and out of those 3, which is THE most crucial area of math to understand in your opinion?
You forgot to list the 3 choices. So, I will take a stab at it. Probability is by far the most important mathematical skill required. You need to understand what is a high percentage trade and how to manage risk.
differential calculus, abstract topology and manifolds.
Intake? Or exhaust?
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Multiplication…
#lots x #pips = how much you make/lose
All other mathematics are irrelevant(cept for division - to find your SL)…
FX market is run by big money and often dances to their tune as opposed to what all fundamental and technical analysis would lead you to believe.
For retail traders, it is mostly random action so it would be impossible to quantify with some formula or what not. hence the slogan trade with the trend and others…
Cheers
if you had a choice the most relevant area is statistics…but your success in this subject will have no influence on whether or not you are invariable successful
Basic algebra, i.e. solving for x in linear equations or quadratic/polynomial functions and equations.
Numerical Methods & Analysis (i.e. iterative techniques), bonus if you can code techniques. i.e. newton, jacobian, guass-jordan etc techniques.
Probability & Statistics. Very good to have a basic to intermediate grasp of the fundamentals here.
Although not mathematics, learning how to code basic stuff in JAVA, C/C++ or MQL4 is a great.
Don’t distress if you feel overwhelmed because none of this is necessary to trade well.
If you want to make your own custom indicators, EA’s, autotraders etc having a background in these topics would significantly help and in my personal opinion, your own custom auto-trader is the way to go.
Spending time thinking about strategy design is probably easier and more effective than approaching the problem from a maths angle.
Basic stats and probability theory and a good grasp of hypothesis testing are probably all you need. An understanding of bootstrapping and possibly monte carlo methods definately helps once you start to understand how edges work.
The ability to code is absolutely essential.
I was being funny of course and I didn’t think of the double meaning of manifolds until after I posted it. LOL
but on a more serious note. I don’t do much math with my trading. I look at the charts and if it’s a good set up I enter the trade and with a reasonable lot size based on my account size and my experience with the perfomance of the trading method. I’ve dabble some with probabilities and statistics but don’t think all that stuff is really necessary. I was always a vfr pilot…
Basic arithmetic.
Yep, basic arithmetic and a reasonably numerate ability are pretty much all you need in my opinion. Of course it doesn’t hurt to add more tools to your locker so reading up on statistics, probability, basic code, etc. is probably useful depending on your trading personality type and how you plan to trade but by no means a requirement for success.
what is that???
topology?!?! manifolds?!?!?
I wasn’t realy serious about using for forex. just being funny
Topological manifold - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
LOL Talon,
I think you scared the sh*t out of some noobs and lurkers.
Talon,
You did just about scare the **** out of me… and I have a very strong math background…
In all my studies, I don’t remember anything about topological manifolds…
Dang… I must be getting old.
I went 2 years beyond Differential Equations, and into Number Theory in college, and I can’t remember for the life of me anything about Topological Manifolds…
I clicked the link, and even after reading that, it still didn’t spark any memories…
You all forgot the most important:
Geometry!
If you can’t identify shapes (starting with candles, then maybe triangles, …) then you can’t trade. Well, there are traders who trade with just number columns, but I doubt that is a wide used technique at bp. 
Seriously, no kidding.
I once built an indicator that computed the angle of the trend using basic sin/cos/tan rules, using the rise in price level as Y and time as being X.
It was pretty cool because I was able to read the trend in the form of an actual angle between +90 to -90 degrees.
It wasn’t very useful except for looking cool on my charts, you know those greek letters just look great!!!
It makes you feel like you’re doing something really high-tech and scientific, just as useless as 99% of the indicators in charting packages that make you think you have some amazing scientific statistical edge.
I doubt that advanced math (beyond first year university) has much effect on trading success. There is so much more involved like patience and discipline. I can’t help thinking about the parallels to poker playing. There are a number of top pro players that have advanced degrees and the commentators seldom fail to mention that fact. But after watching many tournaments, I don’t see the edge that education might provide. All the top players have finely tuned instinct of the odds. I am sure that the educated ones could talk about the odds using the properly terminology, but as far as having a better feel at the table - I have my doubts.
I like how you said this. Finely tuned instincts of odd.
I believe there is a great deal of natural ability when it comes utilizing odds when living life to an advantage.
However, I do think education DOES HELP in reinforcing and improving natural ability to its’ max potential.
Advanced Math is NOT required, but we’re talking about odds right? So the odds that it may help are better than it does not help.
If advanced degrees in mathematics had any advantage in the markets, then there would be no math professors in the world…
Obviously, there are 100’s of thousands math professors…
Therefore, one could deduce that advanced math has nothing to do with the markets.