I am starting a journal here but it will not qualify me for the contest because I don’t intend to start even demo trading until I understand this process much, much better than I do now. I am working my way through the 45 School of Pipsology courses and I will use this journal to document my learning journey. In my next post, I will share a summary of my 40 year career in finance and then provide my road map for how I intend to approach becoming a successful forex trader. But before all that, I just wish to share one small observation.
After spending considerable time already studying the lessons and reading these posts, I have observed that the vast majority of these questions are addressed in detail in the course material. I think everyone is being very polite for submitting answers to these very basic questions but, what I feel like saying to most of these people is, “Don’t be so lazy! Read the damn book!” After 40 years in finance both as an entrepreneur and in the Fortune 50, I can tell you all that the single most significant obstacle to success in any business venture is inadequate preparation – i.e., jumping in the deep end of the pool before even passing the basic course. The only formula for success is study, study, study and then practice, practice, practice. I don’t have a lot of patience with people who aren’t willing to do the hard work of training and who ask basic questions because they’re too lazy to do their own homework. You won’t be successful is you don’t do the work. To be continued …
Looking forward to your journal. I’m also going through the school right now. Hope to learn something from your experiences.
This is amazing
I was trying to trade without the basic knowledge of the Forex market. So i found myself sunk in the stop losses. That was when I choose to learn.
beginners should go through the school minimum for 2 times including a micro account , its a great combination.
@mgrogie nice first post, however, I suggest that you get that demo account open and get familiar with your trading platform as well as with how the markets move in real time. As you go through the lessons try out what you’ve learned on the demo and the charts. Place a few orders and get a feel for the spread and how it affects your entries. Set stop losses and adjust them, etc.
Learning how to trade is much like learning how to play a musical instrument. You can read all the books that you want but nothing really prepares you for what it feels like to pick up the instrument and play it.
Thanks for your suggestion! I think I’m gonna go through the school 3 times! 
see you in a few months. I agree with the previous suggestion; open a demo account and apply what you have learnt as you go along. That way you will imprint the techniques on your mind.
I would also suggest you read through Baller’s forum from the beginning, it will give a great insight how to handle stop losses which is critical to success. Remember your broker loves stop losses!
best of luck.
At the top of this thread in the header of your first post, below the title, you will see a link “Home > Trading Discussion > Trade Journals”.
Click on “Trading Discussion”. That is the top of the sub-forum. There you will find a button to create a new post.
My goodness, so many suggestions before I’ve given hardly any info on my background or plans. Let me just say that I have intended to do all of the above from the start and will get into more detail on this in future posts.
Okay I’ve spent the last couple weeks rereading the BabyPips course through to where I left off several months ago which was the end of Kindergarten. For my own reference, I’ve been copying the course contents into a Word file and, believe it or not, just going through the Preschool and Kindergarten took up 250 pages. I guess this means that my “textbook” will easily be over 2,000 pages by the time I finish the college courses.
So as I continue to work my way through the School of Pipsology I thought it was time to share a little of my background. I’ve been in entrepreneurship and financial management most of my life having known since I was five years old that my life goals were to write, make films, and have my own company. I asked my mother to teach me to read and write when I was only three years old (which she was happy to do) and so I was already literate by age 5 and began writing stories and little scripts at age 7, starting little 8mm films by 7th grade and my first company in high school.
Towards these goals, I graduated college with a film degree from Boston University and then spent the latter half of the 70s and 80s out in L.A. working in “the biz.” While in L.A. I pursued the second half of my dream and attended the University of Southern California for my MBA, majoring in finance and entrepreneurship, starting a film company as my master’s thesis, and graduating in the top ten percent of my class.
Unfortunately, the film studios were not impressed as they hired strictly from the Ivy Leagues so I went to work in aerospace working in financial management and learning a great deal more about both finances and running companies. My financial experience has always been on Main Street but I’d always had a fascination with switching over to Wall Street and doing investments. But even at the tender age of 30, I was already being told that I was too old to work in investments.
I came back to my hometown in Michigan in 1989 and have been back here ever since. Oddly, at 40 I was already being plagued by age discrimination in the MBA and was unable to find positions but, quite ironically, suddenly found opportunities in film and video here in Detroit and spent twenty years running a production company here and making several films and many videos as well as penning many scripts.
It was until I was almost 60 that I stumbled onto an opportunity to finally pursue the field that had fascinated me since high school and train to be a financial adviser. Once again, unfortunately, even though I completed the first couple of courses with flying colors, when it came time to apply for internships the doors all slammed in my face. I could not even get an interview. I had an MBA from one of the top B-schools in the country and 37 years financial management experience and I could not even get an interview. Of course, they could not say this out loud but we all knew that it was age discrimination popping up its ugly head again. Every single classmate I graduated from the MBA with had run into the same problem – resistance after age 50 and forced into retirement by age 55.
Fortunately I was keeping busy managing estates for family and friends and doing quite well at this, as circumstances were forcing me to manage portfolios for the better part of the ten years I was doing estates. It was hard, but it was fun. So when the estate work ended, I began studying investments more and in earnest.
It was about a year ago that I discovered Forex and not too long after that that I started examining BabyPips.com.
That’s where things stand. I am just now arriving at retirement age, have no desire to stop working, and think I may have found something here that will utilize my extensive experience and training as an MBA but that I can do regardless of age. So I have begun this journal to document this journey.
In my next post, I will outline the approach I plan to take in using BabyPips, learning Forex, and possibly launching a new career as a trader.