Does Anyone Do FOREX Trading?

ROMOSAPIEN9

ROMOSAPIEN9

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Hey all,


Since I have been out of work (for health reasons) for the past 6 years, and have had a great deal of time on my hands, I decided that I needed to find something that I can do from home on my computer to help with our family income. I started out with the usual, taking surveys and all that type of stuff. Well, needless to say that wasn't very lucrative and it gave me such tiredhead after only a few months.

One day when I was in the hospital for the 100th time (literally) in the past 6 years I struck up a conversation with my roommate. He just out of the blue told me that I should keep an eye on the stock of U.S. Steel. (NYSE;X) So, for whatever reason I did.

I have always been interested in the stock market, but I've never really had the funds to become a real trader. But as I got more and more interested in it, and started doing some basic research as far as what it would really cost to get involved and just what all it entails to become successful at it, I discovered the GREATNESS of the Foreign Exchange Market. Or FOREX for short. (or just FX even shorter)

The FOREX market is the most interesting and fun way of investing and making money that I never even knew existed. I just can't fully express how unbelievably FUN it is to trade world currencies. More money's are traded daily in the forex than all the regular stock markets COMBINED. As of April 2010 it was up to about $3.8 TRILLION a DAY!

It is SO easy to get started in too. After doing about 2.5 months worth of very immersive research, ( www.investopedia.com ) and attending numerous webinars, I decided that it was time for me to open up a "DEMO" account. A demo account is exactly what it states. Different websites give you anywhere from $50k to $1,000,000 to practice with and learn the ropes. So I opened 3 different demo accounts on 3 different websites and used 3 completely different strategies on each site. I really got a great crash course in FOREX trading. I really couldn't get enough. It's very exhilirating.

Still I didn't have a lot of potentially disposable income to use as risk capital to open a live account. But some of these sites let you open a "micro" account, which is exactly what I did. I started with a measily $50, and I've been depositing another $20 per paycheck since that time. Well, my measily $50 investment has turned into a meager $640 over the lifetime of the account which is now roughly 5 months old. It's not like I'm making a killing doing this. Heck, when I first started my winning positions would only net me anywhere from $.15 to $.85 cents. But it was/is the funnest $.85 cents I've ever made in my life. I'm absolutely ADDICTED.

Plus, and unlike the regular stock market(s), the FOREX market is open 24 hours a day from 5pm eastern time on Sunday, to 5pm Eastern time on Friday's. So one can decide to trade any time day or night. Like say after the kids have gone to bed, after work, or just any time one wants to. It's so much more convenient than the regular stock markets.

There are no commisions on the trades either. You don't even need a broker, you can open and close your own positions from your computer or smartphone. The websites that provide the trading platforms make their money based on the bid/ask price spreads. Also, they allow you to use a lot of leverage. Up to 200:1. When I first opened my $50 live account, I was trading with up to $1000 of leverage, and they won't let you lose more money than is in your account. So you can't screw up and accidently leverage your house. There's also no such thing as "insider trading" in FOREX. If you have some sort of insider knowledge about a particular currency that allows you to have a leg up on the market and make a killing, then as long as you use proper strategy, you can go ahead and make that killing and walk away with absolute impunity.

So I was wondering if there might be anyone else here in COWBOYSZONE that likes to trade FOREX, or the regular stock market. I sure would like to have a conversation with someone about it.

Also, if anyone has any questions for me about it I'd be happy to try and answer and/or help with whatever I could. I mean in terms of how to get started and where to go to get started. I still have SO MUCH to learn myself, but it seems like every day I find a new trick, or a new strategy element to help me and make it more fun and exciting. One thing I keep reading and hearing is that as long as you don't trade with emotions, learn to take some small losses and walk away, and to not get greedy, you can be very successful. It has worked for me thusfar.

As stated before, I didn't have a lot of risk capital to get started with, but I've already made a significant profit by %, and we should get the usual $7000ish income tax return. I certainly plan to put at least $2000 more in my account and start seeing some fairly sizeable returns (and losses). Provided I stick with my current strategy and only enhance it from there as I continue to learn more and more about indicaters and get better at using and deciphering charts more in depth........I don't know, but the sky seems to be the limit.

Hope to hear from some of ya'll. :money:
 
I'm glad you're having so much success.

We had three guys at work that were in it for a while but they all eventually gave up since they didn't have time to monitor the markets.
 
chip_gilkey;4195247 said:
Your sig is so ridiculous. But that is to be expected from you.
Click to expand...

Please don't clutter up this thread with childishness.

Personally, I have signatures turned off. Makes for a lot less crap to have to wade through.
 
I realize that the Cowboys game is still going on, but I wanted to let anyone who may be interested know that the FOREX Market is now open. It will be open from now until 5pm eastern time on Friday.

Here is a good free live forex charting website that you can use to try and get a feel for what it looks like and the kinds of charts that you will eventually want to know and understand.

www.freestockcharts.com

Don't let it intimidate you, as the more you start to lok at it and study it, the more it makes perfect sense to you.

Hope this helps. :)
 
I know someone who was pretty into this. Started using the demo accounts etc as you indicated. He was in it for a year, two or three, increasingly so. Got burned at one point I want to say around the time of the significant stock market turbulence of 2009?

But he was undaunted. Felt he learned some things through the experience and went right back in. Borrowed some additional $ via his house. That didn't go well either. Told me he was in deep but still confident. Eventually, he went through bankruptcy, lost the house etc. Don't know if he's still pursuing FOREX or not. I always got the sense that he felt despite his losses, that he would eventually get it righted and win again.

Very solid guy. High character. Not given to excess or extremes. But as you have read, some of the classic gamblers patterns were in play.

I won't judge the OP or this other person I know personally. I've never looked into FOREX. I will say the stories are strikingly similar on the front end. And so I would just say be very careful.
 
CoCo;4200126 said:
I know someone who was pretty into this. Started using the demo accounts etc as you indicated. He was in it for a year, two or three, increasingly so. Got burned at one point I want to say around the time of the significant stock market turbulence of 2009?

But he was undaunted. Felt he learned some things through the experience and went right back in. Borrowed some additional $ via his house. That didn't go well either. Told me he was in deep but still confident. Eventually, he went through bankruptcy, lost the house etc. Don't know if he's still pursuing FOREX or not. I always got the sense that he felt despite his losses, that he would eventually get it righted and win again.

Very solid guy. High character. Not given to excess or extremes. But as you have read, some of the classic gamblers patterns were in play.

I won't judge the OP or this other person I know personally. I've never looked into FOREX. I will say the stories are strikingly similar on the front end. And so I would just say be very careful.
Click to expand...


The stock market bubble that burst in 2008-2009 wouldn't have anything whatsoever to do with trading FOREX. Although they are both forms of international exchanges, the two are mutually exclusive.

To be successful in FOREX, one simply needs to develope a strategy and stick with it. As long as you don't let your emotions dictate your positions, or get greedy, you should be fine. (obviously after taking the time to learn and practice before diving in head first)

To be honest, I really thought that this thread would be more active than it is. It just shows how truly unfamiliar John Q. Public is with FOREX. Like I stated before, I have always been interested in the stock market. But I had never really heard of FOREX, and certainly had absolutely no clue just how big of a market it is. I mean, 3-4 TRILLION dollars a day traded! That's 30-40 times the amount of all the World Wide Stock Exchanges COMBINED! That's a lot of cash.

One of the amazing things about it is that you don't have to own any of the currencies to trade them. Like in the stock market you can and do own a physical stock certificate that you literally trade. In FOREX it is basically just an auction of currencies that are just floating around in cyberspace. The only currency you ever touch is when you ask your FOREX website to mail you a check and you cash it. It's crazy.

Also, with the huge amounts of $$ being exchanged, no one single person or entity can have a major impact on the market. Bill Gates and Warren Buffett themselves could go "all in" on it and it simply would not have a significant impact.


I guess I won't sit here and continue to beat everyone down with it anymore. But I highly suggest that you at least look into it just to see what you think. It seems almost too good to be true.

Here are a couple of websites to help you decide if it might be something you're smart enough to take advantage of.

www.investopedia.com

Go there and search "Forex Trading Walkthrough"

www.fxcm.com

A good site with an excellent trading platform that has massive amounts of Forex educational video's articles etc..and will let you open a demo account, and will let you open a $50 "micro" live account.

This truly is Mr. Opportunity knocking. You decide what you'd like to do with it.

Best of luck to all who've got the cojones to try. :)
 
What webinars did you watch? Do you trade multiple pairs or just one? How much time would you say you are putting into this/day? I know the basics of Fx but have always been a little leary of the time requirements, is this something that could be done for a couple hours a day,3-4 days a week?
 
utrunner07;4201015 said:
What webinars did you watch? Do you trade multiple pairs or just one? How much time would you say you are putting into this/day? I know the basics of Fx but have always been a little leary of the time requirements, is this something that could be done for a couple hours a day,3-4 days a week?
Click to expand...


The last webinar I attended yesterday (10-24) was on a site called "Market Traders Institute." It lasted an hour and a half and was VERY informative. I actually have another one scheduled for 7pm eastern tonight. It is going to be basically the same as the one yesterday, but with a different instructor. I'll probably attend it 2-3 more times as well. I DO take some notes, but I feel like it is in my best interest to attend the same ones over and over until I feel like I don't need that one anymore. They're free, so why not.

There are 4 main pairs that most everyone trades. They are as follows...

EUR/USD - The Euro VS The U.S. Dollar
GBP/USD - The British Pound VS The U.S. Dollar
USD/JPY - The U.S. Dollar VS The Japanese Yen
USD/CHF - The U.S. Dollar VS. The Swiss Franc


If you notice, the U.S. Dollar is listed in all 4 of those pairs. That's because the U.S. Dollar is by far the most traded currency in the world. It makes up about 85% of all the currencies traded world wide. But there are plenty of other currencies and they can all be traded against each other. It's just that that particular pairing won't have near as much activity as the big four so you might have trades open for a LONG time. Like weeks. So it takes a lot longer to realize your P/L, and most traders don't like to wait that long. Especially since if you have capital just sitting there for weeks in a less traded market, then that is capital that you can't use in the more traded pairs. People like to think that they can make a lot more money in active pairings then by just letting thier money sit there.

AUD - Australian Dollar
CAD - Canadian Dollar
NZD - New Zealand

Then there's Chinese, Russian, Mexico..etc...etc...


Since I don't have a job to report to, (aside from being a househusband) I am able to spend more time at it than the normal person would be. But my time standards are not required. The market isn't going anywhere, and it's not going to crash. So there is no right or wrong time to get involved. And it's open 24 hours a day, so one can do it whenever they have time. There are absolutely no time requirements at all. It's not going anywhere, so learn at your own pace, 24 hours a day.

Hope this helps. :)
 
babypips.com is also a good site. i've been working with a demo account and using my own technique using fractals, pivot points, and candlestick formation as well as past pivots and fibonacci retracement to form future supports/resistance points in the market. might go live in the near future if/when i become better acquainted to recognizing these trends in charts
 
gmoney112;4203077 said:
babypips.com is also a good site. i've been working with a demo account and using my own technique using fractals, pivot points, and candlestick formation as well as past pivots and fibonacci retracement to form future supports/resistance points in the market. might go live in the near future if/when i become better acquainted to recognizing these trends in charts
Click to expand...

You're further along than I am. I'm just now starting to use Bollinger Bands and MACD charts. Learning pivot points. I'm only recently working on the ins and outs of the fibonacci retracement lines and haven't gotten to fractals. I'm starting to think that my early modest success is for the same reason that Clint Longley had his success that thanksgiving day in 1974. "The triumph of the uncluttered mind."

Although I agree that one should use a practice account until you know a lot about what it is you're trying to do, and have developed some sort of a strategy. I really feel like I've learned somewhat faster since I've opened a "LIVE" account. Even though it's only a "micro" $50 account where my pips only earn me $.25 cents each, I've discovered that just the fact of it being real money has accelerated my learning curve.

Instead of just throwing positions up against the wall and seeing how they turn out, it forces you to really consider what it is you're doing and why.

When I was doing just practice accounts, I would open upwards of 10 positions a day. But now that it's real money, and despite the fact that it is such small amounts, I'd say that I probably average only 1 position a day, and it takes me 5 times as long to decide on one than it did with the "monopoly" money.

Of course, I realize that everyone is different and what works for me may not necessarily work best for others.

I am glad however to see someone else in here is actually doing it.
 
I just found a site that you would probably want to take advantage of. You can upload your FOREX account details and it/they will help you manage your account for free. They don't actually MANAGE your account. Its more like advice and do's and dont's. It's really VERY helpful. Especially for us beginners.

www.myfxbook.com

Hope this helps.
 
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