Might be controversial but a broker is not that important. 90% of them are fine so use whatever one you are comfortable with. I use CedarFX, IC Markets and IG and all have been fine as most are. Do some research before you sign up on forums like here or elsewhere but personally I don’t bother constantly checking on forums after signing up unless I have an issue, which I haven’t.
Social media “gurus” often don’t actually trade themselves and make their money conning the vast majority of people coming into trading looking for quick cash – don’t get caught out!
Nobody can give you a ready-made strategy and then send you off to start making money. A strategy is something personal to you in terms of time, risk tolerance, psychology, speed of the market etc. Take bits from different sources and then take the time to formulate and test your own strategy that fits your own parameters. There is no “one-size fits all” in trading.
Trading of any type is NOT A GET RICH QUICK SCHEME! It takes time for the above reasons to first learn the basics and then formulate a strategy, test it thoroughly and implement it.
Set achievable goals – when you first start break even at the end of the month might be a great target for you and that is fine. Not losing long term is priority number one to protect your capital. Don’t compare your 1000hrs of practice to another person’s 10,000hrs. Be better than you were 6 months ago and focus on that.
What else have you all learned in your time trading?
I thought you were pretty spot on! These seem to be some of the most important facts to know and a lot of newer traders don’t realize these things. Unrealistic expectations, putting too much money/faith into Forex gurus or strategies that others claim are guaranteed, etc. don’t usually work out.
Thanks for posting!
The most important skill to learn, which is far from easy, when is the time to enter and exit a trade? I’ve been very lax with both entries and exits which has cost me. This current market sentiment is like trying to surf the waves without waiting for the big one - it’s that difficult.
I quite agree that it is an important point. A thing I have noticed is so much emphasis is put on entries but exits far less so which in my opinion are just as important. Do you raise stops, take partials, none of the above and stay all in for your ultimate target? For me your choice should be known before your trade is taken.
Definitely that it’s not a get rich quick scheme. When I first started, I thought it would be as easy as holding a FANG stock lol. I didn’t realize how much more time consuming it can be in terms of managing your trades. A strategy works but also you need to put in the time in order to see some form of return.
True statements. Many are under the illusion that there exists a no-loss system aka (the holy grail) to transform them into overnight millionaires. This is why forex is littered with the skulls and bones of thousands of traders on a fruitless quest for an object of their imagination.
I can attest to the first one. I have traded much longer than yourself, yet only recall having a real issue with a broker once.
They admitted there had been a problem with their price feed, and refunded the money that I had lost - it did however take 2 weeks to get the money.
The only other problem was it took forever and a day to actually get new funds into my account - they did all sorts of background checks, ID confirmations and got their compliance team involved.
Apparently, it’s soooo easy to set up an account these days, and while the paperwork was nothing, actually putting funds in the account for me was a nightmare.
And most recently I had two open positions, wheat & copper, and I come to view my positions yesterday.
They had both been closed and not by me.
I was thinking, “broker trying to rip me off”, and went full metal jacket - but then I checked the expiry of the contracts and they both had expired on the same day - and I was oblivious to that date.
What a knob head I am - lol.
The last one is the most important - you hear all sorts of stories about how brokers did this or did that, and usually it’s the fault of the trader NOT the broker.
what I learned from 2 years of trading:
in addition to what you mentioned and I can not agree more, I have realised things below also:
1- making a profit from your trades is not very difficult, being consistently profitable is absolutely a goal.
2- there is no rule to limit you, you can do whatever you wish and whenever you want. (except the time you get called out or running out of money in your account to put new orders). it could be feeling liberating but on the other hand it could be really dangerous. you MUST make rules for yourself and stick to them.
3- trading session is incrediably important. especially if you trade in shorter timeframes (4h and below). I live in Australia and my daytime is Asian market. You have no idea how much I lost because of placing orders during the Asian market and hit the stop loss on London or US market time.
4- feeling missed out is harmful. when you missed a trade, just leave it. there are other opportunities in the future. Do not just jump the gun and placed an order which has been already out of steam.
… and to be continued!!
Things I’ve learned after 15yrs in the market (with breaks and less active periods).
Treating trading forex as way for making money. It means for me, that it should be a part of investment portfolio and not necessarily main one. I have spent months learning, demoing, testing etc. but now I know, that during that time my money should already work for me even with as simple strategy as dollar cost averaging of S&P
Ask yourself: “Do I want to make money or play a forex game? If I want to make money - am I doing it in most efficient/profitable way?” This may change your perspective. (My buy and hold portfolio ALWAYS has better results than my active trading)
Another point is closely related to previous one - If you want to learn on mistakes, ensure these are cheap. There is often repeated advice to trade with sums you care about so you put more effort in trading. This means nothing more, than “lose more money while learning”. I no longer demo trade. Instead, if I am learning something new or trying new strategy I will use real money but smallest amounts possible.
You can’t predict future. No system or indicator will tell when market will reverse. We can be overbought/sold very long on every oscillator, we can gamble, if given support/resistance break or hold. I see only option to profit the markets in reacting to what is happening instead of trying to foresee. If price breaks the support, pulls back, respects the level as new resistance and you see the momentum - you are in TOTALLY better position than somebody who fired trade when price just started flirting with the level. Wait few candles and see what happens. I believe being late in the market is less damaging that being too early. Subtle difference between what we believe market will do and what we see it does
every thing seems impossible when you see all these others out there making money (or not) fake it or make it either way all i am looking for is a way to build my own capital and consistent profit. the hardest thig is the time it takes.
