take note of every successful retail trader (I can recall a grand total of 6, out of who knows how many thousands) to understand what they were doing different. The common thread? All used price action and all have backgrounds in the pro side of the industry.
In any of the P&L/journal threads, the guys posting wins are rarely spot forex traders. There appears to be a few more traders making it with options, es/e-minis, and CL, but very rarely forex.
When forex trading contests are held, >95% of traders post losing results.
Last year when one of the forex brokers went public, their primary source of revenue was described as something like “small accounts which trade for very short periods of time.” Note the brokers will never show the winning vs. losing stats.
The brightest minds and best traders in the world deliver 10%-20%/year over the long haul. They are billionaires. If they could make that trading forex from their mom’s computer while wearing a bathrobe, they’d do that instead.
What evidence is there to the contrary? I would really love to hear something more postive, but all the evidence I see points to 99%+ retail traders losing money and only a handful in the world doing well enough to earn a living.
I agree with you when you say that the brokers make a lot of their money from beginners with small accounts.
I would say and Im just guessing, that 75% of beginners will give up within 3 months having blown out a small account. (a few hundred dollars, hopefully thats all!)
Now people say 5%-10% of traders will be successful, wheather or not this is true i have no idea. But i would apply this 5%-10% rule to the 25% of those who remain after 3 months.
im just guessing but if 1000 traders start-
-750 give up after 3 months or so having lost their money.
-250 continue to try and learn.
-of which 5%-10% or so make it to a stage where they are at least profitable in the long run.
This is about 12-25 people out of the 1000 who started.
Maybe my numbers are way out but i would guess it to be something like this.
I’ve seen some interviews in magazines with IG saying 80% lose through being overleveraged, etc. - same old story though always related to risk and money management.
I agree with you if you look through all forums, it’s a mass of indicator methods with little regard for support and resistance and price action, something that all professionals seem to use or talk about in their blogs…which incidentally is another question - if all the professionals make money why do they release books / call services - risk reduction could be the main one but you can’t help but feel cynical in this game.
