Can forex trading make you rich? Forex trading may make you rich if you are a hedge fund with deep pockets or an unusually skilled currency trader. But for the average retail trader , rather than being an easy road to riches, forex trading can be a rocky highway to enormous losses and potential penury. To better understand the danger of forex trading, consider a relatively recent example. On Jan. The surprise move from Switzerland's central bank inflicted losses running into the hundreds of millions of dollars on innumerable participants in forex trading, from small retail investors to large banks.

Losses in retail trading accounts wiped out the capital of at least three brokerages, rendering them insolvent , and took FXCM, then the largest retail forex brokerage in the United States, to the verge of bankruptcy.

Unexpected one-time events are not the only risk facing forex traders. Here are seven other reasons why the odds are stacked against the retail trader who wants to get rich trading the forex market. Although currencies can be volatile, violent gyrations like that of the aforementioned Swiss franc are not that common.

For example, a substantial move that takes the euro from 1. But the allure of forex trading lies in the huge leverage provided by forex brokerages, which can magnify gains and losses. dollar at 1. If the trader used the maximum leverage of permitted in the U. Of course, had the trader been long euro at 1. In some overseas jurisdictions, leverage can be as much as or even higher. Because excessive leverage is the single biggest risk factor in retail forex trading, regulators in a number of nations are clamping down on it.

Seasoned forex traders keep their losses small and offset these with sizable gains when their currency call proves to be correct. Most retail traders, however, do it the other way around, making small profits on a number of positions but then holding on to a losing trade for too long and incurring a substantial loss.

This can also result in losing more than your initial investment. Imagine your plight if you have a large position and are unable to close a trade because of a platform malfunction or system failure, which could be anything from a power outage to an Internet overload or computer crash. This category would also include exceptionally volatile times when orders such as stop-losses do not work.

For instance, many traders had tight stop-losses in place on their short Swiss franc positions before the currency surged on Jan. However, these proved ineffective because liquidity dried up even as everyone stampeded to close their short franc positions.

The biggest forex trading banks have massive trading operations that are plugged into the currency world and have an information edge for example, commercial forex flows and covert government intervention that is not available to the retail trader. Recall the Swiss franc example. High degrees of leverage mean that trading capital can be depleted very quickly during periods of unusual currency volatility. These events can come suddenly and move the markets before most individual traders have an opportunity to react.

The forex market is an over-the-counter market that is not centralized and regulated like the stock or futures markets. This also means that forex trades are not guaranteed by any type of clearing organization, which can give rise to counterparty risk.

Market manipulation of forex rates has also been rampant and has involved some of the biggest players. A common way for market movers to manipulate the markets is through a strategy called stop-loss hunting. These large organizations will coordinate price drops or rises to where they anticipate retail traders will have set their stop-loss orders.

When those are triggered automatically by price movement, the forex position is sold, and it can create a waterfall effect of selling as each stop-loss point is triggered, and can net large profits for the market mover. Forex trading can be profitable but it is important to consider timeframes. It is easy to be profitable in the short-term, such as when measured in days or weeks.

It is also important to realise that people are forgetful. Do you want to avoid these pitfalls and stand a better chance of making money with trading Forex? We at Trading Education specialise in online trading courses and are proud to announce that we are giving away our £2, Forex course, The Ultimate Guide To Forex Trading , completely for free. Our free Forex trading course covers all the major areas related to Forex trading and is broken down into 4 chapters.

Topics include the following:. You can find out more about our free Forex trading course here. With our Forex education course , you can benefit from a personalised approach that you will not see anywhere else.

Trade Forex Now. By Trading Education Team. Last Updated July 23rd Starting with an insufficient amount of knowledge A lot of beginners are interested in Forex trading for the wrong reasons. Not understanding risk management As we mentioned in the introduction, only a small portion of retail Forex traders actually make a profit.

Here are two great ways you can do this: Diversify your portfolio. This is where you start investing in various different instruments in different areas. This is a wise idea because if you invest solely in one instrument and that instrument loses a lot of its value, you risk losing your entire investment.

Think of it like not putting all your eggs into one basket. Hedge your investment. This is where you trade on two different instruments that typically conflict with one another. Usually, when one goes up in value, the other goes down and vice versa. This way you can attempt to reduce your losses if one of the instruments loses a lot of value. Here are two of the most well-known: Stop-Loss orders. Take Profit orders. This order is where you set a certain price to sell your currency pair.

This is useful because if the market suddenly starts to lose its value after reaching this point, you would have already profited before this happens. Chasing losses Chasing losses is originally a gambling term.

Not having a plan Having a plan is the number one thing all traders should have to make their trades effective. Never stop learning. Knowledge most certainly is power! Understand the risks involved. We implore you, this is absolutely vital! Plan your approach to Forex trading. Be meticulous in your learning and think out every trade.

Why are you giving it away for free might you ask? What can you learn from our free trading Forex course? This is what you MUST avoid and this cycle can be broken by trading on a demo or simulated account for a few months.

There has always been this narrative within the forex retail forums that demo accounts are rigged to provide different market conditions, when compared to the live markets. You should be trading a demo account before even considering how much money can be made in the forex markets.

Another factor you need to consider is how long it actually takes to learn forex. There seems to be this general assumption that you can learn forex on Instagram and become profitable within a few weeks. When you compare this to the fact that other forms of investors have to go through years of University, studying and exams, it seems a bit farfetched that forex traders would be able to get earth shattering returns overnight.

I would highly recommend learning about the Dunning-Kruger effect as this is incredibly prominent in the forex industry with beginner traders. The reality is that it takes over a year to learn to trade forex successfully and this needs to be considered before looking at the potential money you could make from forex trading. Forex can change your life and it has changed the life of a huge amount of traders over the years — it just takes a lot of dedication to learn!

Sadly, due to how tricky these markets are, many traders fail and end up selling courses to try and recoup some of their losses in the markets. I would recommend taking a look at our compiled list of the best forex trading courses. Some of the traders that have taken these courses are now earning a full time salary from their trading — which is great to see! For example, Michael Bamber has a huge amount of extremely valuable content to help traders with their journey after struggling on his own journey for many years.

He is now earnings thousands per month in the markets on his prop firm funded account. It is very possible for you to start making money in the forex markets if you have a high enough risk to reward ratio.

If you would like to get started with forex trading, feel free to check out some of the top rated forex courses on the web. Kyle Townsend is the founder of Forex Broker Report, an experienced forex trader and an advocate for funding options for retail forex traders. As the forex prop firm industry has grown, so has the amount of prop firms offering funding for traders.

With forex brokers reducing leverage and the industry getting more regulated, trading your Skip to content Forex manages to bring in a huge amount of interest from new investors, due to the low barrier to entry, leverage and large potential profits.

The forex trading industry — which now sees trillions of dollars worth of currencies change hands each and every day — has never been more accessible for the Average Joe. All that is required is an account with an online forex broker — of which there are hundreds.

In this guide, we explore how to make money with forex and whether or not this online trading scene is profitable. We talk about how stop-loss and take-profit orders can mitigate the risks of trading forex later in this guide. In order to make money with forex, you need to first have a firm understanding of how this trading sector works. With this in mind, the sections below will explain the basics of forex.

First and foremost, when you trade forex you are speculating on the future value of currency pairs. This would mean that you are trading the exchange rate between the euro against the US dollar. If you speculate correctly you will close the forex trade with a profit. The US dollar is therefore the quote currency.

This means that for every 1 euro, the market is prepared to pay 1. There are dozens of pairs available to trade online, albeit, the ones you have access to will depend on your chosen forex broker. With that said, pairs are typically split into three categories — majors, minors, and exotics.

We have mentioned spreads a few times throughout this guide on how to make money in forex trading. For those unaware of this term, the spread is simply the difference between the bid buy and ask sell price of the pair you are trading.

This gap in pricing is how forex trading platforms make money. Now that you understand that forex is traded in pairs, the next task is to learn about buy and sell orders. As we briefly mentioned earlier, this tells your chosen forex broker whether you think the exchange rate of the pair will rise or fall. In order to close your forex trade, you need to place an opposing order.

For example. if you opened the trade with a sell order, you will close it with a buy order. When large banks and financial institutions trade forex — they typically do so in currency lots. In most cases, a currency lot equates to , units. As you can see, the lot is denominated by quote currency — which is on the right-hand side of the pair.

Fortunately — and in line with the growth of retail forex traders, there is no longer a requirement to trading currencies in lots. On the contrary, the best forex brokers allow you to trade mini, micro, or nana lots. For all intents and purposes, this simply means that you can perform foreign currency trading with low stakes — which makes the industry ideal for those on a budget. As the exchange rate of a currency pair moves up and down by such a small amount — at least in the case of majors and minors.

this can make it difficult to make a lot of money in this trading scene. If you only have access to a limited amount of trading capital, the good news is that forex brokers typically offer something called leverage. In its most basic form, this allows you to trade currencies with more money than you have in your brokerage account. In terms of how high leverage brokers work, you simply need to choose your ratio when you set up your forex trade.

For example, if you want to multiple your trade by a factor of 10, select or x10 as your ratio. However, leverage can and will boost your losses too. In fact, if you speculate incorrectly by a certain amount, your chosen forex broker will liquidate your position by closing the leveraged trade on your behalf.

For example, if you trade with leverage of , your position will be liquidated if it goes down by more than 3. Another important aspect to have a firm grasp of when learning how to make money on forex is risk management.

The way to approach this is to create a bankroll management plan. This will limit the amount of capital you risk on each trade and is best viewed as a percentage of your forex account balance.

Additionally, you should also set up stop-loss and take-profit orders on all of the forex trades that you place. A stop-loss order allows you to specify an exit point — should the trade go against you. Next, a take-profit order will ensure that your profits are automatically locked in. Now that we have explained the basics, this section of our guide on how to make money on forex trading will talk about strategies. In a nutshell, those making consistent gains in the forex trading scene do so because they have a strategy and system that works for them.

To help you along the way, below we discuss five strategies that can help you to making money with forex. Make no mistake about — if you are a complete novice in the world of forex trading, it might be a good idea to start with a Copy Trading tool — such as the one offered by eToro. This is because you will not be required to have any knowledge of what makes the forex market tick — nor do you need to learn the ins and outs of technical and fundamental analysis.

On the contrary, all you need to do is select a successful trader with a verifiable track record. Then, any buy or sell orders that the trader places will be mirrored in your own eToro portfolio on a proportionate basis. As you can see from the example above, the eToro Copy Trading tool allows you to actively trade forex without needing to do anything. On the contrary, you will be trading in a passive manner. In a similar nature to Copy Trading, signals are a great way to making money with forex trading as a beginner.

Once again, this is because you will not be required to scan the currency markets looking for trends and trading opportunities. Instead, your chosen signal provider will send you trading suggestions based on its own in-depth research.

For example, Learn2Trade — which is a popular forex signals provider that has more than 20, members in its Telegram group, will send you something like the below:. As you can see from the above, the best forex signals Telegram groups will give you all of the information you need to go and place the respective orders in a risk-averse way. As such, all you need to do is log into your forex brokerage account and place the orders that have been sent to you.

If you do opt for a provider like Learn 2 Trade, you will receive three forex signals every day — Monday to Friday. There is no guarantee that you will make money using signals with this provider. Another way to make money with forex trading without needing to do any research yourself is to utilize the service of an expert advisor EA.

Otherwise referred to as a forex robot, EAs are software files that have pre-set trading conditions built into them. As the underlying code is based on artificial intelligence, the forex EA will scan the forex markets 24 hours per day — constantly looking for trading opportunities.

When it finds one, it will place a series of orders on your behalf. The vast majority of forex EAs are built for MT4, but MT5 is ofter supported too.

Either way, you will need to purchase your chosen forex EA and then install it into either MT4 or MT5. Once activated, the robot will begin trading for you around the clock. If you do not want to rely on a third-party trader or robot, you will need to learn the ropes of technical analysis. This means being able to read and interpret charts and pricing trends. The way around this is to instead focus on fundamental research — which is much easier to grasp as a beginner. In its most basic form, fundamental research will see you trade on the back of a relevant new story.

After all, the strength or weakness of a currency is directly tied to how the economy is performing and what actions the central bank decides to take — especially in the case of interest rates. Or, if a country releases better-than-expected GDP results, then the currency will likely appreciate.

Irrespective of the economic event or financial news story — knowing which orders to place at your forex brokerage site is relatively easy. There are many ways to approach the fx trading space — with several strategies focused on specific durations.

For example, scalping involves opening and closing multiple positions throughout the day with the view of making small but frequent gains.

You then have day trading, which will see your positions open for several minutes or hours, but never more than a single day. With that said, the best way to make forex trading profit is to adopt a swing trading strategy. This gives you much more time to make trading decisions — as positions can remain open for weeks at a time. In particular, swing traders will place more of a focus on fundamental research in comparison to day traders or scalpers. As a result, this makes it ideal for newbies — as you can trade purely on the fundamentals as opposed to performing more complex technical analysis,.

With dozens of currency pairs available to trade, you might be wondering which one is likely to be the most profitable.

The short answer is that no specific pair will give you more of a chance of making money. On the contrary, you can make money on any pair of your choosing — as long as you speculate correctly. With that said, we would suggest initially focusing on major pairs if you are just starting out in the world of forex trading.

This is because major pairs allow you to make money using forex but in a more risk-averse manner. For example, stable currencies like the Canadian dollar or Japanese yen will rarely move by more than a few percentage points each week. At the other end of the scale, exotic currencies like the Turkish Lira and Mexican peso are a lot more volatile and thus — not suited for inexperienced traders. Another good idea is to focus on one or two forex pairs, as opposed to trying to trade lots of different markets.

This will allow you to become an expert in your chosen currencies and subsequently — will give you a much better chance of correctly predicting whether the exchange rate is likely to rise or fall in the near future. This is because the broker is responsible for connecting you to the forex markets and thus — will execute your trading positions on your behalf.

Taking the above factors into account, below you will find a selection of top-rated forex brokers — all of which are ideal for beginners.

With more than 20 million people using the platform to trade — eToro is now one of the largest and most popular brokers in the online space. In particular, the broker offers around 50 forex markets — covering a wide selection of major, minor, and exotic pairs.

When it comes to fees, you can trade forex on a spread-only basis. On top of forex, the eToro platform is also home to a number of alternative asset classes. This included thousands of shares from 17 international stock exchanges, as well as commodities, indices, cryptocurrencies, and ETFs.

If you are interested in the previously discussed Copy Trading tool — which allows you to access the forex arena passively, eToro is the best broker for the job. The platform is home to thousands of verified forex investors and you can use the Copy Trading tool fee-free.

There are also a number of CopyPortfolios that are professionally managed by eToro, albeit, these are more suited to long-term investments.

Sadly, due to how tricky these markets are, many traders fail and end up selling courses to try and recoup some of their losses in the markets. Although currencies can be volatile, violent gyrations like that of the aforementioned Swiss franc are not that common. I would highly recommend learning about the Dunning-Kruger effect as this is incredibly prominent in the forex industry with beginner traders. Forex Course. This is because exotics offer more trading opportunities as they are much more volatile than their major and minor counterparts. Your email address will not be published. Can I make money trading forex options?

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