Newbie Forex Trader

Hi All,

I am from South Africa, have always been interested in the Forex Market, but never actually started traded.

I have a demo account that I signed up for today, unfortunately the brokerage I chose doesn’t allow you to do much with it, like paper trades and so forth. Nonetheless, I realise that I need to learn, that I WANT to learn more about Forex Trading before actually commiting real cash to it. I am 20% through PreSchool, but am in no hurry, as I want to have a fairly solid and tested Forex Trading Plan BEFORE going live. I know that this is no guarantee (what in life is?), but I will feel more confident when making actual trades.

I will be the type of trader that will do as much research as possible before deciding how to trade, find out as much as possible about the currencies I am considering trading in, analysing the trends, and so forth, before making the trade/s. Like it says on the front page of the school: 1. Make pips 2. Keep pips 3. Repeat, THAT is what I ultimately want to do, I don’t expect to get rich overnight, but if in a year or so I can show some sort of profit, I would be happy.

Well, that’s all I’ve got to say. Coming from South Africa, some of the broker’s min. deposit requirements translate into rather large amounts in Rands, but hopefully I can turn that into even larger returns when I do go live.

B

Hi Sirbismuth,

You might want to try Oanda demo account for trading they are excellent, good customer services and easy to use overall. I have just opened up a live account with them . so may help you practice your trades :slight_smile:

Thanks, have opened demo accounts at Oanda, FXCM and NetoTrade. But only Oanda & FXCM give you virtual cash to test. I am far from using a demo account, much less a live one, I still have a ton of learning to do before I start trades, virtual or live.

Does anyone have any books, or other reading matter to recommend to a novice fx trader?

B

Hi SirBismuth,

Welcome to BabyPips! :slight_smile:

There are lots of free resources on this site to help a novice FX trader and the BabyPips school is a good place to start: School of Pipsology | Learn Forex Trading

That said, I don’t think it’s too soon for you to start placing practice trades on a demo account. It’s an opportunity for you to gain practical experience that will complement the lessons you learn in the school. Here’s a recent discussion about demo trading that you may find useful: 301 Moved Permanently

All the best!

Jason

Hi Jason,

Thanks for the welcome!

Have already started the BabyPips School, am about halfway through PreSchool. It is certainly a great resource, and explains things in easy-to-understand terms. BabyPips will definitely be one of the sites I keep in my FX Bookmark folder.

I will start “demo” trading as soon as I have an idea of what exactly I am doing, and the reason I am doing it, so want to have some sort of basic plan. Will start with my FXCM account, as you were the only one to reply here so far, and seem interested when FXCM is mentioned on these forums. I will start “live” trading once my plan is more concrete, with money I can afford to lose. That has always been my approach to gambling and investing, and will be the same with FX Trading.

I once took part in a Stock Exchange Competition, where you played the local Stock Exchange (JSE) with virtual money, but stock movement was based on real-world figures. Made money on the well-researched and analysed purchases, and lost on the emotional ones (I find it interesting how this is relevant to FX trading as well). Was not doing too badly, but couldn’t finish the competition, as I went overseas before it ended.

These forums are indeed a great resource, nevermind Google (heck, that’s what brought me to BabyPips). I am not expecting to make large piles of cash quickly with FX Trading, and in my personal experience throughly studying and research a subject often increases your chance of success greatly, so that is what I am doing here. I do eventually, hopefully, want to be able to trade it full-time, but it’s early days yet, will see what happens in the future. I am taking a long-term view on that.

B

P.S.: Had to remove Jason’s links in my reply, as I don’t have enough (0??) posts yet!

It’s my pleasure, B :50:

If you have any questions about your demo account when you start trading it, please feel free to ask me in the Broker Aid Station.

P.S.: You live in Joburg? I hope to see a test at the Wanderers someday!

Yeah for sure start with a demo account before trying real money.