Forex Brokers – What I Learned as a Broker Trading 5,000 Clients
I spent 10 years as a forex broker and traded thousands of clients, here I will give you a broker’s view of trading clients.
I will reveal who won, who lost, how we made money and how we treated them.
I joined as a rather green salesman and had no idea about the reality of forex and futures trading.
I was excited about joining an industry where millions were made and millions were lost by clients – It was very exciting!
The company
I was rather shocked at the reality which was:
Clients didn’t appear to win very often and the company based its balance sheet on commission to equity.
The view was that about 95% of clients would lose and they would do it all on their own, with no help from us.
The clients we liked (from a financial perspective) were the ones who made commission for the company and top of the list were:
Day traders:
They lasted for short periods, never won and made loads of money for the company.
If they believed it worked, let them get on with it and we would take the commission.
Shoot from the hip traders
The action men.
They loved the buzz, in and out all the time, trading the news and advice from gurus and with no discipline.
Again, they wiped themselves out and made us plenty of money.
The company did not dislike its clients.
We treated all clients well and did what a good broker should:
Help them with queries and made sure they got fast accurate executions.
We just let them do as they wanted and in most cases they lost – that’s simply the reality of trading.
The clients
We had clients from all walks of life, from retired people, to highly educated mathematicians and the few that did win surprised me.
The ones I personally hated were the ones I will refer to as “educated fools”
Cocky as anything and believed they had a divine right to win, because they were clever.
They would ignore my warnings, that they would not win with systems that were too complicated and tell me to mind my own business.
If I am honest, when they learned the reality of a wipe out, I felt a little inclination to say “told you so”, but never did.
Perhaps my favorite client was a retired lady, 81 years of age, who lived on a sheep farm in Australia.
A lovely lady and she taught me a few things, that I remember to this day.
She devised a system and showed it to me.
It was a simple buy and sell strategy and relied on holding big trends for months on end and you could learn it in a few hours.
Personally I thought it was to simple to work, but she built a $5,000 account to $39,000 in three months and had passed $100,000 in under a year.
She drew her charts by hand ( this was the late eighties) and didn’t have a TV and never read the papers.
Each day she would check her prices draw her charts and make her trades if she needed to.
A polite, humble trader, who was loved in the office by all.
We all had respect for the way she was our most profitable trader, even above some quite well known money managers.
We had many other clients.
Most lost and some won ( very few), but the ones who did win were humble, had simple systems, traded only when their systems told them to, had iron discipline and believed they were right.
This is just my experience.
I did trade a lot of people.
They from all walks of life and I learned very few won, but the ones who did, kept it simple, the ones who didn’t, had big ego’s, or liked excitement and traded with their emotions lost.
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Help answer the question about forex strategy
Is there a Forex strategy computer game? If yes, please provide details. Thanks?About Author
Sacha Tarkovsky -
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Tags: forex, forex brokers, Forex Education, Forex Strategy, Forex Tips, Forex Trading, Online Forex Trading, trading
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March 13th, 2010 at 9:38 pm
Take a year to learn as much as you can and then go very slowly. Anyone that suggests to you that there is a simple way to invest in FX that "works" is either not telling the truth or is ignorant.
Keep in mind that 95% of all new traders lose most of their money in the first 3 months of trading FX. Surely the success rate would be higher if there were any "formulas" that really worked.
March 13th, 2010 at 9:58 pm
Really a nice question …each and every individual is different ..so out of so many methods select your own …which is profitable and suits to your mind set ..seek assistance from any senior trader or stock guru and then stick on it and keep on modifying it till you wont succeed … If you are looking for the best forex software, visit this site
http://Make-Money-With-Forex.org/
This software is the best software that can help increase your trading profit and user friendly.
March 14th, 2010 at 11:39 am
I've read a lot about Forex, but I've never seen a proven profitable forex strategy, despite the claims of some scam web sites. Playing Forex can appear alluring, but the majority of people who try it lose money. All you have to do is do a web search on the words "Forex" and "lose" to see this is the consensus.
Forex is what we call a "zero sum" game. You are making a bet with someone else about whether a currency will rise or fall. For every winner there has to be a loser. If you are smarter than the average player, you may make money. If you are dumber than the average player, you are likely to lose money. Most of the people making the "bets" in Forex are highly trained professionals at banks and other institutions. You are unlikely to beat them at this game.
Actually Forex is not quite a zero sum game. It's a slightly negative sum game as the Forex broker takes a small percentage each time in the spread. It's a small amount but over a hundred trades, it ends up being a considerable amount of money. So the average player is likely to lose money, and remember the average player is a highly trained professional and probably smarter than you.
There is a lot of luck in Forex, and if you play it, you will have some periods of time where you make money. This is usually because you are having a lucky streak, not because you have suddenly become an expert Forex player. However, most people are unwilling to admit their success is due to luck. They become convinced they have a system that works, and lose a lot of money trying to refine it.
Further complicating the problem is the large number of Forex scams on the internet. Most Forex websites are of questionable honesty. You will find many people on the Internet that claim they made a lot of money using Forex. They are usually liars trying to make money. They will say: "Go to Forexcrap . com/q2347." The "q2347" is a signal to the Forexcrap site that you are being referred to them by "q2347." If they sell something to you, "q2347" gets a kickback. These coded signals can be hidden by different methods in the link. Other people will refer you to their own private website or blog for the purpose of trying to get money off you.
I would recommend not trying to do Forex at all, unless you are a trained professional. It's like playing poker with people better than you, with the house constantly taking a small percentage from the pot.
March 15th, 2010 at 8:42 am
I use a system called "forex autopilot". It's very good and there's a nice review for it at http://www.fxsystemscompared.com
March 15th, 2010 at 11:59 pm
Asking people for a simple Forex strategy is like asking people if they have a simple method for playing poker that will allow you to win playing poker experts. There is no simple Forex strategy that works.
Forex is what we call a "zero sum" game. You are making a bet with someone else about whether a currency will rise or fall. For every winner there has to be a loser. If you are smarter than the average player, you may make money. If you are dumber than the average player, you are likely to lose money. Most of the people making the "bets" in Forex are highly trained professionals at banks and other institutions. You are unlikely to beat them at this game using a "simple" strategy.
Actually Forex is not quite a zero sum game. It's a slightly negative sum game as the Forex broker takes a small percentage each time in the spread. It's a small amount but over a hundred trades, it ends up being a considerable amount of money. So the average player is likely to lose money, and remember the average player is a highly trained professional and probably smarter than you.
There is a lot of luck in Forex, and if you play it, you will have some periods of time where you make money. This is usually because you are having a lucky streak, not because you have suddenly become an expert Forex player. However, most people are unwilling to admit their success is due to luck. They become convinced they have a system that works, and lose a lot of money trying to refine it.
Further complicating the problem is the large number of Forex scams on the internet. Most Forex websites are of questionable honesty. You will find many people on the Internet that claim they made a lot of money using Forex. They are usually liars trying to make money. They will say: "Go to Forexcrap . com/q2347." The "q2347" is a signal to the Forexcrap site that you are being referred to them by "q2347." If they sell something to you, "q2347" gets a kickback. These coded signals can be hidden by different methods in the link. Other people will refer you to their own private website or blog for the purpose of trying to get money off you.
I would recommend not trying to do Forex at all, unless you are a trained professional. It's like playing poker with people better than you, with the house constantly taking a small percentage from the pot.
March 16th, 2010 at 7:28 am
you might just as well look at that spam answer.
consider, the people that trade commodities are some of the smartest in the world.
if you're not in that exclusive group, you're going to lose.
but hey, it's your money.
go give it away.
wouldn't you think that if what you want is possible, everyone would already be doing it?
get real.
March 16th, 2010 at 10:34 am
http://www.FXCM.com
http://www.babypips.com/
Here is a couple good videos to watch,
http://www.forex.com/forex-seminars-developing-listen.html
http://www.forex.com/forex-seminars-developing2-listen.html
Here is a squido site for fxbootcamp that has several good video, if youll take the time to watch these you can learn a lot.
http://www.squidoo.com/fxbootcamp/
I like Oanda for a starting broker because you can trade with as little as 1 cent a pip on the line, of course youll only be making 1 cent a pip. then as you improve you can step it up a penny or a dime or what ever.
The only bad thing about them is 50:1 leverage and there spread gets very wide during news times.
I also agree with babypips good site.
a short but very good ebook
http://www.robbooker.com/books/Strategy10.pdf
Here is a good site to learn about the indicators. Just look all over it.
http://www.investopedia.com/university/movingaverage/default.asp
Use Oanda as a demo account. It doesn't expire so you will have as long as you need to practice.
http://fxgame.oanda.com
check out this guy: http://www.robbooker.com/
March 16th, 2010 at 2:09 pm
If you’re a potential investment player who’d like to make it big in the business and financial world, then you go for forex trading. The FOREX, also known as the foreign exchange market is one of the largest financial markets in the world with and estimate of $1.5 trillion turn-overs every day. Here are a few strategies on how to make it big in the forex market.
Strategy One: Know your market. The best way to get advantage, earn profit and minimize losses is to familiarize yourself with the market and how the whole system works. In the forex market, the players are usually commercial banks, central banks and firms involved in foreign trade, investment funds, broker companies and other private individuals with large capital. With the speed and high liquidity of asset, most companies engage in this business than in any other trading venture. Transactions are done in a jiffy; there are no membership fees and there is always the allure and promise of big, big profit.
Trading is done in pairs. The most commonly traded currencies are usually the US Dollar, Japanese Yen, Euro, British Pound, Canadian Dollar, Australian Dollar and the Swiss Franc. The more commonly traded currency pairs are the US Dollar and the Japanese Yen, the Euro and the US Dollar, the Swiss Franc and the US Dollar. In Forex trading, everything is speculative and virtual. There is no actual product being sold or bought. The activity mostly consists of computed entries made on the value of one currency against another. Say for example, you can buy Euros with US Dollar, hoping that the Euro will increase it value. Once its value rises, you can sell the Euro again, thus earning you profit.
Strategy Two: Learn the language. There are three concepts you need to know in the currency market. Pips refer to the increase of one hundredth of a percent of the value of the currency pair you are trading. Usually each pip has a value of $10 or $1. Volume is the quantity or amount of money being traded at one particular time in the market. Buying is the acquisition of a particular currency. A trader buys with the hopes that the price of the currency will increase. Selling is putting a currency up for grabs in the market because of a potential or possibility of a decrease in its value. There are also two techniques of analysis usually used in this business – the fundamental and the technical analysis. Technical analysis is usually used by small and medium players. Here, the primary point of analysis revolves on the price. Fundamental analysis, on the other hand, is used by bigger companies and players with higher capital as it involves looking at the other factors affecting the value of a particular currency. In this type of analysis, the player also looks at the situation of the country, particularly issues like political stability, inflation rate, unemployment rate, and tax policies as these are seen to have an effect on the currency’s value.
Strategy Three: Develop a sound trading strategy. Your trading strategy would depend on what kind of trader you are. The basic thing with developing a trading strategy is to identify what kind of forex trader you are. A good trading strategy should lessen, if not, eliminate losses. Plan also the size of your transactions. It is better to conduct many different trades than one huge transaction. Not only does it develop discipline, but it also lessens any possible loss as only a fraction of the capital is affected. Part of a trading strategy is developing the values of discipline and proper money management.
Strategy Four: Practice. Try paper trading, a great way to practice your skills, see how the market works and get acquainted with the software and tools being used. There are online brokers who allow free paper trades, which allows practice and experience before doing it with real money.
Strategy Five: Choose the right forex dealer. Make sure that they are regulated by the law. Take not of dealers with investment schemes that give out too-good-to-be-true-just-false-hopes promises. Look at investment offers before getting started.
Forex trading may seem easy and manageable. But the emotional stress, the demands and challenges of being a forex trader requires more than just the knowledge of the market. It requires more than just a keen and sensible head for business. It’s all about a gameplan, a strategy.
March 17th, 2010 at 5:50 am
Forex futures trading is a fluctuating (exciting) game, but these are some currency trades I'm watching right now:
- USD / JPY
- AUD / USD
- USD / CAD
- EUR / JPY
- GBP / JPY
- EUR / GBP
For some reason (call it a strategy if you want) I'm watching GBP / JPY. EUR / JPY too has seems to be showing some interesting movements…. but I don't want to give anyone any ideas. Mine your data, use the right tools, and work fast.
The futures market is about speed (and profit). Factor in historical currency trends and the nature of the global political landscape. That's the best strategy in forex futures trading.