Is there such a thing as 'too much learning' in forex?

Beginner Questions
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ive been demo trading for a year now after re-learning forex. is there such a thing as too much time learning strategies and too much time demo trading? what should i do next if i feel like i am still not ready? should i just go for it? thanks

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In my opinion, no. You’re talking about your hard-earned treasure. Jealously protect it. If you feel like you’re still not ready, you’re not. Focus on why you feel that way, and address whatever the shortcoming is.

Maybe it’s time to go micro account? Start trading .01 lots with a few hundred bucks and see how your strategy plays out when you introduce emotion, etc? How has your demo trading gone?

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I would say if someone is after too many strategies, it may make him puzzled. On the other hand, trading on demo account never gets too much. Even if a trader trades as a full timer and makes consistent money, he needs to have demo account to do back testing, trading in extreme volatility, etc.

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100% yes there is such a thing as “too much demo trading”. You only need to demo trade to get the basics down for broker platform execution and position management- that’s it. You won’t actually learn anything, or, begin to develop your own strategy, until you put your own capital on the line.

Start small, stay small, and you’ll outlast most.

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The next important question for you is: while you were demo trading, did you enjoy it? Do you like trading? :thinking:

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Too much learning in forex? - No.

But too much learning things that aren’t essential? - Its everywhere.

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If you feel you are not ready, don’t jump into it. But don’t quit if you really like to do it. Keep on learning. It really takes a long time to be ready. Read Forex Backdoor Ebook. It may help you.

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You hit the nail on the head :slight_smile:

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^This here.

@mystic707 Put some skin in the game. See what happens. Part of learning.

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From my perspective, you’ll continue to feel as though you’re not ready because you’re already way too comfortable demo-trading. You’re back testing which is a good thing, but they’re no emotions in play and on a subconscious level, you want that to last as long as possible. Either I’m so very wrong (which I usually am, haha) or you’re subconsciously trying to avoid putting your emotions on the line. As humans, we do it all the time. It’s quite evident in issues of love, so no big deal. My advice is, get out of your comfort zone. If you’re still demo-trading to get the perfect killer strategy or system, it’ll work against you in the long run, cause hey, “if I have a 100% win strategy, why did I just lose my previous trade? That’s not possible. I’m supposed to win. I back tested this strategy for a year. Trading isn’t for me.” Get into the game, bet your hard earned money that you’re scared of losing and put your emotions on the line, see how it turns out, then improve on the weaknesses of your strategy with backtesting.

I’m not perfect and I’m usually wrong. But this is my two cents. Peace :v:t4:

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Apologies for selecting this sentence from your otherwise sensible advice, with which, I’m in agreement.

I don’t consider myself unique while learning to trade forex properly in my own style which involved treating my demo account as though it was a live account, emotions were real to me.

Hence I learnt how mistakes caused me loss of capital that took a long time to recover, but most of all I constructed my strategy that I use today during that eight month period.

I also challenged myself to continue on controlling emotions, and when the time came to leap to a live account it was a painless transition as my live set up was identical to that I had developed in my demo account.

Since then, I’ve learnt yet again that the market is king, doesn’t know me, doesn’t care about me, and never ever gives me anything back. Now I’m tighter with my capital, I’m not going to fritter it away.

Which is a continuing challenge I relish.

Stay safe…
steve.

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I’m going to go against the majority on this one and say, yes there is such a thing as learning too much.

If we are constantly learning new tricks, how on earth do we get proficient in what we have already learned?

They say repetition is the mother of all skill, more shiny balls, more ways to draw trendlines, more indicator techniques is really just moving the goalposts.

There comes a point when we just have to work with the tools we have, rather than constantly adding to the toolbox.

In the markets you will always be learning anyway, its called experience, but if you’re referring to learning yet more technique I would definitely say there is too much.

More learning is often just an excuse for not being able to handle losses, the more we ‘learn’ we think the odds are better we will never have to take a loss.

Just my two penniesworth.

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If you feel now that you have spend much time on demo trading practice then it would be perfect time to start real trading and invest some money to start making profit.

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All good and thanks for the insight. I believe that all of life and circumstance exist on a bell curve. There will be outliers, but, for the most part you just gotta jump in eventually and commit real money bc the demo stuff (to most) does not illicit the right emotional responses.

Take care

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Yes, familiarising yourself with a demo is a good start. Even though they are not as close to live accounts, they do serve their purpose. It is also important to know how much work needs to be done on them.

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Yeah but how will you know when to stop trading on demos?

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Lots of suggestions above.

  • once you’ve got the platform mechanics down
  • once you’ve actively traded a system for weeks/months
  • if you’re already profitable on demo
  • yesterday, forget about demo and use a small real money account to get the real emotional response as you see your trades live.
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There’s no set time for working on demos and it actually depends on how much a trader had understood about the market. Like I was trading on demos for about 5 to 6 months with IG and turnkeyforex and it pretty much worked for me. I got a good idea about how to trade and then shifted to live.

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You must trade on your own terms. It is up to you what you want to do. Learn as much as you think you require to make profits in the market.

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I think it is very easy to try and learn lots of different strategies and master none of them. Find one you enjoy using that works around your trading style and then stick to that. Once you have it nailed down live you can always experiment on demo againbut get your bread and butter trades dialed in first.