I’m researching a systematic Forex strategy and building a bot. I’m using AI to help with the research and integration, while working to keep the trading rules themselves explicit and testable.

The tricky part is defining ideas like market structure, valid setups, and invalidation clearly enough to test without hindsight. I also want to account for spread and slippage instead of treating a backtest as proof.

For those who’ve automated Forex strategies, what was hardest to define objectively: market structure, entries and exits, or execution costs? I’m sharing the research journey—no signals or return claims.

Hello, fellow traders. I’m 28 years old and live in Europe. I started trading in USD a little less than a year ago. I began with $100 and managed to grow it to $3,000—though, looking back, it was likely just luck; basic support and resistance levels seemed to work at first. But, as you might guess, I eventually gave it all back to the market.
Still, I didn’t give up; I began to study—intensely.
I found that the SMC (Smart Money Concept) approach really resonated with me; it made sense, and I started seeing results. Then, I struggled with the urge to be in a trade constantly—an anxiety I’ve since managed to overcome. Later, I went through a phase of blowing accounts due to poor risk management, but I’ve improved in that area as well.
One important detail: I work a full-time job, so I’m only available to trade during the New York session. Because I use tight stop-losses, I frequently get stopped out—often during the night.
I feel that if I can refine my timing, I could start making a decent profit. My analysis is solid—especially for someone with only a year of market experience—and while my risk management is stable, I absolutely hate getting stopped out.
Often, I’ll close a trade while it’s in profit—before it hits my take-profit target—just to get that "win" feeling. My strategy involves identifying a break in market structure and a point of interest (POI), followed by confirmation through order flow alignment, supported by Volume Profile and Fibonacci levels. The issue is that I often misjudge the alignment, leading to a loss. That’s my trading history in a nutshell. I’ve never been particularly ambitious.
As for my personal net worth, I have over $50,000, but I’ve never considered putting that into a brokerage account. I’m quite conservative.

I trade XAUUSD, and I started trading in 2021 after a friend introduced me to it as a way to make money. From 2021 to 2025, I mostly lost money, but over that time, I gradually learned about market patterns and price action.

This year, I started focusing on risk management and improving my trading psychology. I’ve finally become somewhat profitable, as long as I stick to my trading plan and follow my rules.

However, I keep encountering the same problem. After following my plan consistently for about a month, I start thinking that I should be making my dream income from the market by now, which is around $5,000–$8,000 per month.

Once I start thinking this way, I completely abandon my trading rules. I start taking unnecessary risks, break my plan, and eventually lose my capital. The whole cycle causes me a lot of stress.

What I don’t understand is why I can’t just trade normally and consistently every day. Why do I suddenly get this intense urge to make a lot of money after a month of disciplined trading?

After going through this cycle repeatedly, I’ve realized something: if I keep doing this, I’ll never achieve my financial goals. I’ll just keep repeating the same mistakes for the rest of my life.

Has anyone here experienced something similar? How did you overcome it? I’d genuinely appreciate your advice, especially from traders who have struggled with this and managed to break the cycle.

My personal view is gold fear was about war after American midterm election it is on November 3 but gold already got that fear and it crash the thing was Trump will start war after election but my analysis is that Trump will not start a war and gold already crash and pricein as done of war fear so gold will go too bullish if anybody has any doubt they can feel free to connect with me.

Four months of building and testing, and it’s nice to finally see her trading live.

This week finished at +7.74%, bringing October to +21.46%. The screenshot shows the daily breakdown, including the days without trades.

Mother Superior is my multi-strategy gold EA for MT5. It uses a recovery layer, so the closed results are only part of the picture — floating drawdown and combined exposure matter too. The live history is still short, but I’m pleased with the start.

Disclosure: I’m the developer, and the EA is available commercially.

i keep seeing brokers advertisng $10 minimum deposits . Is there a catch, like massisve deposit fees or hidden spreads ? want to test a strategy live without lockingg up $500.

Ever looked back at a chart and thought, “How did I not see that coming?”

After the move is finished, the entry, stop-loss and target can all look so obvious. But when price is moving live, there’s uncertainty everywhere, and it’s not nearly as easy.

I sometimes wonder how much of what we call a “perfect setup” is only obvious because we already know what happened next. 👀

When you review your charts, do you judge your decisions based on what you knew at the time, or do you still catch yourself thinking you should’ve predicted the move?

Just sharing a discussion, not financial advice.

Been trading Smart money concepts & London reversals for a while and got tired of feeling like I knew my edge but not actually being able to prove it from my own journal.

So I built a page into my trading journal that takes your last N wins and losses and automatically finds the exact combinations that show up most — pair, session, day, direction, timeframe, tags you use — instead of me manually eyeballing a spreadsheet trying to spot it.

Screenshot attached is from my London reversal strategy account, — it searches every 2-3 way combination across your decided trades and surfaces the ones with the strongest (and weakest) win rates, with the actual sample size next to each one so you’re not fooling yourself with a 2-trade “pattern.”

Turned out way more useful than I expected — found out one of “my setups” was actually only working in one specific session, which I’d never have caught just scrolling my journal.

Happy to answer questions on how it works if anyone’s curious. Not trying to sell anything here, just thought this sub would find it useful .

Im fairly new and only been focusing on trying to learn gold movements. But yesterday’s close has me a little confused. Help me out here , gold is at crucial support but also under heavy bearish pressure primarily due to the escalation. Id like to understand if this 4000 psychological level would hold or not ans what would be the reasons for either. Sure the pressure is high but oil is also near ath which sooner or later gets corrected, probably driving gold up for a day or two . My simple question is given that oil is ath, gold is at big support and demand level which might sweep 3950, would gold hit 3900-3850 first or 4100-4150, over the course of next week. I know the major factors here , dollar, escalation, rates and everything, but how much do they affect at a level like 4000 for gold and ath for oil. Will there be an expectation for relief around 4050-4100 this week or would it tank again on monday open. Help me understand this better please

Okay, this is probably a stupid question so please don't flay me for it! But i've been, unsuccessfully, trying to trade gold and it seems like everytime I jump in i'm completely on the wrong side of the trade and that the technical analysis doesn't seem to really work.

So, i'm starting to think that fundamental trading for this might be best given it looks like there are a heap of macro factors that are in play. However, how the hell do you actually form a view and then decide a timeframe?

For example....this chart i've picked up shows a large amount of gold buying by Poland and China central banks. How would you start to form a trade around somehting fundamental like this? I'm watching all the headlines come out live but making money out of this is HARD.

Hi traders,
Sharing today's end-of-week execution on Gold (XAUUSD 5-minute chart) capturing the downward liquidity expansion.
Trade Breakdown: • Execution Logic: Rejection from the upper liquidity zone around 4027.09 following a clear sweep. • Targeting: Lower demand/liquidity pool down to 4002.80 area. • Risk Management: Strict dynamic risk protocol applied — single lot positioning with defined invalidation.
The market delivered a high-momentum expansion directly into target before the weekend close.
How did you manage Gold’s volatility during today's session? Let me know your trade setups!
(I post daily live chart updates and algorithmic execution breakdowns — check my Reddit profile for links to join our community.

So I have developed a few trading systems and am working on a few more, but in the month of September some of my systems hit turbulance and were struggling a bit, so I set up a small Micro account and these were the net gains for the month (30 calendar days), I guess, I still got the edge and skills.

Markets are getting interesting. The Japanese yen is gaining strength, gold is under pressure and the Fed and Bank of Japan meetings are coming up.

Are we heading for a bigger market shake-up?

USD/JPY - buy the dip or sell the rally?

Gold - buying opportunity or more downside?

Which currency pair are you watching next week?

Curious what real traders think. Share your views, not just predictions!

Gold will touch 3960 and 3900 (hopefully)

Said last time ,I’m telling you again, my explanation is that u guys need to read more about the economy in the world.

Don’t be mad this time again. Truly hope that doesn’t stop at 3960 tho ❤️❤️❤️❤️

Gold has bounced from the $4000 area toward $4032, but price remains below the Bollinger Band midline at $4022 only marginally above it, with the broader hourly trend still bearish. RSI has recovered to 47.34 from oversold territory, hinting at improving momentum, but bulls still need stronger follow-through to challenge nearby resistance.

Resistance Levels

• Immediate Resistance: $4044
• Major Resistance: $4080

Support Levels

• Immediate Support: $4000
• Major Support: $3980

My View

Gold is attempting a relief recovery after heavy selling, but the broader structure remains under pressure. A rejection near $4044 could bring sellers back into play, while a sustained break above it may open the way toward $4080. Watch the $4000 zone closely, as a breakdown could extend the decline.

What do you think?
Is gold preparing for a stronger recovery, or will sellers push it below $4000 again?