Hey everyone! My name is CJ, I’m 22 years old, and I live in the United States.
I come from a low income family and I am determined to make sure my parents can retire, so the cycle of bad habits end, so I’m going to do my upmost to ensure I can do well for my family and future goals to come. (Not to mention the fact that developing new skills is a lot of fun)
I have some background trading thru Babypips, a lot of demo trading, and of course blowing my account my first few times (Learning from my mistakes and decided I needed to learn a lot more about trading). I currently don’t have the funds just yet to trade a live account because I got injured on the job and have been let go, but I’ve been constantly practicing on demo, studying the market, looking at strategies, and when I get a part time job to gain a nice amount to trade ($250), then I’ll do my absolute best.
I’m also still recovering from injuries, so this gives me more time to learn, haha.
I’m more of a day/swing trader for my style. And my signals come from Price Action (mainly), Stochastic (Just for extra confluence from divergences), Japanese Candlestick Patterns (Mainly Hanging Man, Hammers, Engulfings, Stars), fibo, and trend lines. I’m currently curious about Bollinger Bands being a form support and resistance.
I saw an trade opportunity with NZD/CAD and targeting previous structure based off price action.
So I was wondering:
What advice would you give?
How much money would you fund an account?
What things would you do differently in your early years of trading?
What books would you recommend? I’m always open to book recommendations.
And is it possible to make a lot of money with Forex?
Hi CJ.
First off, kudos for the reason you want to trade, nothing is more important than family.
Advice-wise;
Keep learning and demo trading until you have found a system that works consistently over several months or longer
Fund your account with no more money than you can comfortably afford to lose. Do not use credit cards, loans from friends, or take on debt. People will tell you that you need a large account to begin with. That’s preferable, but you can still grow a small account and, at 22 years old, you have time on your side.
If I could start again, I would focus more on protecting my account and less on growing it. It’s no use having a great day today only to blow your account tomorrow.
It is possible to make a lot of money in fx, but its much easier to lose it. Hence why I would focus on account protection
Unless until you go into the live account keep practice into the demo account. It will help you even though you start live trading. Honestly for funding I am not afraid of. Because forex is the only business which can be start with micro lot. And trust me I started my career with the only investment of USD 500. Do not go for big investment in the beginning. For me BabyPips is well enough for learning.
Very early in my trading I wish I had appreciated the power of trends. I wasted a lot of money and time buying stocks when -
the index was in a downtrend
the chart printed a buy signal (but the stock was in a downtrend)
price was low but the stock itself was not in an uptrend
I also wish I had learned to be more aggressive with the winners - when you get a winner, add to it. And when that new trade becomes a winner, add to that too. And when the third trade becomes a winner, add to that too. And when…
I agree with @eddieb - Kudos for starting at your age - you have a lot to learn, but a lot of time to learn it
A friend of mine used to have a picture of a tree on his office wall. It had grown from the bottom of a huge shaft and grew around 60 feet before it hed it’s first branch. The caption read "No matter how dark the beginning, One who strives can reach the light ! "
There are a gazilluon ways to trade and you must choose the way which suits your personality. - Mine will not allow me to use @tommor s method, I choose turning points. But That is Hard and you need to take down bets when your head is screaming “It’s going UP to the moon”.
Bollinger bands do measure things which cause price to be constrained. A good start is to learn what they measure and why that would cause price constraint. I’m not going to tell you that, but I think it’s a valuable bit of research you can do for yourself - then think about what effect the type of things they measure could have on the market as a whole and why that is valuable information.
When I started I was reading the share price records in the back of newspapers and thought “Well that’s odd - prices just seem to go up and down” Then I learned loads and loads of “stuff” and eventually realised - that the most valuable observation I made was that first one “prices juust go up and down” - Especially in Forex. Things like the DOW and S&P are slightly different and if you like @tommor s method, you might like to look to those places.
My best advice to you is to look up the 90-90-90 rule and study why that would be ? and how you can avoid obeying that rule ! In particular, If there is so much “Great advice” out there, why does the 90-90-90 rule still hold true ? What does it say about all the "learning stuff " ?
You have to do it your own way mate - and to do that, you have to work out what “Your way” is.
Do NOT trade real money which matters to you until you are completely confident your demo accounts are making money consistently.
Lastly, If anyone recommends a book or you think of buying one - ALWAYS look up sthe reviews and read the 1,2 and 3 star ones first.
Thanks Eddie! Haha. (On another note: that FX-Men pun is a great touch)
Oohh research, consistency, trial and errors, and patience. Rome was not built in a day, haha.
Yeah, I remember depositing before and being uncomfortable was a pretty bad feeling psychologically. I definitely should’ve taken the time to understand more, rather than jumping the gun. I’ll be sure to practice, until I see significant results through testing and recording it
This is very insightful. What ways would you protect your account? I usually adjust my stop loss to break-even when I have a trade that’s taking off.
I’ll definitely be sure to practice. Practice makes perfect, right? haha
That’s pretty cool how you started your career out. It gives me some good encouragement and hope for the future
Thank you so much for sharing some advice
Oh going against the trend not recommended, until verified, haha. And I like reading this because there’s so many different trading styles, so reading this is quite fascinating. Thanks for the advice Tommor!
It’s like variety is the spice of life, haha
And I’m ready to learn, haha.
Just reading all the replies is quite supportive and enlightening! Oh that’s a good quote, I never heard of that one. I like me some classic Bruce Lee quotes, haha, like “the defeat being a state of mind” or "Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless, like water."
Oh I’m on it! Those are some good questions to research Bollinger Bands. I only know the little basics of it, so this will help out.
Haha, up down and all around. A level hint I see haha. I never heard of the 90-90-90 rule, but I’ll definitely look into it all. I’m compiling a research list of everything from this babypip topic thread, haha.
Thank you guys so much for replying to my nooby question and introduction. I’ll try to keep this updated.
I’m also going to screenshot all the wonderful advice you guys have given.
I can’t thank you guys enough!
One day, I’ll get there.
Sincerely,
CJ
PS: I think I replied quite strangely (Obvious noob here haha), I’ll learn though, haha.
Decide where your stop loss will be before you enter a trade and stick to it. Don’t be tempted to move it further into losses in the hope that price will turn back for you.
Moving your stop to BE when in profit is sound.
Thanks Eddie for those words!
I’ll be keeping everything documented on my demo account and treating it like a real account.
Hopefully, things turn out great.
Make sure you familiarize yourself with the system on a demo account and practice first. Try to find a suitable strategy for yourself, even though you’ll tweak that in the future to make it better. Don’t worry, it’ll take time. Also, it’s a good idea to deposit $50 and trade with a very small leverage so you can get used to the feeling that you actually trade with your own, real money. So when you’re ready to deposit more money after a couple of months, you’ll be ready to handle the emotional pressure and will control yourself a lot better. This would be a good lesson, good luck!
ps. Look for a broker that is popular and regulated in the US. Read all the Babypips lessons as well.
(Not to mention the fact that developing new skills is a lot of fun)
