Hello, Everyone
I am looking for someone to teach me the ways of Forex and more. I have finished most of the school but I was wondering are there any books out there that I could also buy to help me.
Thank You
You can learn from Babypips School. Itâs free.
If youâre interested in books, you can check out Mario Sant Singh new book â17 Proven Currency Trading Strategies: How to Profit in the Forex Marketâ. You can find it on Amazon.
However if youâre looking for a teacher and willing to pay, why not try not the coaching system by some brokers. For example, FXPRIMUS offers one to one coaching service. Itâs free for 60 days. I believe that will be great to get you started.
Itâs always good to practice diligently on your own as well. When youâre confident on practice/demo account, you can move on to a live account.
Save your money, use it to buy books (lots of books as you will see) and put the rest towards your âgrub stakeâ. Follow the below material (in order of listing) and you will start off with a better chance than most.
(Edit: this is not a 6 week crash course, the below will likely take you at least 1-2 years)
Becoming a currency trader in 10 steps
Beginning - Stage 1
Read: Currency Trading For Dummies (the full book, not free forex.com download, IMO The best entry level book on the subject)
Do: Sign up for a demo account, download either MT4 or the brokers own platform. Become familiar with placing test orders, understanding charts and how the platforms work. Learn about market orders, limit orders, stop orders. Look into the differences between ECN & Market Makers.
Do: Start a trading fund (anything you can spare).
Stage 2
Do: Look into indicators, MACD, MAâs, RSI, Stoch, Bollinger, Fibonacci and all the others. Read about strategies on here which use them, try your own. (IMO trading with indicators and ratios is flawed BUT you need to understand how they work and why people use them before you can understand why NOT to use them - this will come later in your development as a trader)
Read: Trading for a Living (You will get an authentic overview of how the markets work from this book)
Read: Liars poker (You will get an understanding of how brokers work from this book - this is important)
Do: Continue adding to your savings fund.
Stage 3
Do: Start demo trading and journalling your success/failures and observations on the market, either trade with a strategy or just using your gut instinct⌠it doesnât matter your aim is to gain skills in execution. Donât worry weâve all hit Sell when we meant to hit Buy.
Do: Continue adding to your savings fund.
Read: Reminiscences of a Stock Operator (The best book you can read on the subject⌠the trading bible IMO - you wonât understand fully on your first read. You will read this many times - each read you will learn something new)
Read: Millionaire Traders: How Everyday People are Beating Wall Street at Its Own Game (Interviews with people who successfully trade - donât worry about how much they make just try to take in their thought processes and notice how each trader has a different story/strategy)
Psychology - Stage 4
Watch/Download: How To Think Like a Professional Trader, Mark Douglas (if you canât download it⌠buy it from www.MarkDouglas.com. I canât emphasise how important this workshop is if you want to be successful and evolve your thinking to become a successful trader)
Read: Trading in the Zone (Again by Mark Douglas, itâs a difficult book to finish but stick with it as some of the examples and empirical evidence discussed will cause you to experience many âAha momentsâ.)
Do: Shift your demo trading over to trading in a series, instead of ad-hoc entries. Record your trades in groups of 20. Aim to break even over each series of 20 trades with your demo money. Move away from focusing on individual trades and focus on them in a series.
Do: Start a trading journal (I use excel and just date each entry), record your thoughts and notes.
Do: Continue adding to your savings fund.
First Strategy - Stage 5
Watch: Trading Strategies Webinars on FXStreet Archives (search through and pick any that catch your eye - just filter on the left by âTrading Strategiesâ)
Do: Using your experience to this point, come up with a trading strategy to trial⌠you can use someone elseâs or you can make up your own. It must incorporate money management (define your risk & reward upfront, place these as stop loss orders and take profit orders ON EVERY TRADE).
Read: Google the following subjects (Money Management, Position Sizing, Risk/Reward, Compounding Interest)
Supply and Demand / Price Action Trading - Stage 6
Watch: watch every single Sam Sieden (the best source of supply & demand related material available online) webinar on fxstreet starting from the first to the latest Sam Seiden
Read: Pitbull (autobiography of one of the greatest traders ever - full of insight)
Read: Market Wizard (accounts of great traders)
Read: Re-read Reminiscences of a Stock Operator, Re-read Trading in the Zone (or re-watch How To Think Like a Professional Trader)
Do: Start reading about the different types of financial instruments available to trade and their corresponding markets⌠including bonds, stocks, derivatives(forwards/futures/options). Understand their uses in our economy and who trades them and why. Wikipedia & investopedia are good resources for this information.
Do: Continue adding to your savings fund.
Trading real money!!! - Stage 7
Do: Open a micro account with whatever broker you have faith in at this point (donât worry we all thought they were crooks at one point). Put no more than ÂŁ100/$100 in it (youâre likely going to lose this money). Using your tested strategy or strategies and your trading in a series of trades approach, start trading with real money risking no more than 1% of your account on each trade (thatâs $20 max loss per 20 trade series - you have as much chance of losing 20 trades in a row as you do winning 20 trades in a row). Set your R:R to 1:1. This task is to give you TRADING SKILLS, not to make money. There is a huge psychological shift when trading live money compared to demo trading. You need to experience this and risk as little as possible while experiencing it. Think of this as paid education. Try not to scalp (donât worry we all did it when bored), keep disciplined and try to stick to your strategy.
Do: Record all your trades in your journal (excel is good for this), accompanied with the following information
(Pair, price, date/time, risk(SL), target(TP), profit/loss result, notes). Analyse each batch of trades, write down your thoughts, highlight your mistakes and come up with solutions for yourself. Write it all down (you will read this many times and grow from it)
Do: Continue adding to your savings fund.
Read: How to Trade In Stocks (Jesse Livermoore - you should know who he is by now. Ignore the fact itâs a stocks book, the material is priceless for all traders alike)
Read: Re-read Trading for a Living (do you wanna be a bull, bear, sheep or a hog? ;])
Financial Planning - Stage 8
Do: Using everything you have learnt up to now, bring it all together and come up with your PLAN. Iâm not talking about just how to enter the market. Iâm talking about planning how much you can save in the next 12-60 months, how much of a return per month you need to be satisfied (remember 6% a month compounded is 100% over 12 months⌠slow and steady always wins here). Write your plan down, keep a journal, analyse you past performance, admit your previous mistakes, set yourself goals. I imagine around this point the market has taught you a lot about yourself⌠it really is the best psychologist. Use these experiences to put down a mature and realistic plan. Factor in your lifestyle, your loved ones and your aims in life. Once you have your plan you are ready to try and execute it (I say try because itâs still hard).
Do: Continue adding to your savings fund.
Read: Re-read any of the books above you enjoyed most, read everything and anything recommended, read when you have spare time.
Preparation - Stage 9
Do: You need to trade your above plan successfully for at least 3 months on your micro account. Do not fast track or do yourself a disservice by trading this any less than 3 months. You need to accept losses are a normal part of the process, remember the coin toss example Mark Douglas gave you? Individual trades donât matter. Stick to you plan. Analyse each trading series, keep writing in your journal, look back and see how you have grown as a trader. Remember 3 months at least.
If you canât trade successfully and consistently profitable overall for 3 months straight, revisit the above stages to reinforce your knowledge and trading skills.The learning process is a continual cycle and you may not take it all in on the first run. Just keep repeating the stages until your happy⌠then start your 3 months again
Do: Continue adding to your savings fund.
If youâre struggling, ask yourself the followingâŚ
- Is my edge reliable? (if not, try something else)
- Am I executing my plan without conflict or hesitation?
- Am I keeping a journal of my thoughts to learn from and recording my trades and reason for entry?
- is my R:R realistic?
- Do I need a break? (if your burnt out take some time off - the markets arenât going anywhere)
Stage 10
Do: If you have completed the above stages in your own time frame and have successfully traded your own plan consistently and profitable for 3 months you can now start thinking about upping your stake/capital. I want you to take whatever balance you have saved and divide it by 4 so if youâve saved $10,0000 your going to fund an account with $2,500 (put the rest in a high interest account - you will use it later). Youâre going to carry out the EXACT SAME PLAN that you have traded profitably for the previous months using the exact same rules. Remember there is a significant psychological shift when your have significant money on the line, your responsible for your own actions here and if you stick to you pre-determined plan you should be okay. If you struggle, revisit the points in stage 9. If you are slowly building your balance and executing your plan without emotion or hesitation⌠youâre doing well. Iâd advise you stay at this stage for a couple of months. Prove to yourself you are ready to increase the stakes, by now you should have learnt enough lessons to know that being honest to yourself is the only way to survive in this game.
Read: Re-read the above books (yes again - you always learn more the 2nd, 3rd, 4th time round and you know it ;])
Youâre now a part time trader - Graduation
Mindset: You should now be at the stage where your thinking âtrading is a lonely unexciting businessâ, reading over the forums seeing people like yourself prior to working through the above stages, you know you couldnât possibly explain all youâve learnt to them in one post on a forum but maybe an article like this from you may point them in the right direction. Itâs good to give back.
Do: Top up your account with the money youâve saved and have determined you can risk. Plan your trades & trade your plan, it should be second nature and even boring at this point⌠donât worry the excitement is your return every month and lifestyle trading permits. Best of luck to you friend!
Read: Anything you like, you can even recommend it to me if it was good 
Useful Quotes to put on your wall or whiteboard:
âThe market doesnât care about you⌠itâs doesnât even know you existâ
âYou have no idea what is going to happen nextâ
âIf you want to be here for the good days⌠you need to be here for all the daysâ
âTrading is a probabilities game, each trade is a toss of the coin and has no individual significanceâ
âA bad trade is not a losing trade, itâs a trade placed that did not meet your entry criteriaâ
Misc:
Forums: babypips, forexfactory, trade2win
Avoid: Paid courses, trading guruâs (you will learn to spot them), following other peoples trades and judging peoples knowledge by their post count on a forum.
Always: Be inquisitive but sceptical.
========= Disclaimer ==============
The above is advice only, I guarantee it will not suit everyone⌠in fact only a minority will find it useful. Everyone is different so if you take or have taken a different route thatâs fine. There is no wrong route to being a successful trader as long as you get there. Good luck to you all.
Hi!
Alot of great advice offered here already (great indepth by Everton!)
Good on you for going through the BabyPips school!, that is the kind of hard work that will do you good in your trading career.
Personally,
a) Thereâs only 1 book Iâd recommend: TRADING IN THE ZONE, by Mark Douglas
[ you may not believe it now, but long-term success has little to do with trading system, and alot to do with mentality ]
b) For a mentor/teacher, thereâs no-one Iâd recommend more than Johnathon Fox (forexschoolonline.com) who also runs a thread here on BP (http://forums.babypips.com/free-forex-trading-systems/42378-forex-price-action.html)
All the best in your journey!
Cheers
Itâs been my observation that you can find all the information you can stand to read on the topic of forex. It would take many years of reading to get through it all. If youâre looking for someone to teach you how, one-on-one, live trading, then youâre pretty much out of luck. Iâve yet to find anyone anywhere who will mentor by trading with you. They would rather give you something to read and expect you to figure it out.
Itâs just like how we train doctors. We give them books and now they can perform surgery. No wait a minute, they actually train side by side an experienced doctor.
I have actually come across maybe 2 people that said they mentor, but when talking to them I got the feeling that it wasnât something they really care to do and both wanted an incredible amount of money up from before any mentoring occurred, and you might get to trade with them for a week or less.
Itâs quite amazing to me that somebody who apparently can make all the money they want in forex, asks a person who has no money and has probably lost a lot of money with forex, to pay so much money before being taught and becoming successful to a point where you could actually afford paying any amount of money for the mentoring.
Itâs pretty backwards if you ask me and the world of forex is a community of hardened traders who think the money will run out of the market if they teach someone on a personal level how to trade successfully. So good luck on finding someone who might be sincere about mentoring and help you be successful without being greedy in the process cause I have yet to find anyone that will do little more than give you a book to read. But I would be interested if you did find someone who is serious about mentoring.
If the money is really an issue with these âmentorsâ, then the least they could do is work out some sort of deal with us like helping us to be successful and make money in the market first so we have some money to pay them for their ridiculous mentoring prices. At least then both parties would get what they want and if the mentor is unable to perform, then they just wouldnât get paid because no winnings were made.
I think it would be extremely difficult to mentor someone remotely, almost impossible.
Trading is 90% psychological and you can only really learn the lessons yourself (how do you teach someone discipline in life?)⌠luckily you donât have someoneâs life in your hands while your learning like a medical student (only your finances!). Iâd advocate reading as much as possible and then gaining practical experience applying what youâve learnt.
The beauty of this endeavour is you really do have lots of time to learn, find something that works for you and make it your own. The markets will be here for the foreseeable future, with patience and persistence I believe anyone can get there (there is obviously a minimum level of intelligence required).
Not everyone will agree but the majority of online coaches and mentors in my mind are in the category of people that couldnât make it, but still want an income for the time invested. You yourself raise the valid question of âIf they can teach people how to be successful, why arenât they doing it for themselves?â. I imagine there are proven traders who out of the goodness of their hearts want to help others (most write a book!) but Iâm yet to speak with one personally. (Iâve read a few books though as you might of gathered ;])
I think a person who wants to teach someone to trade successfully can do it remotely. There are lots of instant messaging software available or even the telephone still works. Half the country teaches college remotely and have done so for quite some time. Itâs a matter or whether the mentor knows what they are doing and if they are serious about wanting to help someone.
The problem is not so much the mentor in the remote coaching scenario, itâs the pupil! Itâs too easy to play down or even not notice mistakes you make when trading. Pride is a huge obstacle on the road to successful trading.
Itâs only when things donât work via the shortest route and either money is lost of patience has ran out when people start looking at themselves. Learning in an isolated environment is vital, how would your online coach know that you calculated an incorrect risk parameter prior to entry because someone knocked at your door breaking your concentration or your wife is distracting you? This is a trading mistake but very difficult to witness or remedy remotely.
1 Like
You are right that there are many distractions, but a good mentor in my opinion is one that is with you in real time so that the pupil is not taking any trades or making calculations without the mentor right there with them.
Everton trader nice work 
So OP, how many PMs have you had and who from
Books are a waste if he isnât trading at the same timeâŚget a micro account b4 any books!
If you notice, at each stage I suggested he Do: & Read: but regardlessâŚsaying reading is a waste is a stupid statement.
Great post EvertonTrader,
Wondered why you singled out Sam Seiden in particular?
I just signed with these guys. Theyâre real had a lot of good reviews from different places. They offer money back gurantee
https://forexprofitclassroom.org/
Check them out. I have a couple of others I looked at, but I liked this one the best
Good Luck
Gp
This what should be in newbie island! Nice list.
Thanks Slipp.
Sam is a great resource for learning how to spot supply & demand levels. His FXStreet webinars are short and to the point, excellent quality overall. I personally took a lot from his webinars and recommend his material to all. Understanding order flow and how institutions move the markets is a critical stage on the way to becoming a trader IMO and paves the way to learning how to trade differently from the herd.
Wow, a lot of posts. Reason for one on one learning is that I learn best from listening and asking questions, I can read books but kinda can get lost in them as well. Good thing on some of the books have audio with them. I havenât got many replies yet but a lot of great info
Thanks!
When you place a trade and your heart starts beating really fast because the amount of money at risk actually matters to youâŚ
yeah, that is when you learn a thing or two.
I have reposted my reply for others to use, 301 Moved Permanently
Meathead did you end up contacting anyone?