Forex Trading for a living... anyone?

The problem with searching out these kinds of accounts and what-not is that these are typically "for sale" systems. They are designed to make the salesman money not you.

A system, any system requires you to know what to do at various times... because an EA based system can and does require maintenance and constant adjusting. If you don't know how the system operates and just blindly let it do what it wants it will likely get you slaughtered at some point.

You are better off making your own system and knowing it intricately forwards, backwards and so on. Running a system on demo is easy because there's little to no emotion other than the hope that it does well and succeeds at what it does for longer than a few months.

I posted a snapshot of this a few times in another thread. It's meant to show you that Profitable FX trading is possible, but you have to find your way you have to develop your plan.

This is no different than wanting to make $25 an hour at work if you are only making $10 an hour. To make that $25 an hour there are things that come with that that may require you to have a certain education, so many years experience etc. For some reason people want to believe forex is different and some how easier.

While the picture shown below is a demo acct. my live account performs equally as good and sometimes better.

Hi guys,

Do you honestly think that with a mini account, when you start trading forex, 500 pips, or 500 USD is a reachable and achievable target/

I believe there are people who did play Forex as a source of living.

However, i wish to use Forex as a start up of my capital.

I'm only a starter.

Of course people do it all the time. There are different stages once you are trading professionally and perhaps its your own capital or others. A lot of people don’t get there because they end up using the forex to “Gamble”. Just like in poker you can gable there too, or you can play to win.

Good luck - Risk doesnt have to be high - on a micro account for example ($200) if your stoploss was 20 pips, then you would trade 0.01 lots, risking only 1% of your equity.

Concentrate on 1) Risk - keep it low 2) Psycology - it kills most noobs and 3) your system - it MUST be consistent and have set rules...

2 books that will make a difference to your career - Trading in the Zone by Mark Douglas, and How to Trade a Currency Fund by Jarratt Davis...

Trading in the zone is priceless as it will help you to be prepared mentally for whats ahead - its not easy and its not relaxing....
How to trade a currency fund is geared towards new traders and how start.

Both essential reads.

As far as earning potential... lets say you have a trading account of $20 million - which if you prove to be profitable over several years is easily achievable in terms of getting investors.. Average performance of 2% profit per month would get you commissions of $120,000 a month!!! Its a dream job, but only 1-5% of traders make it this far...

Trading in the zone fills you in why.

Good luck!

Yes.

There is no such number. What you make depends on how well you trade day-to-day and how much you capitalized your account from the start -vs- how well you do at growing your capital per year.

$100k is not a lot of money. Some "advanced" traders are gaining/losing $100k per day - others, per hour. It really depends on your capital baseline, type of profit targets you desire, type of trader you are, initial capital base, etc., etc., etc., etc....

No serious trader can give you a pat answer to such a question.

None that I would rely upon.

As a newbie, your first and most important step in this business has nothing at all to do with trading. Your very first step in this business is to take very serious psychological inventory of yourself, personally. I'm not saying, to go off on some sabbatical and and engage in days of Gregorian chants. But, I am saying to STOP and THINK about what you are potentially getting yourself into.

- Are you mentally tough?
- Are you physically in good health (no joke)?
- Are you emotionally stable?
- Are you creative and intuitive?
- Are you capable of controlling your thoughts under high pressure?
- Are you capable of controlling your emotions under high pressure?
- Do you have a "failure is not an option" belief about yourself?
- Do you care what other people think about you?
- Are you easily moved to take action absent a good reason to do so?
- Are you impulsive to the core?
- Are you greedy to the core?
- Are you selfish and self-centered to the core?
- Are you an eternal optimist or a terminal pessimist?
- Do you view the glass a being half empty, or half full?
- Do you like numbers, or do you love numbers?
- Do you like to study, or do you love to study?
- Do you have an analytical mind?
- Are you a good strategic decision maker?
- Do you take responsibility for the decisions you make?
- Do you take full ownership of your own work product?
- Are you a reliable human being, can you be counted on in the clutch?
- Do you see yourself as the "Go To Guy" in impossible situations?
- Do you thrive in situations where the masses have failed miserably?
- Does failure raise fear in your heart?
- Do you have the heart of a Lion?

To be a successful trader on a long term basis, you are going to have to bring something to the table that has nothing to do with the size of your current bank account, or the number of college degrees hanging on your wall, or the number of athletic awards displayed in your trophy room.

This business has chewed up and spit out more people holding a Ph.D., than any other industry I know. Brains, alone, won't be nearly enough. You will need an abundance of tenacity and no quit spirit to a level that you NEVER thought you would ever need in your life, in order to be truly successful in this business.

To join the Top 5% of successful Traders in the world, is a bit like getting through any Special Forces Program, anywhere in the world. You are going to be pushed beyond any realm of limitations that you thought you had well understood. You are going to learn what persistence truly means. You are going to be knocked down flat on your face, more times than you can count. You are going to be Water Boarded by the financial markets. You are going to be Tortured beyond belief, by the financial markets.

You are going to stare one of the biggest, baddest Dragons right in the face and you are going to have to find a way to Win.

The market will either be the most terrifying place you've have ever been, or it will become the most valued financial partner you have ever known. Which? Depends on your ability to never say quit.

Anyone who tells you anything less than what I've just shared with you above, is guaranteed to NOT be a genuine successful Trader themselves.

Determination, measures your success, here. Any other attitude virtually guarantees your absolute failure.

Now, if you are ready for that challenge - physical, mental and emotional - then you might have what it takes to be successful in this business.

And, here's another piece of good advice for you, Dennis.

Learn (rather quickly) the value of simplicity in trading. The most important technical piece of advance that I can give you, is to learn the value of an instruments normal volatility Range par bar of data: Daily Range, Weekly Range, Monthly Range, Quarterly Range and Annual Range.

Second, learn the enormous value of the Fibonacci Ratio 127%. There are others, no doubt, but this particular ratio, when applied to the market correctly, can tell you volumes about what the market is actually doing at any given time.

Third, let no one tell you to fear the 1 minute chart, because they can't keep up with it. Spend time with it. Learn about its propensities, its behavior, its normal and historical price action. Get to know M1 very well and when you can apply the Fibonacci Ratio of 127% to an M1 chart, to understand what price is doing in real-time, you can start laying the foundation for building a tactic, strategy, method or system of trading that you can rely upon with historicity an empirical evidence on your side.

Fourth, and very important, learn the value of drawing a singular horizontal line on a chart and how (and why) to defend that line with information you know about Range and Price Expansion (Fibonacci Ratio 127%).

Finally, work hard to rid yourself any Directional bias that you have regarding price. Let the market BE the market and resist the temptation to force your Directional bias on current price action. Unless you trade in Yards, then you don't have the MoJo to move a market this size. So, learn to go with the flow. The sooner you learn to do that, the more effortless being profitable will become in this business.

Get really good at doing these things, and you will catapult yourself to the head of the class, while others wonder exactly how you do it.

if my house loan is paid up, if my car loan is paid up, if my savings from returns out of forex can last me for the next 20 years, then yes, i will trade full-time for a living...

until then, income from forex can only be seen as a bonus, to pay for that occasional family trip or new IT gadget, and more importantly, to boost my trading account.

Absolute Gold... could not have said it better myself.

Any noob should print this out take down the trophies, awards, degrees etc and hang this in their place.

Only worth reading post of the day !!!
10++

Its ongoing process ..Every successful trader is lifetime student .Humble and simple in approach as well as in the life.
Market as a "Guru" teaches so many things to a successful trader that a successful trader can be compared to the "saint" [real one following principles of nature and life] in actual sense.

He/she has passed all the tests his "Guru"[the market] has put for him and successfuly comes out as a humble survivor and market follower making consistent money from the market.

@ Line in the sand

I am a reasonably new trader. First Post. Your post answers all the questions I had. Instead of wondering how much money we newbies can make, we should just get out there and let the market determine whether we can do it or not. If we can, then the money (hopefully in all its vast quantities) will come, if not.... well.... 95% and all that.

M1 scares me

hopefully i don't get banned for this but i've been watching the trader at fxcribsheets during NY sessions and i have to say he's prob the best i've seen online...oh and its free so you don't have to sign up for anything which is always good!

I have been trading for a little over two years now, and can say that I'm just starting to understand what is this all about........yes is possible to make a living out of it, but have to pay your dues, learn the basics and practice a lot. There is not an easy way..........but if you find it, there is a way.

I trade forex for a living. I don't have any other source of income. My targets are 50pips/day (250 a week). I consistently make this and sometimes more on several accounts. I started with a $200 account 3 years ago & now the minimum $/pip for me is $10. It's all about how much you trade and how good you are plus proper risk/reward.

As of January 2012, so in a months time, I'm getting laid off from my current work and will be trading forex for a living, I'm currently making more trading 'part time' than I am working full time.

Sorry to hear you lost your job, please keep us posted on how you find the transition.

do you trade short term 1 hour and under or do you swing trade?

scfx

A load of people are getting laid off from the place, alot of my friends are getting the same from their companys, its not good, I'm glad I took the time to learn FX as its something to fall back on, something which will enable me never to have to work for someone again.

I'm thinking of starting a journal when I go full time aswell.

I trade 1 hour and every timeframe under that, all the way down to 2m.

when I finally quit my job I will become a s&p and oil futures trader.....too much news and politics is ruining forex.

What makes all trading hard for many is that it is a probability business, if one can accept that then you can easily make millions even with small accounts, however accepting this is against human nature so a lot of mental rewiring is needed a long the way.. Many pitfalls with traders as well, learn to read the charts and back test and back test to at least 10,000 trades on any strategy but i recommend learning candlesticks just because you will make twice as much as they show all.. You don't even need to listen to news if you follow candlesticks..

Now back to my point, identify ranges on the higher time frames and just buy and sell on the boundaries, eg buy at the bottom of a range and sell at the top.. Try to keep it simple, if it breaks out of range then use a stop.. If not your risk reward ratio should be around 3 to 1 or more.. Now looking at those odds you may be thinking wow, is that possible, well most ranges are at least 200 pips.. It is the standard forex cycle.. learn the cycles.. Price goes up and then comes down.. When it is just trending that is a different story but i think you get my point..

Now at 3 to 1 or more it means you can lose half your trades and still make big money so don't worry.. Now here is the exciting thing with this simple strategy you can risk more, why because you can prove to yourself that it works about 70% of the time with back testing.. These types of setups are common on EURUSD or GBPUSD or AUDUSD.. Look at history and you will see..

As an example on EURUSD the range is from 1.2840 to 1.3130 area.. So where would one want to sell, only above 1.31 yeah.. On buying, where would one want to buy only, around 1.2840 area.. Be patient, set alarms, you may only be trading a few times a month but geez you will build your account quickly if you follow these rules, lastly lock in your trade with stop loss once it passes 40 to 50 pips in your favour and use stop to manage trade..

I hope this helps and have a nice day..

i'm in the same situation as you are - forex income exceeds my 9-5 income.

however I do trade full time. I trade on average for 3 hours everyday. my trade size is pretty aggressive but i pay my mortgage with it :-)

If i was laid off, i would be excited. but i like my job workin in the medical device field- gives me a purpose.