Forex Course: A Quick Forex Guide for Traders
Raul Lopez
The first thing you need to realize is that, it is not easy to make money. As every other endeavor in life, where important rewards are to come after mastering it, you need to work hard. You need to get very well educated and experienced before having the possibility to receive important rewards on it. The key on mastering the Forex market relies on commitment, patience and discipline.
Ok, you have decided you are going to trade the Forex market, you have seen several advertisings featuring how easy is to make money in the Forex market. You might think this is your opportunity to reach your financial freedom, right away, time is money, why waiting any longer if you have the opportunity to make money now. I know, I've been there, but you have a chance now, I didn't, no body told me what I am going to tell you.
We, Forex traders, make transactions based on a set of rules. These sets of rules are what we call a Trading System. Our systems tell us the exact time where we need to get in the market and out the market in order to make a profit (i.e. buy low sell high.)
Creating a system is the first big step you need to take care first. Why is this so important? Because you need to build a system that suits your personality, otherwise you are going to find hard to follow it, thus hard to profit from. A system can be based on technical indicators or what we called a mechanical system or based on experience and intuition or what we call discretionary systems. I highly recommend using and trying first a mechanical system, because discretionary systems are dangerous during the early stages of a Forex trader (can lead to indiscipline.) With experience, on later stages, you will find out which signals work better and which ones to avoid.
The next step in this Forex course is to try your system on a demo account. Most Forex brokers offer a demo account, an account with virtual money. This is an excellent choice to test your trading system as there is no money at risk. In this step you will figure out if the strategy works for you. If you feel comfortable trading it, then it is most likely to produce good results. How much time should you stay in this step? It varies, but you shouldn't go one step further until your system gets consistent profitable results over a period of time. It can take many months, but remember, you need to be patient.
You must be honest to yourself; you need to take every single signal generated by your system, not only the signals you thought were going to work, otherwise, you are going to have problems in the next two steps.
Ok, by know you had consistent profitable results on your demo account. You might think its time to go full. Nope, nope, nope. There is a big difference between trading a demo and a real account. The most important difference lies on emotions (fear, greed, anger, etc.) These are psychological barriers that affect every single decision made by traders regardless of what he/she is trading (stocks, bonds, Forex, futures, grains, etc.) These emotional factors, in my opinion, are the most determinant factor that separates profitable traders from the others.
The next step in this Forex course is specially designed to deal with emotions and to confirm the results obtained in the prior step (consistent results in a demo account.) At this step you need to trade in a real account with limited funds. Some brokers offer fractional lot trading. Meaning you are able to trade any desired amount (even cents.) The important thing here is that these emotions we've been talking about are present only when there is real money at risk. At this stage, you are going to see if you are really comfortable trading your system and if you are able to trade with such system, remember different systems produce different emotions. If you are able to produce similar results than those obtained in a demo account, then ready for the next step. If you didn't, then you might need to create another system, there is chance your system never fit you. If you created consistent profitable results on this stage, you have a chance to produce similar results in the next one, on the other hand, if you didn't produce good results in this stage, you will not be able to make on the next stage. Remember, you need to do things right, and be honest to yourself.
The last stage is trading in a real account with sufficient funds. If you are at this stage, and have passed successfully every prior stage, then you have a chance to make it, go ahead and try it, you need to be confident in yourself and in your system, your strategy have already produced consistent profitable results, there are reasons to believe you are going to make it. Very few traders fail at this stage (if passed successfully prior stages.)
Trading successfully is no easy task, it requires a lot of work, patience, discipline, and education. By completing the steps outlined in this Forex course, you have a chance to produce profitable results. I repeat it again, you need to be honest to yourself about the results obtained in every stage. Some times you might need expert guidance regarding your system development strategies.
About the author:
Raul Lopez is a full time Forex trader; his trades are based on a price behavior approach. Raul is also founder of http://www.straightforex.com a high quality Forex training company.
The latest information and news on Forex Trading:
[CaRP] Can't open cache file.
[CaRP] Unable to create/open RSS cache file.
Yahoo! News Search Results for forex
Forex Strategy Outlook: US Dollar Rallies Look Promising (Daily FX via Yahoo!...
A strong US Dollar reversal has led our forex trading strategies to go heavily long the resurgent currency, and our bullish dollar bias calls for further gains in said trend-following systems.
Forex Trade Desk Thoughts (TheStreet.com)
Forex values seem less likely to be set on forward growth and interest rate numbers, and far more likely to feed off the risk tolerance/aversion shown each day in equity markets.
Short-Term Forex Technical Outlook: EUR/GBP (Daily FX via Yahoo! Finance)
The British pound continued to weaken against the euro as investors scaled backed expectations for a rate hike by the Bank of England, and the decline in the interest rate outlook may keep the EUR/GBP range-bound over the near-term as market participants weigh the outlook for future policy.
FOREX-Yen retreats as stocks offer risk trades respite (Reuters via Yahoo! Ph...
* Cross/yen rises led by investor short-covering
Short-Term Forex Technical Outlook: GBP/JPY (Daily FX via Yahoo! Finance)
The British pound weaken against the Japanese yen to retrace the advance from the end of July, and the GBP/JPY may continue to hold a broad range throughout the month as investors weigh the outlook for a global recovery.
[CaRP] Can't open cache file.
[CaRP] Unable to create/open RSS cache file.
Yahoo! News Search Results for currencies
CURRENCIES: Dollar, Yen Rise As Stocks, Commodities Tumble (Nasdaq)
Both the U.S. dollar and the Japanese yen rose on Monday, as currency traders sought the safe-haven of low-yielding currencies after a slide in Chinese shares and a weaker-than-expected rebound in Japan's economy.
Currencies: Dollar, yen rise as stocks, commodities tumble (Market Watch)
Both the U.S. dollar and the Japanese yen rise as currency traders seek the safe-haven of low-yielding currencies after a slide in Chinese shares and a weaker-than-expected rebound in Japan's economy.
CURRENCIES: Dollar And Yen Rise As Equities, Commodities Drop (Nasdaq)
A weaker-than-expected rebound by the Japanese economy and a steep fall by Chinese shares translated into gains for the yen and the U.S. dollar, with both currencies enjoying safe-haven appeal as equity markets added to recent losses, strategists said.
CURRENCIES: Dollar And Yen Rise As Asian Stocks Plunge (Nasdaq)
The dollar and yen got a lift against major rivals in Asian trading Monday, as a regional sell-off led by Chinese shares sent investors into the perceived safety of lower-yielding currencies.
Asian Currencies: Ringgit Climbs on GDP Outlook, Peso Advances (Bloomberg)
Aug. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Malaysia?s ringgit led gains in Asia on speculation exporters sold the greenback after the local currency?s biggest slide in four months.