r/askforex

Hi guys,

I started trading 6 months ago I wouldn’t say I’ve got a strategy, I revenge trade a lot, I’ve lost £5000 in live accounts and blown over 100+ in funded accounts. I know now that’s for me it’s more my psychology than anything. Although I still don’t get trading till today, I know some things but I have a lot to learn and until I don’t master learning trading or a strategy I won’t get far but I don’t want to give up. Can anyone recommend YouTubers or anything educational that will help me with the basics of trading? I’ve been trading gold and that’s the only one I’m comfortable with. If anyone can help out with free educational content and recommend me some to help me with my trading journey. Also what strategy is the best? Thank you

When I first started trading, I tried to keep things simple by focusing on a single market. It felt easier to build confidence without constantly switching between different assets. Over time, though, I found myself paying attention to opportunities outside my usual watchlist, and it made me wonder whether sticking to one market was causing me to miss out.

Now I see traders taking very different approaches. Some become experts in one asset class and rarely look elsewhere, while others spread their attention across crypt0, forex, stocks, CFDs, and other markets to diversify their opportunities and adapt to changing conditions.

I'm interested in how your own approach has evolved. Do you still focus on one market, or have you gradually expanded into others? If you've made the switch, what pushed you to do it, and has it improved your results or simply added more complexity?

Hi guys,

I started trading 6 months ago I wouldn’t say I’ve got a strategy, I revenge trade a lot, I’ve lost £5000 in live accounts and blown over 100+ in funded accounts. I know now that’s for me it’s more my psychology than anything. Although I still don’t get trading till today, I know some things but I have a lot to learn and until I don’t master learning trading or a strategy I won’t get far but I don’t want to give up. Can anyone recommend YouTubers or anything educational that will help me with the basics of trading? I’ve been trading gold and that’s the only one I’m comfortable with. If anyone can help out with free educational content and recommend me some to help me with my trading journey. Also what strategy is the best? Thank you

Years in and this is what it comes down to for me. Curious where other people have landed.

I’ve tested quite a few indicators over time, and some seem to create more confusion than clarity.

In your experience, which indicator is the most overrated, and why? Was it because of too many false signals, lag, or simply not fitting your trading style?

I’d love to hear real experiences rather than just the usual “it depends.”

I remember my first trading experience , it was in june 2021 . I was really exited , I spent nearly 4 months studying those famous strategies in youtube , and I knew that the first six months will be just about surviving and about losses .

First position , in eur/usd , a short before a retest at 19.10utc . After 40 min , boom! , 5% gone , i entered another one , boom! , another 5% , again , but this time i wanted to get back those losses and of course to be green for the day , and , yes , now i sized a lot , 20% that i was willing to lose and , i didn't fix my stop loss . That day , i experienced what the crowd call it revenge trading . But in my perspective , I came for the first time to face , an enemy that I didn't beleive that he was existing .

Dear mate , dear traders , especially the young and the begginer ones , after two consecutive losses , just turn off your laptop or your phone , and change the place directly .

What is the most underrated Forex concept that every beginner should master first?

I’ve noticed many traders keep adding more and more indicators, hoping they’ll finally find the “perfect setup.”

At what point do indicators stop helping and start creating confusion?
Do you rely on multiple indicators for confirmation, or do you think clean price action is enough?

Curious to hear what has actually worked for you over the long term.

Whether it’s price action, volume, moving averages, Fibonacci, market structure, or something else—what would you keep, and why?

The more I learn about trading, the more I feel that discipline matters even more than strategy. I’d love to hear different opinions from experienced traders.

Sometimes it feels like social media is full of people claiming they’re making money every single day, and it makes me wonder how realistic that actually is.
How many of you are consistently profitable, and how long did it take to get there? What was the biggest thing that changed your results?

I’d love to hear honest experiences from both profitable and struggling traders.

Hey everyone,

I'm 14 from India.

A few months ago I earned my first $30 online. Instead of buying something, I used it to purchase a $5k prop challenge.

I passed Phase 1.

Then I failed Phase 2.

At first I was frustrated, but looking back, it was probably the cheapest lesson I could've bought.

Since then I've completely changed how I approach trading.

Current rules:

• Trade only XAUUSD.
• Maximum 2 setup a day.
• Every trade is journaled.
• Every loss is classified as:
  • Execution mistake
  • Analysis mistake
  • Psychology mistake
• Backtesting before scaling.
• Focusing on expectancy instead of win rate.
• Learning prop firm rules (consistency, drawdown, etc.) before buying another challenge.

I'm not profitable yet, and I'm not here to pretend I am.

I'm trying to build a repeatable process before risking serious money.

For experienced traders:

1. What's the biggest weakness in my current approach?
2. What mistakes do young traders usually not realize they're making?
3. If you were 14 again, what would you focus on first?

Be as brutally honest as you want. I'd rather hear uncomfortable truths than comforting lies.

The hardest lesson I’m learning is that risk management matters more than finding the “perfect” strategy. A mediocre strategy with good risk management can outlast a great strategy with poor discipline. Do you agree? More money comes with more practice.

I personally found mine after watching hundred of YouTube videos and read tens of articles.

What about you ? How did you find yours?

Is trading prior structure alone even profitable anymore. Unlike when I first started out strong/smooth structures now fail to form and back when they did it was common/common enough among almost every pair so I didn't need to look at the short run with only a couple pairs to trade. I guess you have to know what's going on in news beyond frx factory or maybe its just a 5min issue.

Hey everyone,

I need some blunt, honest advice from experienced traders here, especially scalpers.

To give you some context: Technically, I know how to trade. I started out doing H4 swing trading on Forex pairs, and during that time, I actually managed to flip a tiny €30 personal account into €1,300. Since then, I’ve moved away from Forex pairs entirely because I prefer Gold (XAUUSD)—it’s just a great asset that fits my style perfectly.

My current approach is a thorough top-down analysis, but my execution is purely on the Gold M1 chart for scalping. My skill is definitely there: I’ve passed multiple 5k prop firm evaluations resulting in 2 payouts, and I’ve even managed to get 2 payouts on instant funding accounts, which have brutal consistency scores and rules. When my head is clear, the system works.

My problem is absolute self-destruction the moment emotions kick in.

I keep failing long-term because of my own brain. It usually goes like this: I start the session strong, making solid, disciplined profits. Then, one or two unlucky trades happen—for example, getting stopped out exactly at breakeven (BE) because of minor market noise, only for the market to immediately rocket perfectly into my intended target. In that exact moment, my head explodes.

My brain instantly switches into "combat mode." Within minutes, clean M1 execution turns into an uncontrollable gambling addiction. I start overtrading, revenge trading against the trend, and forcing huge lot sizes just to "win back" what the market "stole" from me. I sit there highly stressed for hours, getting massive brain fog, a splitting headache, and burning eyes—but I physically cannot stop or just close the laptop. I gamble until the accounts are blown.

To be completely honest, it’s breaking me mentally right now. I’m stuck in this toxic loop: I have these deep inner dreams of a better life and financial freedom, and I know my clear-headed analysis is sharp. But the constant cycle of building something up and then completely blowing it within minutes makes me feel like the whole thing is just pointless. It doesn't even feel like trading anymore; it feels like pure gambling. It’s incredibly frustrating to know you have the skill, yet you keep sabotaging your own life because you can't walk away from the screen.

I completely realize this isn't trading. I'm misusing the high volatility of Gold M1 as an emotional outlet, especially when everyday life stress is already high in the background.

My questions to you:

1. How did you learn professional detachment? How do you reach a point where the outcome of an individual trade (win or loss) means absolutely nothing to you emotionally, as long as you followed your top-down plan?
2. What hard limits do you use against this "addiction mode"? Do you use technical locks with your broker? Or do you have mental triggers that force you to shut down the PC after a frustrating BE stop-out or after a maximum of 1–2 hours?
3. How did you make the transition from an "emotional gambler" to a "cold executor" when the technical skill and historical proof of profitability were already there?

Thanks for your honest advice and experiences!

Biggest lesson for me this week.

Missing a trade costs nothing. Forcing one does.

Not every move is an opportunity. Not every entry model is a trade, if market conditions don't align with it.

Sometimes the best thing to do is to do absolutely nothing.

I’ve been trading for a little over a year now. I started by buying a course that covered a lot of ICT concepts like FVGs, Order Blocks, Dealing Ranges, and more. I spent a lot of time practicing everything I learned, but I could never consistently string together 3–4 winning trades.

Thinking the first course just wasn’t explained well enough, I bought another one with pretty much the same concepts. Unfortunately, it didn’t help much either. In total, I’ve bought six trading courses.

The last course was different. It focused on Order Flow, Supply & Demand, and Market Structure. Honestly, I felt much more comfortable with that approach, and it also fits my lifestyle a lot better. I still can’t consistently get 3–4 winning trades in a row, but I’m taking fewer stop losses than before, so I feel like I’m improving and that this approach actually works.

The thing is, every time I buy a new course, I can’t shake the feeling that consistently profitable traders are hiding something. It feels like there’s a missing piece that could make me profitable much faster, but nobody talks about it.

So my question is for traders who are consistently profitable:

Is there really something that most educators don’t teach, or is this just what the learning curve looks like?

I'm curious what people here think.

Not on paper. Not after 20 trades.

I mean over thousands of trades, with realistic spreads, commissions, slippage, and real market conditions.

If your answer is yes, have you actually seen one with a verified longterm track record?

Or do you think it's theoretically possible but extremely rare?

Id love to hear your experience.

Developed a trend-following algo (long only, higher timeframes H2-H4) that's already showing solid results on BTC-USD over the long run, but I have doubts about some functions/indicators - would really appreciate feedback from those in the know :)

Brief overview:

0. The algorithm's goal is to safely capture large trending moves in the traded asset. Returns - multiples above simple spot buying, risk - significantly lower than the asset's peak drawdowns. Designed for scaling capital over time and diversifying across low-correlation assets. Profitable runs don't happen often - the goal is not to miss them and to extract maximum profit.

1. Entry pattern is simple - price on the working timeframe closes above a specific MA + filter conditions are met = opens long at the next candle open.

2. Pyramiding along the trend -adding positions with fixed % risk — entry logic stays the same - to maximize profit. Max positions - 20 (but depends on the specific asset chosen).

3. Fixed % stop-loss, take-profit, moving stop-loss to breakeven, dynamic risk per trade in % - individual for each position (from 0.2% to 1%).

4. Exits - long holding periods and slow exits (using Chandelier Exit as it adapts to ATR + additional confirmation) - if price closes below it, by default 1 position is closed. The goal is not to exit too early and capture the trending move as fully as possible.

5. During low-volatility or choppy markets, additional protection comes from drawdown compression on account balance and stop-loss drawdown compression (using statistical patterns to go defensive when the market is awful, and restore risk when trend signs appear).

Questions and areas I'd like to improve:

1. Filtering entries during chop/ranging markets. Anyone have recommendations for good chop/low-volatility filters with reasonable lag that: filter out chop effectively, allow reasonably early trend detection + can be adapted to different trending assets. Timeframe H2-H4.

2. Filtering pyramiding entries. During position scaling, filters are also needed - the logic being that price shows signs of consolidation and trend continuation (typically looks like rally-consolidation-rally-consolidation...) and the goal is to reduce the number of entries during an already ongoing trending move.

If you know your stuff - comment or DM, happy to share insights, trying to build a top-tier algo for serious profits :)