Is trading Forex really worth it?

Yes, it is. I’ve never lived a better life than I do now as a trader. No, one can make much more than 20% annually. People like to think in percentages way too much. Let me explain:

People look at the percentage of what a so-called pro-trader does, not realising that the market isn’t infinite and the size of your trade has a significant impact on how you can carry a trade out. These people who are managing really big pots can’t go in and out like I do, they are like a big and heavy lorry transporting building parts to an Airbus factory through narrow streets somewhere in France. I prefer to be the London cabby with a lovely tight turning circle. I can trade with precision, they can’t. They have more money which is a blessing and a burden at the same time. I’m flexible enough to trade with high precision very close to how the market moves.

Now, don’t underestimate a “small” position. I’m much bigger than your average trader@home is. I frequently earn in a day what other people with so-called jobs earn in a year. Yet, for the FX market, I’m small fish. “Small fish” that is making a couple hundred USD per pip. It wouldn’t scale up to 5 figures per pip, I know that and that is why comparing percentages without comparing the actual pot is a useless exercise. Or in other words: Percentage of what?

All that of course doesn’t mean you can do the same. It is hard and smart work to get there and it certainly involves a bit of luck to find the right things before your motivation runs out but if you succeed, it is totally worth it.

There is one last thing to say: I had the luxury of not having to work at the same time. I could dedicate my time to trading and I could trade when the markets move the most - that is somewhere in the morning to the afternoon (as in European timezone). I’m rather sceptical I would be where I am if I had been living in Australia or the US west coast. All lovely areas, but when the market moves when I’m asleep or all my friends are out for a beer or five then it’s getting frustrating pretty fast.

Oh, don’t waste your time on trading forums. The vast majority of people there don’t have a clue how to trade. All they do is dragging you down with their negativity, nonsense ideas and what not else. Learn to read the chart. There is a reason that barely anyone on these trading forums talks about price action, momentum, price rejections and so on. It involved screen time to understand it, lots of screen time and these people are there looking mostly for a shortcut to profitability and giving “Forex” the bad reputation it has.

Update:

Because some people asked: I’m trading short term on the 1-minute candle stick chart. My average holding time depends on what the markets offer me but I’d say it is rarely under 6 minutes and rarely over 20 minutes. I focus almost exclusively on reversal signals and have my way of telling good ones and fake-signals apart. Support/resistance areas play a role but it is, in the end, like most other professions: you need to practice to get good at it. I treat trading as a profession and a business while I wouldn’t say trading IS the business it is more that I say every individual trade is a business.

Every one has his/her own individual strengths. I have trader friends who don’t see entries or exits in what I do. I know people who are more or less copying my strategy or who came up with something similar on their own. I am NOT saying what I do is perfect, it simply is good enough for me. I can’t stand long term uncertainty but I do not mind pulling the trigger over and over again each day.

By the way, I do that since several years. I didn’t stumble into trading just yesterday so any mentioning of “luck” doesn’t make much logical sense. I do not eat lucky clover for breakfast ;-)