I've tried playing with silver and gold, but I've found I don't do as well as FX. Still, the temptation has been there to go after some good shorts or longs as the opportunity presents itself. I just can't let go of the risk of shorting a metal when that metal can essentially launch into space on a moment's notice - so I try to stay away from it. I use gold to hedge trades, though. I'll go long gold if I want to hedge a short AUD/USD position or something like that.
I have just started trading forex (my first week). This market is just like any other market.......it goes up, it goes down. Its not any harder or easier than any other market (although you have to think a bit more sadistic because of the market maker). Let me guess the OP is probably trading eur/usd and usd/jpy like every other joe out there lol!!!
I do recall you posts detailing your results. But I got the impression that the majority of feedback was positive. Maybe you're too sensitive But then again, the abuse, however predictable, probably still isn't worth it.
Forex has a lot of tricks up its sleeve; it's not as easy as you think. It is probably the second best teacher if not the best when it comes to trading, stay tuned. sg20
Technically we usually call that draw-downs, really nothing special in trading, particularly Forex (spot or else)!
youngtrader: if i were you, i wouldn't call "joes" people who trade eurusd and usdjpy... just like somebody else said... stay tuned... and remember: money talks, bullshit walks... so... try and keep quiet and listen to the big boys...
Heh, I don't think I'm too sensitive. But I look at it this way - by posting results or trading styles, what do I gain? Zip. And this site is literally FULL of people who get slammed because others don't agree with their trading styles. So why waste the breath (or in this case, the typing)? There have been a few folks I have chatted with privately who know my style and I know theirs. Because I've come to respect them, I've shared more info with them and vice versa. And posting positive results always seems to come off as bragging, no matter how you do it.
Ivanovich, in regards to your Oanda comment, i'm not here to trash them, i still got an account with them and will use it again when i'm ready to trade longer timeframes, but, i had noticed a few things happen that were too precise to be just coincidence, with the most annoying being stopped out to the pip when spreads were enlarged because of news releases, only to watch the market move in the right direction straight after (i'm not a news trader). The argument being that some traders were taking advantage of the news release to make some quick money...what about the ones that were loosing? did they compensate them? let me guess, it's fine to loose during news, just make sure you don't win....that's just a small example... As for the original question, i do know of at least one trader here in Australia who makes more than a mil per year, and another one who lives very comfortably trading spot, i trade currency futures. Taking note of your account size....it's the biggest problem most traders have in this game....huge expectations out of a very small account, IMHO number one cause for failling.... cheers.
Things seem to be changing at Oanda, sure that appears to have been their policy in the past even to the point at one time they just disconnected the platform across volatile data like NFP, but over the past couple of months I've traded right through NFP scalping a few pips here and there with some quite large volume....not a hitch, not even a blip, the platform and fills were rock solid (I posted some trading blotters somewhere, can't remember where now ) They may have a new trick though, lagging prices, needless to say I was long (Oanda on the left, CMC in the middle, and MT4 on the right). I was left in a trade with Oanda whereas I was already out with profit on CMC. This happens way to often lately, it's not good for a short-term trader, in effect it made the spread 5 pips which isn't competitive and is more than double the advertised 2 pip come-on-in sales pitch.
Cabletrader, i think (i don't really know), that the oanda price feed is the correct one, and the others seem to deviate... You trade forex with CMC???, that's interesting.