After watching a blatant scam YouTube video and having some time on my hands, I thought I’d give a little advice (for what it’s worth) to new traders or those who are struggling.
I’ve been trading for 20 years (investing for longer). I’ve been a member of forex factory for 15 years, I still have the free FF t-shirt they gave away to early members. I’ve tried and seen almost every system there is, and even with all my experience I’m no Guru!! However, I do make money trading, and for most of it, I know what I’m talking about.
Understand the journey! Trading forex or commodities is gambling, not investing. If you buy a stock or an ETF and hold it, then even if it goes down 90% you still have something. If you go long on a forex pair and it goes down 30, 50, 100pips (which is nothing in the scheme of things) you will get stopped out, that is if your smart enough to have a stop loss. Even if it bounces around for a few days it will cost you in swaps, and if you have too many bets on you will get margin called. I trade forex as a hobby, a challenge and, like all gambling, it's addictive! Most of my money goes into Stocks and If my forex account ever goes to zero then I'm done.
Trading is hard, or everyone would do it!! In my full-time profession I work with a lot of bank executives (portfolio manages, commodity/forex brokers and venture capitalists) who all work for someone else. All of them buy and hold (only one jumps in and out of options and sometimes takes big hits with his own money). The commodity/forex brokers I know don’t have any market maker secrets, they buy when there told by their clients (big corporations). On the odd occasions they might see heavy buying from Asia, or Europe and advise regular clients to follow suit, but that’s all. If they had a secret system they would be at home working for themselves. I mean how many times have you been to a party, or a gym, or an event and someone says their a full-time freelance forex trader?
Beware Fake Guru’s!! Social media is packed full of fake guru’s and scammers, even this site is full of them. If you go on YouTube for every 1 honest trader you will find 50 fake ones. There are so many out there that people are making good money from video’s exposing them. Fraud traders like ‘fxalexg’ making vids about turning $1k into $30k in 30 days, or turning $1k into $1mil. They’re easy to spot with their wild claims. If they were as good as they say why not turn that $1m into $30 billion or trillion, why have advertisements on their vids, why the need to sell products. The simple truth is there is no holy grail (so stop searching for it).
Real advice…..
Create or find a system that you understand, something that makes sense to you and you can trade it in your free time (it’s hard to scalp or day trade if you have a full-time job).
The easier the system the better. You need something that should be repeatable on every time frame, as every time frame has the same structure (HH,HL etc). It should also be easy to spot, if your trades going to be successful you want as many institutions in it as possible to move the price.
Money management is more important than the system. I personally like to preserve money as much as make money. I often get stopped at break even more times than I’d like to admit, but If I don’t lose any money then they’ll always be another entry. I might not put a TP in all my trades, but I always have a SL.
Be realistic with R:R, if you are looking at a 1:10 R:R you have a much bigger chance of being stopped out the a 1:2 or 1:3, obvious I know. What I’m saying is don’t be greedy.
Be realistic with your outcomes. If you think you’re going to turn $100 to $10,000 in a year your delusional or exceptional. I know several honest traders and a good year is double what they make in the stock market. So about 20-50% is a good year. That’s about 4-7% per month (some months will have draw downs)
Make a plan and stick with it for 3 months. If your head keeps getting turned by posts saying… “I’m a full-time trader” then stop reading. the chances are this full-time trader is a 16yr old kid living with his parents who only demo trades. How do you expect to get anywhere if you keep chopping and changing?
Anyway, I’m sure there are lots of other stuff others can add, or I’ve forgot to mention. Hope this helps
I’ve been trading for 20 years (investing for longer). I’ve been a member of forex factory for 15 years, I still have the free FF t-shirt they gave away to early members. I’ve tried and seen almost every system there is, and even with all my experience I’m no Guru!! However, I do make money trading, and for most of it, I know what I’m talking about.
Understand the journey! Trading forex or commodities is gambling, not investing. If you buy a stock or an ETF and hold it, then even if it goes down 90% you still have something. If you go long on a forex pair and it goes down 30, 50, 100pips (which is nothing in the scheme of things) you will get stopped out, that is if your smart enough to have a stop loss. Even if it bounces around for a few days it will cost you in swaps, and if you have too many bets on you will get margin called. I trade forex as a hobby, a challenge and, like all gambling, it's addictive! Most of my money goes into Stocks and If my forex account ever goes to zero then I'm done.
Trading is hard, or everyone would do it!! In my full-time profession I work with a lot of bank executives (portfolio manages, commodity/forex brokers and venture capitalists) who all work for someone else. All of them buy and hold (only one jumps in and out of options and sometimes takes big hits with his own money). The commodity/forex brokers I know don’t have any market maker secrets, they buy when there told by their clients (big corporations). On the odd occasions they might see heavy buying from Asia, or Europe and advise regular clients to follow suit, but that’s all. If they had a secret system they would be at home working for themselves. I mean how many times have you been to a party, or a gym, or an event and someone says their a full-time freelance forex trader?
Beware Fake Guru’s!! Social media is packed full of fake guru’s and scammers, even this site is full of them. If you go on YouTube for every 1 honest trader you will find 50 fake ones. There are so many out there that people are making good money from video’s exposing them. Fraud traders like ‘fxalexg’ making vids about turning $1k into $30k in 30 days, or turning $1k into $1mil. They’re easy to spot with their wild claims. If they were as good as they say why not turn that $1m into $30 billion or trillion, why have advertisements on their vids, why the need to sell products. The simple truth is there is no holy grail (so stop searching for it).
Real advice…..
Create or find a system that you understand, something that makes sense to you and you can trade it in your free time (it’s hard to scalp or day trade if you have a full-time job).
The easier the system the better. You need something that should be repeatable on every time frame, as every time frame has the same structure (HH,HL etc). It should also be easy to spot, if your trades going to be successful you want as many institutions in it as possible to move the price.
Money management is more important than the system. I personally like to preserve money as much as make money. I often get stopped at break even more times than I’d like to admit, but If I don’t lose any money then they’ll always be another entry. I might not put a TP in all my trades, but I always have a SL.
Be realistic with R:R, if you are looking at a 1:10 R:R you have a much bigger chance of being stopped out the a 1:2 or 1:3, obvious I know. What I’m saying is don’t be greedy.
Be realistic with your outcomes. If you think you’re going to turn $100 to $10,000 in a year your delusional or exceptional. I know several honest traders and a good year is double what they make in the stock market. So about 20-50% is a good year. That’s about 4-7% per month (some months will have draw downs)
Make a plan and stick with it for 3 months. If your head keeps getting turned by posts saying… “I’m a full-time trader” then stop reading. the chances are this full-time trader is a 16yr old kid living with his parents who only demo trades. How do you expect to get anywhere if you keep chopping and changing?
Anyway, I’m sure there are lots of other stuff others can add, or I’ve forgot to mention. Hope this helps
