I was just reading through some posts and I saw quite a few people who had their own share of losses in forex. I’ve been through most of those myself. 
But I just wanna know, what keeps you coming back to forex trading even after losses? 
What about it draws you back? 
1 Like
Haha, great question. I have often thought, during the 2,000 or more hours i have dedicated to the pursuit of Forex over the years, of Einstein’s (or Ben Franklin or Mark Twain) famous quote:
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
I can justify my fascination by believing that I do not do the same thing over and over again.
This time around (my fourth serious foray into Forex) does not have the same basis as the first three forays.
The main objective this time around is to use the discipline of the methodology of taking a strategy, a plan from goals and objectives, and determining whether specific entry criteria would have resulted in a backtested positive result. I have never been able to do that previously. And my main reason for entering trades would be to protect underlying longer term investments that have overperformed in the short term, and to use some of that overperformance to limit the downside. At least that is what I tell myself.
1 Like
That is such an interesting way of looking at it Mondeoman! 
As usual, your reason is new to me because tbh, my objectives have been pretty much the same. If you don’t mind, do you remember your goals for your first 3 forays? I’m curious to know how you set your objectives and how you accomplish them.
I think it’s the idea of making more money in a month than you can at your job in a year.
3 Likes
I like to see the results of my work. It is for this reason that I work in this industry and try to do it as carefully and carefully as possible.
1 Like
The bigger picture and pure stubbornness 
I love the challenge of learning and having another go to be better.
2 Likes
You have to make a profit by acquiring a trading education. If I want to come back with loss, I have to develop skills and move forward with learning from mistakes.
1 Like
It is very important to come back in trading. If there is a loss, we have to learn from that mistake and move forward.
1 Like
The dream…
2 Likes
The possibility of making more lol or maybe learning enough so that I won’t keep losing money.
1 Like
Yes, the first time I was on an overseas assignment and my wife and I decided to leave £5K with a London broker. That was a very long time ago. I recall we had two memorable trades. We bought platinum (broker recommendation) and lost about £1K, then they did another trade that lost about another £1K. We closed the account because we wondered why we were paying someone else to lose our money when we could do that easily ourselves. LOL.
The second time was before the Euro. We owned (and still do) a very small trading company in the Middle East. At the time we were obtaining quotations in up to 8 currencies and providing quotes to our customers with 90 day validity and typically 90 day lead time and wanted to protect our currency exposure. On one memorable trade we sold about $50K of bulk electrical cabling (high voltage) and the French Franc had gone south. We stood to make an extra $8K margin on the exchange rate. We observed over the 120 days delivery that our margin was fluctuating between 18% and 29%. We chose to pay early for the goods (in Francs) and in the end took a currency gain of $4K over expected. When I calculated our typical risk exposure to currency I realized our open quotes exceeded $1M and our currency exposure was about 50% of that. So we used to spend about $1K per month hedging our USD exposure.
The third time - nearly a decade ago now - was that I got caught up in the hype. I went to a Greg Secker introduction meeting at a local hotel and remember telling my wife “I am leaving the credit card at home so I don’t get sucked into the time limited discount offer”. I ended up driving home to get the credit card and attending a FTSE trading course in London for £2 or £3K I cant’ remember exactly. My objective at that time was to return over 100% per year with a starting pot of £20K. I did make a very detailed plan and in the end we lost around £3.5K before I decided there was enough evidence that we did not have an edge in our trading, so packed it in. That was 3 days before the collapse of MF Global, and we got our funds out just before the collapse. Karma. We are blessed, thank the Lord.
This time around I am still not sure where the journey is going. But I am confident that wherever that journey is heading I get a huge amount of satisfaction out of participation. We have not risked a £ on Forex since we started this time around, but I have used risk analysis and risk / reward learnings in our Crypto investment and short term trading, and that has to date worked out better than planned.
I am currently distracted (again) from the main path, because I am running a two stage pilot for Crypto mining. I have almost finished stage 1 and am starting stage 2. Initial guesstimates is that the mining may return between 2% and 5% per month on invested capital, but risks either way are not yet quantified.
I do take an awful long time over these matters for two reasons. The first is that I approach them like a businessman would. I want to do options analysis first, then a proof of concept, then a pilot, then a trial before I blow £10K on computer hardware only to find that the crypto tanked by 90%. Slowly, steadily, wins the race.
1 Like
What keeps me coming back to FX, apart from the challenge and enjoyment - yes, I enjoy the pain and suffering - is that I’m currently tending three live accounts.
No 1 is my long-term pro-friend trader, Hal, who manages $5k for me on IC Markets, using remote access to my account. For this year, using a Ebot scalping strategy trading the Majors, he’s heading over 29% annum. I follow his progress on a daily basis, which has more ups, 68% win rate, than downs, albeit his approach is conservative and low risk. He’s a better trader than me.
No 2 is my CTI prop firm evaluation account. My target is to make $300, and not lose more than $200 on a $5K LIVE account in one year. My max open lot size on a 100:1 leverage is 0.25. The broker used has average spreads plus commission on a old MT4 platform. I’m only allowed to trade FX currency pairs. After two months I’ve lost $55 (1.1%). It’s hard work.
No 3 is my mini account with Pepperstone great MT5 platform. When I transferred most of my balance to HAL, I left $63 - yes, $63 for me to micro trade. What the hell. After one FUN month of scalping gold, silver, indices, and cryptos, it’s now over $80.
That’s why I keep coming back…
2 Likes
I started Muay Thai at 7 yrs old. By the time I was 12 I was pretty good at it - or so I thought.
One day, this kid from a foster home in Liverpool starts training with us. He was already a great boxer, and being a scouser from a tough up bringing he beat the hell out of me.
Up until that point I’d been the star student. Anyways we became good friends, and I’ll never forget the advice he gave me.
‘When you end up in a in a fight, just keep going until you or your opponent gets carried out on a stretcher’
It’s possibly the best bit of advice I ever had - and the reason why I continued to trade during my worst moments
4 Likes
What keeps me coming back is my positive mindset and inner spirit that tells me don’t give up. Of course people are making it mine won’t be different and if I quits I can never celebrate the success.
3 Likes
I have always liked challenges. So while it is not nice to go through a loss I guess it is bearable if you remind yourself that you can do better next time.
1 Like
Lol making money is the primary objective for most of the traders here.
That is a really good question. As for me, I have more interest in trading than disappointment from losses. That is why I am still here and keep coming back after nemerous failures.
Sheer stubbornness:smiley:, prove that consistent focus and practice works:muscle:, and profitability:moneybag:.
I always come back because I know that it’s a legitimate way to make money. Of course I consider starting a business and do some freelance work, but I prefer trading.
I am the die-hard type of person, very rugged, so I don’t give up on things easily especially when I know it is legit, believing that sooner the odds will work in my favour. and I will make the monies back, that’s why I keep trading even after experiencing huge losses.