Do people really make money from Forex trading?

Question by Vladimir D: Do people really make money from Forex trading?
I am being bombarded by publicity on TV Channels.. let’s not even talk about the web..

I think that is a way of gambling if you’re lucky you get some if not.. you lose some.. let me know what you think.

Thanks in advance.
Please stop the spam you’re just getting yourself reported, I want opinions not links 🙂
Yeah usually the spammers post them as an answer (the links), thanks for your answer Jerry but I think, when I’ll be able to vote for the best answer I’ll have to give it to Joe for the effort he put in it.

Thanks to both again for confirming my thoughts.

Best answer:

Answer by Joe
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 similar to 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. The net winnings of everyone combined equals zero. 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. Also there are a good number of trolls out there that like to pretend they are successful forex traders just for the fun of it.

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.

Read the warnings in the links below:

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!




4 Responses to “Do people really make money from Forex trading?”

  1. Jerry says:

    Forex is a very tough place to profit. Forex is a less than zero-sum game, with spreads and commissions pushing net results below zero. The vast majority of individual investors lose.

    Most of the trading is done by multinational banks and hedge funds. They have a huge advantage in experience, information, tools and technology.

    An individual investor has an excellent chance to do well in stocks. The underlying growth of markets provides a long term positive bias.

    Expect a lot of forex links. I suggest that you ignore them all. In addition to generic spam, Yahoo Answers has a persistent problem with promotion of investment scams; Iraqi dinar, forex robots, penny stocks, etc.

    EDIT: The links in Joe’s post are legitimate unbiased sources, not the usual crap.

  2. Alby says:

    Making money trading in the forex market is murder… You are 99% more likely to lose money than make it. I’d recommend trading Futures Contracts of currencies. At least those can be hedged with puts/calls so you can protect yourself from made swings from earthquakes and tsunamis.

  3. squirrelFX says:

    I had written a long and complicated response, but i deleted it. You clearly have your opinions on the forex market. Remember there is no one forcing you to trade, if you think its impossible then dont do it.

    I know its possible because I have done it, and will continue to do so. Trading profitably is actually pretty easy when get certain things into your head.

    There is a lot of BS from either camp on forex, those who sell crap and those who run around touting forex as a scam. There are but a few “true sources”.

  4. Andrew says:

    Yes sure looks like Joe put a lot of effort into that paragraph he copied from one of the other few thousand websites that has it as an article on their site.

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