Hi everyone…I am a complete newbie to Forex or indeed anything to do with the financial markets but I really want to learn. I’m a FT mom so have time to learn all things Forex. I’ve just been having a browse around the site and I love it…so much going on…going to have to go to school now though!!!
If anyone could give me some advice on how to go about things I would be eternally grateful…I don’t have an account yet anywhere and to be honest I wouldn’t know who to open one with! Any advice appreciated.
Hi, welcome to the Forum!
Well, trading is not so easy as it seems to be, so my first advice is: stay demo for a period of time!
Probably the most traders (including me) start with learing technical analysis. I think you don’t need a book for it, I watched (german) video courses in the internet.
I did this too, after that I searched for the holy grail of all the indicators. Didn’t find one. During that, I was losing money on my demo account.
When I’ve gone so far, learned a lot and wasn’t profitable, I started learing price action.
So: Take your time, stay demo, learn (I think nearly every trader starts learing about technical analysis, If you can let it go later, It’s worth learning it), just get the experience of learning trading!
Try to get your hands on the Forex Secret Protocol trading system. Just been released, costs allot but is worth it. I’m not affilated to them but have started using it myself and it has simple and clear rules & works. Don’t look at anything else.
Ohkay. The advice that Feuer gave is sort of right. And Safari is probably a marketer/spammer (I know, I know. You’re not affiliated. And I’m totally the Queen of Sheba) Also- how do you know it works if you just started using it?
This is the process I suggest.
The Babypips school will teach you all of the core, foundation knowledge you need to learn forex. You don’t need to buy book or expensive systems or any of that garbage. Complete the school first and foremost.
Find yourself a broker. For outside of US I usually recommend MahiFX, for in US I recommend OANDA. Mahi is relatively new but it was founded by some people that have been involved in the markets for awhile and was recommended to me by a friend. OANDA has been around for a long time. To me that makes it less likely to fall through. If you want to do more of your own research, jump down to the Forex Brokers forums. Open up a demo account with the broker while you do the school. That way you can test things out and look at things for yourself. Demo accounts are no cost/no obligation and you can reset your virtual funds whenever.
Find yourself a system. Jump down to the Free Trading Systems forum and just start looking at things until you find something that clicks for you. I trade Price Action and I recommend it as the first thing to look at it for any new trader. Many of the principles you learn with Price Action are still pretty useful in other strategies and it’s not that complicated to learn.
Some points to consider-
As a FT mom I’m sure you do have some time on your hands but you’re probably going to be attracted to short-term trading/scalping first since it seems like it’s less of a time investment. If you scalp, you actually have to dedicate more hours to the charts to find the OPTIMAL trading opportunities. They can be gone in an instant. Long-term trading (4h and daily chart) you spend far less time looking at the charts. I think I spend maybe 45 minutes a day actually looking at charts? That will probably suit you better with your family responsibilities.
You will be advised by some to develop your own trading system. If you’re a novice coming into this; you’re better off learning an already established and well-tested trading system. You put yourself at an inherent disadvantage because you don’t know the markets inside out, how price acts, how various indicators work within one another. Using an established system also has the benefit of a communities of people that trade it. So you have people you can ask questions of as opposed to people just trying to make an educated guess on how things will work. Took me a year to figure out I was being an idiot trying to develop my own system without any experience in the markets.
You’re going to hear a lot of advice on when to go live from Demo accounts. The two main camps are stay Demo until you’re consistently profitable and then go live; or spend a little time in Demo to figure out how your strategy works and then go live. You see a lot of people will be profitable on demo, then go live and blow out their account. The reason is the psychology behind it. You have to get used to putting your money out there to do what it’s going to do. Thus, I feel it’s better to do it as soon as possible. (I spent three weeks in Demo before going life, others advise doing six months.) The right choice for you is going to depend on your comfort level with risk.
Do NOT use a lot of money when you first go live. Almost everyone on this board has a “I blew out my first account” story. When you’re ready to go live; take $150-$200 and trade in micro amounts. If you can be profitable with that consistently you can be profitable with thousands (barring psychological hurdles).
Learning to trade is not hard mechanically. The hard part is mastering your own mind, emotions, and sticking to your trading plan. No matter how we trade, risk management binds us altogether. You will want to learn everything you can about risk management and the psychology of successful trading.
Forex is not get rich quick by any stretch of the imagination. Approach it the same way you would training for a job or going to college classes.
There are a lot of scammers out there in forex but there are also some very good products and knowledgeable people. Keep in mind that there is no holy grail, if it sounds too good to be true it is, and most (not all) paid courses will just teach you the stuff the Babypips school will teach you for free. Before you spend money on any products, ask here on the forums if anyone has any input on the product/course/whatever.
I haven’t got the time to argue if I’m a marketer or not but I wouldn’t be a very good marketer not having put a web address with a referral/affiliate code on my post. Most of what you said is correct and Baby Pips has a great free online resource in the School of Pipsology. However you can become overloaded very quickly with all the indicators, custom indicators, systems etc. I don’t think a part-time trader can dedicate the time to learning and implementing these indicators etc. I have been there!
I recommend a mentor or a trading partner if you can find a good one.
Open a demo account and learn to read the charts. Do daily exercise of drawing support, resistance and trend lines.
Start with higher time frames, daily or 4 h. Write out your trading plan and follow it step by step. Be systematic. Keep a journal and screen shots of your trades. Review what went right and wrong.
Trading is all about cutting your losses quickly and having precise entries. You should have 3-5 things telling you to take a trade. Be picky and patient. Before you enter a trade, you should know exactly why you are placing a trade and where to take a loss, where to take a profit and where to break even your trade.
When you start a live account trade very small like 0.5% and try to make and lose very very little and very very slowly. If you can keep your account going long enough and have the majority of your capital intact you will get it.
You need to be able to stay in the game long enough and eventually you will learn. You will get less and less emotional the longer you practice trading. Remember if you feel tired take time off and recharge yourself. You need to be in the right frame of mind.