anyone trade currency?

[BigFratDaddy]

?????


whats it like if you do?

[JeromeFromSoutheast]

yes... for a living....

i would advise against getting into it unless you are very seasoned in trading the stock market and futures market. And by trading I mean TRADING.... not just randomly buying 100 shares of the latest high flying stock....

I guess you saw some sort of infomercial touting huge easy returns??? ForexMadeEasy or something like that? If so, know this... they are all scams.

[BigFratDaddy]

no i have been thinking about moving to england for a job after i graduate and was talking to a friend about transferring money to a US bank account and we started talking about currency exchange and such....

Howd you get into this?

[Romanowski]

google fx and educate yourself a whole bunch before really trading

[revnecro1273]

Originally Posted by BigFratDaddy

no i have been thinking about moving to england for a job after i graduate and was talking to a friend about transferring money to a US bank account and we started talking about currency exchange and such....

Howd you get into this?

why a us bank account? get a non usa account..a lot better because you don't have the usa tracking you down for whatever reason

[hdhala]

currency trading is the way to go... fast paced and exciting.. the leverage which is available can turn into huge gains or the shirt off your back can be taken off within mintues so be careful and i fully agree with the above..you should be a seasoned active trader

[The Little Giants]

Who can argue with 100-1 leverage.

[JeromeFromSoutheast]

I recommend against using leverage. Sure fire way to blowup your account.

[The Little Giants]

Your not going to make very much money in currency trading without using some leverage.

[JeromeFromSoutheast]

Originally Posted by The Little Giants

Your not going to make very much money in currency trading without using some leverage.

famous last words

if you NEED leverage to be able to trade your desired amount of volume, then either A) you're risk tolerance is too high and you will eventually kill your account or B) you don't have enough capital, in which case you probably shouldn't be trading at all.

Last year i was at a trading expo and i heard a remarkable stat. 93% of all forex accounts that were opened had a 0 balance within 1 year. Not sure how accurate that is, but eye-opening none-the-less.

[The Little Giants]

Once again, you are not going to make much money in currency without using leverage.

[JeromeFromSoutheast]

Originally Posted by The Little Giants

Once again, you are not going to make much money in currency without using leverage.

you have no idea what you are talking about.

[The Little Giants]

Tell me "Jerome", if a person were to open a currency account with a start-up amount of $50,000, what type of return could that person see in a months time by making solid trades and using no leverage?

[JeromeFromSoutheast]

Thats really hard to say.... In September, I made 729 pips (weighted average to accomodate for the fact i scale in and out of positions). On 50k I would trade 5 mini lots (1/2 of a regular lot). 5 mini lots will get you anywhere between 4-5 dollars per pip (depending on the currency pair).... lets take an average of 4.5 dollars per pip... 4.5 x 729 = $3280.... in one month. thats about 6.5% in a month.... not too bad, imo.... keep in mind that I am a professional, so your average trader probably won't make that much.... but then again, it was a so-so month for me.... so say 3-5% return per month for an average trader (that has been well trained in technical analysis).

My point is that basing decisions on potential profit is what amateurs do.... The big boys base decisions on potential loss.

Here is an example of why leverage is so stupid... lets say you have that 50k in an account, with 100:1 leverage.... that gives you 5 million dollars in buying power.... with 5 million dollars, you could trade 40-50 regular lots per trade (or combined amongst several trades). Lets say you're a "conservative" leverage trader, and you by 20 regular lots of GBP/USD (roughly 40x leverage). your 50k account is now 0 if the position goes against you by 250 pips (that's 2.5 pennies!!!!!). GBP/USD can easily move 1.5-2 pennies in a busy news day (please refer to non-farm payroll report). 2.5 pennies of GBP/USD is approximately a 5-6% move on the overall value of the currency.

Put it into a stock market perspective... AAPL is trading at approx. $185 per share... would you buy XX amount of shares of AAPL if that position would kill your account if it moved to $175? you would lose 20% of your account if it sold off to 183 (a sneeze for AAPL)..... does that sound smart?

Would you buy a $20 stock if your entire investment would be worth 0 if that stock fell to $19 ?

[The Little Giants]

Thank you for proving my point Jerome! I would not trade if I could only hope for 3-5% a month.

Still not sure why you insisted on telling me that I had no idea what I was talking about. Also, who said anything about using the entire 100-1 leverage? You can use 5-1 or 10-1 fairly safely in currency trading. Plus, your stock comparison holds no water b/c stocks are by nature much more volatile then the currency market, which is the reason why they allow for 100-1 margins.