Is anyone here earning a living, just with forex trading?

I am earning good money from forex for past 20 years. No need for any other source of income. I am living a comfortable life trading forex.

I took my account down from 2k to $100.00 in 4months playing it slow. If you really believe in what your doing you can become successful in anything you do just have faith. I dropped everything in my life to do this including college and everything seems to be working out really well now. Take iN whatever you learn and the key for me was to create a system piggy backing off of good systems I ran across and made one that fits my trading style and personality (I GET TRIGGER HAPPY). I know this sounds a little cliche but you get what you put in. GOOD LUCK!!!

I would like to be able to live off of Forex, it is the most freeing thing in the world. That way I can travel, and take classes just for fun on the side to learn whatever I want; without the pressure of society.

Ideally I would like to make $8,000 a month after taxes. That would be great.

Clearly not anything and I would say that I have met people who will never be successful in the area they have chosen because they simply don't have the innate ability. However, I would say that often you don't know if you have what it takes unless you try and that task is helped if you believe you might.

i don't think many people here just live off their forex earnings. that's bullshit.

most can't trade, and those who can, then most of them who are profitable in fx still earn money through other means.

Those claiming they live off JUST by making pips - most of them talk shit sorry.

Pssh. That's nothing. I took my 1k account to $0 in 2 months. But that made me stay with my day job.

My first post will be here but lurking for a while. I really don't know if you can make a living from it but you got to try. I have finally put myself in a financial position to give it a try.

When I was a kid my family was poor. I lived in areas where people are forgotten. I used to find the newspaper when I was a kid and instead of reading the sports section first I would look at the stock prices. I tried to find stocks to buy and would have a pretend account. I was 8 years old when I started doing this. I was never successful doing it but trading interested me. I just needed to educated myself further. I never went to college but consider myself self educated. I read a lot of books which honestly most are garbage but you learn what not to do. The biggest thing to be the best is listen to everything you hear or read and then you must figure out what to keep. Its the hardest thing to do but you got to train yourself.

So guess what I am saying is, if this is something you really want to do then you will be good at it. If you are looking for a way to just stay at home and make a killing thinking you are some big time player then you will fail. I have failed on a ton of personal projects. Each failure I had I learned from it. You can not learn a damn thing until adversity slaps you in the face. This is what separates the boys from men. Its how you handle yourself financially and emotionally when shit hits the fan. If you handle it well you are on the right track. If you do not then you need to find a profession that is not hard to do. Its the simple truth. Some people are leaders while most are followers.

I opened a demo account just 2 months ago. I didn't know what the hell I was doing or looking at. I looked at candlesticks and was like WTF is it telling me. So I started lurking and reading anything about candlesticks. Well I started picking up useful info. Then I started to try and read patterns and figure when trends would have a breakout.......FAILED but I learned some things. So I started going deeper and deeper. Hell I had no idea what the abbreviations everyone was using on forums and had to google that...lol. So I am doing my research and now I have an understanding of GMMA and I like the THV system. To me so far those 2 have taught me a lot about whats going on. I have made good practice trades with them when I stick to the rules. You also must make your own rules from mistakes. Today for instance. I made a call against the rules. Everything was going perfectly then the bottom fell out. Lost that one but its a practice account so no biggie. The few practice trades I made today was mostly losers and the reason was I did not follow rules that are in place for a system. The only one I did good with was where all the rules were met. Go figure...lol.

Just be patient and educated yourself. Use a practice account to follow a set of rules and even try to break them. Breaking them allows you to see first hand what happens when you think you know it all. Most of us have egos and it really humbles you when you are wrong. Find a system thats easy for you to understand. THV is as simple as it gets and will teach you a lot. Look at GMMA. Its super simple. Open charts offline and study them. Figure out why this pair just went south or north. Look at the candlesticks. Google the date and countries to see if there was news that contributed to the fallout or rise. Then keep going back and find one that resembles it. See if its the same signs on the previous one. If not write it down. Repeat over and over again and write them down. Then go back and look at your notes. You just made yourself rules and a guide for quick reference when you spot it. Something I do.

I am not a pro by any means but these are things I try and do. Most may disagree with the way I am learning which is ok. I will listen. You got to want this bro in your heart. We all can do it just be patient,keep learning and stay confident. It might take 10 years to be good but in the end it will be worth it.

when i first started trading forex, some 12 years ago. i encountered most of the complaints that you re currently experiency. back then i noticed that the market was too volatile and was always spiralling out of my control, i made a lot of losses back then but what kept me on was my determination to succeed. i applied a little strategy by converting myself from a forex trader to a forex investor. so that was how i started making money from investing in accounts of reputable forex traders with the management team and proweress to make profits, while i concentrated in further training and mastering of live account trading .After 3 years i mastered and gained controll of the market and with the profits i had aquired from investing in Forex, i started trading again. this time my trades were always successfull.....

I feel the same, after only 2 months I have learned this

1) Robots dont work
2) Why pay someone for signals
3) There is no magic formula
4) Backtest are just hype
5) YOU HAVE TO STUDY AND LEARN HOW TO TRADE
6) YOU WILL LOOZ MONEY! I REPAT YOU WILL LOOSE MONEY
7) Trade with a demo, trade with a demo, and trade with a demo until you can double and triple what the starting amount was! Then trade some more with a demo!

I have stuck to learning and mastering "4" forms of Technical analysis! I have 3 (EMAs), Fib Retractment, Jap Candle sticks, and Support and Resistance lines. I check the H4 chart first, then trade on the H1 chart, print off Firdays Daily chart and Mondays Opening chart, Watch the news and go from there! I stick to this strategy and it only! I am currently learning how to use MACD, and other indicators but this is what I will master first!

And yes where are the "Real" traders who make about 1,000$ a day trading!!!!

Cheers

JC

I never understand why some people say: "You need to be 5 years to learn, 6 to be profitable and 7 to make a living"... or "you need to have 3 and half more years on this"..

They make it look so exact, when nobody knows if the guy who will stay 4,5 or 6 years will ever be profitable.. come on.. it is not serious to say you need to practice 657 more days and you will be profitable...

Nothing is secure.. and we can't compare this to doing a career in university because after you finish the career you have your diploma and you can work anywhere.. however after 5 years on forex you can still lose money.

Mapleleaf I agree with you. It is hard to say anything about being profitable. Nowadays you have many ways to increase the chances of being profitable. EAs, signals, account management etc. You can keep practicing a demo account and invest your money in the best possible option. I think EAs are not a good option. You can either choose signal following or account management. Do a good research for the best account manger or signal provider and invest your money.
Now you will not care if it takes you 6 years or 10 years to become profitable. Because you know that a better trader is trading for you. If at some point think that now you have enough experience and that you can produce better results. Take control of your account and start trading.

you need to pick one method, and stick with it. I can see that in the OP, you have tried everything. That is one of the crucial problems of FX, that once something fails to produce results, it is abandoned and you try the next thing.

The mistake is the mindset. Each method you mentioned is a tool. If you use a hammer to open a door, it's not going to work very well, right? If you use a screwdriver to open a door, it's not going to work very well either.. And nothing is wrong with using a hammer or a screwdrive etc.. The problem is you, the operator, not the tools.

It's been said a million times: a good trader can make money with a bad system.

Chances are you don't understand what is actually happening in the market. If you want to, this takes time, research and dedication. Then you will be able to use your tools and do work, once you know why you are making decisions to risk your hard-earned money.

If you want my advice, I would say clear your chart. Or just look at the ticker and think. I went through a realization process after the whole indicator, signals, and trading system phase, where I cleared away everything I ever encountered about FX since it had all been wrong and lost me money, and then I sat down to make a trade, and I realized that I knew nothing about why I would buy or sell anything or if it was a good or a bad position to be in, without my little red/green arrows. I knew nothing. If you get to that point, breath a sigh, because you have just reached the beginning of your journey.

There is hope, and you can be a great trader if you want to! (and in shorter time than most on the forum say, if you really apply yourself) But you have to want it more than anything else. Otherwise, fuck it. Life is too short to spend all your time staring at the computer for something you only half-care about.

I've been trading fulltime for a few years already...
the returns are okay I guessed.... Its better than a
fulltime day job....

I'm not immediately successful, I had lost USD$20K+ and
burnt two such accounts before I discovered a better way
to trade....FX is not simple, and pehaps is the most risky
investment ever....

Good luck guys !

I do make enough money to make a living from trading.

But the road has never been easy .

Past 6 years , have blown many accounts over $60k in total approx.

The thing that has made me make money out of trading is never be overconfident and use money management no matter what.

To all those thinking they can make living from trading will need to understand that money management is key and then next thing is changing your thinking .

Money can be made trading if you really understand that you have to go with the markets and not your overconfident thoughts. Market is the only GURU , follow the footsteps of what it shows and it will help you to make money.

Well said Anup, FX is never easy....my advice to all new
aspiring traders is never give up, dun stop trying and
one day you shall find a way to start making lots of
money...before that, you'll stumble and fall a few
times...just keep trying! Good luck !

Good advice, I'd recommend Oanda's Fxtrade for this, since you can trade any amount. It's kinda silly bagging 10 pips for fifty cents, but still it's better than demo, and since about everyone loses at first it's a good way to offset this.

Sometimes new traders will wonder why their accounts
are not growing...somedays you make 20 pips then other
days lose back....the accounts are growing too slowly
that makes you re-think about trading FX for a living...

Anybody face this issue too?

You might see things differently after five or six years of blowing mini live accounts.

If you cannot trade a demo with the same discipline as a mini live account what is the point of trading and losing real money.

Believe me, I and no doubt many others felt the same way about real verses demo when we started out, frankly I wish I had saved the money and continued demoing right from the start.

Good luck.

I feel for you Sam! I have about the same experience as you but I suppose I've been one of the lucky ones; so far I'm still making small profits - just enough to pay for my groceries but I am getting better.

This is what worked for me:

I had to become a Forex nerd; live, breath, eat and sleep Forex. In my opinion, people who make a lot of money in life are "specialists" in something. I think that the highest paid Doctors, Lawyers, Financial advisors... etc. focus their efforts on their profession and MASTER it to the bone.

Of course you must always remember to enjoy yourself, as it is also an important part, but becoming the best on something requires a lot of hard work and it is not easy and it won't happen overnight.

Wish you the best of luck my friend. :nerd:

Dear Sam,

It takes time to develop your own system. Just like you mentioned it is no use to follow any system or trades example, especially if you are not sure why they are executed.

I recommend some price action advanced studies and more training on your own. I do not think there's really some kind of graal somewhere..

Regards. Forexyestrader.