I have been reading up on forex for the past 2 weeks. I have almost finished babypips school and will start demo trading this week!
My goal with trading is to be able to trade full time in 2 years time (pulling 1k a month is enough for me).
As I have a full time job now I will start with swing trading and will see what happens next.
I hope you guys will help me in this ride and, in time, I hope to be the one helping noobs like me!
Best regards from Portugal!
P.S: Do you have any book recommendations for Swing Trading?
The goal you set is great- it’s important to challenge yourself to reach milestones.
Just realize what your holding yourself against though…
Trading full time, making $1,000 / month is no easy task.
To attain that level of skill, you’ll need to work incredibly hard, every single day devoting as much as your free time as possible to learning.
Read this.
Understand that to make $1,000 a month, you should be trading with @ least $20,000 in your account.
Realistically, that would be pulling down 5% / month on average- which is something the [B][U]professionals[/U][/B] in most wall street firms can’t do. The majority of traders who last more than 2 years seem to be the ones who focus more on the process, not the results. Would you be able to emotionally/mentally handle the fact that every single trade you make will determine whether or not food is on the table for dinner?
The psychological aspects of trading alone take many, many years to even begin to understand.
New traders come and go by the boatloads every single day with dreams of trading “full time” in 1, 2, or 3 years.
Why not have dreams of just making it 30 days, 60, 90 days without blowing an account and trading like a degenerate gambler.
I’m not trying to cap your potential here- by all means shoot for the stars.
I’m just sharing my experience and opinions because your story/comments are the most common/prevalent on most every trading forum.
ForexUnlimited, I really apreciate your input. I will start with 20~25K if my first four months of demo trading are at least break even. Then I will be switching to real money account and re-invest my winnings until I can consistently pull 1K. This means that by the time I get there maybe it will represent 3% instead of 5%, which would make it more realistic right?
I have a backgroung in engeneering and poker, so I understand hardwork and the importance of money management, so I think I will preservere and I “know” I will not trade like a degenerate gambler =b
Trade demo to build a basic strategy.
Then put that strategy and live money to work for @ least 9 months to a year.
Do not fund your account with the 20k initially.
Trade w 1000$ and realize you’ll most likely lose it all.
Build up your confidence for a few years, trading a 1000$ account and building it up.
Yes, it is that different. Trading live has all the facets of real money or “my money” involved and at stake. The fear of losing real money is very real, compared to a 50K demo account. All the decisions made around a live account will be more intense as you are offering up a percentage of your hard earned money to risk. That in itself will stir a lot of emotion and fog the mind, making impartial decisions hard, as fear is the ruler of the hour. Hence, using a small amount (micro lots) will ease you into the process, as opposed to trading thousands. This is why most people who win the lottery go bankrupt within a very short amount of time. The mental training and capacity is not there to handle such large sums of money and they loose complete control.
