Does the martingale system really work?

Without grabbing a calculator isn't Martingale just methodical revenge trading? Also it is a method invented by 18th century casino gamblers. And the average affluent person in that era had probably the math education of a 5th grader.

Add to winners.. cut losers short...

Martingale will work in a rangy market.. but when it starts to trend... you lose all your profits very fast and then blow your account...

NOT WORTH IT!

I think that many traders have misconceptions about martingale systems. A martingale system is not a grid system where you double trades on looser, NO !
A martingale system is just a system where each looser is doubled, it's exactly like revenge trading, as said Bagman. But it's not always a Grid system. Grid systems have their advantages and their drawbacks as each system.
Now please, think that whatever the trading system you use, from the basic one( moving averages cross) to the most complicated(neural networks predictions), if the robot is supposed to double each losing trade, it's a martingale system. It's not only grid systems purpose and not every martingale system is based on grids.

Now if this is understood, go back and read my posts on page 28.

i use martingle by stop order for waiting price goes to trand

Martingale really has a good chance of working as long as the following conditions are met:

1. Ratio risk / benefit greater than 1 (preferably greater than 3)

2. Brokers with high leverage, low spread and low commission.

3. The initial operation should risk less than 1% (I use between 0.2% and 0.6%)

4. after losing an operation, increase the risk on a fixed percentage (eg 13% or 20% etc) never risk double the previous operation

if you meet these conditions, you can operate martingale (dimmed) and "afford" to lose 20, 30 or even 35 consecutive times.

in my "best" configurations can withstand slumps of up to 20 missed consecutive operations with a risk benefit 1: 6 and winning 2.5% -3.5% of the account on each trade.

What ekud87 said is true. I am using martingale at the moment, so far so good.

In my opinion, Martingale is an easy way to lose your money. Chasing your losses is never a smart thing to do. And it's even worse if you have no self-control or discipline.

It's better to just accept that you'll make some losses but you won't always lose. Well, not unless you don't have a good strategy in place and stick to it, of course!

of course, with Martingale (including any other money management system) a bad run of losses, lack of disci- pline or a bad trading system, can lead you to ruin.

but until the universe itself has an end ... for me, not bad use martingale provided that at least 20 chances to fail are taken consecutively.

fail 20 times in a row, or more than 20, I think it is unlikely. surely one day come a slump that would end the account, the question is, while that day arrives, you could get some benefit worth?

how likely lose 20 or more trades in a row?

Well I suppose it comes down to what system/strategy you use.

I think if I was to use Martingale, I'd probably use two systems simultaneously (one with and one without Martingale) and see which one offered the best outcome over time.

I think the most important thing about martingale is you must withdraw your profits consistently so that even if the account go bust, you can fight back again.

Martingale is good at one point, but you have to be careful playing with it.

On two EAs I made, Ive been able to compare different ways of setting lot sizes and martingale is not the best at all, despite it is not the worst. I've found that anti-martingale (dividing lots after consecutive losses) gives same results with of course less much risk.
Today I backtested a new scalper which with martingale had a catastrophic period of two months. The account survived because there was a max lot but not using martingale gave the same results, again with a seriously reduced risk. The curve is a lot less sexy but it plays safe.

When I first started trading I tried this. Never in a million years would I try it again. I think the fact that you need no skill or knowledge at all proves that this doesn't work, otherwise everyone would be doing it!

Does Martingale really work? Yes, it really does. Performs greatly in destroying one's account :-D

Classic martingale system (1-2-4-8-16-32...) is not good. It is only a matter of time before losing all the balance if you start with 1% risk in first minimal trade.
BUT, there is more complicated systems that can be good to 1) practice first on demo 2) apply in real trading.

First of all, you MUST know the market behavior - price action. Second, you MUST know good and bad signals in trading (forex is not gambling).

With a price action knowledge you can do these changes in ordinary martingale system:
1. You can double you SL and TP instead of doubling lot size.
After losing 0.01 lot size 10SL 15TP on M15, trade again 0.01 lot size but 20SL 30TP on M30. It helps you to trade with low margin pressure and not have margin call.
2. You can trade bigger timeframe after every loss.
After losing on M5, trade on M15, then M30 with bigger SL and TP. It helps you to have more time to think about your loss and cool your brain.
3. Risk/reward ratio must be bigger than 1:1. I trade minimal 1:1.4 (best 1:3 not so high to can not take profit)

AND a big advice. My aha moment: POSITION SIZING. Pips are not important. Don't calculate how many pips you've lost. Calculate the profit. 1-2-4-8 must be real money not pips.
I make profit even when losing pips.

Conclusion: First practice on demo or small real account you can lose then start real real trading.

I think that martingale can only works in short term and using it in long term can be risky as you will never knew when you have blown your account.

The fact is that the probabilities of blowing the account tomorrow or in the next hour are exactly the same as those of the long term.

That's why experience traders does not apply martingale.

Martingale works for as long as the market wants it to. Studied so many different formulas but all eventually blew the account.

For the past 2 years I have now been studying quantum cycles, and hit a revelation, backtests prove 70-70% accuracy, with R:R always above 1:1 which equals an extremely profitable strategy. I started a TE to show people the wonders of it you can check it out if you like.

I was interested in this strategy and even tried to use it once, but lost all the money. The good news is there were not so much money on my depo