Life Changed for the Good after FX

Life changed for the worse after FX

Any one?
Ok, let me be the only one.

Trading the forex is evil and destroys lives.

The people you meet and the things you do.

Don't go down that path. I wish I had not.

Yes, maybe my life was destroyed at first, gave up good jobs to spend more time trading, got into huge debt, psychologically knocked around by people selling courses and wishful thinking. Gave up any social life or outdoor life believing that I should spend all my time locked to my screen.

BUT, got to the light at the end of the tunnel. So now I can say, without trading I would not have gone as deep as I have done to explore ideas of 'manifesting abundance'...funny that something that seems as hard headed as currency trading has introduced me to what journalists call 'new-age' ideas ...the forex traders I respect the most use these 'new-age' ideas. That has changed my world...now I know how to transform my world into anything I chose...and it works. I learnt about 'Faster EFT' which got me breaking out of limiting behaviours easily. I would never have felt I needed any of these, but because forex gives you a rough time if you don't master your inner self, I was forced to find these tools, and they are pretty amazing.

As a lot of others have said on this thread, the psychological development has been huge. I have much more patience, I know how to develop a discipline for anything I want to do, I know I can master anything and make it easy, I know how to think and act strategically. I know how to be consistent. Now everything is EASY!

Personally, while trading the FX markets for the past 3 years I discovered several things about myself. First, that my trading niche was in equities, the US equities to be more specific. The FX market might be the biggest market out there but it doesn't have to be your arena. Being exposed to different markets reveals your niche. Not all markets are the same, FX has its own personality when compared to either futures or equities. It is critical that you identify what works for you in order to survive in trading.

Second, I discovered that like many members here that trading had enhanced my character in ways that wouldn't have been possible if I weren’t exposed to the markets. The markets taught me to take responsibility for my actions; it also transformed my mindset which automatically changed my character. I am no where near the person I was 3 years ago, the mindset transformation alone was worth the journey.

Third, market preparation is everything in trading. With market preparation came conviction which made entries, exits and re-entries seem effortless. Preparation has also removed all the anxiety and discretion from my trading. Having a solid plan is critical to long term survival and having a game plan for the day is critical for long term survival. I have come to learn through experience that the bigger the trader the more time he spent planning. I have a 14 page trading plan and I still feel it lacks a lot of the elements that would make it complete which brings me to my fourth point.

Fourth, trading taught me that one never stops learning and improving in the markets and in life. The moment one becomes closed minded and refuses to learn is the moment they stop developing. I have learnt that the markets never remain the same, if you fail to catch up, you will be left behind.

I could go on and on about how trading changed me, at the end all I can say is that I love trading which is a field that has given me so much to the extent that I am not it just for the money anymore.

Trading changed my life. Growing up in the my parents were quite successful future traders. I was 5 when my dad first explained to me what he did, it always interested me. I remember watching my dad make $250,000 while i was getting ready for school in the morning. That was when I knew I wanted to be a trader. I was maybe 10? My parents lost millions in enron, and then took another heavy loss on 9/11. Went from a multi-million dollar house 4cars, 2boats, plane to a small two bedroom apartment. I had a little bit of a lifestyle change. It really motivated me.

I read Jesse Livermore's book when I was 11. I made my first trade when I was 12. I made 9 dollars shorting the eur/usd on an account my mom had that she let me trade on. I became depressed after the change in lifestyle and also probably in hindsight because of lack of nutrition because we didn't have enough money to eat or air conditioning. But ive been trading ever since. It is the one thing that I would always do that would make me happy, if I was being profitable or not. I would go in and and of it over the years but because of things like high school I wasn't able to dedicate as much time as I wish I could have to it. Now that I am out of high school and of age to open an account in my name I opened an account with $1000 and have been trading with that for about the last 10months. Trading has always offered me hope and I would definitely not be the same person I am today if it was not for trading and forex.

I hope you make it m8, you seem to have the credentials for success.

Awesome man.

Very inspirational. Nice to hear this

I used to have three kids and no money, now I have no kids and three money.

Enron had a nice top with many chances to get out of position. There were 6 months you could get out with big profit. 911 did not affect the stock market as much as stock market crashes do. The market was still in decline because of the internet bubble burst, if your parents were short the market - and they should have really been - they would have made millions on 911.

I have no reason to bash your parents, but really, how can you not make money there? If your parents know markets well, how come they go long there? Your parents are probably who just got lucky with internet boom.

You are young and eager to learn. That's good. You should dig in and find what they did wrong. Your parents should not be your idols, since they lost money where money is made. Learn from their mistakes, ask them things.

Don't worry about the two bedroom apartment. I was homless for 9 months and that is a disastrous experience.

911 (nothing really happened there... The line of least resistance, as Livingston would say that, is down)
http://media.barchart.com/cm/users/3...Comparison.jpg

Sounds like you sold your kids. Was is Brad Pitt and Angie who bought them from you? Haha, sorry, the sentence just does sound like you did.

Forex didn't really changed my life. Actually we match in a way. It's funny to think about it... I don't know if I found Forex or Forex found me . I knew in advance that my salary would not be enough to pay for my investments (too much leverage), so I decided to search for a second source of income.

I am a programmer and always liked to play with numbers. It fits somehow.

I started with Forex some 6 months ago. In the first month I squandered EUR 3,000 in the most dumb way. Senseless gambling. Then I got "angry" and decided to use my experience with programming + math. I was absolutely sure that profits could be reached with a simple METHODOLOGY. And that's what I did. I developed a strategy and wrote a program to test the strategy against historical data. It's being consistently profitable since then, even though I got close to margin calls at least twice. I recovered more than the double of the previous losses.

For the "philosophical" side... Of course I dream of making millions, but I don't get driven by vanity. It's not about having lots on cash in my account, or buying a Porsche. It's about the life experience. I see life as an experiment. Forex is an experiment, as my job is (but my job will be over very soon, enough experience with that ). But Forex is different, because it can (and hopefully WILL) allow me to make many other experiments, if it gives me the financial freedom I wish to have.

I just wonder: what will I do if my Expert Advisor starts to work on my future MT4 live account and give me EUR 1,000 a month, with minimum risk? What am I going to do with all the free time? Am I going to become a political activist, as it was my dream some years ago? Or a humanitarian worker? Or should I dedicate my time to more aggressive trading and make more money in order to invest on some poor region? Or am I going to buy a cheap house in some fishers' village and escape from civilization? Or I am going to succumb to the vanity+greed and start to invest the profits on personal wealth only?

Besides that, I like to study the world "mechanics". I spent years reading theology and some sociology. Now I see that economics is a huge science and a strong power in the world. Forex is helping me not only to study it, but also to experience it, to act on it, to see how I fit on it. My expectation is to learn a lot.

Conclusion: Forex didn't change my life, but it triggered a process. Too many open questions at the moment. I hope to be able to come back in the future and tell how it's going - hopefully with many answers and no margin calls!

it's great to see replies this 2011 Thank you all!
just to comment on a few, for now...

im sorry i didnt go well for u.
who are the people that u've met?
that's like saying 'money is the root of all evil'

is that your favorite number?

friends are fleeting; true friends aren't.

money is the motivation for most/all things, these days (unfortunately).
it's what u do (& how u behave, etc) when there's lack/abundance of money that counts the most.

I ve heard something like that when I was in kindergarden

Once money gets involved most friends will disappear, cause most people will get jealous. And jealousy is a friendship killer. What you need is people who are also successful, maybe not in trading but in other arenas. Those people only see opportunities and are not jealous but rather admire other people who also made it. Those are the people one should be around when successful at anything. Cause they will indirectly also motivate you to make even more and get out of that lethargic feeling that most normal people have.

Money is a double-edged sword. It can be very beneficial for society to be selfish and try to make lots of money, as long as it's not on the expense of others.

Money as motivation is not bad, but one has to do a service to society to receive it. And as dumb as it may sound, traders are doing a service to society, cause they are liquidity providers and help in the price discovery process.

How you behave once you have money can normally also only be beneficial to society (except you trade weapons or drugs). But if you buy yachts, houses, cars, have a crazy life-style, guess what, society benefits, cause without your purchases, whole industries would collapse. You are paying for R&D, jobs and production with your purchases.

i agree!

Contrary to many opinions, Forex trading is not only speculative and can be used for private and hedging transactions. Among other things, I use forex trading for hedging. I'm also a trade in bonds of countries around the world and in order to minimize the currency exposure in the country where I am trading, I use foreign currency transactions. Of course, most of my activity in the forex market is by using technical analysis for short term deals
Hope this is helpful Happy Trading.

Forex is competition between international currencies. So Forex will be available and profitable as long as the financial world is running.

to be with my family is my motivation for trying fx trading and binary options. for almost 8 years i only spent my time with them for 8 months. a vacation of 1 month per year. i want to see my kids grow. i want to spend my life with them trying to teach them on how to survive in this world.

for almost a year i'm trying to be profitable in binary options, however until now, i'm not yet profitable. but if i want to be successful, i need to be persistent and i need to be more disciplined. here are what i've learned from trading:

 

1. be PATIENT, let the market show you the way
2. place the RIGHT trade at the RIGHT time
3. follow your PLANS
4. believe in your STRATEGIES
5. try and try until you SUCCEED
6. if you have a series of losses, STOP

Hmmm.... How has tradinge changed my life?
I became interested in the markets at a very young age (middle school age to early teen age) but only started trading forex a few years ago. I got into it becaue of my desire to make money. But I also got into it to gain freedom from the normal 'rat race' and also to help others (through philanthropic and humanitarian causes).
What it has taught me though, about myself and the world around me, has been exciting and challenging. What has been even more exciting though is learning how to use what I know about the world around me and the markets as well as who I am as a person to make more money. I still have a little ways to go to make it like some of you have though.....

How has trading changed my life? I can sit on my arse all day and not have to do another hard days graft, I simply sit there in the comfort of my own home in my underpants if I so wish, wait for the price to get to a level and then I get in a trade if I choose to, its as simple as that. What do I do while sat there waiting? Watch TV/DVD, listen to music, browse stupid websites, read random rubbish on wikipedia while browsing thomas cook for late deal offer holidays.

And I get to spend all day with my dog.