Hello
I would really like to know what your early trades were in? In your first 6 -12 months did you trade in one pair, two, three? Did you branch out from the majors into the cross pairs?
What’s the main thing that you would do differently back then knowing what you know now?
Just a bit about where I am, I have seen consistent results of a 5.6% return on my demo account for sometime. I have moved into live trading recently and am managing the psychological differences that come with that move. I have been educating myself consistently and for quite a while, with a variety of sources, such as online distance learning courses, loads of books, videos etc. I dedicate approx 4 hours a day to my trading around a full time job. I have a decent amount of capital available to trade with that is not part of my main income needs (in the tens of thousands). I am actively engaged with risk and capital management, I usually risk a max of 3% per trade. My long term goals (3-5 years) are to achieve a consistent return of 5.6% and within three years be able to take regular withdrawals as a supplementary income.
Welcome Ms.Bront. I traded all majors and minors but stayed away from the exotics when I started. Now I only trade the majors and I only trade fx through futures.
The only thing I would have done differently is not over-risk on my trades. When I first started out I was risking 4-5% per trade and ended up quadrupling my account in a few short months. I had a short string of losers and dropped back down to my starting point. I got really down on myself because I thought my strategy didn’t work or that I was a bad trader. I then hit the reset button, traded the exact same way as before, but only risked 0.5-1% per trade and I started seeing consistent profits. The big thing is whatever method you decide to trade with, you have to keep your risk low enough so that you can survive and manage the inevitable string of losers that happen every once in a while. I’m glad I figured out my problem was simply over-risking and didn’t give up.
EUR/USD and GBP/USD, because those are highly liquid pairs with low commissions, plenty of trading opportunities, and their RTH suit my own available trading hours.
I used to trade almost all major pairs. Sometimes some are pairs also there. Actually nothing was fixed. But now I only trade GBPUSD. Even in my trading terminal there is only two pairs that I keep open, EURUSD and and GBPUSD.
Hi thanks this is really helpful. I agree and I am currently risking 1-3% depending on the actual trade. I looked into the Kelly criterion and found that really interesting. I feel like I don’t have enough history in my demo ac to be sure I have the right figures to put in to that equation though. So I am going to go with a half kelly for the moment. Do you use that to work out your ideal risk position?
I think every pair has it’s own unique personality with respect to price action.
The gbp/usd just seemed to fit my style, so I ended up spending the majority of my study time focusing on historical cable charts. After a while, I think its possible to develop a “feel” for a pair if you spend enough time with it.
That doesn’t mean that im able to predict price movement, but i’ve developed a certain comfort level with the gbp/usd.
So far so good, but I still have a long ways to go.
I have a vast experience of Forex trading and I have learned a great lesson from it which is you need to choose two or three currency pairs for your trading as a long-term and two to three pairs as short term. But keep money management in mind always!
@PanchoVilla84 thanks, really interesting, glad its going well for you. I agree… I have spent time learning all the major support and resistance and likely influences for GBP/USD and EUR/USD and that was so much work…Not sure I fancy it for the others…Maybe USD/JPY…
I’ve read that it is better to keep multiple pairs separate from eachother, so if you trade Cable your next pair should not involve GBP or USD . Any views?
I traded the Eur/Usd mostly and then I fell in love with the GBP/NZD. The only thing I would do differently is to stick to not risking more than 1% per trade. It would have prevented me from blowing up my first account as fast as I did. The psychological effect of that blown up account had a bad effect on me.
It doesn’t matter if you have millions of dollars, start with a micro account of $100 and risk no more than 1% per trade. You need to develop skill and disciple without worrying about losing money. If you have as much money as you say you have, losing a hundred dollars shouldn’t be a problem. Make every mistake you can with that little account and grow it. If you can’t be consistently profitable with a small amount, you won’t be with a large amount. You will end up wasting your money.
To be honest, most pairs out there are dependent on the politics of the countries they are connected to. That applies to exotic pairs just as much, if not more.
