Hello everyone!
I’m an absolute beginner in the FOREX and currently enrolled in the Pipsology’s pre-school program. 
My plan is to finish the Pipsology course in 3 months, after that practice trading with the demo account until I become consistently profitable (hopefully 3-6 months) and then start trading with real money €500 or €1000 account.
My goal is to become a profitable full-time trader within a year. Hopefully this is a realistic and achievable goal. Any comments and advice are welcome!
Sounds good!
Moro!
Sounds like a solid plan to me. You might like to consider opening your demo account simultaneously with your current studies so that you can put what you learn into practice.
Tervetuloa and hope to hear more from you here!
I was thinking about your post overnight and I think that, whilst your objective is theoretically achievable, in practice it is likely to end up a little over-optimistic…unless you can approach your education and demo training in a very systematic manner.
It is clear from the many threads that have started on this site that learning to trade forex and reaching a state of consistent profitability is not easy or straightforward. In fact, many experienced and profitable traders still find themselves in periods of “bad runs” and overcoming these is also part of the long term survival.
During your early months you will need to resolve a number of broad issues such as:
What kind of trading you are looking to do and that suits your own time, money, psychological dimensions. E.g short term intraday trading is very different than swing trading or longer term trades.
What trading style you are going to apply. E,g, TA or TA+FA, indicators or price action analysis, active monitoring of open trades or “set and forget”
What risk/money management rules you are going to apply. Strangely, profitability is not about just getting the direction right. It is more to do with handling your exposure risk and how much of your equity is exposed over your open positions, etc.
What kind of trading suits your psychological make up. We are all different and some people thrive on sitting and intently watching a screen for several hours during a selected market session and then switching off. Others prefer to take position with a set target and stoploss which is intended to last maybe 1-3 days. Others have positions lasting days, even weeks or more. Whatever scenario suits will determine what kind of charts you look at and what you put on those charts to assist your decision-making.
Whatever outcomes you form during your initial training period will change as time goes by. Trading is a living activity and markets, processes, and our own objectives and approach change as time goes by. the only thing which really remains the same is risk/money management - something I think many early traders pay too little respect to, but which is critical to success over time.
There’s just a few things to think about. But I would also add that do not use your demo account to simply jump from one attractive sounding method to another. Start from the beginning, evaluate as you go, reject what is not right for you and add new stuff step by step. It is a journey, and you can succeed in it. But you need to learn and understand the basics of your markets and the purpose and limitations of your tools that you chose to use - and you need to understand yourself! 
PS. Sorry, I meant to also mention that, as you are no doubt aware, markets are currently in a unusual state of uncertainty and heightened volatility, so whatever tools you apply to charts at present may not necessarily function in the same manner in more “normal” times, when, and if, we return to such times!
Thank you for you wise words!
I believe in any journey there will be more or less setbacks along the way so I’ll be preparing myself to face it. Some say “you will learn more from your loss than from your gain”. However, like anyone else, I hope to win more than loose. 
BTW, are you also from Finland?
You are absolutely on the right track here!
I think it is important for all traders to understand that losses are NOT bad news, they are an integral part of trading and will always be a part of our business no matter how experienced and disciplined we become. The reason for this is because, whatever we trade, we are always trading the same product: Probability.
All trades are based on a probability of what the outcome might be. And, of course, this means some trades will go with the probability of winning whilst others will meet the probability of loss.This is simply what we do!
And, as you rightly say, the objective is not to try and eliminate losses, it is simply to win more than we lose - and that is really all it needs! We cannot make profits unless we are in the market - but if we are in the market then we will make losses as well. We just need to control the mix of these! - and that is exactly what so many Newbies seem to fail to grasp (at least from what I have read on BP over the years).
Our trade analysis is designed to present possible trades and assess the probability of the trade winning. But it is our risk/money management that determines whether the long term result is that the wins are greater than the losses overall.
Once one realizes this then our losses simply become just the overheads of our business and a necessary expense in order to gain a profit - just like in any in other business.
The only time that losses become “bad” and something to eliminate is when they result from badly planned trades, impatience, greed, revenge trades and so on. This is where personal psychology enters the picture and one needs to develop patience and discipline. It is not entirely rubbish when people say “trading only succeeds once it becomes boring” or “less means more” - both indicate the virtues of planned and systematic trading within a set of defined risk/money management parameters.
I will answer that with a picture that only someone from Finland could possibly recognise at Easter!!! 
This is pure gold! It makes so much sense to understand the losses as an overhead of the trading business.
Well, well, well… Easter is just another day of the year without mämmi, at least here in Finland. I hope the your mämmi box is now empty. 
Yep! Actually all three of them!
The benefit of having a demo account while learning is that you can freely practice and experiment as you go without any cost. It is the best way to start getting a feel of how markets work.
But my recommendation would be (and I think a number of other seasoned traders here would agree) that you concentrate on developing a swing type trading approach based on daily, 4-hour, 1-hour type charts, looking for trades lasting typically up to 1-2 days rather than trying to trade intraday off 1-15m charts.
But it does no harm to trade intraday on your demo just to get a feel for markets. The intraday can be very erratic and totally illogical because it is bounced around by short term players, automated systems and such like, which can play havoc with one’s mental processes! 
Intraday trades tend to be in the 10-50 pip range which means they also have close stops in order to maintain a reasonable R:R. But this also means that it demands intense concentration and discipline and great accuracy regarding entries and exits. It is only too easy to gain 4-5 wins in a day only to give it all back and more on the last trade. As far as I am aware, there are few beginner day traders that consistently make good money. But that does not mean it is impossible, I just think it is easier to reach consistency with 1-3 day type trades.
Of course, the current state of markets has distorted most generalisations - so remember to keep that in mind!
Hi eXichlo, you’ve got a really nice plan and we’re really happy to have you join us in this great community, it would be nice to download any version of Metatrader so as you learn you could start watching the charts, hopefully you would be ready in a year as said 
Only three boxes?
At this moment I’m playing with scalping strategy because I like the fast pace of it. Seeing profits coming in are so damn mesmerising. I believe this is a newbie’s emotion taking over. Luckily, I have time to work on my psychology. I will try the swing strategy once I’m a bit further with my studies.
Do you happen to know where can I get a demo account with 1 000 EUR?
I’m playing with 100 000 USD demo account that automatically came with MT5. This is so far away from the realistic start.
Hi Bizdons and thanks for the welcome!
I see you have been here almost a year. I’m so curious to know how is your progress? Where are you with the forex trading?
I think the best approach would be to choose which broker you would most likely wish to continue with when going live and open a demo with them now.
There is no obligation to stay with them and you can get to know your broker better at the same time. You can specify the opening balance when you open the demo account.
But remember that trading a demo account with a broker will not be exactly the same as with a live account. Slippage and spread widening, for example, will probably not exist on a demo account. And, of course, you cannot test the withdrawals process and customer service standards that live accounts get.
But make sure it is a regulated broker, preferably under ESMA as well, and, i would suggest, one of the bigger, established names.
It might also be worth selecting a broker offering other trading platforms than MT4/5 so that you can test how they compare.
I like that solid plan of yours. I hope it will be a good trading experience for you. But please do know that sometimes plans do not go the way we wanted it to be. So, don’t fret if that happens.
All the best.
I’ve gone a really long way, I was first a looser but now I’ve been about to meet up profitability, though I’m still having huge psychological problems lol
Yes it is but you can blow it down to the size you are comfortable with.
Lol. Learning to trade is like learning to drive
