Why You’re Not Making Pips With Paid Signals


So, you’ve subscribed to premium signal providers and top-tier trading newsletters. Your chart lights up with trade setups from every corner of the forex universe.

Yet, instead of cashing in on pips, your account balance keeps shrinking.

Frustrating, isn’t it? 🫤

If this sounds familiar, the problem might not be the signals themselves—but you and the way you’re processing them.

Here are possible reasons why you’re still not making pips:

1. Timing is everything but signals can lag

Markets move fast—like, blink-and-it’s-gone fast. By the time a signal lands in your inbox or chat group, the “prime” entry may already be in the rearview mirror. You enter anyway, because “Hey, they said it’s a good trade!”

In this scenario, all you’re doing is chasing price, turning solid signals into sloppy trades.

2. Execution mistakes can ruin good signals

Even if the signal is golden, how you execute the trade matters. Are you scrambling to open your position and forgetting your risk rules?

Delays—whether manual or mental—often mean worse entries, higher slippage, and poor exits. The trade goes against you, and suddenly you’re blaming the signal.

Here’s the reality: poor execution can turn winning ideas into losers, and that’s not on the provider—that’s on you.

3. Following signals without understanding them

Imagine jumping into a boxing ring blindfolded. That’s you when you follow signals without understanding why they exist.

You’re taking trades with no context—no sense of the market structure, fundamentals, or risk-reward dynamics.

When the trade goes south, panic sets in. Do you hold? Do you close? Without context, you’re flying blind and emotionally spiraling. Use signals as a learning tool, not a crutch.

Ask yourself, “Why would this signal work?” Treat them like training wheels for your own trading brain.

4. Too many signals lead to overtrading

When you’re following multiple providers, signals come at you like memes —nonstop and overwhelming.

You start taking trades left and right, convinced that quantity equals success.

More signals don’t mean more profits. Instead of pips, you get mental exhaustion and a battered account. Overtrading is fueled by overconfidence and the thrill of action, neither of which help you make smarter decisions.

5. Risk management is missing from the equation

Even the best signals can’t save you if you’re over-leveraging or skipping stop losses. Every trade carries risk, and your job as a trader is to manage it—signals or not.

If you don’t protect your downside, you won’t stay in the game long enough to capitalize on the upside.

Paid signals can give you direction, but it’s your ability to think, plan, and act decisively that will determine your success.

To turn signals into success, start treating them as ideas rather than guarantees and learn to validate them with your own analysis.

Focus on timely execution, risk management, and trading discipline.

Most importantly, work on developing the mindset and habits that keep you grounded through wins and losses.