Question: Is anyone consistently profitable here ?

[Adam71]

Hello,

well, my first message may sound quite direct (or scary ?) but before sending posts, comments and other type of material, I would like to know if any member of the community is a consistently profitable FX trader ?  I do promise not to track anyone with any further mail and questions. Just would like to know if any of you belong to the 10% (or 25%) who actually make it. 

I´ve been trading for 14 months...Still trying to find the trading system who eventually will lead me to FREEDOM.  This is an amazing quest !!

Thank in advance for the answers

 

[dmedin]

'Consistently profitable' FX traders seem to be few and far between.  Most people who claim to be such are actually trying to sell you stuff.  Maybe such people do exist but they are very discreet about it.

[Caseynotes]

12 hours ago, Adam71 said:

Hello,

well, my first message may sound quite direct (or scary ?) but before sending posts, comments and other type of material, I would like to know if any member of the community is a consistently profitable FX trader ?  I do promise not to track anyone with any further mail and questions. Just would like to know if any of you belong to the 10% (or 25%) who actually make it. 

I´ve been trading for 14 months...Still trying to find the trading system who eventually will lead me to FREEDOM.  This is an amazing quest !!

Thank in advance for the answers

 

Hi, there are certainly traders on here who are clearly full time and have been posting on the forum for years. Finding consistency, there's the thing, especially with constantly changing market cycles and can take years.

With regards finding a trading system your best bet is to build your own that suites your situation and personality. You have already seen the 'Trade Planning and Testing' thread so start at the beginning and it should help you decide what you want to do and show how to set about building a system that is right for you.

[Caseynotes]

11 minutes ago, TrendFollower said:

I don't trade FX so I am not one of them.

However, I personally feel that if there was anyone who was constantly profitable trading FX then they would not be spending their time posting on here. They would just be getting on with trading and consistently making profits

Ha Ha all you FX traders on the forum,  @TrendFollower here is calling you out as a pack of deceitful liars.

Obviously he feels that successful FX trading is either so exhausting you couldn't possibly find the time to post on forums or that you should be so smug you wouldn't dream of ever doing so in the first place.

Delicious, can't wait for the responses.

[Adam71]

Hi All,

thanks for the replies to my very first post. Yes for sure consistency is quite relative if you consider the time frame, and the markets cycles. You cannot be profitable every months...To be honest I was also wondering whether the profitable few would spend  sometime time in posting. Not because they may be arrogant but, like the athletes at high level, our activity is quite one single person business, being fully focused and filtering the outer and inner noises.

I personally need some interactions with other traders now, after 14 months of isolation. Thank you again for welcoming me within the IG community. Have fun...

[Exodus]

1 hour ago, Adam71 said:

Hi All,

thanks for the replies to my very first post. Yes for sure consistency is quite relative if you consider the time frame, and the markets cycles. You cannot be profitable every months...To be honest I was also wondering whether the profitable few would spend  sometime time in posting. Not because they may be arrogant but, like the athletes at high level, our activity is quite one single person business, being fully focused and filtering the outer and inner noises.

I personally need some interactions with other traders now, after 14 months of isolation. Thank you again for welcoming me within the IG community. Have fun...

Hi, I have been an IG client for about 18 months and just created this profile so that I can answer you.

To other readers, please don't log-jam my messaging inbox. I may not even look at it.

First, @TrendFollower, you are right about successful traders not posting much on forums. Here are the main reasons why they don't. In my opinion of course...  a) if you have a working system then you will not want the forum scavengers from banks and trading desks pirating your hard work because they will automate it and then your system will probably stop working. b) most people posting in forums are looking for answers, the rest have a gap in their life and may be feeding their egos. Once you have answers you may not stay on any forum.

There is another unfortunate cause behind successful traders withdrawing from a forum ... nobody believes them. I have seen a couple who have tried to help new traders by attempting to open their minds to the realities of the market. They have been castigated by trolls and failed-players who are convinced that there is no success available.

@Adam71, trading FX requires a great deal of learning. It took me about 10 years to become both proficient and resilient with investing in stocks. There are some lessons that can only be learned the hard way. My investments are now my bread and butter. I have been living off them for 6 or 7 years.

I started trading FX because I learned some of the lessons with investing, a significant lesson being that 'investing' relies on a buoyant market. When the market starts going down (2 straight years after the dotcom bust) you are going to find it very difficult to make money as an investor. I have 'survived' the dotcom bust, the 2008 great recession (aka the banking crisis), and I am now looking over my shoulder because the current bull-run is ten years old and a massive correction is well overdue. Plus some of the weasley practices around in 2006/7 are beginning to appear in some financial products. So FX does not care which way the market is going, who is thriving nor who is going bust. All you need as a traders is to be able to make sense of the various currency movements.

It has taken me another ten years to become profitable on FX to the point where I no longer wonder if I am doing it right. However I still consider myself a fledgling in some respects. What has been my biggest handicap? My investing experience ... the FX market does not move in the same way as the stock market but the stock market does sometimes present the same chart patterns which technical analysis recognises in FX.

You need to learn how the market behaves before you can develop a trading strategy. I suggest you visit BabyPips (dot com) and check out their free course "How to Trade Forex". I apologise in advance for the journalistic style therein which is somewhat reminiscent of Motley Fool, however just grin and bear it and it will take you a few weeks to complete. Then start watching the market. One of the great things about having an IG account is that you have unlimited 'demo' trading and can practise without perpetual hassling from salesmen wanting you to deposit funds.

I will try to come back here and answer any points that may arise, but don't hold your breath. When I started FX trading there were quite a few people in the FX boards who said similar things about how long it would take to become proficient. I didn't believe them because I suffered the worst possible event ... early success. So there you have it, this is a long and sometimes hard road. If you don't have stamina and persistence you will not make it. Stick to one currency pair until you have become comfortable with that pair, the next pair will not react in the same way.

There are probably no systems worth buying, why would anybody sell such a system? If it is profitable all it takes is an initial stake and some time. Similarly with trading signals, although signals could be thought of an extra pair of eyes. However when you are starting you are looking at one pair only, you need no other 'eyes'.

I trade two pairs. Good luck.

[dmedin]

5 hours ago, Adam71 said:

I personally need some interactions with other traders now, after 14 months of isolation

I was about ready to hang myself after less than 12 months.

[dmedin]

I saw on Babypips.com some people reviewing their trades this year.  (The free course there is absolutely excellent!)  Some of them were talking about a 5% return on their trades in a year, but judging from the comments a lot of people struggled to even break even which is a horrible position to be in after devoting one year of your life to something (would you work a job that paid you nothing for an entire year?) Consider this.  If you'd bought into an S&P 500 ETF at the start of January 2019 you'd now have made a 35% gain, all from doing absolutely nothing.  The question is, could you beat that by day trading?  

Edited January 3, 2020 by dmedin

[Caseynotes]

Funny, I've spoken to dozens of professional traders in forums over the years, I know they are full time trading because we chat throughout the day discussing markets and trades. They tell me that there are full time traders on forums, in spite of what trendfollower might say 🙄.

Trendfollower doesn't expect many traders to step forward and divulge their trading stats and he should know because he's tried to get them to do the same for a couple of years now in a desperate attempt to get someone to show him how to trade. Note he has never once offered up his own running trading stats at any time.

 

   

 

[Adam71]

Hi All,

As the temperature of the discussions have raised (see above) and I am the one who started with that Hot topic, I will put myself forward then...I have been starting a new strategy that brought so far, win rate: 86% (19 winners on 22 opened positions), win ratio: 0,75. Risk ratio: 0,4R....All bringing  an Edge of 1,5 that IG calls Return ratio with Return Ratio = Edge-1.

My Risk ratio is quite problematic. So when the market became unfavorable, the 3 losses in a row crushed a big chunk of the gains. It became so scary that I significantly reduced the size of my positions for the next winners. Please also note I could not understand that my system was not fitting anymore at that time until I compared the charts linked with the loosers vs the charts linked with the winners. But at least I could finally see what people meant with "market cycle"...

I am glad for having reached that point, after 400 positions of pure disaster. After having climbed this mountain, I see already other mountains coming....So I decided to get out of my isolation and to start sharing comments.

Now: I obviously cannot conclude of any consistency out of 22 positions only, plus the market does not offer the expected signals everyday. Though not opening a position is already having a position, I am also struggling with the pure respect my strategy. That comes from the Greed. It is an hard fight for me. So I opened other positions ...They bought 10% of win rate.

If that strategy still works after 50, 100 positions opened with the full respect of the parameters and signals I will let you know. I will obviously not share it in details (it was not the aim of my first question anyway). I also do not expect any successful fisherman to tell me where he actually fishes...And I do not fish anyway

I wish you all a profitable trading year...Have fun

[Caseynotes]

33 minutes ago, Adam71 said:

Hi All,

As the temperature of the discussions have raised (see above) and I am the one who started with that Hot topic, I will put myself forward then...I have been starting a new strategy that brought so far, win rate: 86% (19 winners on 22 opened positions), win ratio: 0,75. Risk ratio: 0,4R....All bringing  an Edge of 1,5 that IG calls Return ratio with Return Ratio = Edge-1.

My Risk ratio is quite problematic. So when the market became unfavorable, the 3 losses in a row crushed a big chunk of the gains. It became so scary that I significantly reduced the size of my positions for the next winners. Please also note I could not understand that my system was not fitting anymore at that time until I compared the charts linked with the loosers vs the charts linked with the winners. But at least I could finally see what people meant with "market cycle"...

I am glad for having reached that point, after 400 positions of pure disaster. After having climbed this mountain, I see already other mountains coming....So I decided to get out of my isolation and to start sharing comments.

Now: I obviously cannot conclude of any consistency out of 22 positions only, plus the market does not offer the expected signals everyday. Though not opening a position is already having a position, I am also struggling with the pure respect my strategy. That comes from the Greed. It is an hard fight for me. So I opened other positions ...They bought 10% of win rate.

If that strategy still works after 50, 100 positions opened with the full respect of the parameters and signals I will let you know. I will obviously not share it in details (it was not the aim of my first question anyway). I also do not expect any successful fisherman to tell me where he actually fishes...And I do not fish anyway

I wish you all a profitable trading year...Have fun

Interesting stuff and thanks for sharing. I did think it was important and pertinent to the thread to dispel the erroneous assertion that full-time traders did not use forums as was suggested by another poster. 

[SPITFIRE898]

 Early days but going well so far.

[Caseynotes]

Trendfollower says;

'i never said full time traders don't use forums I said traders who are consistently profitable don't use forums' 

er, how can someone trade full time for years on end and not be profitable? once again you are hiding behind semantics to pretend you are not taking a pop at others on the forum when you obviously are.

I don't need to publish my stats, I'm on this forum (and others) all day every day and have been since early 2016 when it started, that should tell you all you need to know. Why should anyone come forward when they know they are just going to be trolled and goaded into 'telling all' (with documented proof) by people like trendfollower who, as I mentioned earlier, has been down this path many times in the past. It just smacks of desperation, there is no holy grail that can be packaged and handed over, it is, in fact, a personal development process that can't really be taught, the skills are not really transferable.

As the OP said, they are not looking for anyone to 'reveal all' but trendfollower is and has been for years, so clearly it is he who is actually trying to subvert the thread.

I hope for once he doesn't escalate this side track and go all unprofessional again 😢

anyway i can't sit round here all day setting you jokers right, i've got questions from real traders on other forums to answer, toodle pip.

 

[Exodus]

Dear moderators, Happy New Year

...please approve my post (a way) above. Thanks

[Guest backwardation]

Let me chime in and add more pepper to this discussion.  I'm consistently profitable (on a weekly basis) and I have some incredible wins. I use a very 'bold' system that breaks every single risk management rule out there.  I use guaranteed stops to gain insane leverage in specific times I deem right.  I keep my accounts small because of constant blow ups.  Here's is what I did in a few hours on Friday using guaranteed stops on an account that had about $1,200 in it: 

I’m not stating this to show off (well maybe a little).  Took many hard years to get to this level, and its still not even a little easy.  There are many ways play this game, don't let the gurus and trade books shackle your imagination.  My mentor was a bold pit trader who told me about a saying crude traders have:  You can be a bold trader or an old trader (meaning you can grow old trading and making bits every day, or you can be bold and retire early).   I spend little time in forums because I don't like them, but I'm constantly on twitter and discord.  So yes, profitable traders do use forums and social media on a regular basis.  I'd say probably more so than most, but they have their circle of traders.

[Adam71]

On 03/01/2020 at 17:23, Exodus said:

Hi, I have been an IG client for about 18 months and just created this profile so that I can answer you.

To other readers, please don't log-jam my messaging inbox. I may not even look at it.

First, @TrendFollower, you are right about successful traders not posting much on forums. Here are the main reasons why they don't. In my opinion of course...  a) if you have a working system then you will not want the forum scavengers from banks and trading desks pirating your hard work because they will automate it and then your system will probably stop working. b) most people posting in forums are looking for answers, the rest have a gap in their life and may be feeding their egos. Once you have answers you may not stay on any forum.

There is another unfortunate cause behind successful traders withdrawing from a forum ... nobody believes them. I have seen a couple who have tried to help new traders by attempting to open their minds to the realities of the market. They have been castigated by trolls and failed-players who are convinced that there is no success available.

@Adam71, trading FX requires a great deal of learning. It took me about 10 years to become both proficient and resilient with investing in stocks. There are some lessons that can only be learned the hard way. My investments are now my bread and butter. I have been living off them for 6 or 7 years.

I started trading FX because I learned some of the lessons with investing, a significant lesson being that 'investing' relies on a buoyant market. When the market starts going down (2 straight years after the dotcom bust) you are going to find it very difficult to make money as an investor. I have 'survived' the dotcom bust, the 2008 great recession (aka the banking crisis), and I am now looking over my shoulder because the current bull-run is ten years old and a massive correction is well overdue. Plus some of the weasley practices around in 2006/7 are beginning to appear in some financial products. So FX does not care which way the market is going, who is thriving nor who is going bust. All you need as a traders is to be able to make sense of the various currency movements.

It has taken me another ten years to become profitable on FX to the point where I no longer wonder if I am doing it right. However I still consider myself a fledgling in some respects. What has been my biggest handicap? My investing experience ... the FX market does not move in the same way as the stock market but the stock market does sometimes present the same chart patterns which technical analysis recognises in FX.

You need to learn how the market behaves before you can develop a trading strategy. I suggest you visit BabyPips (dot com) and check out their free course "How to Trade Forex". I apologise in advance for the journalistic style therein which is somewhat reminiscent of Motley Fool, however just grin and bear it and it will take you a few weeks to complete. Then start watching the market. One of the great things about having an IG account is that you have unlimited 'demo' trading and can practise without perpetual hassling from salesmen wanting you to deposit funds.

I will try to come back here and answer any points that may arise, but don't hold your breath. When I started FX trading there were quite a few people in the FX boards who said similar things about how long it would take to become proficient. I didn't believe them because I suffered the worst possible event ... early success. So there you have it, this is a long and sometimes hard road. If you don't have stamina and persistence you will not make it. Stick to one currency pair until you have become comfortable with that pair, the next pair will not react in the same way.

There are probably no systems worth buying, why would anybody sell such a system? If it is profitable all it takes is an initial stake and some time. Similarly with trading signals, although signals could be thought of an extra pair of eyes. However when you are starting you are looking at one pair only, you need no other 'eyes'.

I trade two pairs. Good luck.

Thank you very much for that instructive reply

Yes I trade 1 unique pair and I have been observing its markets for 1 year now. No use of any indicators which were too noisy for me, just watching the market at different time frames in order to understand how the 2-poles crowd is moving. I also think in finding a second pair, maybe next year to balance the days the first one is not workable for me.

Thank you again

[dmedin]

On 03/01/2020 at 20:46, Caseynotes said:

They tell me that there are full time traders on forums,

Of course there are ... the professional traders used forums and chat rooms to orchestrate the high-profile market-rigging scandals.

They weren't punters trading at home though.  Of course, the vast majority of traders who are making a living from trading aren't either.  The vast, vast majority of them are either losing or not making anywhere near enough to live on.

Edited January 5, 2020 by dmedin

[Kodiak]

11 hours ago, backwardation said:

Let me chime in and add more pepper to this discussion.  I'm consistently profitable (on a weekly basis) and I have some incredible wins. I use a very 'bold' system that breaks every single risk management rule out there.  I use guaranteed stops to gain insane leverage in specific times I deem right.  I keep my accounts small because of constant blow ups.  Here's is what I did in a few hours on Friday using guaranteed stops on an account that had about $1,200 in it: 

I’m not stating this to show off (well maybe a little).  Took many hard years to get to this level, and its still not even a little easy.  There are many ways play this game, don't let the gurus and trade books shackle your imagination.  My mentor was a bold pit trader who told me about a saying crude traders have:  You can be a bold trader or an old trader (meaning you can grow old trading and making bits every day, or you can be bold and retire early).   I spend little time in forums because I don't like them, but I'm constantly on twitter and discord.  So yes, profitable traders do use forums and social media on a regular basis.  I'd say probably more so than most, but they have their circle of traders.

"  You can be a bold trader or an old trader (meaning you can grow old trading and making bits every day, or you can be bold and retire early)."

I always thought bold trader meant someone that blow the account and stop trading😉

But could be the other way?

More like Jesse Livermore  in hes early years 😎

 

[Caseynotes]

11 hours ago, backwardation said:

Let me chime in and add more pepper to this discussion.  I'm consistently profitable (on a weekly basis) and I have some incredible wins.

Ha ha, brilliant, well done. You've spoken before about your trading style, a bit too risky for me but great to see it working well for you.

Nice touch to the additional to the old saying as @Kodiak points out.

'there are old traders and bold traders but there aren't any old and bold traders', the additional being, because the bold ones got rich and retired early 🥳

As @dmedin points out the vast majority of noobs just don't make it on their first go, they vastly under estimate the time it takes to learn and so always run out of resources before they get there. As I said earlier this stuff can't be taught in a university, it's a development process that takes time (and therefore money) and most are forced to drop out before they start seeing results but that's one of the lessons and many come back better prepare the next time.

[Adam71]

On 04/01/2020 at 13:19, SPITFIRE898 said:

 Early days but going well so far.

VERY VERY nice. The high disbalance on Avg hold time between losers and winners is interesting.

Ah, ah : You, Exodus and Backwardation are not posting so much but all of you saw my thread and took the time to answer... . So consistent profitable traders (FX?) are somehow here and can bring reliable comments if necessary. That is what I wanted to check.

Thank you very much for sharing

[dmedin]

9 hours ago, Kodiak said:

(meaning you can grow old trading and making bits every day, or you can be bold and retire early)

LOLOLOL

You can be a wage slave (like everyone else) and retire when the best years of your life are behind you or you can buy a lottery ticket and go out in style on hookers and champagne 🥳

Edited January 5, 2020 by dmedin

[dmedin]

Did any active traders beat the 35% returns all the passive investors made on their U.S. tracker funds this year  

[Kodiak]

On 05/01/2020 at 19:24, dmedin said:

Did any active traders beat the 35% returns all the passive investors made on their U.S. tracker funds this year  

If you pay tax in Germany this year could be a tough one😱

https://www.elitetrader.com/et/threads/german-derivatives-traders-shocked-by-new-tax-law.339638/

[dmedin]

8 minutes ago, Kodiak said:

If you pay tax in Germany this year could be a tough one😱

https://www.elitetrader.com/et/threads/german-derivatives-traders-shocked-by-new-tax-law.339638/

Uh ... 

 

That's horrible. Why?

 

Edit: having a read through the rest of the thread

Edited January 19, 2020 by dmedin

[dmedin]

Sounds like the big corporates are covering their asses and lobbying for more rules that limit competition and participation by the 'little people'.  Some people blame socialism but if it is, it's socialism of the rich because the state is totally in the hands of the billionaires and the big banks.

[Kodiak]

23 minutes ago, dmedin said:

Uh ... 

 

That's horrible. Why?

 

Edit: having a read through the rest of the thread

I saw this and not sure what it is? (if its true?)

I dont pay tax in Germany but afraid it could spread all over Europe like the plague?

Maybe we could get some info from IG about this?

Edited January 19, 2020 by Kodiak

[dmedin]

5 minutes ago, Kodiak said:

I dont pay tax in Germany but afraid it could spread all over Europe like the plague?

It will ... anything that starts in Germany will be imposed on the rest of Europe

[dmedin]

Of course, now that Britain is out of the EU, there is nobody to really stand up to Germany and France so they have a totally free reign to do whatever they want.  That's progress

 

[dmedin]

On 05/01/2020 at 17:31, Adam71 said:

VERY VERY nice. The high disbalance on Avg hold time between losers and winners is interesting.

Ah, ah : You, Exodus and Backwardation are not posting so much but all of you saw my thread and took the time to answer... . So consistent profitable traders (FX?) are somehow here and can bring reliable comments if necessary. That is what I wanted to check.

Thank you very much for sharing

 

You might just be a disciplined trader.  I have overtraded to an extreme degree, but comparison to your 70 odd trades.  (I've done a couple thousand by comparison, hence why IG tolerates me on here haha :P)