Is anyone making money trading forex?

[J327]

OK, perhaps, a direct link to FXCM will satisfy your silly question.

http://www.fxcm.com/contest-winners.jsp

The top trader made about $38K last month, starting with $5K. Is this outrageously incredible return? Yes, definitely. This is real statement verified by the broker.

So do you need any more proof that people are actually make money in forex??? If you do, just click on the other 4 people who also placed in the contest.

But what you won't see is the hundreds or thousands of people in the red ink paying out to these few winning individuals. Trading is the toughest way to make money. And if you need a carrot on the stick, it is not going to get easier.

[throw]

Thanks everyone for the great responses. You truly stepped up!

[Rufanuf]

Originally Posted by chinaforex888

Throw,

I trade successfully! I now do this as a career and had too many people wanting me to trade for them. So many that I couldn't manage it all myself. So I have recruited and continuously recruit that 1-2% of extremely successful traders to assist me in managing my client's money. I have money managers that make 11% per month for my conservative clients and I have other managers that make 100% per month consistently.
.

Chinaforex,

How long have you been making these kind of returns? All my education to date suggests that if people are hitting 100% per month they are using too much leverage and its only a matter of time before you crash. My personal target is between 6% to 15% a month, and at present I consider that a tough call. I often make this kind of money for may be 3 months in a row, bu then will lose say 20% to 30% in month. If you can show me a system that is 90% accurate, I'll buy all the tea in China!

Ruf

[Mark66]

I noticed that most of the winners of the contest is from china, I wonder why chinese traders are very successful?

[Rufanuf]

Originally Posted by Mark66

I noticed that most of the winners of the contest is from china, I wonder why chinese traders are very successful?

Mark66,

Interesting observation that. Do you have any theories? I do!LOL I've spent sometime in Asia, and the first thing you will find is that most Asians have different core values. Better ones than westerners! I mean they are not so emotionally attached to money.

I think you would find if you looked into these winners a lot would be if not "one offs" short term success stories that have found a system using massive leverage that may work for a while, but that is ultimately flawed and will crash. We all know its entirely possible to get 100% returns in a few hours if we take big risks with our account, we also know that if we could recreate that repeatedly the challenge of becoming a succesful trader wouldn't exist and niether then would this forum.

Give me my 6% to 15% average per month and I will be an extremely happy trader, not a gambler.

Ruf

[Summerset]

Originally Posted by chinaforex888

Throw,

I also privately educate people on how to trade and am involved in several trading groups that meet weekly. At these groups there are sometimes 30-40 people at a meeting. I can teach a highly successful trading strategy (90% accuracy) but that only offers 10-15 opportunities per month and people are not interested! They want to be more active in their trading. Although 10 opportunities per month with 80-90% accuracy, if you double, triple... your lots that means very good money. But do you know what, people still resist. The following week I can ask how people did and most of the people that are implementing it have modified it to some degree. The question is why alter something that is so accurate? Because everyone wants to do it their way!

Are any of yr groups available to join over the internet ?

[pipscooper]

Originally Posted by Rufanuf

Chinaforex,

How long have you been making these kind of returns? All my education to date suggests that if people are hitting 100% per month they are using too much leverage and its only a matter of time before you crash. My personal target is between 6% to 15% a month, and at present I consider that a tough call. I often make this kind of money for may be 3 months in a row, bu then will lose say 20% to 30% in month. If you can show me a system that is 90% accurate, I'll buy all the tea in China!

Ruf

More important than the goal is the system's drawdown in determining how much leverage one can and should use. For example a system with a typical max drawdown of 40 pips can use quite an aggressive amount of leverage, and still maintain a relatively small absolute dollar drawdown. Someone with a 200 pip max drawdown who trades at the same leverage as someone with a system with a 40 pip max drawdown will experience 5 times the dollar drawdown in his account. So for such a system the leverage needs to be dialed down significantly.

I think traders need to determine how much of a dollar percent drawdown they are willing to accept in their accounts. Let's say you have $10,000 and determine that you want to endure no more than a 10% drawdown in your account. You are trading a system with a max estimated drawdown of 125 pips on EUR/USD. If you maximized your leverage, how many units could you trade? The answer is 80,000 units or 8 mini lots.

($10,000 account balance * 10% desired drawdown) / .0125 (max pip drawdown)

[chinaforex888]

In the trading contests you will see many traders that are asian. However have you ever seen an asian brokerage? They have rows of benches, because their clients will come and sit all day just watching the changes in price. As a cultural they have it installed to take advantage of any small movements. That is also the same mindset of why so much manufacturing is conducted in this part of the world. Make something, then sell large quantities for small profit margins resulting in a good chunck of change.

Be careful of the contest winning records!! I work with and continually recruit the top 1-2% of Forex traders from around the world. But not many of them have ever won the trading contests. They are just consistent at what they do. If you have ever had access to the winners of those contests you will learn that they usually win one, then loose their entire account, including the contest prize money within 2-3 months. NO JOKE! If you are getting involved in Forex to make 300%+ per month, get out NOW while you still have money! My money managers typically utilize 15:1 0r 20:1 leverage to obtain their trading results. You can be conservative and still come out ahead!

I have a 23 year old client that opened up his account last week for $15k. We began trading it last Wednesday (1 week ago) and have only made 8 trade for a total of $1,690 profit. That is about 2-3% profit per day. Is that high risk or over leveraged? NO, each trade has only been 1 standard lot. Because of our consistent trading style and fine tuned risk management, he is making more money in Forex than most of his peers at a full-time job.

Do you need to leverage your account and load tons of lots to make money? NO! Just make very consistent conservative trades - learn to Cherry pick your trades instead of forcing a trade. The above account has not had more than 2 trades made in a single day. Find the right opportunity and take it! Someone mentioned that they made some good money for a few months and then lost 30% in one month. I would ask that type of a trader, WHAT CHANGED? It will usually come down to either they over extended themselves in trades they thought were winners and lost or that they followed their gut, thinking they became a master over the last few months of trading so they didn't need to look at all the signs to confirm their gut feeling.

Several of you said that you would be happy with 15% per month. What does that mean per day? I have soem good friends that trade the stock markets in China that quit working when they were 22-25 years old because they had figured this out. They realized that if they went to work they would make 2,000 - 4,000 RMB or $250 - $500 USD per month. They had about $10,000 USD in the bank and put it to better use. They began buying and selling chinese stocks to make 0.2% profit per day. They knew when the month was up they could withdraw their profits from a few hours of trading per day and draw the same salary as they would working a full-time job. Guess what they also saved money on buying work clothes, transporation costs and eating out for lunch. So their salary went up and their actual expenses went down. So how can you do the same? I know exactly how many pips I need per day to meet my monthly profit goals. Do you? If not, you will only see disappointment.