Winning percentage is not the key statistic to be concerned with IMO. The most important statistic is your average win vs your average loss. Ideally, you would want your average win to be substantially greater than your average loss by a factor of 2 ...

What is a 'Good' percentage for winning trades?

lol.....we will have to disagree on that point CindyXXXX....I do respect your opinion though. In my years of trading I have found repeatable patterns that make hundreds of pips for me over and over. The patterns are unorthodox and you will not find ...

Why are most retail traders usually on the wrong side of the market?

Pattern recognition is not technical analysis in my opinion. Technical analysis IMO is when a trader uses some tool that is a derivative of price to make a trading decision such as MACD or RSI. A chartist is focused on price action when it comes to ...

Why are most retail traders usually on the wrong side of the market?

I truly believe that the talent comes in when you talk about pattern recognition, for instance. There are some people who are just plain better at it than others. Some traders can spot certain reversal patterns effortlessly, while others struggle ...

Why are most retail traders usually on the wrong side of the market?

I believe the cartoon points to the notion that to a large extent you have to have some degree of talent to play the markets. You can't BS your way thru trading, you can't brown nose your way to success like you might on a job. If you suck at ...

Why are most retail traders usually on the wrong side of the market?

Yes, the spreads were outrageously wide back then.....which is why I laugh when folks complain about a 1.2 pip spread vs a 1.7 pip spread.....it is totally funny to me. Folks, you have it made nowadays!!!

Why are most retail traders usually on the wrong side of the market?

You are quite correct.....that is what I meant. The FX market was once only relegated to the big players (banks,institutions,big players). How many of us had online direct access to the OTC FX market 10 years ago? Now, everybody knows foreign ...

Why are most retail traders usually on the wrong side of the market?

I think this thread topic should be refined to say "Why are most inexperienced retail traders on the wrong side of the market?" The fact that the OTC FX market is relatively new compared to other markets; there has been a tremendous influx of new ...

Why are most retail traders usually on the wrong side of the market?

The notion of doubling your demo account twice is intended to place a high bar on your new trading methodology. Also, it is intended to be a type of speed bump and allow you a sufficient amount of time to thouroughly verify your methodology in a ...

Your definition of Consistently Profitable?

Thanks for this much needed thread!!! I have placed it in my favorite bookmarks.

Cornholio's Reading Suggestions

Percent profitability doesn't really mean anything when evaluating a new trading system in a demo account. You can be right 99 out of 100 times and still be an overall loser. My definition, as I mentioned in a previous post..., of profitability, is ...

Your definition of Consistently Profitable?

I think that is a fantastic strategy/approach to learning FX. Keep up the good work!!

Your definition of Consistently Profitable?

You should demo as long as possible and while in the demo set up a predefined stop that will label that trade a failure. If it's 40 pips, 50 pips or whatever. If it turns around at 41 pips, it should still be labeled as a failure. The next step is ...

Your definition of Consistently Profitable?

I believe another reason why so many FX traders are on the wrong side is because they take for granted how devastating it can be to go against the trend. A lot of traders come from the world of equities where you might be able to get away with ...

Why are most retail traders usually on the wrong side of the market?

There is no doubt that Mr Alaidi is probably well paid for what he does. His job is to inform the general public about the "goings on" in the FX market. Now, do I take his advice as a trader.....HELL TO THE NO!!!! He is not a trader, he doesn't ...

Ashraf Laidi "calls"

It sounds like an interesting experiment, but you can't trade by isolating the MAs by themselves. You can get wild 80 pip swings when a pair is about to experience a MA cross and when the MAs do cross....the trade is over. If trading was as simple ...

Which Moving Average do you prefer?

Basically, if you are starting out day one as a trader, the goal is to stay away from live market action as long as possible so that you can learn as many lessons as possible w/o paying for them. I didn't start trading live until I was able to ...

Your definition of Consistently Profitable?

Should be interesting!

Price failure trading

I'd have to disagree with you on this one Hendrix . The financial markets are the last bastion of capitalism for the average joe. Keep plugging away @ FX.....there is a definite rhythm and rhyme to it, you just have to keep searching. I don't like ...

Is our future as traders threatened?

Worse case scenario is that the OTC version of Forex will go away and the futures version will survive. I dunno.

Is our future as traders threatened?