Do full-time forex traders exist or is it just make believe?

Discussion in 'Forex' started by zbojnik, Apr 4, 2013.

  1. Exactly
     
    #991     Sep 28, 2014
  2. cornix

    cornix

    Too many people know me personally on this forum to suspect that. It just happened you are not one of them. :)
     
    #992     Sep 28, 2014
  3. What is your connection with them ??
     
    #993     Sep 29, 2014
  4. seaofash

    seaofash

    I started trading forex in April 2004 after about 3 months of demo trading with Oanda. I deposited $1,000 1:50 leverage, trading 0.25/pip. I below up my account in the following 3 months due to mostly bad money management and position sizing. I deposited $3,000 in late August 2004 and another deposit of $10,000 a few months later. I worked that account up to just shy of $120,000 by March 2011 when the Japanese tsunami hit. Now, I'm not a wealthy individual nor I can claim to be a really good trader, but I was consistent, learned my lessons from every loss and bad trade. I will never forget this, I was long USD/JPY about 65 lots (layered from 85.00 all the way down to about 80.00), I was up all night watching the market, I probably lost 5lbs that night as the tsunami was ripping through. Now it's 4:00pm the next day, NY time, BTW I live Vancouver, BC Canada, I think the JPY was holding just under 80.00 I get off the computer to go to the bank. I come back home less than half an hour or so later if I remember correctly, and there it was. The 400 pip move from 79 and change to about 76 (this is when the market is at the thinnest, Australia is mostly active), I got margined called. I lost $110,000 roughly. When I sat down at the computer, looking at the screen, I had just about $10k left in my account.......I was devastated.
    I took a break, maybe 3 months or so, focused on school, other things. Today I'm back to about $120K (and this is why I'm posting my experience as this figure was an important turning point my trading career) from the $10k or so that I was left with after that soul crushing hit, (well a little less than $120K since I've been taking money out here and there to pay some bills). Again, I'm not a really good trader, nor I claim to know everything there is about Forex or the financial market, but here are my points:
    1) You should know yourself, if you're disciplined, hard working and willing to learn from your mistakes, then you have chance in making it as a trader.
    2) Money management is the most important skill that a trader should master
    3) Don't give up! shit happens,
    S.
    CFA, CMT, BBA Finance (30yrs)
    (I do have a day job)
     
    #994     Sep 29, 2014
    Joe6Pack and limcheese22 like this.
  5. @seaofash Did you have a hard stop in place which failed to trigger, or did you not put the stop in? I haven't been trading FX for all that long so this is something I'd really like to know.
     
    #995     Sep 29, 2014
  6. seaofash

    seaofash

    @justrading. I did have stops that one time but the market moved so fast and erratic that the stop didn't trigger properly.

    Generally I don't use stop losses. Now there is gonna be people here that say "that's a terrible mistake", well I have a different opinion and trading style that works for me, there is always going to be a tail risk (black swan?) But with good money management and experience you will be better off without stop losses. Of ourselves that's my opinion and thats got me here so far.
     
    #996     Sep 29, 2014
  7. Thanks @seaofash , it is troubling to know. I always thought that the stops would work, perhaps with more slippage in a very fast market, but work all the same. I do try to limit exposure to individual crosses so that should help, but I will have to be more careful about correlations then.
     
    #997     Sep 30, 2014
  8. doggyfx

    doggyfx

    So I can adjust only MM parameters right? no volume, volatility, S&R automatical breakout order triggering??
     
    #998     Oct 1, 2014
  9. LOL

    the answers here vary so much

    Yes

    You can make a living trade FOREX, even a good living

    Its kind of like poker. A LOT of people think its all luck. WRONG. Its 100% money management

    You CAN'T win 100% of your trades, hell if you can get anywhere near that you are a GOD.

    Just trade smart, don't be reckless. Watch your trades closely.

    Cut your losses & track your trades

    Good luck,
     
    #999     Oct 1, 2014
  10. What would happen if the Bank of Thailand stopped accepting USD as settlement.
     
    #1000     Oct 2, 2014