Cobitfx Trading Forex - How Good are Professional Traders?

Most of these people are, or have been, professional traders passing their experiences to others.

Professional traders come in a few categories. Some are independent, trading mostly their own accounts or small pools of money. In this category, we can find hedge fund traders, CTA's, and other money managers for large, commercial pools. Last but not least is bank traders, who trade bank money, not just market makers.

It is difficult to obtain any reliable information about independent traders' results. Banks often do not disclose trading results, or they don't single out currency operations from other earnings. Only hedge funds and other money management institutions disclose results, as they should since that is how they attract new clients. These are generally the only reliable figures for the trading public to have access to and compare their own achievements.

Some programs, which specialize in the single currency, can possibly relate to an index of a given currency, like the Dollar Index, but by and large, most trading takes place across a broader spectrum of Forex. That's why the comparison of results is done simply in percentages of total returns.

London England compiles Barclay Currency Trading Index. The index comprises results achieved by a wide range of professional, Cobitfx Forex-only trading programs and is reported monthly. As of this writing, in early October 2018, there were 145 entities included in the index. These are both spot and futures trading currency funds. The index is equally weighted and is a good proxy of Forex trading pros.

Year to date in 2018 the returns are meager 1.09%. That's right, only one percent. This follows 2.59% in 2017. The years before were even worse, with 2016 showing a loss of 0.12% and 2015 also negative 1.61%. In fact, in the last 10 years, there was only one period when the index showed gains of more than 10%. This was in 2013 when the reported return stood at 11.08%. Pretty bleak picture.

We have all seen or heard all kinds of outrageous claims made by promoters of Forex products. A lot of them promise easy money with minimum or no work. Reality is much harsher. Results reported by institutional professionals should be a clear indication that trading is much more difficult than it appears or is presented.

That is not to say making money trading currencies is impossible for an individual. One can be successful even significantly better than Barclay Currency Trading Index. It takes patience and discipline, a sound trading model, and strong money management, but with time, there is no reason why a devoted trader shouldn't outperform this index on regular bases.