Not sure what I wanna do in life so figured I'd start with forex

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Hi Everyone,

I’m Leilani. I dabbled in crypto and stocks with small amounts of money. But now I am ready for the real thing. I am here because I am in my mid 20s and I don’t think I wanna work a 9-5 until I retire. I work for a tech company and I honestly don’t think I want an office job until I’m old. I would like financial freedom and time to do stuff that actually matters to me. How am I gonna get there? I don’t know… I’m kind of trying to figure that out still. All I know is I want to have the funds to figure that out and I want to do it from my home without the restrictions of a day job. So I thought I would try to learn how to trade on the side and start there and hopefully eventually day trade full-time. The only problem is I literally know nothing about forex and have a long way to go. Any tips or stories about successes (<- for motivational/entertainment purposes) are welcomed! Wishing us all many blessings and profits in the future!

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Prepare yourself for the long haul. Rome wasn’t built in a day - or a month, come to that.

Read this inexpensive book on Kindle: The Richest Man in Babylon is a 1926 book by George S. Clason that dispenses financial advice through a collection of parables set 4,000 years ago in ancient Babylon . The book is regarded as a classic.

Despite my decades of financial involvement, I learnt how to succeed.

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Hello and Welcome to the Babypips forum @leilanitorres95!

As a beginner learning Forex you’re in the right place. Check out Education section here at babypips. (It’s completely FREE). Learn How to Trade the Markets There you’ll find School of Pipsology, Trading Quizzes and Forex Glossary. Everything you need as a newbie starting this field.

If you’re looking for good books to read check out this post by pipcrawler Pipcrawler’s Favorite Trading Books updated . Lot of book recommendations there find what you can and read them too.

If you’re looking for YouTube channels. TastyTrade, Adam Khoo, Candice B, Trading Rush, Investopedia has been recurring recommendations from many traders. Watch as much as you can and gather knowledge from them.

Investopedia and Forexfactory are another two great sites to learn the basics other than babypips.

One of the most important tools for a trader is Trading Journal. Check out the trading journal section in the forum to learn how traders keep track. Trade Journals - BabyPips.com Forex Trading Forum

Addition to these FX related channels invest your time to learn about Trading psychology, Risk Management and Decision making . Find any article or video you can and refer them.

Other than that, there are many interesting sections in the forum. It’s not time wasting to spend time there reading and learning. Check out every section you can and learn something from everywhere.

These are just a few tips to begin. There are many sources out there GOOGLE is the GOD if you have any question you just have to type it and He’ll give you not one by multiple answers.

Try all this and open a Demo account and trade at least for 6 months . Most people get confident around one month and start investing real money but most of them fail. One month of demo trading is absolutely not enough to understand anything. So trade demo at least 6 months to get a proper understanding of the chart pattern behaviors.

Having said all this, I also must tell forex is a risky business. It’s a High Risk, High reward situation. Many fail. From their own fault. Not spending enough time to educate themselves. Not understanding the basics. But with all the resources available you only need patience to educate yourself. Then you can go for the prize!

Good Luck

Nick.

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@leilanitorres95

Dabble in day trading on the side…hmm

Not the choice of words I would use, and quite frankly day trading is not something I would advise for a person with no forex experience at all.

What I would suggest is you improve on your other tech-related skills - there is no shortage of different areas you could get into that pay a decent salary if you possess the right skillset.

And by all means learn to trade as well, just not on such a short time horizon.

Starting out to day trade is like stepping into the mixed martial arts arena without even having any learned any self-defense classes.

Or trying to drive a formula one racing car without having passed your driver’s license.

Ignore the constant barrage of day trading motivators - it’s most likely to end in tears.

Sure, great day traders do exist, some of them on this forum, but why play that game when the odds are stacked against you?

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Hi Johnscott31 thank you for taking the time to respond to my post. What do you define as short term? I’m here to learn. Me still being young I’d like to think I have all the time in the world to learn new skills. So even if it took a decade to day trade full-time I would only be in my mid 30s. We all have to start some where. Can you educate me on why the odds would be stacked against me? These are all questions I have before I even think about starting a demo account. Any tips will help.

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Learn properly and prepare yourself perfect for the market.

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Thank you for the support Nick! These are all really helpful. I definitely haven’t even mustard up the courage to start a demo yet I figured it might be best to learn terminology testing and fluid execution etc. What are your thoughts on this?

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thank you steve!! I have definitely heard it takes quite some time to get the hang of things and I might even lose a lot of money in the process. But im in it for the ride and Ill trust the process. Thank you for the book suggestion. :slight_smile:

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Hi there - yes all good questions and I am happy to answer as best as I can, though I am far from expert.

When I was referring to short term I was referring to the time length of a trade - you talked about day trading in your initial introduction.

Day trading, and scalping (which you may also hear much about) involve making very short term trades of less than a day.

Of course the idea is to profit each day, and yes we would all love to do this.

But the fact is very few are skilled enough to make it as day traders, there is much involved in learning to trade, but emotions, or keeping them under control is a major part of trading success.

And on the shortest of timeframes this is IMO hardest to do.

Not impossible, but hard - certainly not something I would recommend for beginners.

I consider myself a short-term trader - my time length of trade is measured in days, maybe one (if I am wrong), usually 3-5 but if all goes well maybe 10.

I still consider this short-term.

I believe that the ability to sleep on it, when it comes to your trading positions, is a massive plus in this business.

And while short-term traders like myself (or swing traders in trading parlance), still suffer from emotional ups and downs I don’t think it is nearly as acute as that suffered by day traders.

If you are committed, can think rationally, and are prepared for the many disappointments in trading, there is a good chance you will come out the other end a good trader.

But the fact is, most give up, or the market makes them give up before they ever get to that eureka moment in trading.

Certainly, when I said the odds are against you, it was no judgment on you personally, but the same way most businesses close within the first few years, it is similar for budding traders.

Demo accounts are a great way to begin - something I didn’t do myself when I started so many years ago.

I like the way you said - even if it took you a decade to become a full-time trader… because that is the right attitude.

Hell, you may be a natural, it might take you a fraction of that time, but the idea of quick riches should be left at the door.

One of the reasons I regularly attack day trading is because, if many beginners pursued a slightly slower approach to the market than getting in the fast lane from day one, well those beginners might well have survived trading long enough for that eureka moment to stand up and smack them in the face.
But many have long since quit, or been forced to quit.

There will be many on here who totally disagree with me on what I am saying, some because of wishful thinking, and some who genuinely have mastered the art of day trading.

I am just one voice, by all means, read the opinions of many more.

One thing I will say is that the real winners in day trading are the brokers and banks. And I guess many of us have had enough of their mischievous ways over the years.

I wish you all the best, whichever style of trading you wish to pursue, and by all means, hit me up with a message if you ever you need any advice - though I warn you I am the worlds worst day trader - lol

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Thank you for the words of wisdom! I love to hear experiences and feedback just like this, it helps people grow if they’re open to hearing it. I will definitely love to have you as a resource moving forward. I know its not an easy route but while I have the means to do it I am definitely going to give it my best shot or even multiple shots lol. I look forward to your posts.

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Well I’m a professional forex trader and willing to help you learn how to trade in forex

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It is alright if you have no idea about how the forex market works and the aspects you require to trade. You can simply start taking the courses available here @theschoolofpipsology and get an education that will help you achieve your goals. Try to focus on your learning and keep working hard to be able to trade better.

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Hi and welcome
It is always great to hear from young members. And you know that you are not alone. I am at retirement age and I tell my friends “I still don’t know what to do when I grow up”. The advice I can give you is what I say to all young people, including my two sons who by now are probably a little older than you. It goes like this:

Whatever you decide to do in life, if you don’t love it you are short changing yourself. You are going to be doing it for the best part of the next 40 years, so why would you put yourself down so far as to accept what the world is telling you like:
Get a good education (but why do I need to mortgage my life to do so?)
You will always have a “good job” with a degree. (absolutely not the case and has not been for 30 years)
You will have pride in your job. (almost everyone I have worked with as a contract consultant for the past 30 years has told me that they hate their job and would dream of being self employed, but have not taken the action to have their own way)
I have been self employed in my younger life after four years as a qualified engineer and carried a debt instead of being declared a bankrupt. It took me six years to get back to break even.
I have now been permanently self employed for 30 years and though I work at some large corporations, it is as a temporary contractor (consultant). Permanent jobs have a beginning and an end (when you are old). Contract work always has a defined start and end. You can choose politely to not renew a contract if you don’t like the company you keep. This has happened to me twice in my life, and I do not regret leaving those posts.

Two things in life are important - education, and education. Practice is important but education is the most important. And don’t accept that all education has to cost a lot of money. Babypips costs absolutely zero if you have an end use computing device (mobile, laptop, tablet) and an internet connection. Demonstration accounts are free.

But if you start, you have to love it. Whether or not you become rich because of it should be secondary to how it makes you feel. If it thrills you, do it. If it makes pains in your gut when you trade, walk away.