I have traded for aprox a yr now and have suffered losses. I am disciplined and patient when i trade. I have experienced trades closing out on me for no reason ( I had enough margin to cover me). Spreads that differed even on a non news day. The experience that i have had with a certain forex broker was not forthcoming. I def. think the house has a edge on the retail trader. I am not disgruntled or mad, i just think that is the way it is. Unless you trade the actual forex market you will lose. I was reading an article in futures today explaining that the forex is largely unregulated. Of course most of the brokers are NFA and CFTC associated but it does not mean the brokers are on the up and up. I choose to trade other markets where the edge is more in my favor. What are other peoples thoughts?

I have been in it roughly about the same amount of time as Rich, I have lost and won etc, I find what works for me is long term price action (ala James16), I look at the charts once a day, it's less mentally toxic this way. Anything lower that daily on the majors is just chaos. I'll say it again at the risk of being slammed, indicator systems just don't work, end of story. As for Rich's mental slump, I'll not to sure what to say, I can relate to what he is saying I had a pretty terrible year personally last year and at certain points really had to push myself to carry on, but you just have to work though it, this is easy to say, not easy to do.

For me forex is no childs play. It took 1 year just to learn what forex really is. Once i know the beast I learn to avoid blocking its way. For those of you who traded for 1 year and hope for profit then its a loss hope. A good trader is someone who is very discipline. If you are on the winning side of the trade there is nothing the broker can do to u. They can hold the price but eventually they have to give u your winning post. Ive passed my 1 year mark and now using a system that is very sensitive. So far my trades are good. Hopefully the system can give me good signal all my life

You must change your mental attitude first from a normal person to that of a speculator. Almost all traders I have met, except a few successful ones who really made millions and billions trading in the market, simply waste all their time trying to learn the easiest part in perfection, like about how to read data and charts, and trying to perfect entry and exit skills, etc. Trading is a mind game and without having a right frame of mind, it is a losing game even before it starts. Training a trader�s mind is the first step for any successful trader but almost all new traders neglect that part and that explains why more than 95% of traders are a failure in the long run.

Acquiring the knowledge of the market is not difficult for anyone with average intelligence after a few years of hard study in the market. But it is neither the level of intelligence nor the knowledge that decides the outcome of the market operations of a trader. It is the decision making process that is so hard for most traders to overcome and that is the main reason for a success or a failure for all the traders. Some find it easy to make decisions and stick to it and most find it so hard to make decisions and stick to it. Unfortunately, any decision making process in trading is a pain-taking process and humans tend to avoid pains and go for pleasures even if for temporary ones. Assuming one has acquired enough market knowledge and acquired one�s proven trading system (this is the second most important element of success in trading, in fact. An edge in any system is based on the quality of info one has, charts being only an info of secondary quality not the best one)

Through studies and research, a trader faces the task of making decisions to put this knowledge and system into practice. Then, how many traders can honestly say they can commit their ranch when the trade is suggested by their own system (given that trading is just a chance game) and let the profit run for weeks and months when their system tells them, and how many can manage to cut the loss as a routine process when the situation arise. It all sounds so easy when saying it but so difficult when doing it affecting real money in the market. I still do not sleep well when I am running position because even if the profits are running into a few hundred dollars and the system is telling you to carry on, there is no guarantee that the profit will turn into a yard or two in a month time, and it may even turn into a loss in a day or two when something unexpected happens. A painstaking process in real sense. The pain is not knowing what will happen in the future and in fear of losing. So at the end of the day, assuming one has decent trading system and market knowledge and decent info, it is ultimately how disciplined and how well that trader can take the pain of making right decisions at the right time that decides the outcome of the trades. Hence I call trading a mind game. When I interview prospective young traders, I always look for disciplined and strong-willed person as my first priority as long as one has decent education, but strangely in many cases, it is some kind of genius or half-genius with lots of brains with no disciplines who turn up for an interview thinking only bright people can make good traders.

In fact, I always try to pyramid while position trading medium-term once I am convinced of a new medium-term trend emerging. Like in USD/JPY position trading 135-132 as an initial position, adding in 132 and 129 areas. Same for AUD/USD and EUR/USD with similar strategies. But sitting on positions and watching the counter-rallies costing truck load of money is not easy job to do and causes lots of pain all the time. Most traders even among experienced ones cannot bear that pain and give up too early. But there is no other way to make a big money and we have to bite the bullet and "sit and accumulate" as long as the medium-term trend is intact. That is why I always believe psychological aspects of trading is far more important than anything else in successful trading. A mind game like those bluffing game of poker.

Entries and exits can never be "irrelevant" for any trader for any purpose. It is just that psychological aspects of trading are much more important than entries and exits, and decisive for the success or failure of a trader in the long run. Perhaps exits are more important than entries because any perfect or near-perfect entries are possible only in hindsight.

You need to do some Trader's Yoga