Greetings everyone and hello from Syracuse New York! Just dropping in to say hello and introduce myself. My name is Mark from… yeah, you guessed it. I’m brand new here and have no idea what I’m doing or for that matter, why I’m even here. How’d I find it? A little background is probably appropriate.
So I was minding my own business this weekend when I got a Facebook friend invite from a guy who I thought I recognized from a Motorcycle group that I belong to. Naturally I accepted. He starts with a brief introduction, throwing around “bro” like we were old college room mates. He then proceeds to tell me that he can help me become financially independent and become my own boss. He asked me a few questions about trading, which I know nothing about, and then mentioned Forex, which I had never heard of. At this point I kind of distanced myself, but was intrigued enough to do some research on my own. I started with YouTube and a video warning people to “stay away, you’ll lose all of your money”. It actually seemed brutally honest about ones chances at success with Forex trading. I watched a few more videos and from there I went to Reddit, which pointed me here. I started reading some of the educational materials on the sight, preschool and kindergarten so far, and decided to create an account.
So now that I’m here, what next? I’ve determined that this is not easy to get into, and even more difficult to be successful at. I’m not even sure at this point how far down I want to follow the rabbit hole. I think the best way to describe my goals at this point is to say that I have about 20 years left of working for a living before I retire. I guess I’d like to start this off as a hobby, see how it goes for a while, and maybe use it to supplement my retirement income if I decide to stick with it that long.
Anyway, thanks for reading all the way to the end. For anyone that made it this far, I’d love any input that you have to offer. Like I said, I’m still crawling along with this stuff. I look forward to seeing you all around!
Hi Mark!
First thing I would say is, if you do not know the FB guy then stay well clear - that kind of cold-calling only results in never seeing your money again!
Second thing I would say is that the warnings concerning the risk of loss are totally correct. Most newcomers do lose their money. In fact there is a recent thread here on BP about that very subject offering evidence that up to 95% (or more) traders do lose their money! That is no joke!
Third thing I would say is that you shouldn’t let that stop you from trying it! There are many reasons why so many people lose but most of them are personal to the traders’ own mistakes and inadequacies. It does not mean that a person taking it slow and systematically with their studies and learning cannot make it.
Trading is fun, it is demanding, and it is not for everyone. But you will only find out how it suits you if you give it a try. There is no initial risk because you can open a demo account with a broker and trade paper money under real conditions and with real prices until you have learnt enough and shown to yourself that you can earn consistently - only then, when you are ready and knowledgeable, you can think about opening a live trading account.
So go for it (with a demo). Try it, experiment, run it like it’s real money, see what happens. If nothing else it will broaden your views and knowledge of what is going on in the world!
But it doesn’t teach you how to control your emotions…because it’s a demo account.
Having said that, I spent 8 months on a demo account that mirrors what I now use on my live account, and I treated it as though it was. That means your mindset must control whatever the market throws at you, be it risk and money management, overtrading, revenge trading, fear, anger, hulk moments - you get the picture.
An (Incredible) Hulk moment is when a trader loses it (his composure following a bad outcome), and grows into a Hulk to throw everything at the market to recover the loss, without any attention to the consequences of his mad moments.
Patience, discipline, and emotions are forgotten - and practically every trader, successful or not, will suffer from a Hulk moment - I have lost it when I made a profit, which I closed early, then as the trend was continuing, greed took over and I started to up my lot size, and then another, and one more, and when they lost, I blindly reversed the trade which also lost. Five wasted trades and a 3% overall loss for one mad moment.
Ha ha! Now I know! I certainly recognise the emotion but I don’t recall having succumbed - but that is probably just due to a mental blackout post-event!
I am sure a lot of people can relate to that! It is typically human, I guess!
I think one way for newcomers to avoid this type of temptation is to trade longer term charts. My signals come from a 4-hr chart and I rarely go lower than that except maybe to resolve some doubt on an open trade by dropping to the 1-hour. Having to wait for the next 4-hour candle to close has a great calming affect on emotional outbursts, even if it is very frustrating at times, too.
Thank you everyone for the responses, it is actually more than I was expecting. Don’t worry, you definitely didn’t disappoint or scare me away. The past 48hrs have been a little crazy is all. I’ll definitely look into a demo account before I do anything crazy like wagering real cash.
I certainly recognise the emotion but I don’t recall having succumbed - but that is probably just due to a mental blackout post-event! 
