So I’ve been trading equities and options for a long time, but I’m fairly new to forex. I had a demo account for 2 months, during which I did very well. As soon as I switched to a real account (2 weeks ago), I feel like the forex market just halted; it’s basically just going sideways. I usually look at EUR/USD, NZD/USD, AUD/USD. Any suggestions? Is this a consolidation period?
Trading demo is totally different from real. Yeah demo is good for practicing your strategy, but you have 0 emotion attached to fake money. As soon as you get on a real account, your emotions start to kick in, especially in losses, which will make you start doing stupid and impulsive trades. This often results in your account going to 0 pretty fast.
@Nico
Yeah, so I’m a seasoned trader and, while emotions get the best of me sometimes, I’m trading with small enough lot sizes that my emotions don’t really enter the room. That’s my issue. I’ll trade 30,000 units, but with the lack of movement, it feels like there’s no money to be made.
@Devin
XAU/USD always moves a little bit more than the others. Personally, I don’t like to trade gold, but it’s always a good option. Or if forex is quiet, move to crypto or stocks. I started trading crypto 2 years ago (not shitcoins, I hate that) and I have been doing pretty well so far. If you aren’t doing it, I recommend trying; it’s fun and there’s always movement, which is nice, especially for scalping.
@Devin
I’ll give you the hot tip: All the biggest movements happen within the first hour of new market opening times. Do some research, make a list of global market opening times, converted to your own timezone, then watch the spikes happen. That’s when you’ll make your biggest profits. USD & JPY seem to be strongest on Mondays & Fridays from what I’ve seen. Midweek is always a bit slow & stagnant.
Try GBP/USD, GBP/JPY, EUR/JPY, XAU/USD. That will get the old pulse rising.
You are somewhat right. The market goes in waves of low to high volatility. December can be a slower time.
If you’re a seasoned trader, profitable in a slightly different market… why would you want to go trade something else? I don’t get it.
Kasey said:
If you’re a seasoned trader, profitable in a slightly different market… why would you want to go trade something else? I don’t get it.
The valuations and volatility are getting a little out of control in the equities market. What draws me to the forex market is that I have complete control over stop and profit taking versus the options market, where I go to bed at one price and wake up to a gap. Also, day trading restrictions.
NFP ahead, USD isn’t going to have huge breakouts anytime before that unless there’s really big news. Try to learn some fundamentals to complement TA. UJ has had some significant moves recently as people started to price in BOJ.
@Emory
Appreciate the input. Yeah, I’ve been diving pretty hard into the fundamentals (still very new). My wife thinks I’m crazy, but I love it.
USD/JPY was 149 yesterday, now it’s 151… Heck, even NZD/USD moved 50 pips since last night. If you like more risk, trade GBP/JPY. This is a perfect market, in my opinion.
Bro, GBP/JPY just moved 1% today, and in general, the market has been moving like crazy in the last few months. I see you don’t have experience in forex.
Shiloh said:
Bro, GBP/JPY just moved 1% today, and in general, the market has been moving like crazy in the last few months. I see you don’t have experience in forex.
Not enough. I’m working on it.
Have a look at the yen pairs, my man.
If there is high-impact news in that week ahead, there will usually be less volatility. It also depends on what session you trade on; later during market opening, there will be less volatility as well. Also, it’s the end of the year, so this is normal right now. It should get better next year.
All markets have these periods where they move sideways. That’s why you need to gather data over a few years to see how your pair reacts during different months. There is also such information available online, so you should study them before deciding to trade any pair.