Skill vs. luck in Forex trading

Yeah, sometimes the luck works, but we cannot trade relying only on luck as if we do so, we would be just wasting our time and money as we need to have certain skills to rely on to trade with the Forex Trading and without it, we all would be just wasting our time in here.

Forex is a business of skills where luck do have some role to play too. As you would have seen, most of the professional traders, who have been trading in this market for years have learned trading and developed the required skills. No one is trading on luck which can only give a trader 50%-50% chance of winning their trades.

Yeah, skills will be required to do in Forex Trading and also the luck is required, but some traders do trades blindly relying mere on luck, say about 80% on luck and eventually fails, which means they only have 20% of skills and on the height of it they even don’t believe it that they are lacking the knowledge, which they need to learn.

On the scale from slots to chess, it fits in with other skill-based card games like poker, bridge, Magic the Gathering. Actually Magic is probably the best comparison since you can select your deck and build it before every match, much as a (good) trader plans and selects their trades.

I think there should be a proper balance between the skill and luck, if you really want to become a successful trader. Forex is a game of both skill and luck. They both are essentially, required to achieve success, and you never can rely on any single of them.

How you define luck? Luck is when preparation and timing meet together. So to make it short, you need skill most of the time when you trade, you need to know the economic fundamentals and other things that can affect your trade. I’ve been trading for many years and the first five years l am losing, I almost lost everything (including my family) but when I learn all the correlation (political, oil to currency, gold to USD/CAD/AUD, and etc) it start coming back and with big rewards. You need skills. If you always loss to a trade, why not try the opposite? Example: You trade XXX/YYY you set your SL to 50 pips and you were stopped out because your PT =200 pips — then do the opposite but you need to check your technical/charts to play this type of set-up.

emc

There’s no luck in successful trading. Luck wouldn’t have got you out of equity longs on 9/11 or when the Swiss national bank blew up the EUR/CHF in 2015 - that should have been technical analysis.

I disagree with you. There is luck in Forex that matters but not if you have a constant watch on the market like 24 hours, which is practically impossible. Suppose you come to trade and you find a good opportunity to trade, it will be your luck and suppose if you don’t come at that time you would have lose that opportunity.

It isn’t luck when you find an opportunity, it was looking in the right place for the right set-up with a good plan plus the capital and risk management rules to implement it and make a profit. All this should be known before the trade, and the only thing you couldn’t know would be the time: that’s not luck.

My first post! Yay.

I’d say it depends on your time frame and trading style. For me I’d say 7/10 I use technicals, market sentiment news and what feels right to me. The 3/10 because there are variables I just can’t account for.

Nice to see that you have joined this forum and you have earned your first post onto this topic. It is nice that you are using he technical and the sentimental analysis, but I think you are missing the fundamental analysis. Trading analysis are like a three legged stool, consisting three legs i.e. 1. Fundamental Analysis, 2. Technical Analysis and 3. Market Sentiment, You should keep a balance between those three.

Perhaps 4 legged? Individual form analysis or A.K.A. personal luck factor?

Examples of walking LUCKBOX…

Agreed, but we were talking about the Market Analysis, there are lots and lots of thing that are needed to trade with the Forex Market, But the stool of the Market Analysis depends on the Three legs and hence not the fourth leg required, but you aren’t wrong, is that it is another kind of leg of another stool.

Forex trading is about possibility and not certainty, market condition always dynamic and no anyone will know exactly where is movement trend ahead as trader indeed need skill and not only relying with lucky, like as drive car on crowd street you need skill and not only luck

There is no LUCK in forex

LUCK DOES NOT EXIST

Let me explain
you said this…

ok, I used to play chess with people who were serious about it
and i know a Chess Grandmaster (now, i’m not saying that i am even remotely close to his level) but the point is…
let’s objectively question what you said

FIRST
Why is Chess Skill
Why is SLOTS luck

I CAN ALSO ARGUE THE POINT THAT…
in chess (if you believe in Luck) Even a grandmaster can have a stroke of luck hehe

conversely , i can argue (and being an I.T. engineer, I KNOW I’M RIGHT, THERE IS NO DEBATE HERE) On occasion i fix slow machines.

i can argue that slot machines ARE PROGRAMMED TO BE IN FAVOUR OF THE HOUSE
it’s not even a debate
I can show you the programme hehe

so… that’s MYTHBUSTED right there

but even though i agree CHESS IS SKILL
i also CONFIRM Slots is not luck

because IF IT WAS… a Club would RELY ON LUCK to make continual profit
now… THAT WOULD MEAN THAT LUCK WOULD NEED TO BE CONTINUAL FOR THEM

HOW CAN THAT BE ?
well. it’s not the case, simple as that

a Person does not invest millions of dollars to open a Registered club with Gaming machines
and when it comes time to drafting the business model
they say LET’S RELY ON LUCK AND HOPE FOR THE BEST LOL… not a chance at all

it’s all predetermined

here is another way to look at
I own a space invaders machine ( i got it some months back)
it’s in need of some repair, but, i’ll fix it

now. here is what i realized when i started playing with this BLACK AND WHITE Classic (Cocktail Table) space invaders machine
when you look inside there are Potentiometers (to the lamen, this means… little knobs)
now these POTS as we call them in electronics,
they control
THE SPEED OF THE ALIENS
THE SPEED OF MY SHIP
THE SPEED AT WHICH MY BULLETS FIRE
THE SPEED AT WHICH THE ALIENS DROP THEIR BULLETS

hehe
it now becomes clear to me that back in the day when i was in timezone dropping in 20cents at a time per game.
THE GAMES WERE RIGGED hehe

there was no luck involved
it’s a business.

SO WHAT IS LUCK ?

When something happens, just because a certain number of events coincide.
and the likelihood of said event is VERY UNLIKELY
and for the most part, because people don’t put in the effort to try and explain it

Hence, let’s say , when some UNEXPLAINABLE HAPPENS (well, it actually can be explained but people don’t bother trying)

PEOPLE CALL THIS LUCK

if this inexplicable event happens to cause happiness to the person (Like finding $100 on the ground)
a person instantly assumes it’s GOOD LUCK

if this inexplicable event happens to cause sadness to the person it’s called BAD LUCK

now. let’s look at it like this

You are walking down the street, the wind blows and a $100 bill hits your shoe
you pick it up and SAY… “WOW. THIS IS GOOD LUCK”

now
different same scenario
you are walking down the street, wind blows, $100 bill hits your shoe, you pick it up.
BUT A POLICE OFFICER DRIVING BUY SEE’S YOU PICKING IT UP and Arrest’s you for stealing

is it still good luck or Bad Luck

see. LUCK DOESN’T EXIST
LUCK IS AN EXCUSE THAT PEOPLE USE WHEN THEY EITHER CAN’T OR DON’T WANT TO EXPLAIN SOMETHING

is there luck in forex
hehe

well. do you think that the market makers and brokers are just lucky
and that 95%+ traders are just unlucky

No… it’s rigged… simple as that
TRADING IS A SKILL

how is it that i’ve been trading for 7 years
and in the first say 2 -3 years i was losing,
couldn’t find a way to get ahead… IS THAT BAD LUCK ?

and now… (i do lose trades on occasion ) but i win the majority of them

IS THAT GOOD LUCK ?
Did my luck somehow change ? HEHE i think not

i think what happened was, i learned how to trade by gaining knowledge

does luck exist in forex… NOT FOR A SECOND, NOT A CHANCE

you make a decision in forex and your broker acts accordingly

also here’s another head ache for you

if there was luck
HOW WOULD YOU PROGRAMME A TRADING BOT TO ACCOUNT FOR LUCK hehe
you can’t

luck does not exist. ok
it’s as simple as that

Forex market is a risky, decentralized market. Here, no one can survive for a long time without proper knowledge and skills. Yes, without it you may sometimes win just by your luck, by it will not be true for long time. So i will strongly recommend that every trader should have at least basic knowledge and skills before entering into the forex market.

I totally agree with you friend.

I like your advice because no one can successful without knowledge . Luck is not any reliable thing . You have to know market practice here to get skill in trading. Unless you not work hard never can become a profitable trader. There is no competition of luck and skill. Skill is always valuable , due to skill you make good trading.

You can be blessed with luck in one, or a couple of times but not all the times. You genuinely need to fathom what you’re doing. It’s the knowledge and skills that finally pays off. If you do consistent work in right way, you will get accomplishment.

Hi James, i’m not saying this to argue, i’m just saying it to offer another point of view.
Now here are the questions i would raise on this comment

BLESSED… By Who ? God perhaps.
if so then we need to ask,

  • would god approve of this to give his blessing
  • does god exist to begin with and even if he did, he probably wouldn’t give his blessing on forex.

Now. Moving forward, let’s say you were TRULY BLESSED
so… Not Lucky, but BLESSED WITH LUCK
ok… so why then would you not be lucky all the time ?

My point here is, You can’t say someone CAN BE BLESSED WITH LUCK but yet only have luck sometimes
that’s like saying a person is a blessed runner and yet only wins a race here and there… that’s not right.

Ultimately , i don’t agree that luck exists, and overall i agree with your comment that if we are going to discuss luck as a real thing, well then. i agree, i doesn’t happen all the time

My point merely was, i think this sentence that you wrote is really wrong and i just wanted to point it out IN A NICE WAY … OF COURSE hehe :stuck_out_tongue:
Be Cool
Merry Xmas