i just went through the pip school, finished the book currency trading for dummies and am currently reading day trading the currency market by kathy lien.
my question is, what do i do now? do i make my own strategy, backtest it then apply it to a demo account now? if so how do i back test or go about making my own strategy? there is alot of information out there and im not sure where to begin. and if this wouldnt be the next step in trading then what is?
if anyone has any suggestions or good books out there to help me i would greatly appreciate it. im currently in iraq and i have alot of time on my hands to read books and online forums so time isnt the issue, just where to go from here.
Reading and studying are a great place to start but only take you so far, really reading will just tell you ABOUT trading and give you a sense of what it’s like, not how to trade.
There are lots of free strategies to kick around on babypips, pick a few and kick them around on a demo.
There is no reason not to demo right away. It’s free, and you can get all wacky and lose 100,000 dollars and start over without wanting to shoot yourself. When you start to get serious though start a demo with the amound you’ll start your first account with, to get you closer to reality.
I found demoing very useful when running one in a window, while going through the babypips school several time and checking out what I was reading on a platform. Instead of just reading it and trying to retain everything strictly from memory, I got to see it in action at the same time.
This will help you develop your own trading style and find what type of trader you are too. Initially I thought I’d like to scalp, because it seemed like it would be a fun thing to do like a game. I found I freaking hate scalping and would rather wait five hours straight for one really good hourly set up that gets me a lump of pips in one batch.
I have literally a few bookshelves full of trading books, most of them say the same things in different ways. If I had to give up all my books and just keep one it would be: Trading in the Zone by Mark Douglas. It won’t tell you what or how to trade, but it will teach you how to think like successful traders do. You can save yourself a lot of mistakes by reading this book and taking it to heart.
LOL — I think phoenix is the son of the publisher of that book, the way he touts it constantly — other hand, i never read it and had to learn psychology the same way i learned sex — in the street !
my only addition is to JUST DO IT — take the demo (make the amount of the demo ONLY what you will actually trade with when you use real money, or youll be kidding yourself tremendously — you can simply sell something to take the price down from the $50K you presently have to something more realistic, like $2000 !
the BIG account gives you a cushion that the forex brokers are well aware of — they WANT you to do well on the big one, because when you actually do real trading with just a few thou, THEY will own your money REAL FAST !!
JUST put one foot in front of the other and demo trade ANY strategy you find – you will probably blow the demo, which is REALLY what its there for, and once you do it enough times, youll begin to understand what youre doing wrong and start doing it right.
after 8 out of 10 good trades, you “might” be ready to go live, which will then bring out the psychological problems of using real money that you can lose, so read his dads book and see if it helps !
enjoy and trade well
mp
[B][I]Within the great hall at Elfinore stands a wondrous coffer, precisely four cubits square and securely latched against the outside world. Inside that repository, shut away from impertinent eyes, abides many an intriquing trading secret garnered from around the world and over the ages !
As a child, i used to watch from the darkness as the secrets were debated and annotated by the elders. No one there held a single thought of my presence – BUT I KNOW WHERE THEY HID THE KEY !![/I][/B]