Of course you make a very valid point - if your going for the stretch, your transactions are few, and maybe insignificant. However, unless you excel in execution, your level of out/stop /margin requirement could be larger than the account of a beginner. This implies the beginner to take a day trade where the out level is typically less margin - day trading = churn = cost.
It is true that stocks can be easier to trade and are less manipulated since the bog boys are simply not concerned with them. HOWEVER, you will at one point run into liquidity problems with stocks. They can be very expensive to trade, due to slippage. Also, you should realize that you are putting your money in an asset that can go to 0! ES and forex on the other hand won't. Just look at what happened to MTXX. At first stocks are easier but you pay for that over the long term.
I don't know if its because of a lack of experience here, but from the majority of posts here I think that here are many many inexperienced... "traders". Someone who trade well, will tell you "don't matter what market you trade, they are just almost the same, all you need is to adjust the risk for every market and you should be ok" This is true. Those who are newbie for the most part trade on the principle "buy low, sell high" wich is wrong. Correct is "buy high, sell higher" and vice-versa. But for a newbie from a psychological point is much harder to trade so and instead is much easyer to trade on buy low sell high. They are practical try to buy weakness and sell strength and I think that they behave so because they want to time! the market and don't lose any oportunity; and for them it's not! ok to be wrong. So remember, the best trades are the hardest to take! google "bill lipschutz" . And someone who is very known: george soros and there are many many more. Now, try to understand how the best traders think, to be a successful trader you need to be very humble and they don't! like publicity, they like to remain [below radar] for the most part and this is why you don't see very much succesful traders. To be a good trader you need to have a special philosophy about trading and many people can't have this and it's ok, not everyone can succes in this business! Those who say to everyone how good they are, most of them are arrogant wich is not a good sign of a succesful trader. For the OP, well @4 years in the market and you don't know some basics information... I think that you should re-think your carrer.
Are you kidding, every time I switch on a financial news channel or open the financial pages of a newspaper Soros is there talking about something! Soros isn't an FX trader as we know it anyway, he's a market manipulator and he had some very big guns on his side in '92, he was playing a totally different game. As for being humble, to heck with that, most City traders are brash, arrogant, posers who like nothing better than to let everyone know how successful they are! Go to any Porsche dealership or City club bar on bonus day if you want to witness excess! Humble shmumble
Why are most of you always trading short term, as that's hard, if not impossible to make money with overtime, and overtime is the keyword. Why not focus on the big, long term trends in FX. They're there and they're very tradable. But you have to sit back, be patient and NOT THINK THAT EVERY TICK MEANS SOMETHING. Good luck.
LOL. Where are these traders located? Not the same planet I live on. Power dressing, fast cars, flash girls, private clubs, restaurant bills into tens of thousands, chic properties, loud talk, playboy lifestyle, sometimes drugs, wild parties, lots of boasting, in-house massage, tailors and a haughty attitude are more common than quiet humility and flying below the radar. If you have it, flaunt it. If the little guy is in your way, stamp on him. Trading is a jungle and these are the alpha makes. Now get out of the way!
Well regarding soros, I just said someone who is well know. Everything is relative, I didn't want to say that every succesful trader is humble. But those who are really good won't talk about their business to everyone. They will talk about it for the most part with wealthy investors in case that the trader want to rise some more funds. And people won't meet this great traders because they(traders) don't want to be in touch with average Joe. "As for being humble, to heck ..." In my opinion I think that those city traders are not the finest in the industry! And I'm not reffering in special of how much money a trader can make but also how disciplinated is with his business. What I wrote above is just how I see it and I don't want to say that this is the only angle from wich you can view this point.
Well, this is how an average Joe trader think. To be in the market for the long term, first of all is to conserv your capital and don't take business as a jungle. Or yes, it is a jungle for those idiots who take crazy risks and they leverage their as$
You're confusing humble with respect and sound trading/business sense. It's without doubt a jungle, only the strong and cunning survive, the rest are lunch