Risk disclosure
Trading on margin is high risk. What you can lose, why automation does not remove it, and why past performance proves little.
Trading foreign exchange and contracts for difference on margin carries a high level of risk. It is not suitable for everyone. Before you use anything described on this site, understand what follows.
You can lose more than you deposit
Leverage multiplies both directions. A position that moves against you can consume your deposit quickly, and with some account types and in fast markets it can leave you owing more than you put in. Negative balance protection is not universal and depends on your broker and your jurisdiction.
Most retail accounts lose money
This is not an opinion. Regulators in several jurisdictions require brokers to publish the share of retail client accounts that lose money, and the figures published by brokers under those rules are consistently a large majority. Ask your broker for its current figure, which it is generally required to disclose, and read it before you fund an account.
Automated trading does not remove risk
An Expert Advisor executes rules without hesitation. That removes some human error and adds different problems:
- It keeps trading a strategy after the conditions it was designed for have gone.
- Recovery, grid and martingale logic can show a long run of small gains and then give back far more in a single sequence.
- Its results depend on your broker’s spread, commission, execution and minimum stop distance, which are not the ones the developer tested on.
- A disconnection, a platform update or an expired license can leave positions unmanaged.
Past performance says little about the future
Backtests are simulations over selected data with selected costs, and they can be tuned until they look good. A live record is better evidence, but a short or unaudited one still is not proof. This site publishes no performance figures for exactly this reason; see the editorial policy.
This is not advice
The Forex Store publishes general information about how markets and trading tools work. It does not know your finances, your obligations, your experience or your goals, and nothing here is personalised advice or a recommendation to trade. The author is not a licensed financial adviser. If you need advice, consult someone licensed in your jurisdiction.
Your responsibility
Whether a product or strategy is appropriate for you, and whether it is legal and available where you live, is yours to establish. Test on a demo account first. Risk only money you can afford to lose entirely.
Scams are common in this market
Regulators repeatedly warn about unregistered dealers, promises of extraordinary or guaranteed returns, and schemes that begin on social media. Treat any promise of a fixed return, any pressure to act quickly, and any request to send funds outside a regulated broker as a reason to stop. See brokers for how to verify who you are dealing with.