What would have made your time as a beginning trader better, easier, or less confusing? Is there something you wish you would have known or something you wish you would have done that would have made it easier for you to get started?
For me, I wish I would have taken the time to find a mentor? I taught myself to trade, and I’m still learning. But a mentor would probably have saved me a lot of time, money, energy, and frustration. I spent a lot of time hopping from one system to the next until I realized that the problem wasn’t the systems. The problem was me. It was a difficult lesson, but I’m glad I figured it out. Even if it took me a while.
Honestly, I would not change anything if I would have to do it all over again. I taught myself and of course lost money along the way which, at least in my opinion, is the only way you will learn. I took the time to learn first before even opening my first account and did not jump from strategy to strategy. I developed one from scratch, and then had to adjust it and fine tune it. I think one of the biggest mistake new traders make is that they rush the learning part and jump into trading way too fast as they are motivated by profits.
All the mistakes made along the way contributed to me being the trader I am today and I would not want to have a different outcome.
So take yourself back to the beginning and poof, you have a mentor. The mentor says okay I will work with you everyday. First you have to buy my course “How I turned $30.00 into $300,000” for $299, even if it was just the price you’ll still be saving money. The course sells for $699, but because it’s October and a sunny day, I’ve cut the price in half, Now this is for today only, so don’t miss out. But wait we’re not done yet. When you take my course, you also get the key that unlocks the private membership forum on my site. You will have access to me when ever you have a question. But hold on! we aren’t done yet. I also add in my live trade room. You can sit everyday and watch how I use my course to make actual trades which you can follow. Now that’s normally a l$499 value that I include in your free stuff for only $99.99 a month.
How you going to know if your mentor is full of shet(i) if you don’t have a basic understanding of the forex. How will you check. Take the word of all the “I’m Richie from NC, I bought the mentors course and in 3 months I was rolling in dough and not the kind you bake with” on the site. Or maybe you could check your mentor out on Baby Pips, and have a no point debate when some of the people here tell you go for it and others say never pay for anything, don’t do it?
Trading is about making decisions. To make decisions you have to be able to understand the facts, so you know what options you have and a basic understanding will allow you to pick the least of the evils better. The question you could ask yourself, is with even the limited knowledge I have now, would I be in a better position to make a good decision today, or back when I first started. Now if you pose that question to the forum, well you probably end up with still a no point debate but at least know you’ll be able to wade through the BS.
When I first came to forex, my plan was hire a Signal Service Provider, take their signals and copy them. After all as far as I was concerned, they would have more experience than me. So after posting here a bit and reading some posts, I decided that I would use a signal service but learn how to trade on my own. So I jumped into baby pips school and it was confusing and made no sense, so I thought why not get a mentor and learn quicker and easier. So I did, $700 for the complete course, $80 a month to belong to the trading room which also gave me a free alert service. As well first crack at any new products the mentor promoted and membership to the coming soon Traders forum. So first step read through the course and be in the live trading room every morning from 8am - 11am. The mentor outlined a simple strategy 2 moving averages a Awesome Oscillator. Using the 1 hour chart to find a setup where the moving averages and oscillator lined up. Verify on 30 minute and enter and exit on 15 minute. This had to be done until I had 30 days of profit.
When I ran what I had done by one of the currency annalist at Forex Factory, I got a better system is the 200 day moving average when candles are above you go long, below you do short, if they are going sideways on the line look for another pair to trade. I did this with a number of different traders and realized mentors, coaches signal services and brokers are not the same as in Poker. Forex is a tough business starting out. So before I go any further I throwing myself into learning basics, and test what I learned in a demo and before I buy anything, do a google and extensive utube search.
Nothing wrong with paying for a mentor, signal service, coach or products. As long as you have enough basic information on the previous to be able to make a good decision. Without some basic knowlege, you would have to base your decision when you spend money on costs. Example "Normally $799 but today $299. It’s better to make your decision based on value.
I have to spend x amount of money for xyz, but if I do, I will get 30% closer to my goals.
Good decisions come from: Relevant Facts, Options and picking least of the evils. Of course that’s just my opinion.
3 months??? Even that sounds ludacrous… Unless you are some sort of genius or have been taught by a professional trader then 3-4 years of demo is usually about right.
3 months??? Even that sounds ludacrous… Unless you are some sort of genius or have been taught by a professional trader then 3-4 years of demo is usually about right.[/QUOTE]
Well I would have missed out on alot of profit if I waited 3 years to demo lol. If I waited 3 months I would have reached the break even point 6 months sooner though.
It is pretty rare to find someone who can demo seriously for 4 years (if even they exist). One of the biggest factors of trading is the psychological aspect of risking money to make money. That’s just not there in demo trading.
Are you saying that from the absolute beginning of learning to trade you opened a demo account for three months, and then opened a live account which was then up to break even after a further six months (basic maths suggests you are profitable after nine months of learning/trading, unless I have misread your post?).
You must be some special case if you can now make consistent profit after only nine months of learning a new skill…not because I can not equal or improve this time scale, but because I have never heard of this before.
Are you saying that from the absolute beginning of learning to trade you opened a demo account for three months, and then opened a live account which was then up to break even after a further six months (basic maths suggests you are profitable after nine months of learning/trading, unless I have misread your post?).
You must be some special case if you can now make consistent profit after only nine months of learning a new skill…not because I can not equal or improve this time scale, but because I have never heard of this before.[/QUOTE]
I did not demo. I jumped right into live trading on day 1. Probably 75% of my losses were incurred during my first 3 months of trading. I hit break even almost exactly on my 2 year anniversary to trading. If I had demoed for the first 3 months, I would estimate that I would have avoided enough of those early losses to hit break even 6 months sooner then I did… So I would have been break even at a year and a half (including the 3 month demo period) instead of two.
By mentor I mean someone you know and trust who actually cares about your success, not some random dude on the internet. This person doesn’t have to be a professional trader. It’s just someone who is more experienced than you who can give you advice.
Your post is a good example of something a mentor would say.
I have never used a demo account in my life and think it is the worst thing one can do. Before you all lash out I think it is clear that I am in the minority here and we have all been through this numerous times. Every trader has to decide what is right for them.