r/Forex

this is gonna sound dumb but stay with me.

i kept blowing small accounts on XAUUSD and blamed everything. spread, broker, "manipulation", my strategy. changed strategy like 4 times.

then i actually started logging my trades. nothing fancy just time, direction, and how i felt.

went back through [about 40] trades and the pattern was right there. almost every red trade was between [london open and the first NY hour]. thats it. same setup at 2pm was fine, same setup at [that hour] was a bloodbath. i was basically donating money in one window every day and had no idea because i never looked.

now i just dont trade [that window]. didnt touch my strategy at all. account finally stopped bleeding.

point is you probably dont need a new system. you need to look at what you already did. the answer is boring and its already in your history.

anyone else find a pattern like this once they actually tracked it? what was yours

I don't think it's due to traders taking extended holidays after the 4th of July since only Americans celebrate it?

PMI is at only at 10am ET & FED Waller is speaking at 11am ET so whats going on ?

Does anyone have a free funded account that they're not trading?

For like two years I did the classic loop: lose, blame the strategy, go find a "better" one, repeat. Indicators, sessions, new pairs — none of it stuck.

What actually moved the needle was embarrassingly boring. I started writing down 3 things after every trade:

1. Why I entered (the actual reason, not "it looked good")

2. How I felt taking it (calm / revenge / FOMO / bored)

3. Did I follow my plan — yes or no

I didn't even change my strategy. I just started reading my own notes at the end of each week.

The patterns showed up fast. Most of my damage wasn't coming from bad setups — it was the same 2-3 emotional trades every week. Tuesday revenge trades after a red Monday. Oversizing when I was "sure." Stuff I would've sworn I didn't do until it was written down in my own words.

Turns out I didn't have a strategy problem. I had a "me" problem, and I couldn't see it until I tracked it.

So genuine question for the ones who turned the corner: what was the boring habit that actually made you consistent? Not the strategy — the habit.

Just lost my funded account… I’m calm like never before guess I’m just overwhelmed my the stress that comes with losses… I’m not a bad trader I just suck at trade management…. Nothing pains more than hitting high RR on TradingView but MT5 doesn’t say same.. Damn I’m just 19 and I’m already tired…. I’ve already psyched my mind not to give up so the best thing is to just get ma self up…. Just need somebody to talk to cuz man ain’t go no gf nor friends

spent the last few months watching what actually separates traders who make it from the ones who dont, and its rarely the strategy itself. two people can run the exact same setup and one blows the account while the other scales up. the difference shows up before the trade even happens. tired from the week, still annoyed from the last loss, forcing size because the days been slow. none of that lives in the strategy. it lives in whatever state you were in right before you clicked buy or sell. most journals only capture what happened after entry, the price action, the r multiple, the exit. almost nobody tracks what was going on in their head five minutes before. curious how many people here have actually gone back and compared their best week to their worst week and found the setups were nearly identical, just you werent

Executive Snapshot

The upcoming week centers on services activity, policy communication and labor market conditions, with central bank guidance remaining a key driver of cross-asset positioning.

Markets will closely monitor US services activity, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand decision, the FOMC Minutes and Canadian employment data, while remarks from Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey provide additional insight into the evolving policy outlook.

Markets will trade the sequence from US activity data through monetary policy communication and finally labor-market validation as a test of whether growth momentum remains strong enough to sustain current policy expectations.

The key dynamic remains the interaction between growth expectations, central bank guidance, real yields and USD direction.

The sequence ultimately determines whether growth, policy and labor conditions remain aligned enough to sustain current market pricing.

Firstly, I myself did backtesting on 3-5 years worth of data and realized how much the session indicator has been carrying me. I'm sure most of you already heard/seen/knows what the NY 9:30 am setups are. It's sort of like a foundation for some traders here.

I personally have a session indicator which marks out the time for my setup. Came to realized that while I was front and back testing. Within the months of NY Standard times, if I kept my setup around the usual 9:30 am NY time setup. My trades will go very wrong. However, during DaylightSavings months, 9:30 am NY setups will go back to usual business.

(Why I said that my session indicator has helped me is because it self-adjusted to mark out the time for my setup 1 hour before and usual time depending on standard time and daylight savings)

I am curious for this information. Would like to understand more about this from you guys who are more knowledgable.

I've been developing and refining a Supply & Demand strategy for about 2 years, and I finally have a version that's showing promising results in backtesting.

The core idea is simple:

Determine HTF bias using Supply & Demand.

Wait for price to tap a valid HTF zone.

Drop to the lower timeframe for confirmation (market structure shift + imbalance/FVG).

Enter only after confirmation, aiming for around 3R or better.

Also i use HTF liquidity sweep

My question is:

Can a Supply & Demand strategy with a proven edge become completely useless over time because of changing market conditions?

I'm not talking about normal drawdowns. I mean, can market structure change enough that a strategy which worked for years no longer has an edge?

If you've experienced this, how did you know it was the strategy that stopped working rather than just variance or a losing streak?

I'd appreciate hearing from traders with several years of experience.

And it it changes how do we cope with it making new strategy again???

I’m a new trader, been live trading since January. Just curious how are experienced traders finding these markets? Seeing that a lot of people are saying they are difficult.

I’m up 10R since I started tracking my stats since May, I don’t think this is awful tbh.