Poll: Is retail Forex just a setup by the big boys to take our money?

Every market, where people keep their retirement funds and such, are set up to take money from the little guys. Did the manager of your trust fund/retirement fund buy at the bottom, sell at the top, or is it just buy and hold, then sell in emergency, get 50% back etc. I know that Northern Trust doesn't do any of that, at least for small people. They just sit and watch stuff go down, not buy at the bottom, just ..... nothing. Except, of course, charge management fees.

In terms of retail FX being some kind of a scam, no. People are idiots, if they want to use it as gambling then that is their business, not some big guy who set it up for personal gain. But, being a market, it is still designed to get access to more money. If everyone were smart and disciplined it wouldn't do much good for the big guys, lucky for them people aren't.

Look guys, seriously stop whinning and complaining. George Soros made over a Billion Dollars on one trade when the spreads used to be 150 PIPs or more and there was not much leverage and you had no real clue when they would put your trade in or when they would take it out.

It is much easier these days. Very small spreads, large leverage (yes even after the changes), instant in and instant out, etc.

You and you alone are responsible for your wins and your losses. Untill you stop blaming "others" for your losses you will NEVER take controll of your own trading and become consistent.

This is not towards any person in particular. I just get tired of reading so many posts "the broker knew when I put in a trade and went against me and I lost money!". Seriously guys I mean really, do you truly think they are watching for YOUR 2 lot trade? Do you have any clue how many trades are made per day? Trust me, they are not watching you if you are loosing most of the time and only trading a couple of lots. If you are trading a million lots per trade, then maybe they are watching at your brokerage house but even the Big Boys are not looking to gun you because those are still small trades compared to what they trade.

So I've said my peace whether you want to hear it or not, just trying to wake you all up. The only one after your money is you! Seriously, start working on the mental aspect of trading and you will see your trading make a big turn around.

If a trader has a winning strategy then the trader will win no matter what. To create a winning strategy could take very long time since there are many forces that influence the market like news, technical, central banks, traders, time, etc
There are many things to consider before placing a trade: tp, sl, lot size.
The loosing side has the advantage to being infinite. Too much of a tp will hit the sl, too much of a lot size margin call, too little of a lot size we make no money, too little of a tp we make no money.
The broker probably plays tricks by widening the spread before certain TP/SLs are hit. Also the broker widens the spread at certain news but still making consistent winning trades is extremely hard despite broker's tricks. The only way to win is to be certain. example: I turn the light switch on and i know the light will come on 99 % of the time or at least a very high percentage. In order to win we need the same frame of mind otherwise we'll lose. The minus infinite will eat the account, easy!
Nevertheless its very hard to win in trading unless we have certainty. The best way is to keep gaining as many certainties as possible.
These is just my opinion.

Constin

Ok, what time will we do it?

Careful buddy, your sarcasm might be taken seriously...

i am ready now. let's team up and join funds- i think 15billion will also do it.

as long as it is big and attractive enough for the big dogs to bite and run the market in the opposite direction, thats all that matters lol. Hey, maybe we need a sheep dog to help coordinate the whole thing too...

I'm ready with my microlot, the other 14,999,999,999,000 is down to you!

since I started FX trading I find every anwers to the questions in my mind. ie. why broker give us high leverage, leverage is some sort of giving credit, you can benefit the profit of 1 million usd with only 5k, if you can make only 10% that makes 100K, with only 5k you can achieve this. Amazing isn't it, BUT if you can win.

Only one question left unanswered in my mind, and in many forums I shared this with some very experienced, almost professional traders, still don't have a satisfiying answer, that is "why valuation of the currencies are made OTC". Why there is no physical place for the currency exchange, only 5 banks max. makes the 50% of the volume. We have to accept the given price, no volume info, or trace the buyer or sellers. Even the company shares are exchanged in phsical place, country shares "currencies" are exchanged OTC. To me this simply illogical. Set up yes, many times, I belive so, how we can be sure that prices are not defined with some joy sticks connected to automated trading systems. These are given prices by some banks, accept it,, or, accept it. Or dont trade, who cares there are still thousands. To me still it is possible to win, but as "Constin" said, " certainity" is the key.

It can be done. The SNB moved EURCHF by 300 pips just by purchasing 1 billion worth of EURO. There are threads in FF viewed over 16 million times. 16 million traders kicking in 62.5 $ each will make a billion if my calculus is right.
With 1000$ each we can probably shake the market pretty good.
Now the key is that the big dogs wont find out and trade against us.

constin, I think that Dr.Geppynius was joking.

Eventually we'll change the name of the thread to :
"Retail Forex setup to take the big boys money"

It is worth requoting this amazing thread by Darkstar here:

http://www.forexfactory.com/showthread.php?t=7484

Everything you need to know about the structure of brokers and the market is there.

Retail traders as a whole have such a low level of competence that brokers need to do nothing to be incredibly profitable. In fact in the UK, the government is so confident of this that they allow tax free trading through spread betting. They'd rather tax the broker than levy a single penny of tax on the trader who trades through spread betting. That's how confident they are that retail traders as a whole lose.

Since I started this business, I regularly meet people at dinner who tell me they lost a ton of money on forex and that essentially it's like gambling. It's a classic example of "I tried this. I failed. It can't be my fault. So it must be.... a) it's gambling and everyone is deluded, or b) brokers are out to screw me...." and so on and so on.

The most talented and wealthy trader that I know personally doesn't use an ECN, he uses a retail market maker broker. He plays tight stops. And he never has any trouble.

No one has noticed.... (perhaps everyone is still on holiday mode )
the above amount is 14Trillion++.
14billion is 3 digit less than that, i.e. 14,xxx,xxx,xxx

Hey TiaForex, thank you very much indeed, Darkstar article is one of the best article I red about forex, actually even the answer of this thread exist in it. Not in original but I underlined the key words for me.
"It was for this reason and this reason alone that the market was eventually opened up to non-bank participants. The banks wanted more orders in the market so that a) they could profit from the less experienced participants, and b) the less experienced participants could provide a better liquidity distribution for execution of international business hedge orders."

In economic terms it is described an oligopoly below for interbank, it is not mentioned but just 5 banks (so far I know) make the 50% of the forex volume with OTC pricing, with such a less quantity of liquidity suppliers, manipulation in forex will always remain a question mark.

"To understand the structure of the Interbank market, it may be easier to grasp by way of analogy. Consider that in an office (or maybe even someone’s home) there are multiple computers connected via a network cable. Each computer operates independently of the others until it needs a resource that another computer possesses. At that point it will contact the other computer and request access to the necessary resource. If the computer is working properly and its owner has given the requestor authorization to do so, the resource can be accessed and the initiating computers request can be fulfilled. By substituting computers for banks and resources for currency, you can easily grasp the relationships that exist on the Interbank.

Anyone who has ever tried to find resources on a computer network without a server can appreciate how difficult it can be to keep track of who has what resources. The same issue exists on the Interbank market with regard to prices and currency inventory. A bank in Singapore may only rarely transact business with a company that needs to exchange some Brazilian Real and it can be very difficult to establish what a proper exchange rate should be. It is for this purpose that EBS and Reuters (hereafter EBS) established their services.

Layered on top (in a manner of speaking) of the Interbank communication links, the EBS service enables banks to see how much and at what prices all the Interbank members are willing to transact. Pains should be taken to express that EBS is not a market or a market maker; it is an application used to see bids and offers from the various banks."

It is mentioned just a "will" here for that specific moment.

It is well known that some market maker banks have also forex platform for retail traders.

What is left to say,
trade safely to home

IMO FX has been around far longer than the Retail FX market. They didn't need us back then and they certainly don't need us now.