Hello all. So I’m completely new to forex and have been demo trading for a while. I feel fairly confident in my system and would like to go live but everyday I tell myself I’ll go live tomorrow. Then tomorrow comes and I say “no, one more day of demo, I’ll go live tomorrow”. This has been going on for weeks. I know I should remove all emotion from trading but being new I just can’t help it. Did you experience this before going live for your first time and how did you get over it? Just pull the trigger?
I know exactly how you feel. When I was demoing I fell into the rut of paralysis by analysis. The fear of losing really kept me from getting anywhere and it took me a long time to open a live account because of it. What helped alleviate the situation for me is I only used $50. Due to it being a tiny sum of money, I was able to trade with a clear head and not constantly second-guessing myself. You’ll want to find a highly-solvent, reputable broker who allows you to trade fractional lots that are smaller than mini. Micro, Nano, whatever. You want to deposit the bare minimum and trade only that. It builds confidence that you can succeed and each success will naturally compound so even a tiny sum can turn into something substantially larger.
Open a tiny live account. I know IBFX will let you open up a mini account with $50 and you can trade nano lots (.01 a pip) so a 100 pip loss is only $1. You can also create custom lots with them so you can trade $.03 a pip if you want or $1.92 a pip.
This way you can get the feel of really money but not enough to break you if you make some bad trades.
I went live about 2 months ago. I did the same thing but only for a couple days. The last day was like “Ok. Now is good a time as any other. I’m already hindering my growth!” Then BANG! Trigger pulled.
I didn’t feel confident in my first system and had some lucky trades. You have a better frame of mind going in. I’m just always optimistic.
Just remember that having a live account doesn’t mean that you HAVE TO trade that account, its good to get that step out of the way so there isn’t that barrier when you are ready. Once you have the account open then it is easy to do a couple small trades to get warmed up and confident. If having done that you don’t feel comfortable or whatever then just demo some more to find out what is going on.
Something that has helped me is learning to use pending orders. If you think that the price is going to do something just place a pending order according to your system and see what happens (demo first until you learn to use it).
Also, +1 for the other posts, good stuff:)
Use NLP tapping - use a phrase something like ‘I’m a nervous live trader’, this is the feeling you want to negate and follow the tapping sequence, it works
Ya, what reaper said. Tiny live account, so you can go in the pool slowly.
On you first trade:
- Enter only on your signals.
- Exit only on your signals, stop/TP
- Don’t overleverage.
- Don’t EVER move your SL hoping a loss will come back.
- Don’t revenge trade.
If you find yourself doing 3&4&5 quit trading, you are about to wreck you account. I know I’ve done it.
P.S. It’s alright to be/have emotions about trades. You are human you will never “remove,” your emotions. What you have to do is not let them dictate your actions. Just double check when you are about to act. Is it because of your signals/setup/method? Or are you just jumping in a trying to force a trade because of fear/greed/regret.
P.P.S. Another good thing is to have a set limit on trading for the day or week depending on type of trading. You could have a 1 trade a day rule, or a 1 loss and done for the day rule. This will help with over trading and revenge trading and trying to jump at everything you see.
This is good advice, but I disagree (with other posts) about starting a small account…$50? if you follow money management rules you can’t make too much from this…a %50 of your account trade (which is a very large percentage) is only $ 25!!..I think that you need to play for “meaningful stakes” this is something worthwhile…$25 (in my opinion) is not worth the effort
Before you learn to walk you learn to crawl.
Exactly. It’s also not about how MUCH you profit, just testing if you can. I’d hate to tell someone who can’t really afford to put more than they can afford to lose into an account, and then lose it. It’d be so much better if they only lost a $ here or there.
Also, if you are profitable by the percents consistently, a smaller account will only delay good money just a bit longer =P
If you can’t stay afloat with a 50$ account how would you survive with 5K$?
There’s only 2 things in forex, whether you profit or you lose, the absolute value is relative.
Not from the start no. You can compound it into something more meaningful, and in the mean time you get real live trading experience.
Given that most traders blow their first account…at least their first account, I think its better to start small.
To use the often used car driving analogy, which would you rather your sons first car be? A fast as hell corvette that hell get killed in if he crashes or something small sturdy and not so fast?
Thank you all for the great advice! This is a great forum for noobs like me! The more experienced traders here show respect and don’t brush you off like a jackass and that is rare in this world. I never look down on noobs when it comes to things I’m good at because we all start out at the bottom. Nobody starts out as an expert in anything. Thanks again!