With tons of information out there contributing to noise that serves only to distract newcomers to traders, let us each consolidate and contribute one practical tip for newcomers to take note of during their trading journey.
Personally, for me, the one practical tip that I sincerely wish every newcomer will remember by heart, is to back test every trading strategy that they are interested in. Always look at the historical data of the actual probability of the trading strategy yourself instead of relying on what was pushed to you in form of marketing videos or sales pitches.
Back testing forms the backbone of your own belief, which will be continuously tested during market volatility. The more you back test, the more confident you will be, which will then lead to lesser situations of early take profits (less profits taken) and dragged out stop losses (more losses taken).
One Practical Tip: Always Back test The Trading Strategy Yourself.
Do share your one practical trading tip below with the community, thanks!
Always prioritize capital preservation by strictly managing your risk—never risk more than 1-2% of your account on a single trade, no matter how promising it looks. Use astop-loss on every trade to protect yourself from unexpected market moves, and ensure your risk-to-reward ratio is at least 1:2 to maintain profitability even with a lower win rate. Emotion is the biggest enemy in forex and a solid risk management strategy keeps you disciplined, focused, and in the game long-term.
If I had to give a newbie trading advice, it would be to concentrate on perfecting a single method at a time. Jumping from one indicator to another and strategy to strategy in an attempt to master everything at once is an appealing idea. This frequently causes ambiguity and contradictory outcomes. Rather, settle on a single, clearly-defined approach that fits your trading personality and comfort level with risk. Take the time to backtest it, paper trade it, and learn all you can about its strengths and limitations. Before you think about branching out, make sure you can reliably implement that one strategy—even in a demo setting!—profitably. Rather than attempting to be an expert in everything from the get-go, this method will help you hone your skills in a certain area at a faster rate. To excel in one thing rather than mediocre at a bunch of others is the preferable choice.
I’m a beginner myself but have learned a lot and some is worth sharing.
Journal EVERY trade
Record ALL trades in Excel or similar, record things like SL used (could it have been bigger/smaller for better result), how much profit COULD you have made if you had left the trade running etc. I think all of us leave a lot of money on the table and also lose more than we need to when we do hit a loss. This sort of thing can easily be the difference between being profitable and not.
Record how you feel and recognise how your emotions affect your trading and STOP trading if you are not feeling it!
Backtest as much as you can but realise backtesting has its limitations.
Set yourself targets and goals and monitor your performance against those, set yourself a limit as to how much money you can comfortably lose and STOP if you hit that limit!
Also set limits as to when you will trade and for how long, don’t sit in front of your screen your whole life!
Make sure you have the most reliable internet connection you can get and always enter some kind of automated disaster-stop-loss with every trade, just to be on the safe side.
I agree. I prefer as little screen time as possible.
I understand that studying is important, and a lot of screen time is necessary in order to reach consistent profitability. But after that, I think I’d prefer just enough screen time to trade and maintain my skills. That’s it.
Don’t try to be right a very high proportion of the time - in this business, if you’re good, you’re right six times out of ten; you’re never going to be right nine times out of ten.
I had the bad habit of entering the trade first and only then choosing a place to put the stop loss (the other way round is better and more sensible anyway, but it’s also safer!).
I got disconnected from the internet right after entering the trade, and by the time I reconnected the price had moved against me further than my stop loss would have been. Not actually ruinous or disastrous, but an avoidable mistake.
I don’t know how long this has been the case but wow I’m seeing a lot of female forum members here these days!
@NeitherFishNorFowl@pink_hat_trader what are your thoughts on women trading? In your experience, have you ever felt outnumbered or perhaps alone when it comes to seeing other women friends? (also not sure if you both are experienced traders)
One practical recommendation I’d offer novices is to start small and focus on consistency over big triumphs. It’s easy to want to make enormous returns straight away, but it typically leads to overleveraging and emotional trading. Instead, begin with a tiny quantity of funds that you’re comfortable risking. This helps you to focus on the process of learning and refining your technique without the extra burden of huge cash losses. Prioritise consistent execution of your trading plan, even if the individual successes are minor. Building solid habits, managing risk properly, and gaining emotional discipline are considerably more important in the long term than pursuing immediate wealth. The earnings will come eventually as you develop experience and confidence, but it’s the constant process that will bring you there.
I was thinking something similar. I guess some women also probably keep quiet about our gender, online, unlike you and me? But in a forum unless people give their name or post their photo, like you and me, you can’t tell anyway, so who knows what the proportions really are?
Is forex trading maybe less male oriented now than before?
The pandemic maybe saw a lot more women suddenly trying to work from home and hopefully earn something?
Outnumbered by non-traders? Totally. None of my female friends trades.
