Hello fellow traders,
You may have noticed I have been gone a loooong time. I didn’t take a break from forex. Rather I shut my mouth and listened… to everyone. It has been a good while since I spoke about my forex experience.
In the last year I have blown several real accounts and demos. each time I took something from them. I jumped in with both feet like alot of newbies do, of course I did it with money I could afford to lose. One of my last triumphs on babypips was helping convince pipcrawler to make the post on newbie expectations. Shortly after I realized I did not have those same expectations.
Out of everything I have done in the past two years of trading, i can give you two solid pieces of knowledge.
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There is no perfect system. Just like people like different music, or drive differently, or have different senses of humor, the way they read the market is different. Feeling the market through someone elses hands will not help you. But listening to their experiences will, just like when someone taught you to drive a car. But eventually you get behind the wheel and drive differently then anyone else, however subtle. Learn to feel out what works for you. It is going to take time, but most things worth it usually do.
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The second piece, and i find this the most important is this. A list. The more experienced traders talk about solid money management, and knowing what is going on in the fundementals etc. I finally decided to make a list of everything I check before I trade. By following my check list, I make sure I do everything the same way. Here is my list, you are welcome to use it yourselves and adapt it as you see fit.
- Check Fundementals, I use forexfactory and a few other sites. Choose the ones you like best.
- If there is any important news, don’t trade (this is my personal opinion as is all of this list)
- If no big news, check technicals (your technicals will vary, I have my own personal set)
- If technical shows a good trade, check MM sheet for risk/rewar ratio (I have an excel sheet that I use that tells me how many lots I can trade with my account balance)
- Begin opening position, set stop loss first, take profit second (these will vary for each of your appetites)
- Open trade
- Watch for surprise news that will make your trade bust, watch for technicals that will do the same (got to get a feel for this)
- Only trade for as long as you can watch the market, whether it be a cell phone, or being in front of your computer.
- Do not trade with your emotions, feeling the market out, and having anger or excitement towards the market are two different things.
I hope this helps at least one person there. This is not a game at which everyone wins. By definition, forex is a zero balance market. For every trade someone wins, someone else loses. It takes time to be on the winning side of the equation.
Good luck
