It's a profession. Although we traders do not create anything valuable, we are simply speculators. We are the ones who increase the liqudity at markets. So what I think trading is not an art, neither science, its a profession which could be learn. Only a few manage to reach the point when they become full-time traders, but its an another topic.

Anyway its interesting.

Hi Richde. Welcome to fxstat. You really did a speedy posting :).

Interesting topic  but its hard to say what is it actually..... how it can be a profession. More than 80% of the traders loose because they do not have knowledge. Maybe a few professional traders take it as a profession. I agree with "art of trading" to some extent because Knowledge is available on internet about everything. So many traders with the same knowledge cannot produce same results. We can say that it is the problem in implementation of that knowledge. A profession is something else where you need professional skills to be able to perform a job. In forex trading most of the traders are not at all professional so I cannot categorize it in profession.

I am still thinking what is it exactly.

Hey, thanks for the welcome :).

I have to tell you I don't agree with you absoutely in your first lines. 80% of traders loose mostly because of the psychology, overtrading, overleveraged, greed, and not because they don't have the proper knowledge. It's an another thing they don't have a proper trading strategy which is backtested manually and don't have the rules, exact trading signals. Basically, the material of forex is not big.

Actually those are good points. I used the word "profession" because as I mentioned it could be learn, and some of traders can make a living of it. I think in fx you have to have professional skills (bit different from other jobs) like loosing a lot of money in cold blood, avoid your feelings psycho, and so on and so on.

Basically the post topic should be Art vs Science vs Profession.

It is an art for those who do not have much knowledge about technical aspects of forex. They just view the trend of forex and trade according to that. If they succeed then it means they have the art of trading.

I cannot explain how we can classify it as a science but maybe mathematical aspect of forex (forecasting and analysing) can classify it as a science.

Professionalism is obviously present in forex trading. But only for those who are professional people. Percentage of professional traders is low. Most of the trading is done just by partial knowledge about trading.

After writing above lines, even I cannot conclude what the forex is actually.

80% of traders loose mostly because of the psychology, overtrading, overleveraged, greed, and not because they don't have the proper knowledge

Sasha......................you r confusing.

Originally posted by Sasha

Basically the post topic should be Art vs Science vs Profession.

It is an art for those who do not have much knowledge about technical aspects of forex. They just view the trend of forex and trade according to that. If they succeed then it means they have the art of trading.

I cannot explain how we can classify it as a science but maybe mathematical aspect of forex (forecasting and analysing) can classify it as a science.

Professionalism is obviously present in forex trading. But only for those who are professional people. Percentage of professional traders is low. Most of the trading is done just by partial knowledge about trading.

 After writing above lines, even I cannot conclude what the forex is actually.

very intersting addition with the topic i take trading as a art. not scince not a profession

Maybe trading is both an art and a science.

The ART, I think can be divided into two areas:

1) The trade setup, that being the drawing of trendlines, boxes, triangles and other candlestick patterns.

2) The actual placement of the entry stop and limit according to the previously recognised patterns and trendlines.

These things provide us with a picture of the market.

The SCIENCE

Trading using technical levels such as: support/resistance, fibonacci, pivots, Elliott Wave, etc for entries and exits.

Trading using this scientific and procedual approach is not exact, which, I suppose, is why we give room for market movement in our stops.

---

It is possible that traders can use one or the other or a combination of the two areas.

Originally posted by leebut

Maybe trading is both an art and a science.

The ART, I think can be divided into two areas:

1) The trade setup, that being the drawing of trendlines, boxes, triangles and other candlestick patterns.

2) The actual placement of the entry stop and limit according to the previously recognised patterns and trendlines.

These things provide us with a picture of the market.

 

The SCIENCE

Trading using technical levels such as: support/resistance, fibonacci, pivots, Elliott Wave, etc for entries and exits.

Trading using this scientific and procedual approach is not exact, which, I suppose, is why we give room for market movement in our stops.

---

It is possible that traders can use one or the other or a combination of the two areas.

i think still i consider myself in art categry dear.

its both art and science to me cuase knowlegde from both is needed

trading Forex is an art of looking market......... We need to look movement carefully, waiting for some hours before OP, choosing 1 or 2 right pair of many available pair,,, we also have handle our emotion.

Its all an art.... art of trading forex.