Be a trend (y) a trader? Forex fashion

It is like that with everything, even the fashion for Forex market passes away. Old folks who have been trading for more than a decade will surely agree with me. It's just that it is not fashion that determines our success, but only focuses the attention of the crowd for a certain period of time. Is it worth paying attention to what is fashionable?

To be a trend (s) trader?

Observing tendencies among speculators in terms of applied strategies, it can be seen that in certain time intervals a given type of trading was more or less popular. Of course, the greater popularity of the X strategy, never made others suddenly not used at all. It's about some generalization of what more people used at the moment. Again, the popularity of strategy X at a given time did not make it suddenly that its effectiveness in this period was greater, or at least there is no way to prove such a thesis.

12 years ago, if you did not have a few moving averages on your chart and 2-3 additional indicators under the chart itself, you might have been perceived as a "weirdo". This trend quickly evolved and many began looking for a magic indicator. The one and only one. If they found it, but it did worse, they looked for a booster that would filter out "noise" and "false" signals ...

Not long after that, forex traders saw Elliot waves followed by Fibonacci numbers. later Harmonic Trading by capturing the ideal proportions and formations on the chart, be it a butterfly or a crab, they were supposed to pinpoint precisely where the market would turn back.

There was also an era of machines. Imperfections in the infrastructure of brokers and at the same time high popularization of automated solutions for MT4, caused that the magical commercial EA began to grow like mushrooms after rain. stomper, One Million Dollar, Atomic, Gold Rider and many, many more with fanciful names - it was a fashion statement and a recipe for "easy" money. There were also splits using vending machines that focused on news trading or catching delays in brokers' quotes.

The time has finally come to abandon all inventions and focus on a clean chart. Then Price Action began to have many followers. Tired of indicators, magic methods and account reset machines, they wanted to finally see the price and trade only on it. We are not much further from that moment. But I am even sure that this fashion will also pass one day.

What is the result of fashion on FX?

Well, in my opinion, from what is in any other area of ​​life. From marketing. From an FX strategy perspective, for a methodology to suddenly become more popular, you need this "someone". Someone who shows (gives the impression) that you can make money in a given way, that what you apply works. Sometimes it is so, and sometimes, unfortunately, we are dealing only with the desire to promote ourselves, e.g. to sell training courses or books. The moment when the crowd doubts the effectiveness of the previous one is also important, "Fashionable" strategy. In this situation, the crowd very quickly finds a new methodology.

By succumbing to fashion, you lose your ability to think for yourself. Be curious, ask "why", "what for", "how" questions. Don't be fooled.

The problem, however, is still the same. The popularity of the chosen method does not make it suddenly more effective. I am willing to risk the statement that it is effective all the time in the same or similar way (with the specific characteristics of the market chosen). The secret lies in the trader's head. First and foremost, you need to know how to use a given strategy.