Hi I am new to forex and been using the demo account on the FXCM site, which is good and over the past month been reading up a lot on the forex different charts analysis etc and it says on various web sites to find a good mentor, Coupld anyone recommend such a thing as there is alot of good and bad traders out there, If there is any advice out there it would be much appreciated.
heres a bit of advice.
Spend much less time searching for a mentor, and more time learning and studying on your own.
Having mentors are nice and all, but you still have to have the motivation and passion in yourself to push forward. If you have that, you don’t need a mentor. You maybe lucky and score a trader who’s willing to teach, but your better off teaching yourself.
Plus, it’s something nice to tell your kids someday what you’ve worked hard to accomplish through self-motivation.
Theres a whole bunch of threads for people in the “day trading” sub forum of guys looking for trading partners. My advice is to get in with one of these groups or a couple people and try and bounce ideas off them, trade with them, discuss setups, etc. Anything to interact and get different perspectives is what the idea of a Mentor is all about.
Hi Josef & Daedalus, Thank you both for your time and answers both are very good and the forex is a learning curve and roller coaster which I am looking forward to playing and learning in the future, at the moment I am learning with the fozzy strategie which I am using on the demo account and each day I learn something new so maybe in about 2 to 3 months depending on how the out come is I will think about getting a live mini account, I have about 1000GBP to play with and am also learning about leverage, what leverage do you 2 use on your account and as a started what would be the best for me to recommend and look into.
Sounds like you’re taking a very mature and realistic approach to this business. Thats good!
1000 GBP is more than enough to go live with. I would recommend breaking that up so start with 500 in your live account. Worst case - you blow it out, you haven’t spent all of your initial capital and you still have money to address your issues and refund an account.
I would recommend EFX Group or Oanda for your brokers. Both are very good, check out the Rate your Broker section for reviews of both or do a quick search.
I use 100:1 leverage (its the default and only rate available with an EFX account), Oanda however limits you to 50:1. Either one should be fine realistically.
Hi Daedalus, Thank you once more for your time and reply, May I ask where you are from in the world as I live n the UK and trade say UK times, what is the best time for you to check your charts as I use the FXCM demo account which i like and have got to ask them what time there charts are updated each day, when do you normaly check the markets or do you sit there a few housrs each day.
I live in the middle of the U.S. in Nebraska so I couldn’t tell you what the U.K. adjusted time would be but…
I typically sit at the screens during the U.S. market hours 8:30 EST - 4:00 EST. I take a hour lunch break around 12:00 EST. Some would argue these are quiet times in the markets but for me thats ok, i rather trade a quiet, methodical tape, than an irrational overly-influenced tape.
If i’m around and bored i’ll check charts later in the evening up until around midnight and then head to bed. But as a preface to taking trades in the evening I make sure the spreads are still liquid enough to justify my entry - especially if its a shorter term trade. If its a longer swing trade i’ll leave on overnight its not that big of a deal, but I typically like to get a good fill and have liquidity in the spreads before i initiate a position.
Just my way of doing things. I used to trade the U.S. market indexs so I had to be at the screens during those times, and I frankly really have yet to see the benefit of rearranging my sleep habits to trade. There is more than enough opportunity to be captured during my normal hours. Do I catch it all? Nope. But i’m content with that because I never expected to in the first place.
Cheers!
But what if he’s spending all that time studying & learning the wrong stuff?
All the motivation, passion, willingness & positive attitude in the world won’t make him a profitable trader if he don’t got the correct tools to do the job, yeah?
Does a junior surgeon teach himself? a lawyer, does he put himself thru school without receiving ongoing instruction from a senior practitioner? how bout a pro tennis player? did Sampras & Agassi ever receive regular coaching during their careers??
They were equipped with more natural talent than the rest of the pro tour put together…yet they employed mentors/coaches throughout their entire careers?! hmmmm, why so I wonder?
Hi Daedalus, Thank you once more for your time and reply, Happy new year by the way, If you go short or long on trades do you set your stops at a different level as I have been using on the demo account a stop loss of 50 to 60 pips down and the same for profit/gain, what do you normaly use, When I go live I am thinking of starting with �1000 GBP in my account and going to start slow with 1 trade may be 2 on a good day at a time on the mini account and having a stop or gain of 50 pips I will then be able to afford a loss as much as a win, How many trades to you do now on average per day/week, Also if you dont mind me asking what kind of a budget do you have now a days as a serious private trader as this would help me out in having a rough idea of where I can aim for in the future and set my self small goals.
My stops aren’t determined by a set amount ie 50 pips or 75 pips. The problem with this is while you think you are protecting yourself, by using a rudimentary number to set your stops you have no idea how that stop is figured into the psychological levels of support and resistance in the market.
What happens if that stop is right on a major support line that price is probable to come up and test… It tests it, kicks you out for a max loss, and then goes where you think it was going to. You were right, but your 50 pip stop loss was set an an inappropriate level.
This video explains it well: Profiting with Forex (PFX) - Watch Forex Professionals Currency Trade
However, I DO set stops. I set my stops two pips outside of the swing high/low of the trade i’m taking. If you’ve read my method you would know i’m typically setting a stop around the 87% mark of a retracement, but even i have been stopped out quite frequently by moves that come a tick or two through my stop and then move on in my direction. I’m taking on a bit more risk by doing this, however its also increasing my win % so I feel it is an acceptable trade off. 9 times out of 10 if I get stopped out for a max loss it was due to one of these scenarios. Not often am I completely wrong on a move.
Take your trades slow. You’re wise to limit them. In fact, limit yourself to ONE trade a day. If you’ve only got one to use, you will have to force yourself to wait for a truly IDEAL setup. Not some whim trade that will trap you into gambling on your intuition.
Trades per day? It depends. Today i woke up and all my trades signaled about an hour prior to me turning on my computer so i’m in a holding pattern for now. Typically between 1-4 trades a day. It would be different depending on the timeframe and type of system I was trading, but doing what I am now thats about average.
I could tell you my budget, but you wouldn’t be impressed. I’m still transitioning my trading style to Forex from the S&P 500, so i’ve just got a teeny 1000.00 account i’m building up before i put more serious money into it. Like anything, a new market demands patience and respect, and I want to get at least two months of solid gains before it would be prudent for me to add any type of size to my trades.
Hope this helps!
Cheers!
Can’t disagree more actually. While it is true that the only way you can succeed is with passion and committment, i think we can all agree that the learning curve in this business is immense.
The best way to successfully get through that learning curve is with someone who has gone through it. It will make your own learning curve alot less steep. Sure, mistakes will be made just the same but with a competent mentor those mistakes are very likely going to be far less costly, and you will learn what those mistakes were almost immediatley.
Going it on your own often implies that you will make mistakes without even realizing the damage you are doing to your account and why.
Keep in mind that having a mentor does not necessarily imply paying someone an arm and a leg to stand over your shoulder. Having a mentor, or even several mentors, can also simply be through valuable forums such as this and other reputable ones. You’d be surprised the number of people willing to share knowledge. That counts as mentorship, too
point taken pitbull, but we can both agree that most “starters” ARE looking for someone to stand over their shoulders and watch every move they do so they can avoid mistakes…you and I both know that thats an inevitable obstacle all traders must overcome.
What most new posters are essentially asking is for someone to babysit them through this journey…there’s nothing wrong with that, if you can find somebody willing to give up their time and resources to do it. Not to mention it may cost you an arm and a leg to have that privelige. If I were mentoring someone exclusively, I’ve got to charge them a fee that covers lost trading opportunities.
I realized i forgot to mention that my definition of mentorship is what you said…“Having a mentor, or even several mentors, can also simply be through valuable forums such as this and other reputable ones.”
This does involve doing alot of your own work, research and study. The point I was trying to make i guess.
My mentors where everybody’s opinions and discussions on everything currencies…namely the more expereinced players…Which comes back to doing your own groundwork.
Hi, I am still working my way through the school of Baby pips and it is very helpful, I keep on getting to a stage of fraustration as I start to think I have learnt something and put it into practise on the demo account and goes well for a few trades and then it all goes wrong and I feel like kicking it in but I am learning from this and everyday I seem to get a better view of the forex and learn something new on what to do and what not to do, How long have you been trading the forex Daedalus and how different is this market to the last one you traded in and why have you decided to change to the forex.
How did you find the forex at the beginning was it fraustrating and did you lose as many trades as you won, I am kind of on 50/50 at the moment with the demo account and breaking even as the biggest thing I learnt was that this could be a very emotion trade business and the more I do the more I am now relying on charts which is a good thing but every now and then I slip back and think that would be a great trade and it is not.
I have also started to watch more busines and finance programmes like bloomberg which at first very confusing but is now starting to make sense, Have a good day trading and chat laters.
I would like to find a good mentor.
Well, I’ve been gone for a little while. But, I’m back in small capacity. I just thought that I would chime in with this “I’m looking for a mentor” threads that seem to be coming up.
It’s all well and good that you want a mentor, coach, teacher, etc… However, I think that these people can benefit more from learning from forums like Babypips.com and other forex websites more than paying someone to hold their hand.
Another suggestion for these people, download Windows Live Messenger, have a discussion group with a couple of traders that do follow your trading style and learn from them. Think of it as “study groups.”
Finally, remember this is a business. The whole idea is to earn more than you spend. If you need to spend money on a mentor, it’s just one more expense that you really may not need.
For me I dont know what the hell that I am doing. Right now I am reading Currency Trading For Dummbies so I can get the general ideal of what is the forex market. But as I am finding out this market is not joke and its hard as hell. At the end of the day you get a some hell of cash back.
You find it “hard as hell” at first because there is so much information to digest. Why do you think it takes (on average) four years to get a college degree? I’ll tell you from experience, it was “hard as hell.” I see this as me obtaining a college degree. I’m just changing it to me having $1M in the bank. (My plan is for 7 years though.) Everyone has failed at one time or another. That is just a part of life. But, the real winners are the ones who are persistent in what they strive for and keep reaching for their goals.
I always tell myself that Donald Trump failed at one time. He filed for bankruptcy. But, guess what, he didn’t quit. He picked himself up and look at him now.
I know I am trying to get couple of million dollars myself and see my self a Icon where I come from or show my High school Goverment teacher that I made it thanks to his advice.
I think there is value in having a mentor - but you should do your research carefully as there are so many charlatans out there. One mentor I have heard good things about is Rob Booker. He does webinars on FXStreet once in a while so you should be able to check him out there. Good luck!
FXStreet is a great operation. That and PFXGlobal are very good sights run by people who know what they are talking about!