I was an Army Ranger for four years, spent time in Afghanistan, came back from war and majored in Biology, taught that for awhile, learned to teach Yoga - got into Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, recently learned how to be a mortgage loan officer. But now I’m interested in learning forex. I have the focus and discipline to learn it at 40 years old. I would’ve probably blown my first account if I tried this 10-15 years ago.
From what I understand, and I’ve only been looking into Forex for a few weeks now, is that having an unencumbered trading plan that is easy to follow, that fits your personality, is probably the most important part of the process - outside of the mental discipline required to adhere to that plan.
I’m looking forward to learning as much as I can, from everybody that I can. And if you have any questions for me, AMA!
Learning from doing is the best education. Google up a simple strategy which is as objective as you can find, by which I mean based mostly on price action rather than exotic technical indicators. you will soon see the difference. Start trading on a long time-frame, I recommend daily charts.
But, but, but - start your trading experience on a demo account.
For once, I have to disagree with my esteemed friend @tommor
‘Start trading on a long time-frame, I recommend daily charts’
I hasten to add that I am bias as a day trader but I would recommend 5mins chart. The reasoning is that all charts look the same and as the famous trader Linda Raschke points out - 'If you didn’t know the time frame you couldn’t tell the difference between a 5mins or a 1hour etc.
Now, there being twelve 5min bars in 1hour and 24 hours in a day, you will learn price action, patterns and everything else, much quicker.
Even if you decide to trade longer time frames in the future, you will have gained knowledge at a faster rate.
In my humble opinion, life is too short but I am 74
I’m 100% not ready to trade live accounts. I’ve made several demo accounts, and I am learning rapidly that a trading plan is crucial! Thank you for the kind advice
‘If I showed you a 3 minute bar chart of EUR /USD and a 10 minute chart of the Nasdaq futures and you did not know the time frames or the markets, I doubt you would be able to tell them apart. They both trend, form consolidation periods, have reactions and retests, and noisy periods where there is not so much volume.’ -
This is like comparing apples with pears. While similar chart patterns occur throughout the markets with any pairs at regular intervals, as Linda rightly says, hopefully we are only trading one pair at a time. Which means timing is important.
For example, the DAX & FTSE are mainly correlated and move in accord most of the time. But that only applies when you are comparing the same TF on both. Comparing the FTSE 1m chart with the DAX Daily chart is never going to make me a successful trader.
My trend following strategy focuses lining up three ducks in a row. I start my chosen pair with the Daily chart, then the 4hr entry and finally the 15m chart to ensure all these TF movements are in accord. Any out of synch is no trade at that time, just watching for a suitable opportunity later…
As I posted before, what is important is to focus on what is happening to your chosen pair, which could mean following the price action from 1m to monthly.
True but only up to a point. The mind-set of the traders involved is different, and they’re often different traders - they might start from the same chart feature as a D1 or W1 trader but they will enter and exit at levels found by different influences.
More specifically, 48 consecutive D1 candlesticks are all equal and all equally meaningful but 48 consecutive 30-minute candles are not all alike.
Hey @astoriansound don’t disappear like lots of newbies who post their first thread. You’ve done so many amazing things that, in my opinion, are so much more difficult than trading! You clearly have the mental discipline. If you need advice just ask, even if you loose a bunch of money. We’ve all been there. Don’t give up.
I suspect you will blow an account or two even if you started out next year. Par for the course.
Welcome, and all the best in your forex journey. My humble suggestion is that you find yourself a mentor to drastically shorten your learning curve. You could learn this thing by yourself but knowing where to knock will save you time and money.
Welcome to the site! Sounds like you’re a master of many trades, so I’m sure that you won’t have too much trouble learning about trading considering! Wishing you the best.