IF you are what you say, then I would define you as a true “Trader”. One that has spent months to even years learning and researching and eventually becoming profitable. Someone who has the two things that makes someone anything:
Experience/Education
Results.
You have the experience and education from learning how to trade, and you now have the results needed to show that you are indeed a true Trader. If you want to ask what you were before, IMO I think just a “Trader In Training”. Just like other careers when you’re learning, you’re just a person in training.
The problem with that if you ask me, is there isnt enough information.
How much do they count as lose money?
Is 1 dollar lost put into that calculation?
Is it when you liquidate your account?
What percentage of the account counts as liquidation?
Out of all of those people. who truly knows how to trade?
Is that yearly based from when they started one year and where they were at the end?
I feel like that isnt enough. brokerages all have these numbers. Im not saying the number isnt there or isnt correct. Im simply seeing what everyone thinks that number is talking about. I say thats talking about just about anyone. So I dont think its saying 76% of traders are losing, but more so 76% of people and maybe even traders are losing. But that site cant know if its random people or traders, thus the number is kinda worthless.
Agree with Zhadow45 totally. 90% of people are not successful traders. To me, since there are no entry requirements, I would consider someone a trader once they can paper trade successfully. That to me would loosely equate to someone comming out of college with a degree, supposedly prepared to go into their profession. If I want to be lawyer, I would also have to pass the Barr exam, and so on…
So once you put in the time, studied, warped your brain a few times, found a strategy, and successfully paper trade, then that would be a better way measure success.
So the wording should be:
90% of people who get into trading fail.
A question for someone looking for a trading course would be: What is your rate of successful paper traders?
Sorry. ■■■■ move on my part responding like that. It’s just that I have very strong opinions on the subject.
Since there are a million ways to drain an account. But beyond gambling and people losing. The spread, the swap and account fees. It is scamming educators and brokers making up a massive part of it!
Exactly, I totally agree with that. And It sucks because people dont know that they are scams! They want too learn but they cant because of these fake “Gurus”.
One of the problems for the brokers who list how many fail, is that when someone deposits with them, the broker doesn’t know (or care) if they have any prior knowledge or not.
We also don’t know if customers who open new accounts after blowing the first are counted twice or not
Then there are those who get scammed by their cheap, bonus-offering, unregulated broker without ever having a chance of becoming successful. These brokers are unlikely to issue numbers of failed traders as its not in their interest to suggest anything other than the possibility of making megabucks
I work for a company that supplies FX trading technology to everything from central banks, prop shops, to brokers. Of retail accounts, 1 out of about every 2,400 stay successful over the long term (2+ years).
Even factoring in governments and institutions, only about 1 out of every 1,000 accounts stay successful over the long term.
So I would actually say it’s closer to 99.9% of FX participants fail (at some level).
I get your point , but this negative outlook that goes around, is spread by our own so called teachers /trainers or the trading gurus themselves.
If one corner them with questions they don’t know how to answer, this is what they will tell us. "You must remember its only a very small percentage of students who will succeed in trading."
Really? What kind of motivation is that?
And a trader is a trader, whether he’s been trading for one day or 3 years like me.
So it is traders failing.
That’s brutal. You’d think that even with a random strategy, there’ll be a contingent of successful traders, based on luck alone.
My guess is that retail traders are more likely to engage in self-destructive behavior that goes beyond strategy. So maybe doing things like holding onto losers with no stop loss or exit, opening excessively huge position sizes, or using Martingale money management.
I agree 1000%…but I am trading for 3 years with iq.
The problem I have, is that I work hard and tested my strategies as prescribed by pipsology. But that strategy will only works for some time before something change, and then I have to work out something again.
Its as if the odds against you just shifts a little that makes it more difficult, and then your strategy is not working anymore.
I have traded Digital with success, and all of a sudden the timer(time left) stop moving back, and i lose my money. After I could prove to my manager what happens they refunded me. This normally happens when there is a rally going, and easy money for retailers. So convenient for the beneficiary…would’nt you say?
They say it was repaired.
I have run out of plans and after 3 years i convinced myself there are easier ways to make a living.
I’d describe FX as a Darwinian process where only the absolute best remain successful over long periods of time.
It’s important to keep in mind that FX at the banking level is, quite literally, war. Bank technology enables speed and precision that retail traders don’t have access to, and it’s not that hard for them to deliberately or inadvertently sweep away all the downstream brokers and traders.
You have other situations as well where really experienced FX traders learn how to crush inexperienced B Book brokers. Definitely less common, but they certainly exist.
I can’t be sure, but probably 90% of completely new traders would fail. I find it as a normal process of learning and not some sort of defeat by market. Learning from your mistakes is good way to become successful trader one day
I don’t agree that 90% of traders fail, though its the thing in almost every forum I visit. Its true that people fail in trading, but that’s more so because they fail to take instructions and go by the teachings of failed trading mentors. If you want to succeed, looking at how people fail is not a good starting point at all. Look at the few who succeed instead
You’re misunderstanding the context of the data. The figures released under ESMA regulations by forex brokers relates to their current clients only. They are not including their clients who already closed their accounts - these are the guys who already got wiped out.
my private estimates (thou only my estimates based on my own observations) indicate that somewhere between 1 and 99% of traders fail, with a standard deviation of 48%
Take whatever stats. your broker gives you e.g. 78%. Then take 78% of that figure. And that’s how many retail spot FOREX traders fail (at absolute BEST by the way). How about that one.