Is trading really that hard?

I think you will realise when you will be able to quit your job and become full time trader, that can take years though!

In my opinion, yes, Forex is quite hard, above all at first. It is not easy to become a consistent winner and even less a full time trader. However this is something that can be reached over time with discipline, patience and perseverance.

I think I saw this in some old repair FAQ or book. Forget how it exactly went but there was a very complicated industrial machine which went broke. The guys operating it couldn't fix it (they were just operators (/traders), not people who understood everything about it (/people who spend years studying the all markets out of personal curiosity or build systems)). Then they called up a consultant who just looked around, didn't do anything, then made big X with red tape over one part of the machine and left. Then he sent a bill for $10000 and someone was peeved about how can someone charge 10k for just looking around for maybe hour or something.

take away: what type of personality you are. Can you be disciplined, if not, perhaps the best thing to do is find someone who is and have them trade your money and your method. Or write algo to handle atleast the parts of trading that require most discipline. For the guy charging 10k, he probably couldn't hold a job and had to charge big bucks for the rare opportunity where his information was worth something as maybe he was some old dude with lot of info but no ability to do much with it. I'm kind of feeling like that so I've worked last year just narrowing things down and trying to simplify my ideas to a level where I could automate most of it.

couple "obvious" things:
- if everyone traded the same system then ask this: if everyone is short, who'd you buy from to take profits when no one is left to sell?
- If you think that the probability of your limit orders getting hit does not get skewed depending on your exposure, think again.
- Know who you are trading with and when margin calls occur
- If you are trading like the pros, then when you have losses, so do they and they'll work to get out of the losses
- even the big boys lose sometimes - this is the trickiest bit I haven't quite found a solid way to figure out for certain (quickly). Only just today I have been able to refine my system rules to where I am not concerned about surprise QE/interest rate change (it's mainly about keeping exposure down or avoiding pairs which may be have a situtation where that may happen - or using options - problem is when buying options you are likely buying from the smartest bunch so they may be more expensive than it seems)

Did he make 50 to 250000 in single trade. If not, then the risk was not initial deposit but whatever was the current balance at each point a new trade was opened. (and good luck finding a broker which says you can't lose more than initial deposit + allows withdraw of profits without taking %. Wonder is there a broker who only takes commission and allows matching with other traders without matching any size with broker or big boy mm's . (that's kind of like stocks without market maker/hft's, but of course the mm/hft are where the action is so forget about intraday scalping while they are there)

Trading is hard, there is no doubt in this. But you can train yourself to trade good and make consistent money from forex market. Just like a doctor studies for at least 5 years to become a good doctor a trader needs to learn and practice properly for at least 4 years before he can actually start making consistent money.

So if all that is the simple part.. what is the hard part?

You can earn huge amounts of money trading the forex market, making efforts for only a few minutes a day.
This statement is true, BUT this article is not, as other articles with similar titles. In it I intend to tell you the truth. The truth is that in order for you to reach this point, the moment when everything is simple and easy, you need to put tremendous effort. Do not believe the thousands of failed traders who argue that trading is a gambling it is most definitely not. Trading on the world financial markets is a profession. This is a business like any other. Competition is fierce and only the strong survive. No talent is needed, it takes knowledge and a lot of work. I recommend you read the book Talent Is Overrated by Geoff Colvin. From it you can learn a lot about how to become successful not only in Trading but in life in general, following the example of many celebrities with great achievements.

What you have to do is consider the first few years in trading as a school. Think about your losses as the tuition fee. You can`t become an engineer or a doctor with the reading of two books and a visit of a few-hour seminar. It is incomprehensible why so many people think they will become profitable traders, when they put even less effort. In trading, as with any sport or profession only the best prosper. Trading on world financial markets is a global business. This means that you are competing for profit with professionals and amateurs from all over the world. Assuming that only 10% are profitable in the long-term, you should be better than the 9 other average traders. The point is that you have to put more effort in, to trade a longer time, to read more books, to spend more time looking at the charts. Do you want success more than others? Are you smarter than the others?

You should know that these 10% who are taking your money, (if youre one of the losers) were tireless, relentless and devoted thousands of hours of their life, going through hundreds of losing periods, taking thousands of losing positions, trembling in front of the charts, fighting for knowledge and experience through which, one day they will gain a better understanding of what is happening in the markets, so they can be right more often than wrong. Remember that people who engage in trading on the global financial markets have above average intelligence and that does not make your task easier
If you like it I will post second and third part

Speaking about easy or hard in the sense of required brain power:

You can make it easy or you can make it hard, its up to you. Trading is flexible. It is not like building a house or a bridge over the pond in your garden. You have many ways to be successful in trading but one that's working for me will not necessarily work for you. If you spend months on finding the perfect strategy chances are you're making it more complicated than necessary.

Easy or hard mindset related:
The real problem, like said many times before, is mindset and here we're all different (thanks god!). If you're the "Mr. 100%, everything has to be perfect" guy you will have a very hard time working on your mindset to become a trader. If you were the classical businessmen with the "I don't care as long as I end up in a profit/get paid at the end" attitude it will be a lot easier. Many people that come out of (or are currently in) a classical employment situation are not used to making decisions which will effect their own money. In the end they may call it "learning to trade" but they are learning a lot of other things too, one of them is "being responsible for your own decisions" and according to the comments I see in these forums I strongly believe that many are still at that stage of learning (the broker hunted my stop, the bloody robberbanksters robbed my lunch money, an immigrant stole my trading laptop, the EU disabled my internet when I was in a profit ...).

Learning to trade is very different than learning the mindset behind trading. I have 8 years of trading experience, and managed funds and am now a trading coach for FX traders. The mentality behind trading is one of the hardest things to understand. This is because the mentality behind trading is very opposite to what you were taught in life. Learning to trade is not about technical analysis or trading strategies, if you want to do that then spend 6 months learning how to be an Analyst. If you want to learn to trade, you have to spend at least 5 years in making your own mistakes, and learning at your own pace. Everyone has their specific edge to learn, an edge can rarely be taught.

You are right. In my articles I examine in depth this allegations. This is part 2. In this part i am talking about the technical part of the trading. In Part 3, I will write about the psychological aspect of trading.

To earn money systematically by trading the markets, you must master not only the technical aspect of trading but also the psychological.
The technical aspects can be mastered with the help of our site tradetipper.com or other similar sites. The Internet is full of useful information, the only problem is that it is too much and it is not easy to set apart the valuable information, from the rest. Surely you met many websites that promote various KISS (“Keep it simple, stupid”) methods. They will say “Is it difficult to win? You only need to buy at the right time and sell at the right time, it is not necessary to have a complicated system. ”

Simple setups may work occasionally, but you can hardly attain the required level of performance that you need to reach the 10%. If “simple” was really working, there wouldn`t be so many losing traders. The truth is that simplicity is not working. To become a “market wizard” you have to become one with the market, to feel what is happening with every cell of your body, if you achieve it, you can base your position only on gut feel. What actually is the gut feel, it is the subconscious activity of the brain, based on previous experiences. What I’m trying to say is that when you have learned the trading techniques of technical analysis earning money can become a really easy task.
But before that, you have to learn to apply a simple analysis of price action (PA), to know what the market is telling you with each candle even if you do not know the specific name of this candle described in the textbooks (spinning tops, marubozu, dragonfly, hanging man, gravestone, doji , shooting star, tweezers bottom/top, hammer , bullish/bearish engulfing, morning star, evening star, three white soldiers, three black craws and etc);

1. Learn to recognize and draw horizontal, then sloping levels and areas of support and resistance;
2. Get used to recognize different shapes and formations (H&S, triangles, flags, wedges, pennants, rectangles, diamonds, double and triple bottoms and tops, cups, etc.);
3. Know where and how to apply them, improve in this skill, to the extent that you will know how far you can stretch the rules written in the books and be right in your analyzes;
4. Know the different indicators and how to apply them;
5. Learn when to trade and when not to (which is usually even more difficult);

1. Learn to analyze using the charts of all time frames (minute, hourly, daily, weekly, monthly) believe me you need them all, I explained why in a different article;

You can add more and more different techniques, such as VSA, Fibonacci, harmonic figures and others.

When you master all these techniques and knowledge, begins the real “game”. To become a true “market wizard” and to have the chance on your side you will have to apply these techniques to any position you are opening and you will still have to put stops because it is very unlikely that you will be right in more than 70-80% of the cases. Do not be afraid, many people before you have succeeded in this endeavor and if you desire it and if you make the necessary efforts you too can succeed. As I already wrote in the first part of the article, this profession is like any other profession, you just have to learn the craft.

(I recommend you to read one or all of the series of books by Jack D. Schwager “Market Wizards” and to learn how some of the 10% have accomplished this)

I think that it's all about the right strategy. And I am not talking just about the trading strategy. It a complete course you choose. Mainly in dealing with your broker or brokers. If you apply a smart strategy, then you will win. That's how things happen

Trading the global financial markets is a mental game. Your decisions may, and will be affected by your psychological state. This is the reason most traders, who are successful with their demo accounts later fail. The technical side of trading, albeit very complicated can be learnt, if you invest enough effort and time. The bad news is that you may never reach the level of psychological stability, you need to be among the 10% of traders who win constantly.
Believe me, what you are dealing with can even be dangerous – not only for your financial, but also physical health. Fear and greed move the markets and ultimately you will be consumed by them. Some of you may be thinking to themselves, while reading these lines: “This does not imply to me. I`m not greedy, nor fearful”. Believe me – you are. There will be times when you can`t recognize yourself. You will make stupid mistakes, which you have forbidden yourself from doing tens of times. You will end up asking yourself: “Why!?! What the hell am I doing!?!” Trading is like a distorting mirror, which amplifies your worst traits and multiplies them tenfold.
You will meet despair after a losing trade and euphoria after a winning one. You should know, that you will be riding this emotional roller coaster for a very long time.

After you spend several months trading (if you last that long), you will know if trading is suitable for you. Don`t expect to be winners straight away. It would be a success if you have the same amount you started with in your account, after six months. Most rookie traders blow out their first accounts completely. Then comes the moment of truth. Some say “no one can make money, trading”. That way they are looking for an excuse, to leave the financial markets which have cost them so much pain and stress. There is no problem in being one of them – just return to your ordinary life. If you are a different type of person, the one who never gives up, start reading and learning and you will know if this is your destiny. You will say to yourself: “Failure is not an option!” This is the first step every market wizard has taken. George Soros, Warren Buffet, Paul Tudor Jones, Linda Raschke, Jesse Livermore, Larry Williams, Al Brooks, Nicolas Darvas and many others. They all started this way. Some of them have even gone bankrupt, multiple times. They had lost fortunes, just to win them back again from the market, with a little interest, of course. What is the common thing among them? They never gave up.
If you have made the decision to succeed by putting in the necessary effort, it`s time to rethink your point of view on trading. Now is the time you have to realize the truth about trading – it is a long-term game. You have to become a master of risk. You have to build psychological strength through practice. You have to take winners and losers unemotionally. You have to fight day by day, trying to get more winning trades, than losing ones. If you don`t realize that the game is long-term, you will be crushed by your psychology. You will take profits too early on your winning trades and hold losers too long, hoping they will turn around. Remember that winning traders don`t pray and hope and they never risk their entire careers in one trade (Every single trade involves risk. No one can be certain what is going to happen in the future).

Professional traders are people like you. They also deal with these problems daily. You can find an illustration if you read Nicolas Darvas` book “How I Made 2000000 in the Stock Market“. He nagged to overcome the difficulties. You can also familiarize yourself with the story of Jesse Livermore, who makes an unheard of fortune in the early 20-th century and then goes broke because of one bad position, gone out of control. He breaks all his rules in that trade. Years later he makes a fortune again, becoming one of the richest men in America. Despite his unique talent he never manages to handle the psychological aspect of trading. He then goes broke again and commits suicide.
I will go back to the beginning of the first article. If you are asked: “Do you want to earn huge amounts of money trading the forex market, making efforts for only a few minutes a day?”, most of you probably will say they do. Reality is different. We are all taught we need to work, to get a reward. This is why many people sabotage themselves unconsciously. They don`t realize that once they get to a certain level of experience, it is enough to take a look at the market once a day. If you trade long-term, you only need patience, however unnatural that may seem to you. In trading, unlike other businesses, it`s often best to do nothing. Waiting for a good opportunity is better, because every bad decision leads to a loss of money. You can spend the time in which you are not in front of the charts for learning new techniques or improving your psychological condition. Live a balanced life, have fun and have different hobbies. This is the only way you will be able to cope with the stress and make the best decisions.

Don`t forget that the real trader has never achieved his goal. He knows there always is something more to learn. He doesn`t stop working towards improving his skills. I recommend you watch this interview, taken from Don Miller: link. Note what a man who is making millions yearly from trading is saying.. He says it took him “close to a decade” to become a consistent winner, but he still doesn`t think he has “figured out” the market.
Trade from the viewpoint of the trader you want to be, not the one you are now. If you think and behave like a professional trader, you will become one without noticing.

It is all depend on trader

I'm not saying that trading is easy because it is not. but the most difficult thing to master is your own psychology.
it makes trading a lot harder than it actually is, but still not easy.

The more money you have and less appetite, the higher probability of your earnings, and vice versa, with a small initial deposit and a great desire to earn you will likely remain even without the amount, which started trading. Much easier to make a profit by opening a long-term deal, using low leverage than a hundred short orders, trading for scalping.

If you check the 4h chart first then you check the 1 hour chart to get a view on the trend of the market then yopu open the 5 min chart and start trading you will find it very easy to trade and for sure you must be updated on all the news .

Phi,

Do you think that understanding global economics, human nature, culture and keeping up to date on news is more or less valuable than using some data analysis method to predict trends? Or is it equal...?

Make use of the commonness of the history but the parts of history are often before my birth - even undocumented history (and also no charts : books) now.

HI Kvv888
Honest opinion and truly said....thank you.

I like what mentioned here. Somehow, turns out to be right personally speaking. Ultimately excitement should vanish an mind needs to settle down and the picture seems to become clear.