What's your view/opinion on today's market movements?

[RahmanSL]

UPDATES:

I thought about it, and decided to make yet another withdrawal from my trading account resulting in negative balance (i.e more than my total deposit money) since restarting trading account from 12/April/2014. And my broker ICMarkets efficiently carried out that international bank-to-bank transaction and, in just a little over 24 hours later, the money is already in my bank account

I am now trading with profit money totally derived from trading with ICMarkets

Ending last Friday, 18/July/2014 trading week, my profit is thousands of % over total deposits
.... free margin are at okay level of 1597.31%.... running trades take in daily positive swaps of a few hundred AUD (not sure cause too lazy to record) and accumulative positive swaps, if opened positions left running for one whole year, should be quite okay.

Most open running trades are still EUR/ZAR & USD/ZAR....but with quite a numbers of GBP/NOK which are happily are racking in daily positive swaps as I wait for the running trades to go into some profits.

Beginning next week I will take total account balance now as total deposit money and give updates based on that.

 

[WaveRider]

Rahman! Wow great about your account being in profit. Glad to see your at it still and in profit. I'll be sticking to my method but I still am curious about yours. Where can I read about your swap rate method? Looks like you buy or sell with the trend or direction of the swap with a wide or no stop at a small enough position to hold on to a trade moving against you, then collect the swap rate and wait for the swap rate to bring prices your way? When do you close a position?

I took a long break from trading and the market until my personal life settled down. I can't commit to posting everyday as of now so won't be trying out to be a shark for now.

BTW, I'm bearish on Fiber. Hope for an up Monday or Tuesday and then sell at 1.3550 or so. Cable, same bearish short term, sell at 1.7080. But it's been zipping up and I'd not leave anything in longer term if short.

 

[RahmanSL]

Hi WaveRider

Yah, I see you were MIA for a while back there, but important thing is you did come back to trading the forex market

As I have mentioned somewhere, I am NOT a "teacher" and I trade for myself and only for myself

Someone told me right at the start of my forex journey that '"NOBODY can teach me how to trade the forex market as I have to find out for myself which system of trading works best for me.
You too have apparently found and settle down with the trading system that you believe in, and is comfortable & confident trading with that.

There is one question which I still have not really received any real and concise reply to and that is: "How much does an ordinary successful forex Trader makes per week to be considered successful?"

I don't keep track of my daily trading in "pips" but in actual monetary value of my base trading currency which is the AUD.
Since four withdrawals from this trading account (which were efficiently and without much hassle processed by my prime broker ICMarkets, and international bank-to-bank wire transfer money in my bank account in just a little over 24 hours), the account balance is now down to just below AUD50k which is now all profits derived from trading since 12/April/2014.

My weekly profits range from around AUD3-6k profits without too much stress as long as I don't over trade and keeping my free margin close to the 1000% level.
My max trading lot size is 0.30, but I trade mostly with 0.1 lot size trades which I shall try to maintain until the account is up to AUD80-100k.
Some 0.02 lot sizes, which I have entered at the lower entry levels, will take some time to go into some profits but these smaller lot positions are racking in daily positive swaps to the point that the swap value is bigger than the loss.

As to when I decide to close out trades positions that go into profits....well....I close them out when I believe the currency pair is ranging, but reopen new positions when the currency pair go back up....very similar to scalping.

Well my friend, I hope you get an idea on the trading system that I have settled down with .....it's consistent and especially suitable for me, BUT....as I also have mentioned somewhere...this trading system can be pretty boring at times...but then again, as our Commander-in-chief here wrote some years back, making money from the forex market should be boring

Cheers and all the best in your trades

 

[WaveRider]

Thanks Rahman. WellI have no criticism for you on your trading style. Having an account that is completely one of profits with no capital left means you can do whatever you want with it and there can be no loss. I'm glad you settled on something you like too. It's a very fascinating strategy. Boring is great. Boring means you aren't losing money. That means you beat 98% of the other traders.

About your question. I think that's kind of like asking how pretty does a girl have to be in order to be pretty enough to ask her out. It's up to the person. Success is defined by each person. For me, success means that I wouldn't have to have a "regular "job, trading is the only or primary income stream. Some guys just like the thrill of trading and don't care about losing money. Some like it as a hobby and make a little or break even. In terms of dollars, I use a rule of thumb I got from the business world. The persons living expenses that are withdrawn from the forex account should be no greater than 25% of their average monthly winnings. This permits drawdown and emergencies. Being in a position where you absolutely have to double your account every six months in order to live is a pretty scary place to be in. When it comes to weather I think another person is successful or not, if a guy can show me that his account is equity positive, in my book that guy is successful. The number of trades or win percentage or number of pips doesn't mean anything to me. Just my two cents.

 

[RahmanSL]

Interesting concept and definition for a "successful forex Trader"

I would welcome more "definitions for a successful forex Trader" from other FPA members.

I don't really set a target date to double my money every so-and-so days/week/months/years.......but try to achieve AUD1k daily profits from >AUD30k trading account.
Most days I either almost achieve that or exceeded that target, but some days I do not but still have a couple hundred or less daily profits.
But on a weekly basis, I nearly always achieve over AUD5k profit....excepting those times that I got impatience and over traded which jeopardize my account to the point of margin call and wipe-out. However, thankfully, that bad habit seem to be wearing off as I matured in trading the forex market

As for your "...success means that I wouldn't have to have a "regular " job, trading is the only or primary income stream.", that really depends on where you living as that is directly proportionate to the cost of living and the living style that you want.
From my side of the pond, for an average person with family of four (2 kids), the monthly cost of living within means would be around AUD2k (though a lot of them make-do with less than AUD1k).
For me personally, I require above AUD8k monthly which means I need AUD363.64 per trading day (i.e 8,000 :- 22 trading days per month) just for my living expenses.
For other comforts and "extras", that would push daily income to >AUD500....and if I am to add in "retirement/savings", that would be another AUD500 per day. Hence my daily target of AUD1k profits

I believe, and know so, that with a >AUD80k, a daily AUD1k profit is and should be quite easily achieved without too much effort and stress

 

[theemilym]

I think that's the biggest and most important thing that you have to think about - not 'am I making as much as a successful forex Trader should be', but 'am I making enough to live on, support my family, and put a little aside for a rainy day'. As long as you are doing that, you are successful

 

[RahmanSL]

Yes theemilym, you have described what all full time Forex Trader should be able to do since the forex market is his/her full time job and/or business and has no/very little income from other sources.
To be able to arrived at that situation, he/she will need to have the experiences and confidence to be able to derive a steady income from the forex market because success and failure depend entirely on his/her abilities as a full time forex trader.

Personally, I would say the best thing to find out whether you can derive a steady income from the forex market is to give yourself the "acid test"....i.e. become a full time forex trader and discover for yourself whether you are really that "hot shot" that you think you are as a forex trader

I believe most part time traders think they can become successful, but will probably fail when they become full time trader. This can be contributed to the psychological factor because when they still have a full time job, they don't depend on the forex market for their income and so will take risk and through skill or luck, make some money.
But when they become full time forex traders, failure and success depends on their every trade and so they either become afraid to take risk that they cannot derive sufficient income form the forex market, or in their haste/impatience to hit their ambitious target profits, they either over-traded or make some serious mistakes and put their account in jeopardy or even wipe out.

 

[RahmanSL]

UPDATES:

As already mentioned, I have been trading on profits money since last week and, from this week onwards, I will be posting account updates based on last week trading account balance.

For last week ending Friday, 25/July/2014, total weekly profit gain is 6.95% over total account balance.
All running trades receive daily positive swaps amounting to a small AUD34.88 and, if left running for 1 year, will accumulate to AUD12,731.20 in positive swaps.

Free margin level is at healthy 3,457%

Most running open trades are GBP/NOK, which was not my plan, but I took them in anticipation of the loonies taking a dive sometime soon (I hope sooner than expected)

Other open running trades are EUR/ZAR, USD/ZAR, and a lone EUR/SEK which have been running since 24/June/2014 but racking in daily positive swap while waiting to go into some profit.

 

[RahmanSL]

UPDATES:

As already mentioned, I have been trading on profits money and is posting account updates based on previous week trading account balance.

For week ending Friday, 1/Aug/2014, total profit gain is 11.13% over total account balance.
All running trades receive daily positive swaps amounting to AUD196.30 and, if left running for 1 year, will accumulate to AUD71,649.50 in positive swaps.

Free margin is at okay level of 972.90%

Most running open trades are still GBP/NOK, which was not my plan, but taken in anticipation of the loonies taking a dive which turn out to be much later than expected.

Other open running trades are still EUR/ZAR, USD/ZAR, and a lone EUR/SEK which have been running since 24/June/2014 but racking in daily positive swap while waiting to go into some profit.

 

[RahmanSL]

UPDATES:

For week ending Friday, 8/Aug/2014, total profit gain is 13.89% over total account balance....and 2.76% over previous week.

All running trades receive daily positive swaps amounting to AUD188.07 and, if left running for 1 year, will accumulate to AUD68,645.55 in positive swaps.

Free margin is at okay level of 1,584.60%

Most running open trades are still GBP/NOK, which was not my plan, but taken in anticipation of the loonies taking a dive which turn out to be much later than expected.

Other open running trades are still EUR/ZAR, USD/ZAR, and a lone EUR/SEK which have been running since 24/June/2014 but racking in daily positive swap while waiting to go into some profit.