Who is the most profitable trader on Forex Factory?

Read again.. He does not mention a 1000% monthly.

Ofc he did not, now YOU tell us how many %monthly will 3500-4000pips give in the context of GEfx's posts since you seem to know more than us.

Well It depends on the lots sizes... I am no genius, i can't figure out percentage returns with just pip count.

Once again the forex snake oilers are in top gear.....selling the dream. All the stories about successful retail traders are pure marketing myths. The same is true for that lady with the myfxbook account. With hiding everything that would be relevant to verify her results, it is so obvious that this is just crap and made up. For all those who still think myfxbook can't be manipulated.....dream on, it can be and therefore is manipulated.

Pure luck can sometimes achieve incredible returns...however, it's luck and the luck won't stay with you forever. The bigmouths do not get the difference between luck and skill.....but the good thing is, they will be punished someday. I am more concerned about all the stakeholders of the retail forex industry that are constantly put out baits to lure in new retail forex victims.

Nice to see from time to time that not everybody is insane, like this one:

http://www.forexfactory.com/showthread.php?t=527670

Understand the mechanics on gamblers ruin, understand the motivation behind each post and than you can easily judge which ones are the addicted gamblers, the snake oil sellers, the wannabe's etc. and that trading with leverage puts you mathematically on the loser side...and this beside all other proven manipulations that are regulary used by this industry.

well i knew there is one trader who makes unbelieable return in FF. he once revealed his TE but later on deleted it. it was couple of months ago and the return on that times around 12,000%. The strategy is scalper as most of the trades closed around 1 or 2 pips if profit and 5 or 6 pips if loss.

So if traders, fail as you say they fail, why do you come here ? Do you trade ? If so why ? I ask because if what you say is true, you will fail, so why would you trade if your going to fail ?

Why is it, that you think, retail traders are unable to be discipline enough to overcome the hurdles that the market puts in front of a trader ?

Forex Factory trade explorers are very buggy. I've seen quite a few show few thousand % percent profit but actually lost more than half the account when you click on it. Not to mention apparently some of them can have 200% draw down. The programmer who designed it was probably mathematically challenged.

Fxbook is better in every way.

Fair question. First, let me step back from talking for the group, because I really don't know how others in the group manage their money. I know how they all trade, and I know for sure that they all capture hundreds of pips per week, with some capturing thousands per month. I assume that I am a below average trader in the group, and am pretty sure most in the group have and make a lot more money than I have and make.

As for me, I turn my margin accounts over at least once a month. I sweep the earnings out at least twice a month. I don't know how far you can push your broker, and don't know if it's possible to do 300,000% a year. I'm not sure where your comfort level is in trading, which is an important component in determining how much money you may need in an account to achieve your financial goals. For me, I expose 2% of my margin on each trade, with a 25 pip stop, and target at least 2.5 times that on each trade, but often target 4 times that amount. If you viewed my journal, you know that I look to add to each trade as the market/trade develops, turning an 8% move on trade 1, into a multi trade 14% move. I trade with 3 trading accounts, spreading trades across these accounts so I don't have to deal with fifo regs in the US.

If you read my journal, you understand that I trade market structure, on the 4h and 1h charts. I'm not selling anything, am not offering anything to any one, but am trying to let people know that, while you trade in a retail environment, you don't have to trade like a typical retail trader. People who say it's all random, its snake oil, or it's not possible, have not worked hard enough on the right skills to be successful. The goal here is for each trader to be successful, but success is defined differently for everyone. Good trading to everyone, but perhaps it would be better to wish many of you good luck with your studies.

Always check all times status, it should be give you a clear picture on where that account ended.

No one wants to point out the elephant in the room.
"retail traders are unable to be discipline enough to overcome the hurdles that the market puts in front of a trader ?"

Perhaps no amount of discipline and training is enough to overcome these hurdles...
For someone that may be almost impossible, for anyone it's not possible a all.
As a matter of fact I have 100 % certainty that someone is making money in the forex right now.
On the other hand, there is 0 % certainty that joe blow (i.e a particular individual) is making money in the forex right now.
Therefore, track records and the "who is making money" can never be answered or trusted.

I understand why a few here don't believe in the reality that it consistent long term stellar returns. "Many are called, few are chosen". It takes years to become a good trader. As usual, most people think that can be learned in a turn key type way to produce instant results.

Everyone I know who trades well took many many years to make it. I feel pretty dumb in that it took me decades. 1st decade losing / break-even, 2nd decade made money but nothing to write home about, end of 3rd decade, easy / large money... an overnight sensation 30 years in the making hehe. So believe in it, don't give up and most of all don't do what everyone else is doing.

Cogsx86,
Mingary summarized it quite well.

First of all it is important to understand that forex is a zero sum game, the profit of one participant is the loss of an other. There is absolutly no productive element in it. Because brokers / liquidity providers / market makers / trading desks etc. apply spread, asymmetric rollover and commissions, they can skim of hudge profits with little risk. This bill seems to be small at first sight, but if you look at it in detail you realize it is crucial.

This makes it for all other participants that have to trade through these providers already a negaitve sum game!

Now you take banks, big business, goverments, central banks, economic data compilers, quant hedgefonds etc. that generate a fundamental edge against retailers by having a significant information advantage in specific situations. This can be from time to time a huge advantage and you can't front run them, you just can arbitrage some of their profits if you see the structure of their actions (which they try to hide as good as possible) in the market early and faster than others.

Example: If you know NFP data in advance, if you have real time data on global positioning and leverage ratios (they sell that data for sure) , if you know how a rate decision of a central bank statement will look like, things like that provide a clear (although often illegal) advantage against all other participants.
Can it happen? – YES. So does it happen? For sure. Forex is probably the best market to transform insider knowledge into profits and because of the decentralized structure it is difficult for regulators to prove anything. I am sure some people with access to such information do make a killing trading it. They are highly interested having weak hands taking the other side of their bets and provide liquidity. I am sure these guys love the retail industry for that purpose.

Now you take HFT front running of all retail orders. It's only a minor cost per trade for you, but it’s a death by thousand cuts. So again, the retailers do pay (beside the real economy participants) there huge profits too. The myth that they add liquidity is in my opinion total bullshit. They have no interest to have a net exposure in the market and speed does only make sense if you open and close your position in a very short timeframe.

Now you take the manipulators that move prices. Oh....you say now the tin foil hat award goes once again to Hudi.....I know. Most of you think a 5 Trillion a day market can't be manipulated. This statement is plain stupid. If you study price movements you see such manipulations in all variations especially in smaller time frames. If you recognize how just a handful of traders are able to manipulate the 4 pm London fix you realize that a few hundred millions are already enough to move the price significantly in major pairs even at times with good liquidity. If you do it a bit more sophisticated you have a news network that supports your action with spreading rumors through the typical channels. One of the reason why this is possible is that about 80% of the traded volume is purely speculative and has no - absolutely no - relation to the real economy, besides generating additional costs for it. A big part of the speculative portion is very short term oriented money and is often leveraged.....so with manipulation you can ramp up a price and distort a market over a certain timeframe. By doing that, you are creating breakouts and mean reversion moves that allow those generating these moves to skim of money. If you do it with big capital and little leverage you have the gamblers ruin edge against all retailers and most of the other participants. You trigger their stops, you force them to follow, you are per definition a step ahead if your action forces a reaction.

So if you don't have a huge capital base and trade with no or very little leverage, the probability of you winning as a retail forex trader is almost zero, if you do it for years. It's clear that by luck and huge leverage, even a retail trader can temporally achieve tremendous gains....but this is true for gambling in general... 99.9% of retail forex traders are highly addicted gamblers that do not want to accept the truth that they are at the very end of the food chain in this game....by design. Hundreds of millions of USD marketing budgets make sure the illusion is kept alive.

Above all that most retail traders are reducing their odds further by choosing brokers that are outright fraud, brokers that are market makers, stupid overleveraging, martingale strategies, lack of discipline etc. etc...... so the learning curve will just help you to reduce the speed in evaporating your capital.

Everybody that is really interested in retail trade statistics will find solid financial publications that prove my points. Although the forex industry deploys hundreds of millions of marketing money every year to make sure such information is buried or diluted.

I am still here in this forum to give retailers the chance to avoid costly mistakes and to raise the marketing costs of the forex brokers to lure in new victims. I invest some of my time to make sure we approach peak financialization. If I can help to create a global awareness that huge parts of the financial industry are just parasitary to the real economy, I think it’s worth it. And progress is already visible, looking at places like France and Belgium and soon more to follow and the fact that forex trading volume is declining according to BIS data.

The title of this thread is "Who is the most profitable trader on FF" not "List all the reasons why people shouldn't trade forex" (but still do!) We've heard it all a million times. You will always be able to trade FX, hedgers and banks need a market with the depth that large speculators provide. Regardless, if not forex there's plenty of other derivative markets to trade. It's not the product which is at fault, it's the lemming type approach people take to forex and the regulation or lack thereof in this market as applies to retail traders which bucket shops take advantage of and profit from.

I agree with this. I am equally dumb if not worse, that makes 2 dumbo. lol "... an overnight sensation 30 years in the making hehe." lololol

You sound like people back then who don't believe that people can fly . Building an aircraft , now that is hard , the amount of precision it required . This market is just 50/50 up and down that's it . You just need to enter at the right time . As a matter of how , well isn't that the million dollar question isn't it ?

Tell me about it

SO Neither one of you trade ? Why do you come here then ?

Most successful one never gonna tell you how . If you have a trading system , it was so good and used by hundred thousands of people . You end up fighting for liquidity against your own system .

Not so sure about that, as hundreds of people would it trade if differently, but I am telling him about how to do it, I am using an english expression in sarcasm to the nay-Sayers who are saying you can't succeed in the industry.

I don't pretend to be in the category of the most successful traders, but still, I do constant profits and I share one of my systems, here, on forexfactory.com I don't have that kind of mentality, maybe I am naive but...