Are there any successful Traders in Forex Factory?

I have one serious question. Why athletes train for the 100 meters world record? Why do they train hard for years and years? It's completely stupid. I mean, it is nonsense, absurd. It is impossible to break the world record for the 100 meters. IM-PO-SSI-BLE. We have a record already. And that record was set by the fastest man in the world. It is impossible to beat the fastest man in the world. Why?? Obvious, he is the fastest, no one runs faster than him. Nor I, nor you, nor the thousands of athletes that train years worldwide. NONSENSE. Period.

So why they do it? I seriously ask. No kidding. Why do they train? No weeks, no months, but years. Year after year, thousands of hours. They train at the track, they train at the gym, they follow diet, they study races, the oponents... Why?

Because they BELIEVE. No joke. Those idiots truly believe they can do it. And they visualize it. They visualize every tiny detail of the perfect race. The position at the start, the first push, each meter of the race, how do they have to position themselves to scratch 1/1000 of a second at the end... Haha, it is really stupid. Because we know they won't get it. Assholes... I pity them, all those years of training, pain, suffer. All the mornings waking up at 4am to train. All the nights resting at home while their friends are drinking, laughing, dining out... Poor idiots. They won't be the fastest man in the world. It's not possible.

But eventually on achieves it. Not every year. Not even every decade. But sometimes. BOOOOOM!! This man gets it. He is the bloody fastest man in the world. He, the only one. And it can only be one, among thousands. What did I said?? Among all the F####ING world. He is the one.

So here in Forex we are much luckier. We don't have to be the best in the world. We just have to be in the top 5 among each 100 traders (if that is the ratio). It doesn't sound that difficult now, does it? But it is f###ing difficult. But if a man can be the fastest man in the world I, provided I train hard, might be able to be among the best 5 for each 100.

And it's not just in Forex. In any business, in every arena. The best ones are normally the ones that are the best prepared, the best trained, the ones that broke their backs harder to get the results. Of course there are natural talents, Mozart for instance. They perform at a higher degree by pure talent. And of course there are many, many others that fail, and I think that they failed because they didn't try hard enough. They lie to themselves saying that they gave the best of them but it's not true.

So why do I do it? Because I believe. I really believe I can make it. I'm already suffering the pain, for three years. But the pain is not in vain. I won't discuss my situation, but I'll just say that I'm not a quitter.

Now I have another question. Why do the people that don't believe spend so much time trying to crush other people's hope? Honestly I don't really understand their reasons. I would spend my time wisely in another place. I personally don't enjoy crushing the hopes of other people. This is far more difficult to understand than my initial question.

Don't want to extend myself more than what I've already done, and it's more than what I initially thought. The funny point is that I was for many years the fastest guy at school among the boys of my same year (and many one year above). Isn't it funny? Hahaha

My view: only 1 out of 10.000 will make it as a really successfull money making trader.

Provided that traders know what they are up against, then there is no problem in following your dreams provided that it is backed up with a good dose of reality and an acknowledgement of the costs that others have to make on your behalf for the pursuit of self-excellence.

The concern faced by some who appreciate what it takes, such as those athletes that are at the cutting edge of performance is that if you don't face the realities, then it is highly likely that the problem is not just going to be yours but others as well. In striving for excellence, a few might make it but many won't. That 'many' are going to create problems for others whether it be their kin or their community.

Our brains are configured for 'selfish pursuits' whereas you do not find this problem existing elsewhere in the animal kingdom. I wonder why that is. Has that brain of ours got something to do with it? The great grey mass of selfish irrational exuberance. You lose me as soon as you mention the word 'believe'. As soon as that word is ushered....that's where I know a human is avoiding the recognition of reality and the associated responsibilities that come with it.

I'm not sure why you are laughing *perhaps you are angry*. It's not funny. It's actually quite sad because of those that fail, and particularly those that fail spectacularly, rarely take full responsibility for their actions....and it is the *suckers* or the balance of society that were not blindly hedonistic in their pursuits that have to foot the bill.

​If you learn to treat the forex as a part time job you will learn to love it more. Unfortunately, Forex is not the way out for retail traders. Its great for a part time income. I have been trading for quite sometime and even though I have some great months I would never sell my business and live only off forex. Its always gambling no matter who says what. There is too much risk to lay it all on the line and depend just on trading. To be honest Last year I made close to a 100k but to me that was a hard and lucky year. I don't always make that. Sometimes its half of that. Its not enough to live off. You can always have a bad month and lose most of your earnings. Its happened many times. Nobody knows where the market is going to go. Nobody can tell you that they have a 90% winning system. Shit doesn't work that way. I have found out the hard way. For me forex has paid off my cars, credit card debts and helped me purchase real estate. I make a good living with my business and I use forex money for my kids, vacations and family. To completely rely on it... I just don't see it happening. So keep your job and focus on A real job. Use the forex to just grow your monthly income or invest in buying homes like I did. If you can use your earnings every year to put down on an investment home you will be on your way to financial freedom.

Hi copernicus. thanks for taking the time to reply me. Let me tell you that I was not picking on you. It was that little bit of text that I quoted, but honestly if I had to pick on anyone it would be more sensible to pick @HudithePfupf or @Mingary.

Actually I wasn't laughing. It was just the style I chose to write the post to make it more theatrical in hopes to remark the underlying message. I do have high admiration for anyone that reaches goals based on hard work, name it businessman, athlete, cientific...

If you want to acchieve a goal, first you have to believe you can do it. No one will succeed in an endeavour thinking he'll fail.

I don't mean to offend anyone, even @HudithePfupf or @Mingary. But I don't understand that kind of attitude. It's like going every Sunday to church just to tell all the people that God doesn't exist. Every Sunday. So this is the same. Coming here to FF which is full of traders and wannabe traders to tell them that this is a farce. I'm sure they don't do it to help me. They don't know me. I think that Forex being a farce or not, it is something that each one has to discover by themselves. Obviously the ones that fail will THINK it is a farce. But the ones that succeed will KNOW it is possible.

Let me do one thing. I want to change the glass through we see the problem. People who think Forex is an scam always request a prove. The usual "show me the records of a successful trader for X amount of years". I can't prove that. I don't have those records and I don't personally know anyone that will give me that. But the truth is that they can't prove their statement. They can't prove all Forex retail traders lose. It is impossible to prove that because they don't have all the records. It doesn't matter the time range, it doesn't matter the traders... They can't prove that all retail traders lost.

It looks easier to me to prove that some people can succeed than all people lose. Basically if I acchieve it I'll have the real prove, and I won't have to be asking anyone for their records (as they can be faked). I will just know. If I don't make it I won't be able to state that Forex is a scam. That will only prove that I didn't make it (whatever the reason), but that doesn't prove that all people lose.

So getting back to the question Why they do it? Why do the come day after day to FF to tell people this is impossible? The only real reason I can think of, and I repeat that I don't mean to offend anyone here, is that they didn't make it. They gave up and convinced themselves that it wasn't their fault, it was just that it is impossible to make it. It's in the human nature to blame external sources first rather than admiting one's fault.

When I said if I were them I would spend my time wisely elsewhere, I meant it. It is like in the church example claiming that God doesn't exist. The man thinks that the people attending the mass are fools, but the other side of the coin is that all the people attending mass think that the fool is the man himself and just walk away from him. So why the fool (let me use here the term fool just to difference him from the other fools that attend mass) tortures himself trying to convince the other people of something they won't listen (because it's against their believes)? Why does he go through such a pain? It is a waste of energy. I think people should discover the truth by themselves, or in the end, at least, they will create their own "fake" truth.

To make a summary: I can't prove (yet) I can suceed (but maybe someone could). They can't prove that all retail forex traders lose.

So @HudithePfupf or @Mingary (or whoever that wants to share). If you want to tell me why do you do it it would be interesting. No disrespect. No hard feelings here.

I am successful and rich as well (I had to add that) but I am derivatives trader, so this allows me to really maximize trade and make real money. Most people tend to trade spot, there are a few successful spot traders I know but most of them are happy to accommodate risk and their leverage is really low, so all in all these guys are more investing. They are the market maker lot but that's not really secondary trading. So if you really wanting to start being successfully start looking at Vanilla Options or Futures this way you get to avoid the con that the spot market has become.

So hope that answered the originally posters questions.

Back at you mate

After digesting your post, I realise you weren't having a stab.

Bottom line is that this is a tough game. A lot tougher than many realise, but unlike the ardent sceptics, I adopt a view that to succeed, you really need to take time, learn from trusted reliable sources and progressively develop your experience by starting very small and letting your success build your exposure in this market....like any profession.

Traders need all the help they can get and what irk's me on this forum is that we really need better efforts to teach the foundational principles of trading including the necessary reality check as opposed to boast about or exaggerate successes. As retail traders we should be doing our best to help other traders, ethically and in a responsible way. At the same time we need to appreciate that every trader needs to be responsible for their own efforts and choose a method that responds to their own unique 'experience set'. We don't just ram methods, mantra's and challenges down their throat....that's the wrong way to learn as it is the foundational principles of how to responsibly manage their hard won money that allows them to think critically to let them build their own lasting castles.

There appears to be two extremes in this forum with very little middle ground between the can do's and the can't do's, and like everything in this world, a happy medium exists where a living can be made in this market within realistic expectations provided that you are prepared to work for it and do not expect it overnight. There is fun in learning and in developing your experience and we should be more focussed on the process of learning rather than building false illusions.

I thought Mingary did a good job(which most of us will not undertake) spreading the word of caution what 95% of us will eventually find out for ourselves.
(I don't see how we can conclude that Mingary is a loser in this business.)

Why he does that ?

Possibly he felt more socially responsible than most of us that maybe in some way his efforts may somehow help someone out there avoid the pain of after knowledge.

Yep. There is a lot of common sense residing in Mingary that I think we need to take note of .......and while I find it hard to accept the very hard line he takes.....I swallow the 'Mingary risk pill' every time I take a trade ......and guess what.....the Mingary pill seems to work

If he practices what he preaches, I wouldn't be surprised to see a nice looking equity curve from Mingary....but never ask him to show it to us as he might have to eat his own words.

Totally true. About one year ago I got commissioned stats about "hall of fame jobs".

I had to report in average how many astronauts made to the space ships, how many pilots make it to Formula One, how many sword swingers make to the world championship, how many soccer players make it to the top series and so on. Then I also calculated how many traders using a various R:R, money management and so on would actually survive for 10 years or trade 10000 times (using a Monte Carlo simulation with an host of parameters).

The results were quite amazing. All the "hall of fame jobs" I have worked with, show how only 1 to 8,000 to 1 to 10,000 semi-professionals ever make it to the top series. And, amazingly enough, my Monte Carlo simulation found out how just 1 average trader out of 9,000 makes it to a 10 years career or 10k trades (whichever comes first).

Therefore, your view seems quite accurate!

I am 100% sure that there are not more than 5% from all traders in the world which are on profit. And this is absolutely normal because the high leverage offered. It is simply impossible to be on profit with leverage bigger than 30. There are companies offering 200 300 400 even 888. Which is equal to gambling. For people who are trading with accounts lower than 20k USD is really hard to play with leverage like 5-10 because profits are really small. In my case I am on profit with 30% of all money that I invest in forex but none of my friends are on profit .
Just be more humble and you will get the profits!

Strange, I couldve sworn Hanover made a great post regarding the comparison between speculation and other professions. Its gone missing, however, I shall attempt to agree with and reply to a non-existent post.

Most of the comparisons between trading and other professions are specious. The increase in a trader's profitability over time is related to the growth of his equity and not the development or honing of professional skills that would increase the earning potential of a person well into his chosen career. Optimally, traders have to have reached the peak of their ability before they even begin their trading career and continue to maintain that same standard for as long as they trade.

On FF, you will find every comparison being drawn between trading and Sports/Martial Arts/Medicine/Law/Sales/Business Startups/Chess but you can be sure that people will ignore and disregard the people who are known for being traders at the top of their game.

It seems to me that the common comparisons between trading and whatever serve as convenient excuses rather than anything else. Lengthy career development paths, education, training etc. are useful to justify sunk costs and repetitive failures that plague the wishful thinker.

"If I wanted to become a tramp, I would seek information and advice from the most successful tramp I could find. If I wanted to become a failure, I would seek advice from men who had never succeeded. If I wanted to succeed in all things, I would look around me for those who are succeeding and do as they have done."
Joseph Marshall Wade

The post, which was in reply to post #310 and got accidentally deleted , went something like this.........

You must be an outstanding trader merely to attain any kind of systematic income. After which, it requires no further expertise -- just the stamina needed to grow an account, and the nerve to trade larger positions -- to make a living, and thereafter become extremely wealthy. Trading is scalable to almost any degree; it's possible to borrow almost any amount of money (through leverage), and compound gains exponentially. And it requires minimal startup costs -- an account deposit and an internet connection -- and no formal education: the required skillset is merely specialist knowledge and an almost superhuman amount of self-discipline. For the retail trader who operates from home, there are no premises, no travel, no personal interaction with others, no management headaches, no competitors to outperform. You establish your own 'edge', and set your own standards and targets.

Whereas with other career paths, there's no risk involved; instead of the vast majority losing, virtually every individual can find an activity where they earn a living. Instead of the major performance barrier being at the start of the climb, it's getting all the way up from mediocrity to the highest level that requires an outstanding amount of expertise, and also likely the problem of increased capital: there's no scalability, leverage, compounding. And if you operate your own business, or want to become a worldbeater in any type of activity (e.g. music, the arts, politics, sport, ), there are invariably competitors that stand in your way.

Hence in my view, many of the comparisons often made between trading, and other professional activities, are completely specious.

Wouldn't better questions be:

How can I become a successful trade?
What are the steps I must take?
What must I practice to become successful?
Why do I want to be a successful trader?

I believe it depends upon individual so share the views or not , but the first point is .. are there any successful traders as per my very limited criteria -- minimum 2 years trade and account in profit....

so is forex a worthy business for retailers at all to make money ?

Yes, these are my thoughts as well.

The speculator is required to establish a method with a positive expectancy from the start and run it into perpetuity with little deviation from the core strategy. You have to reach the peak before you even begin but after this, ideally, there is no further expertise that needs to be gained.

Speculation is not a career path. It is merely buying on the expectation of rising prices and selling on the expectation of falling prices. There are many ways of profiting from this, I observe that the best ones tend to reap their profits from prolonged market trends. Long term success in speculation is not the result of the slow acquisition of skills that reward upon attainment but rather surviving the attrition game of markets to be around for the massive but unforeseeable windfalls.

In my view, forex requires patience. It also requires believing in your own self. I have seen my kenyan friends train over and over for Marathons. They have failed over and over to win the medals only to win one race and many more after the first win. They never give up. They train during odd hours when everyone else is asleep. They get scolded by other people for failing over and over but they never give up. Their minds are not focused on the noise from the critics. Their minds are focused on the goal of winning a marathon. Sometimes they get rained on, get knee injuries, bit by mosquitoes during practice but they never give up. They believe in winning so much as though their live depended on their winning. Every time they do not win, they feel like someone who has been deprived of oxygen and have to struggle to breath. The breath harder by training harder and more meticulously. They learn from every training session. London marathon comes along and they win all the medals Gold, silver and Bronze. Chicago marathon comes along and they win again racking in millions of dollars. To them the race has become second nature. They have been conditioned to function that way. Forex is likewise. It is not for the fainthearted. It is for those who can sustain the process. You have to undergo the "special forces training" of forex in your mind. It is the few who can withstand the experience that wins the price and title. Remember, nobody said life was meant to be easy.

You rock Jfx.
Very well compared.

95% of small businesses fail within 5 years. I think with Forex there is more probability of success.
http://smallbiztrends.com/2013/03/in...usinesses.html

36.2% of US forex traders were profitable in Q2 of 2015:
http://www.financemagnates.com/forex...accounts-down/