pls share your journey

im a newbie and i would like to know ur experiences in doing forex trading. please share your experiences in terms of approx. gains/loss per month during your:

1st year(of learning forex) - gains/loss ($/month) ?/?
2nd yr - ?/?
3rd yr - ?/?
4th yr - ?/?
5th yr - ?/?
10th yr - ?/?
20th yr - ?/?

thnx for sharing your experiences.

any brave and honest soul who cares to share his journey to a newbie? any?

1st 2 weeks (around July 2005) - margin call on a $500 mini account
3rd week up to now - bought books and other materials worth around $2000 (accumulated) just to improve my trading. Planning, Studying, etc. etc...
Demo trading now for about 3 months using the knife and jim's price action, compounded with Fiji's money management and psychology.

So basically, it's not earning money for me from the start..
Education after that..

thanks for ur reply eastmaels. it seems that ur the only one who's open here to a newbie in this "Beginners Forum". thnx very much kumpadre.

Actually, I just think that when you become a professional trader, you really won't be disclosing how much you win/lose. I think it is unprofessional for one to share his wins/losses (which makes me unprofessional in this case. ).

I think it is much like asking another employee of another company how much he/she earns per month. Well, you know what I mean..

No offense really meant here, just sharing with you what I think. :-)

Or maybe they just plain forgot, or they don't keep track, a lot of reasons I think. But for me, I'll go with the first paragraph..

I also think there's a similar thread around here asking a similar question.
I just can't seem to remember where..

Your welcome kumpadre. (kumpadre's a spanish word right? where are you from anyway? If you don't mind me asking.)

East

P.S.
This is the closest thread I could find in relation to your question:
http://www.forexfactory.com/forexfor...ead.php?t=5125

Hope this somehow more or less give you an idea.

Yes i agree most people will not share a dollar amount with you. Its a good question so I will attempt to answer it without saying too much. Everyone is different so don't expect similiar results. My first account I traded with 2k and lost most of it within a week or two. I didn't use a demo and just flew from the seat of my pants. Then i lost another 6k in a very similiar fashion. I was basing all my decisions on trying to buy cheap and sell high. I had traded the stock market almost everyday so thats the experience i used. So anytime the currency would pop i would short it and if it went down i would buy. Most traders will tell you thats the opposite of what you want to do. After being patient, researching, and reading books I finally got the hang of it. Even then you can lose but you understand why and learn from it. I still would never use a demo account because to me it would not seem real. You don't feel any emotion when it goes up or down. Also in the beginning i had tight stops that chased me out of most of my trades. So start with a small amount that you can let run if it goes against you a few pips. Stop orders should be avoided if possible because they are prone to being hit. Im lucky i don't need them because i watch most of the action and new items. If that concerns you set one far away so your at ease. My other advice would be to scale in to your trades. This has been very profitable for me as my entrys are bad sometimes. IE.. buy at 1.2860 and then it goes down to 1.2840. Instead of having a stop loss hit i would buy another lot so my average price is now 1.2850. This is assuming no news has caused this and its a normal fluctuation. This strategy has worked for me about 80% of the time. I don't consider this adding to a bad trade but scaling in carefully. Okay here are general results for this year.

Account value:

Jan. 5k
Feb. 8k
Mar. 15k
Apr. 32k
May. 50k

Hope this helps a bit and good luck.

Ro

i dont think, is a good idea to think of this journey in terms of loss/gain...in the first 2-3 years, you should focus on learning to read price action, what kind of trading style best fits your personality, practicing and making "good" trades and so on...for me trading is a business, not a self discovery journey...so, running a trading business is based on the same principles, whether you are trading book, grocery, drugs or currencys

maybe you can compare it to "driving"...after driving for lets say 10years, most of what you are doing is automatic....you can anticipate dangerous situations ahead of you and you are able to steer yourself to any destiny in a safe way...so, now imagine sitting beside someone who has a licence for about a month or so...you feel his uncertainty and his not yet developed sense in what is important in what is happening on the road and what is not...thats the one side...now image someone whos a pro-driver... you can imagine how his craft and resources are way ahead of your average ability...that is the other extreme, paul tudor jones and alike

now imagine, this guy with the 1 month licence tells you he wants to "daytrade the eurusd on the 1min chart and make 10 pips every day", which would be like driving a winding country road with a fast car at night keeping up a certain speed limit (seen the movie "speed" with keanu reeves?) .. you would think, hey, this guy is nuts


over time you will learn that "for trading you have to show up every day, but the best thing you can do most days is to do nothing"..

dont know it this helps

Greetings Monzulu, I agree with East, Ro, and Peter that it might not be the best idea to look at other's actual figures, especially for the first several years of your trading experience.

My first year was a success in the educational process...and a near-failure at making money! LOL.

If there was one thing i could shout from my soggy-Oregon-rooftop for the world to hear is this; Do Not Listen to the hooksters out there telling you you're gonna make a million in this in "X" number of months risking XX% of your account and compounding. There are some exceptions, but they are rare. Don't get sucked into the "Get rich quick" mentality that is so common in the marketing of FX trading. As far as i can see, it's a career, and a lifelong one at that. The prize will go to the tortise, not the hare. It's a marathon, not a sprint.

OK, end of soap box ramble.

I can really relate the the "1 min chart" comment as that was how i had a 50% draw down in the first few months, but that was the original training i received so what was i to do but follow?.. Then i began training on longer term charts 30m60m and grew another account up by about 20% over the next 5 months. Maybe this is "stinkin' thinkin'" but i'm not overly concerned at the amount of $$ i make in my first two years of this intended-life-long-adventure, i'm taking baby steps for now and am comfortable with my progress. . . much in part to this forum and the great ppl at the James16group PF.

Cheers,
Thom

thank you very much to all of your comments and suggestions guys, i really appreciate it.

Hi monz...

The question you should ask is, "How many mistakes have you made each month?"

or

"How many times did you execute without hesitation, or deviation from your plan?"

A person who can do that pretty much 95% of the time is on his/her way to being a pro and of course, making lots of $$$.

I think most don't want to reply, because it does not matter how much any of us has made. It will not make you a better trader by seeing the numbers.

You can't spend anyone elses money..