Is it really possible to make a living trading currencies online?

5 Answers

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   Panda Ken on Aug 17, 2011

   Trading isn’t going to give you consistent income. There’s always risk, especially with the crazy leverage in currencies. Also, if you’re just starting out, you can expect to lose for a few years before you catch your stride and start making money.

2. 
   

   
   

   djramon1 on Aug 17, 2011

   I am not that a financial expert so my contribution is just a personal opinion. I had considered this but read on the internet that this is a bit risky and that you need to really know what you are doing. As you might know currency fluctuates constantly so you need to time things right

3. 
   

   
   

   Joe on Aug 17, 2011

   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:

4. 
   

   
   

   Henry Smith on Aug 17, 2011

   it is possible, but really difficult. And sometimes it depends on the market situation.

5. 
   

   
   

   Adi on Aug 17, 2011

   First let me tell you that I trade forex / currency for income. I started during college so your condition is similar to mine.

   Let me be honest with you. Trading FX is NOT easy. There’s no easy way to go around it and there’s definitely NO shortcut to immediately make income. You need research, understanding of fundamental and technical aspects, good money management and tested methodology. What I mean by tested methodology is NOT JUST tested entry and exit points, but also YOUR BELIEFS about the market. You MUST understand yourself BEFORE you start working on the market.
   For example:
   If see a price goes into a new high, what will you do? You sell or buy? Your answer depends on your beliefs about the market. Whether you sell of buy depends on your view (OPINION). FACT: Anything can happen.
   Once you begin trading, you’ll see what I mean.

   And NO, you CANNOT do this part time. Depending on what kind of trader you are: intra-day or medium term (swing) or long term trader (trend), you will need at least 5-8 hours or (usually) more in a day. It’s a WORK. It need DEDICATION like any other work out there.

   It’s true when people say that most forex traders lose money. That’s because most so-called ‘traders’ do not have the discipline to treat trading professionally and simply consider it like a ‘guessing game’ or poker or roulette… Like one of the responder said, you can guess what happen to an amateur trying to win over the ‘smart’ guys; like a duck waiting to be fried.

   Believe me, if you are not prepared to spend the first 6 months just learning about yourself, another 6 months to learn about the nature and systems in FX PLUS another 6 months to try DEMO before trading live, DON’T DO IT. It’s a waste of time and money.

   I can say this because I started just like you and along the way, I lost 90% of my account before beginning to make money. And that took almost 2 years of stressful pressure, self-sabotage and many sleepless nights.

   On the bright side, you can actually make money from this by a way that logically make sense. Facts:
   1. You don’t have a 50/50 chance in trading forex. You can score even less because your broker charges you with ‘spread’.
   2. You don’t need a 50/50 chance to make money in FX. Why? If you can maintain a risk-to-reward ratio with the potential reward more than 3 times the risk, you can make money. (If you don’t understand what I’m saying, most probably you will need a lot work).
   3. You treat FX as business, and it will give you an income like a business would, which is not constant.
   4. Most people lose money, if you can win, their money is yours.
   5. There’s no easy money. If it’s so easy, everyone can be rich. If it’s too easy, it’s a scam.
   6. There’s no godlike method to make you win all the time. If you like winning so much, it’s not for you.

   If you’re still willing, I can recommend several books to get you started which I have read myself:
   1. Super Trader by Van Tharp
   2. Forex Patterns and Possibilities by Ed Ponsi

   Recently I started blogging, you can find my blog at crossover-financial-education.com. It’s NOT commercial. Think again: do you have the endurance and willpower to succeed whatever it takes?