As of 05/01/2025   Indus: 40,753 +83.60 +0.2%     Trans: 13,624 -15.91 -0.1%     Utils: 1,036 +2.75 +0.3%     Nasdaq: 17,711 +264.40 +1.5%     S&P 500: 5,604 +35.08 +0.6%	YTD -4.2%   -14.3%    +5.4%   -8.3%   -4.7%	Targets    Overview: 04/25/2025     41,700 or 38,000 by 05/15/2025   14,400 or 13,000 by 05/15/2025   1,075 or 1,000 by 05/15/2025   18,300 or 16,500 by 05/15/2025   5,700 or 5,300 by 05/15/2025
Chart Pattern Indicator: on 4/15/25

As of 05/01/2025   Indus: 40,753 +83.60 +0.2%     Trans: 13,624 -15.91 -0.1%     Utils: 1,036 +2.75 +0.3%     Nasdaq: 17,711 +264.40 +1.5%     S&P 500: 5,604 +35.08 +0.6%	YTD -4.2%   -14.3%    +5.4%   -8.3%   -4.7%
Targets    Overview: 04/25/2025     41,700 or 38,000 by 05/15/2025   14,400 or 13,000 by 05/15/2025   1,075 or 1,000 by 05/15/2025   18,300 or 16,500 by 05/15/2025   5,700 or 5,300 by 05/15/2025
Chart Pattern Indicator: on 4/15/25

Bulkowski on Forex Stats

Leverage in the Forex Market

How does the use of leverage affect profitability in the foreign exchange market?

This article is based on the writing of James Stanley in his article Three Rules to Risk Management as published in the July 2014 issue of Technical Analysis of Stocks & Commodities magazine.

When I read an author who supports his theories with statistics, I love it. Stanley did just that in his article. I'd like to share some of his findings with you.

The article is based on research conducted by FXCM.com. "FXCM is a registered Futures Commission Merchant and Retail Foreign Exchange Dealer with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and is a member of the National Futures Association," according to their website.

The study included data from 2000 to 2010 on more than 12 million trades in the most heavily traded currency pairs. Here's what they found.

• The percentage of winning trades ranged from 49% (in AUD/JPY) to 71% (in AUD/NZD) of the time.
• The average win was 52 pips but the average loss was a whopping 94 pips, or almost twice as large. The largest gain and largest loss was in the EUR/USD pair with profits of 65 pips and losses of 127 pips. None of the 16 currency pairs they reported on showed traders making more money than they were losing.
• As the use of leverage increased, the percentage of profitable trades decreased. See Table 1 below.
• As the account size increased, the use of leverage decreased. See Table 1 below.

The above table shows how the use of leverage decreased as the size of the account grew. As leverage decreased, the percentage of profitable trades increased.

I wonder if this behavior trend continues for larger account sizes....

-- Thomas Bulkowski

See Also

• Book review: Day Trading the Currency Market, by Kathy Lien
• Book review: Forex Patterns & Probabilities: Trading strategies for trending & range-bound markets, by Ed Ponsi
• Visit the home page for free information on stock trading
• Tutorials are located here. Click to see if I'm lying!
• Research studies. Visit this link for important discoveries.

Everyone talks about apathy but no one does anything about it.