Forex Simulator Soft4FX

I have matched up with at least 9 gorgeous Chinese women from Hong Kong or Singapore who seem to follow a similar pattern, so I think this must be a scam. I wasn’t foolish enough to go all the way through with this to verify, but I figured someone else has and can validate my suspicions.

1. Chinese girl matches with you - not in your geographic area
2. Chinese girl is always young, beautiful, and wealthy (lifestyle includes golfing, high fashion brands, expensive resorts in photos)
3. Chinese girl asks you for your WhatsApp almost immediately; she sends messages daily and even throws in some cute videos or pics to bait you. She may occasionally actually call you for a brief moment (to make you think it is a real woman but I suspect there is one girl calling hundreds of guys for a minute per guy)
4. She asks you about your profession or business if you have one and says she does something very similar (to build trust and affinity)
5. She casually brings up Forex trading and says she makes lots of money trading Bitcoin - USD or some other variation on forex
6. She tells you to try it, that she will teach you how or even offers to introduce you to her teacher She will send you screen shots of her earnings (one woman sent me a screen shot showing she made $75,000 on a trade)
7. Once you agree and download MetaTrader 4 as instructed (even though there is a Version 5 out), she directs you on when to execute sample trades (usually late at night during HK or Singapore opening hours)
8. After you do several simulations (mine generated up to $14,000 per trade in profit), she asks how much you will invest in real money. She or her teacher suggest you start with $50,000 USD or more.
9. If you prove useless or say you are not interested, she will stop contacting you.

Last week I got laid off from my job (which I kind of engineered, to be honest) and I have bee interested in forex since November. I have been lurking on this sub since then and have gained a good amount of value from the posters and recommendations I have found.
​
Right now, I'm working my way through babypips course, I'm on the undergraduate section. Unemployment pays me enough to cover all my living expenses as long as I don't do something stupid, and I have $6k saved up from last year to trade with when I am ready. No debt, and I can collect for 6 months max, after which time I must be profitable to not have to go back to working construction (I am a plumber by trade). I must be able to clear about $3k per month after taxes in order to live an acceptable lifestyle.
​
I feel optimistic because this week I have replenished my Metatrader simulation account back to 10k, where I started. When I was just learning and practicing, I was down to 6k, which was a month ago. This is the first week I have been able to trade full time, and already I see many opportunities and systems I can create. I mostly like to trade trends, with some breakouts in specific cases, like news events. I plan to go live when my practice account is at 20k, and I have polished my trading strategies. Of course, I will repeat the babypips course once again, maybe two more times even.
​
In addition, over these next six months, I am looking at branching out into several different areas to enhance my trading abilities. For example, I have an idea to create a fundamental economic matrix in Excel with weighted values on each different aspect, such as interest rates, GDP growth, etc. In addition, I am considering learning some coding to at least set up my own alerts. Also, I believe some mathematical/probability courses might be beneficial, but I don't really know where to start with that (I have done some college, no more than Calc 1 though).
​
So far, a combination of fundamentals with technical appeals to me, although I would consider myself more of a technical trader. Do you guys have any recommendations for further education? More importantly, are my goals within my timeframe even possible?

Hey all, First time poster, long time lurker. Just learning until I think of useful/interesting post. I just finished Babypips school. No this isn’t another, “What do I do next?!” eager to consume posts. More just introducing myself and share methods as I progress and chat more in this sub. It’s been a super helpful research tool with just the sidebar alone, but the interactions are also generally positive and research engaged. Forex was on my list of active/sidehobby/internet ideas to try. (Along with selling on Ebay and learning/teaching languages) I’ve always been into stocks/finance and I’m open still open to continuing learning past forex into futures and/or cryptocurrency. Forex to me is kind of an intro to price action and charts for me. Also the physics of it all that I’m hoping to apply more as time goes on. Anyways , started forex 2 years ago. Saw I needed disposable income you could lose (which I didnt have at the time) and put it off. Now I’m about 3 months in with my rediscovery of it with a lot more financial cushion/discipline.I finished the babypips school and try to practice 25-45 mins a day of something forex related the last 90 days or so. Here is my routine and some things I”ve learned since starting.
Demo Trading is overrated. And then it becomes the best thing ever. I’m gunna just go out and say it. IF you’re trading for 9 months on demo you should’ve stopped 8 months ago. I mean don’t get me wrong 9 months, that shows alot of persistence in your habits, but you’re spending time on a variable that doesn’t exchange certainty in the real system. I only even say this because you could be like me. Trade demo all this time then find out the leverage you wanted isn’t even available in your country. (U.S here) So I felt like a dummy from the jump, but that’s part of the learning curve you should be doing sooner rather than later. This does not mean fund your account fully. No, put just $200. I trade with my initial capitol @ $200 and I won’t add a penny more until I’ve developed a profitable system with what’s already in there. A good investment is a good investment and throwing more money doesn’t actually add value to the growth return on your investment.(In most cases) So what’s the big deal with Demo? Well for one you want to work with a system that’s tangible in your country. U.S is capped at 1:50 leverage. I don’t know other countries regulations but it’s something I wish someone told me to look out for before I started testing financial strategies. Another thing is the spreads are often very different from what you find in demo (attention scalpers out there) sometimes dramatically. (After NY close of the day /Weekends ) You have to implement all of these factors to your strategy. Now what is demo good for? Starting out! Learning how to set indicators, trades, stop losses and so on. I’d say 60 days max if you can’t donate much time. Even less than 60 days if you have more free time but then after that it’s time to get your feet wet. One other good thing about demo accounts is that it allows you to practice fundamentally different trading ideas out before trying them out on your actual account. An example would be a scalper trying a new position strategy he learned in demo to set some long term positions next year. I enjoy trading because it’s a discipline on your anxiety. When you deposit your first amount, any amount that's more than a new video game or dvd collection, your brain is going to fire off “Hey you bought something new that can make money let’s test it out! It could be making you money” You have to calm this voice first. IF you even can. This voice makes you check the charts 3x more than you did in demo and caused at least me to trade just so the money’s not going to waste. I lost 40% of my account the first week. I would’ve called myself mentally stable before this too. But that voice broke me and you have to confront it because it’s the impatience in all of us and causes you to force your view of the markets to fit your system. Demo is a great tool but shouldnt be held on longer than it’s purpose.
Immersion This is going to be a little shorter than my last topic because this is more something everyone has to find and listen to. Don’t just study the same website or forum for forex everyday. Try to get a wide view of the financial markets as a whole and various media input. Subscribe to a couple good youtube channels maybe a visual representation of what you’ve been learning could help solidify it. Maybe a podcasts personality makes your brain react differently to topics where a bland textbook reading didnt excite you the same. Watch a documentary on trading one week and hell maybe even Wolf of Wall Street another week, whatever it is that gets your whole body involved in the feeling of trading so 1) you don’t get burned out on the topic and 2) you find more ways to connect with the information you find. Whether emotional or visually. Here are two recommendations of channels that help me break the norm of my study routine:
“Two Blokes Trading” Podcast I discovered these guys a while back in a comment thread. I would recommend this podcast to beginners because you can start from the very beginning of their series and learn with them. They’re young, enthusiastic and open to exploring alot of areas to trading and different philosophies. So sometimes you can find gems in subjects you didn’t expect to encounter. They also bring in advisors and brokerage managers to feature on their subjects. And it’s not all forex focused. Check them out: http://twoblokestrading.com/podcast-episodes/
Barry Burns “Top Dog Trading” Barry Burns I like because you have him walking you through the charts on youtube. One of the few videos I watched on Price action were by him where the lightbulb went off. He offers a great free resource and sometimes I even feel guilty getting it on youtube for free before sharing it because it feels like the things he touches on and how he explains them, even paid classes probably couldn’t get right. He has so many videos on different markets and how to read them just apply them to the type of trader you are. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcjyImdSWDTCGCa7G24faIQ
Routine ( final topic on this post) So every week I try to keep a basic routine of forex and ways to practice. I try to wake up early as I’m on the Pacific Coast so I get up 2 hours early before I have to head to work. 20-30 mins of this time I do something related to forex education. The rest of the time I gather my foundation for the week and arrange goals / meditate/ journal. I’ll look at the charts, when I still had Babypips to finish I’d set a time and study through what I could of the course through that time. Now that I’m finished I’ll either check this sub, watch a video/podcast or try to read something related fundamentally to trading or finance. (I’d like to get some more book ideas about trading and it’s psychology) So that’s one habit. You’ve got to be able to at least schedule 20-45 minutes a day to consistent study + practice time to acquire new skills. 20 minutes uninterrupted is enough. Wake up early if you have to. Then throughout the day you’ll find time to reflect or research more and soon the time will start to add up. This also works on the other extreme too. If you have alot of free time I’d say starting out 1 hour to 2 hours max is what you should dedicate to studying. Forex is a very mentally fatiguing process skill. You’ve got to let your brain recharge (need those MP potions it seems) the whole currency system is heavy and complex enough that starting from scratch you couldn’t learn everything in 24 hours straight. I’d say even a week straight wouldn’t work. It takes time and a habitual familiarity. It’s not dissimilar to learning a language. Where concepts become stacked on a foundation of understanding to be acted upon through your day to day. Even if you can name all the working parts, experience build with how much time you think in that language per day. There’s a reason I chose the word “Immersion” for my second topic. Moving along. Another part of my routine is backtesting 40-50 trades a week of my strongest system. This equates to a little under 10 trades a day. I completely journal and track profits like they were live. Some suggest using a simulator, while that is a great practice for timing entries, I’ve found just using the Metatrader 4 Desktop and using the F12 key to progress forward one tick at a time has been sufficient for my backtesting needs. Backtesting gives you an opportunity to practice way more trades in a week than live session will be able to provide. I’m using M15 - H1 intraday strategies and maybe pull off 5-6 trades a week. BUT I practice 10x that amount per week. Soon you’ll find your live performance is really only a display of how your last week backtesting went. It’s like football practice for the gameday. Now which system I test varies, like I said I’ll try my strongest, but that changes. Just grab any system you think you can pull off and backtest it. Babypips gave me my first few, then I created some ridiculous ones, but over time your experience of a system and how to get them to work for you grows by running test trades. Systems I’ve found and backtested that are online are: the “So Easy It’s Ridiculous” system and the Cowabunga System, both found on babypips and a simple google search. Easy. I know, and really a system is just supposed to make having trading decisions easier for you. But your participation and exit are equally important. Can you follow easy rules you or others make? No questions asked?
So that concludes my post. I hope in the future when I’ve backtested 1,000 trades I can post some of my personal systems I’ve followed, right now they feel to amateur to even share. I am the humble fool, so any ideas on my style or feedback on where I should head are greatly appreciated. I’m open to questions and dialogue so feel free to send a PM or comment. Hearing from other traders is the reason I even started this account to post and interact. This post and future ones I have planned are kind of a new element I wanted to try of journaling that allows me some social accountability and feedback from a community rather than all my entries being hoarded in my notebooks, so my apologies if it’s more wordy than usual on here. Thanks everyone and have fun!
-AP
TL:DR Just browse over the bold sections

If you guys could post other things that you've found useful too, that'd be great.

• Earnfx position size calculator for MT4 - download it and the script, set it up with hotkeys, and edit the default parameters of the indicator in metaeditor (eg. set the default risk size, commission sizes, etc). I've got it set up as follows: Ctrl+Q brings up the indicator. Then I drag and drop the entry, TP and SL lines. Once they're in the right spot, Alt+Q submits the order. Very fast, very easy. I cannot recommend this enough.
  
• R multiple measuring tool (modified fib retracement tool) - useful for assessing trades. Learn about R multiples here. Learn how to set up the tool here.
  
• Change the timeframe of all your open charts using keyboard shortcuts - useful if you have your charts tiled and want to assess lower and higher timeframes quickly and easily.
  
• Mobile MT4 app - Be notified when you get filled on a pending order without having to watch that chart. Get alerts on your mobile through the MT4 app by connecting it to your MT4 pc platform. Find your MetaQuotes ID in your pc platform (Options>Notifications>Enable), then type it into the mobile app under Settings>Messages>MetaQuotes ID.
  
• Edgewonk (or just a comprehensive excel journal) - extremely useful paid software for journaling. See my post here for details about journaling.
  
• Myfxbook - everyone's favourite website to track their trading performance. Note that it generally sucks for strategy refinement, and thus it's not a substitute for a proper trading journal.
  
• Darwinex - Another useful analytical tool, similar (imo superior) to myfxbook. Just set up an account and link your trading account from your broker. Can also be used to obtain trading capital if you've got a nice track record.
  
• ShareX - the best free program for taking and sharing screenshots of trades. Very powerful and extremely customisable.
  
• Equity curve simulator - play around with this to see how your win rate, risk:reward ratio, and risk per trade all interact with each other. Pay close attention to the max drawdown figures.
  
• Chat with Traders podcast - for keeping you entertained and not taking random trades when you're bored
  

Currently running MetaTrade 4 on Bionic Beaver through WINE.
Seems to run okay. Gets a little chunky at times when I'm pushing it a bit. I'll post my basic hardware specs at the bottom, but they shouldn't be the issue. I suppose WINE is bottlenecking my performance somehow; more specifically:
I'm trying to run a plugin for MT4 called Soft4FX. The plugin seems to boot up fine, but once I actually ask it to start doing something (likely resource intensive), it locks up within about 5-10 seconds. Ubuntu keeps running fine, but it freezes my application in WINE.
The fact that Ubuntu keeps running smooth, but this program starts locking up seems to suggest to me that the plugin/application is demanding too much ram/vram/etc for WINE to tolerate and it's causing it to lock up. Also it could because I'm missing some bit like DirectX9 or w/e (I'm still really new to Ubuntu and I'm even newer to WINE). Or maybe it's some type of Kernal issue or something--this all isn't my area of expertise, I'm pretty new on Linux.
I know just enough about this stuff to get myself in trouble, basically, so if you have some good ideas why this is happening, I'd love to hear from you. I also might need you to be very specific with your reply, you probably shouldn't assume that I know anything. I'm very convinced that this isn't an issue with MT4 or Soft4FX, but a WINE issue. I am also convinced that it's likely something very small, but a matter of isolating what it is.
Thanks in advance!
Likely relevant hardware specs (mainly to confirm that there's not a hardware limitation, I assume)
i7 4790k
16gb RAM
Nvidia 1080ti
running on a solids state.
​
Edit:
If it helps, these are the requirements listed on the Soft4FX website (the plugin that's crashing everything)

Requirements

• Microsoft Windows 7/8/10
• Installed Metatrader 4 (not Metatrader 5) - where to get MT4
• 4 GB of RAM
• Internet connection (the faster the better - downloading tick data may be time-consuming)
• Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5 (Check and install)
• Recommended: a few GB of free hard disk space for storing downloaded tick data
• Recommended: Full HD screen

​
Second Edit:
I managed to get net framework installed (I think) and it didn't really seem to change anything. Having the same issues. I reinstalled wine also and I believe I have the most up to date version currently. Also no noticeable effects. Still thinking there's some resource limit being hit.

I was interested in forex for a while and today, after a bit of research, I decided to trade on a simulation. With the metatrader program I had a real nice result so I thought that it might be something about the simulation. My question is is there any huge latency or commissions when trading for real?

Hey guys! I found a super cool list of everything a new forex trader would need to get started! Originally made by to nate1357. Link to original thread http://redd.it/328cjr
Free Resources
Education:
www.babypips.com/school
www.informedtrades.com/f7
www.forex4noobs.com/forex-education
www.en.tradimo.com/learn/forex-trading
www.youtube.com/useTheTradeitsimple
www.traderscalm.com
www.orderflowtrading.com/LearnOrderFlow.aspx
www.profitube.com
Calendars:
www.forexfactory.com/calendar.php
www.dailyfx.com/calendar
www.fxstreet.com/economic-calendar
www.forexlive.com/EconomicCalendar
www.myfxbook.com/forex-economic-calendar
www.investing.com/economic-calendar
Free News Websites:
www.forexlive.com - Daily live news, analysis and resources
www.financemagnates.com - FX industry news and updates
www.fxstreet.com - Daily news, analysis and resources
www.forextell.com
www.forexcup.com/news
www.bloomberg.com/markets
Forums:
www.reddit.com/forex
www.forums.babypips.com/
www.forexfactory.com/forum.php
www.elitetrader.com/et/index.php
www.forex-tsd.com/
www.fxgears.com/forum/index.php
www.trade2win.com/boards
Margin / pip / position size calculators
www.myfxbook.com/forex-calculators
Brokerages:
There are many factors to consider when choosing a brokerage. Regulations typically force US traders to only trade at US brokerages, while international traders have more choice. After considering location you need to consider how much capital you will start trading with as many have minimum deposit levels. Once you’ve narrowed that down you can compared spreads and execution. ECN brokers execute your orders straight through to their liquidity providers, while market maker brokers may pair up your trades with other clients. Market maker brokers typically will partially hedge your positions on the interbank market. Many consider this to be a conflict of interest and prefer to trade at an ECN broker who would have an active motive to see you succeed. Lastly, brokers run inherently risky business models so it is important to consider the risk of bankruptcy.
www.forexpeacearmy.com - Aggregates broker reviews. Be warned though that people only seem to make bad reviews.
www.myfxbook.com/forex-broker-spreads - Live comparison of executable spreads
United States & International-
-Interactive Brokers

• ECN. Used most by professional traders. Difficult platform for beginners
• Tight spreads
• Minimum deposit $10000 (or $3,000 if under 25yo) * Well diversified -Oanda
• Market maker. Second largest retail FX brokerage in the US. Easy platform for beginners.
• Fair spreads
• No minimum deposit
• Not well diversified, but well capitalized -Gain Capital (whitelabel forex.com) *Market Maker *Fair spreads *Minimum deposit $250 *Well diversified -FXCM Inc
• ECN. Largest retail FX brokerage in the US
• Tight spreads
• Minimum deposit $2000
• Not well diversified. CAUTION: FXCM nearly went bankrupt in Jan-2015 due to a lack of diversification and low capitalisation. As a result FXCM LLC was bailed out with a large loan which may prove difficult to pay back. Be warned that their business may not be sustainable in the long term. -MBTrading
• ECN. Mid-sized retail FX brokerage
• Fair spreads
• Minimum deposit $400
• Well diversified.

International Only-
-LMAX (whitelabel DarwinEx)
*DMA broker based in the UK. Note that as a DMA broker LMAX eliminates the ability for LPs to last-look transactions. This may result in reduced liquidity during volatile times as liquidity providers would be likely not to risk posting liquidity to LMAX's pool. *Tight spreads *Minimum deposit $10,000 *Fairly well diversified
-Dukascopy
*ECN based in Switzerland, but available elsewhere depending on local regulations.
*Tight spreads *Minimum deposit $100 *Fairly well diversified
-IC Markets *ECN based in Australia *Fair spreads on standard account, tight spreads on professional accounts. *Minimum deposit $200 *Fairly well diversified
-Pepperstone
*ECN broker based in Australia. *Fair spreads on standard account, tight spreads on professional accounts. *Minimum deposit $200 *Not well diversified
Software / Apps:
Desktop/mobile

• Apps are typically broker dependent. Some brokers have their own proprietary software, while others lease common software like Metatrader or NinjaTrader. Some software has a large development community for indicators and EAs.
  
• https://www.tradingview.com/ - Great for HTML5 browser based charting and alerts
  

Terminology/Acronyms:
www.forexlive.com/ForexJargon - Common terms and acronyms
FAQ:
I need to exchange money, how do I do it?
This isn’t what this sub is for. Your best bet is using your bank or an online exchange service. Be prepared to pay a hefty fee.
I have money in one currency and need to exchange it into another sometime in the future, should I wait?
Don’t ask us this. We speculate intraday in FX and shouldn’t be relied on to tell you what’s best for you. Exchange the money when you need it.
I have an FX account, should I start trading demo or live?
This is highly debatable. You should definitely demo trade until you have mastered how to use the trading platform on desktop and mobile. After that it’s up to you. Many think that the psychology of trading live vs demo trading is massively different. So it may pay to learn to trade live. Just be warned that most FX traders lose almost their entire first account so start with a low affordable balance.
What’s money management?
Money management is a form of risk management and is arguably the most important aspect of your trading when it comes to long term survival. You should always enter trades with a stop loss - the distance of the stop allows you to calculate how large of a percent of your account balance will be lost if your trade stops out. You can run a monte carlo simulation to figure out the risk of having a number of trades go against you in a row to drain your account. The general rule is that you should only risk losing 1-4% of your account per trade entered.
More on this here: www.investopedia.com/articles/forex/06/fxmoneymgmt.asp[35]
www.swing-trade-stocks.com/money-management.html[36]
What about automated trading?
Retail FX traders have been known to program “Expert Advisors” (EAs) to automate trading. It’s generally advisable to stay away from that until you’re very experienced. Never buy an EA from a developer because the vast majority of them are scams.
What indicators are best?
That’s up to you to test and find out. Many in this forum dislike oscillating indicators since they fail to capture the essence of what moves price. With experience you will discover what works best for you. In my experience indicators that are most popular with professional traders are those that provide trading “levels” such as pivot points, fibonacci, moving averages, trendlines, etc.
What timeframe should I trade?
Price action can vary in different timeframes. In longer term timeframes the price action and fundamentals are much more clear. Unfortunately it would take a very long time to figure out whether or not what you’re doing is successful on longer timeframes. In shorter timeframes you can often tell very quickly if what you’re doing is profitable. Unfortunately there’s a lot more “noise” on these levels which can prove deceptive for those trying to learn. Therefore the best bet is to use a multi-timeframe analysis, working from top-down to come up with trades.
Should I trade using fundamental analysis (FA) of technical analysis (TA)?
This is a long standing argument in these forums and elsewhere. I’ll settle it here - you should have an understanding of both. Yes there are traders who blindly ignore one of the other but a truly well rounded trader should understand and implement both into the analysis. The market is driven in the longer term through FA. But TA is necessary to give traders a place to enter and exit trades from a psychological risk/reward standpoint.
I’ve heard trading Binary Options is an easy way to make money?
The general advice is to stay away from binaries. The structure of binary options is so that when you lose the broker wins. This incentive has created a very scammy industry where there are few legitimate binary options brokers. In addition in order to be profitable in binaries you have to win 55-65% of the time. That’s a much higher premium over spot FX.
Am I actually exchanging currencies?
Yes and no. Your broker handles spot FX is currency pairs. Although they make an exchange at the settlement date they treat your position in your account as a virtual currency pair. Think of it like a contract where you can only buy or sell it as a pair. In this sense you are always long one currency while short another. You are merely speculating that one currency will appreciate or depreciate vs another.
Why didn't my order fill?
Even if price appears to cross over a line on your chart it does not guarantee a fill. Different charting platforms chart different prices - some chart the bid price, some the ask price and some the midpoint price. To fill a limit order price needs to cross your limit's price plus the spread at the time that it is crossing. If it does not equal or exceed the spread then it will not fill. Be wary that in general spreads are not fixed. So what may fill at one time may not at another.