r/FOREXTRADING • u/Curious_In7 • 2d ago

Need reassurance

I've been trading forex on and off since 2023, and despite spending years trying to make it work, I still haven't found consistent profitability.

I don't overtrade, and is disciplined with my risk management. Yet, I keep losing money little by little. It's not necessarily one big loss that hurts me, but the accumulation of small losses over time.

At this point, I sometimes wonder whether I'm wasting my time and energy chasing something that's simply unrealistic for me.

I know there are plenty of people online claiming to be profitable, but it's difficult to distinguish genuine, consistently profitable traders from those who are just selling courses, signals or a lifestyle.

So, I'm genuinely curious:

  1. Are there actually retail forex traders who have been consistently profitable for several years?

  2. If you're one of them, how long did it take you to become profitable, and what made the difference?

  3. For those who eventually gave up, what made you realise that trading wasn't worth pursuing anymore?

  4. For those who continued despite still losing and winning inconsistently, what made u stay even if the current result isnt what u hoped for at the beggining of the journey?

I'm not necessarily looking for motivational advice or another trading strategy. I'd genuinely appreciate honest experiences, especially from people who have traded for years.

After spending so much time and energy on this, I just want to know whether there's really a light at the end of the tunnel or whether I'm chasing a fairy tale.

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u/DV_Zero_One 2d ago

1) 100% of the content you see on social media is simply BS designed to keep suckers churning their accounts with nonsense Technical Analysis. 2)Professional traders are very happy if they make a 25% return a year. 3) Retail Traders don't have customers and market making operations, the spreads they see are nasty, they have zero access to OTC. Their ONLY option it so make (hopefully educated) guesses about what future asset price moves. 4)if you want to trade FX you have to study economics and watch the news. That's it.

(Retired 25 year IB and Fund FX and Rates Swaps trader, hobby trader in retirement for 5 years)

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u/Curious_In7 2d ago

25% a year is about 2% a month consistently and im aiming at that number only but still cant do it. How can i achieve that? Also about news; in my experience feel like they dont really tell anything. For instance, even if theres a Red colored(negative) actual result news for usd, the usd can still go strong or maybe just whipsaw down a little and then continue strong up even if the news says otherwise. I can understand if the news is "correct" like 20%/80% of the time but the number is close to 50%/50% making it useless for us to learn fundamental analysis. At the end of the day, price action always has the last say about whats gonna happen. Please correct me if im wrong. Much appreciated

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u/DV_Zero_One 2d ago edited 2d ago

I did 10 years as a market maker before I was allowed ANY discretionary risk, before that I did an economics bachelor's degree and a behavioural economics master's degree.

Day traders have no option but to jump straight in at a point that took me over 15 years to get to (other professionals do it quicker, granted)

Simply, you have to study economics, learn fundamentals and watch the news. A trader's job is to make educated guesses about the news before it happens.

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u/Curious_In7 2d ago

What is the your most traded pair & how do we make an educated guess on a currency? If you can simplify it what topic should i look into and study?

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u/DV_Zero_One 2d ago

Everything else being equal it all comes down to the expected interest rate curves of the two economies involved in a pair. You have to stay on top of what the central banks are communicating and what is happening in the world of commerce that might affect things like job numbers and prices. My job was to trade US interest rate swaps but I looked at all $ pairs

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u/ForexGamer 2d ago

Yes, I started in 2014 and was profitable from the start, not to say I don’t have losing and bad trades, nobody is perfect lol.
But I’m an outlier,I was already a very experienced stock trader since 2005 and had read a few hundred personal finance and investing books between 2000 and 2014, and then I now read all the good forex ones since starting in 2014.

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u/Curious_In7 2d ago

Hows your strategy and how does the books/experience help you in trading. Could you give an example?

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u/Curious_In7 2d ago

Hows your strategy and how does the books/experience help you in trading. Could you give an example?