Hi. I'm new to trading

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#1

Im from South Africa and totally new to trading.
I started learning about 10 days ago. Initially I were interested in day trading as it is suitable. After much research I decided that Binary trading options were the way to go. I signed up with a few brokers and 24Option were the latest and looked the most promising. I did not talke any of their bonusses as I were aware of the catches. i also did not deposit any funds anywhere yet. I have learned a lot about trading this far and more specifically Binary options trading.

Between yesterday amd today I have decided about 90% or more against going for the Binary trading options. The first reason is that it is too much similar to gambling. I am muslim and we are not allowed to gamble. 2nd Reason, I learned that Binary options trading is done out of the market. So I understand that I will never really buy or own shares in the market directly, the broker is almost always making money when I loose and a few other things. Even though 24Option seemed good as they apparantly worked on commissions only?

In any event I started looking more into forex. As a newbie kt seems a bit safer and many similarities to binary options trading except I cannot really make money if my stock goes down. I suppose this is also ome of the binary options trading attractions. Make money even when hour stock price go down provided you guessed right?

So here I am. I looked at MT4, I learned a bit about graphs, canddle sticks, technical & fundamental analysis etc. I started babypips school as well.

My research shows IG would be a good broker to use as they do not deal over the counter. Also MT4 seems like a good platform. I looked at many websites and Apps for watchlists, graphs, news sources etc. and chose to stick with Bloomberg, Investing, Stocktwits, Marketwatch.

My plan is to become a forex daytrader. So I have the overall plan. Next is learning much more while inventing a good strategy to start off with.

My questions as a newbie are:
Are there anything that I missed or overlooked?
Does it look or sound like I know & understand a little bit about the trading industry this far or do I misundestand the whole thing or am I on the right track?
What else should I be looking at through this learning curve?

Thank you for your thoughts.

#2

Hi there nazzeem,

I am happy to see that you decided that Binary options may not be something for you. However, I have to say, with regards to trading CFD’s (that is what we mostly do in forex) we don’ t actually exchange real money either. Just so you know, as it concerns a religious principal for you.

IG is a good broker, so good on you. However forex is OTC even with IG. But I think you mean that they are not a Market Maker? I don’t know for certain for IG but having a Market Maker as a broker isn’ t necessarily a bad thing. So stick with IG.

MT4 is a robust platform and can be used with many brokers, so good choice. It doesn’ t have to be ***y to be able to trade forex.

My overall judgement (you asked for it), you are on the right track but you may have to do some extra homework in understanding what CFD’s are and how they are traded. So, nice start. Now back to school. :wink:

#3

Thanks for the info. The religious principal refers to gambling only.

Yes I have much to learn as I have never traded before in my life. Yes I might have not used the correct terminology somewhere as I just wrote my post according to what I remember from recently acquired knowledge.

Yes back to school, watchlists, news, graphs, apps etc. And yes, always emotionless.

#4

I hope that you didn’ t get my post the wrong way. I don’ t care if you use the right terminology. However, it seemed that you made some choices based on the incorrect assumptions. I just wanted you to know so that you did the right thing later on.

For example the OTC. The whole of retail forex is OTC, so if you choose your broker as not being a OTC broker you may have dropped another perfectly good broker for the incorrect reason. You choose IG, so no harm done.

But maybe you did got my post the right way… :slight_smile:

#5

You have come to the right place! Everyone has to start somewhere. Check out the education section, its great! :45:

#6

Thanks again. Most of the time I tend to analyse too much, but for me it is important to use the correct terminology from the get go as I need a good / correct foundation to build on.
Yes I have misunderstood the OTC issue.
It was my understanding that one should not use a broker that is also a trader and deals OTC as it may be a huge conflict of interest?;
One should trade in the market directly not as I later discovered that binary options is out of market trading. So basically the trade are between the trader and his broker?;
When the broker deals OTC, they may inflate or mark-up prices? Obviously the broker has to make money. I assumed the good broker will not be a trader themselves and work on commission only?

I chose IG because it seems very hard for a noob to choose. After much research throughout my binary trading studies, I found that there is a lot of flashy fly by night brokers. They all want 1 thing. For the client to deposit money. For binary trading I decided on 24option as they seemed to be one of the best out of the lot.

After dropping the binary trading method I chose IG as I have seen them throughout my travels and they come highly recommended for South African traders. Not sure if I will be able to use them as South Africans apparently cannot fund their accounts using a credit card.

Update: I just got a better understanding of OTC in school whic cleared up more of my confusion.

#7

By education section, do you mean school?

#8

But its not so simple to get an account activated. I had to send them copy of ID card, latest proof of address and they told me I am still to send them a 3 month bank statement. Thats madness. I just want to try out & get used to their their trading platform.

Should I rather go with profiforex as their demo also supports MT4 as suggested here babypips.com/newbie-island/71177-good-demo-trading-account-post676400.html#post676400

#9

Yes, the broker are subject to severe regulations. Partly due to anti-moneylaundering laws. But once set-up you are good to go. I had to go through that procedure with different brokers. They can be very strict with it.

With regards to profiforex. I haven’t heard about them so I can’ t say anything about it. But a lot of brokers offer demo MT4. Such as OANDA and FXCM to name a couple. Try to stay away from obscure brokers that you don’t see here often or read in the threads.

#10

Thanks for the info. I was just not comfortable with giving them banking details only to demo their platform. In the mean time I signed up for a MT4 demo with FXCM.