Currency Trading Education – 70% of Forex Traders Fail But 30% Make Incredible Amounts of Money

When you hear numbers like 70% of Forex traders fail and that 30% not only succeed, but also make incredible amounts of money, how does this resonate with you? Does it make you want to run and try a more conventional form of trading such as stocks or bonds? Or does it “wet your appetite” and offer you the challenge you’ve been seeking?

I will admit when I initially read in article after article that 7 out of 10 people fail at Forex, I questioned how badly I wanted this. What made me ultimately change my mind? Regardless of how much I read, how often I switched money from this account to that account, my portfolio wasn’t growing and like millions of Americans, it lost money. The last two and a half years saw unprecedented losses in peoples’ hard earned retirement accounts. Whether we invested in pharmaceutical – usually a safe bet, overseas – another usual safe bet, we lost. Friends and family members alike reported having lost $20,000, $50,000, and $100,000 of their retirement money. At 45 or older I did the math; they’d have to work for the next 30 years to replace the losses. These are not people for whom wealth is something they’ve been striving. These are ordinary people with mortgages, kids in college or high school and thinking about college. These ordinary people have two modest cars and just want a little nest egg in their retirement.

I got frustrated, angry and eventually motivated. I, too, was tired of playing the game with my 401 (k), hoping to win and not lose my shirt or worse, my home. I began looking at the value of the dollar in comparison to the euro, the yen, etc. Out of this motivation was borne a feeling that I can’t lose – the alternative was the traditional method that was losing me and everyone I know our hard-earned money.

Indeed the numbers 7 out of 10 scared me. If the majority fails, what happens to the 30% that remain? Ah yes, this is what appealed to me. I asked myself what could be the difference between the majority and the minority? It had to be education. It had to be know-how. There had to be currency trading education out there for the novice who fears losing his or her shirt.

Forex trading is complicated and yet simplistic at the same time. Many like to use a “black box” while others rely on common sense, market trend indicators, determining when to enter and when to exit and mathematical equations. I am old school and tend to prefer good old-fashioned education to some electronic device that will somehow “see” things that I am unable. If I don’t understand the fundamentals, how can I know if my black box is working correctly? I am not trying to steer you in one direction over another. Even if you are one to rely on a black box to make your trades, I highly recommend you take a currency trading education course as well. 7 out of 10 odds seem to high for me to not know precisely what I am doing.