A Beginner

[PipsOnPips 10]

I have always been interested in investing, specifically forex. The reason I seem to like forex the most is because of the volatility and potential for massive gains. My end goal is to one day trade with profits as supplemental income to my pilot job.

 

I feel lost because I don't know where to start. How do people come up with trading methods? Do they learn directly from somebody or are they in books? Do they come up with their own through trial and error?

 

So basically what I am asking is, those of you who do this as a living or even make money at it, where did you start? What is my first step?

[henryduncan12 10]

Your first step should be learning more and more about forex trading from School of Pipsology and DailyForex | Forex Basics. If you are interested to leaning from forex book then Forex strategies ebook offered by avafx will be good for you.

[PipsOnPips 10]

I have seen people talk about trading rooms. To me it sounds like someone is live broadcasting them trade and talking about why they are doing certain things. Is this something people do or no? If so, how much or where is the best place to do that?

[steve46 12]

There are a good number or reasons why you should be very careful of Forex in general

 

I wouldn't be involved in it...the alternative is exchange traded currency futures...which is heavily regulated. To each his own of course.

 

Best of luck to you

Steve

[Obsidian 10]

I have always been interested in investing, specifically forex. The reason I seem to like forex the most is because of the volatility and potential for massive gains. My end goal is to one day trade with profits as supplemental income to my pilot job.

 

I feel lost because I don't know where to start. How do people come up with trading methods? Do they learn directly from somebody or are they in books? Do they come up with their own through trial and error?

 

So basically what I am asking is, those of you who do this as a living or even make money at it, where did you start? What is my first step?

 

there are various topics in the beginners forum. I am sure you will find all the information/advice you need here...

[andreaB 10]

Hi there! I'm a newbie here. I'm a article author of life, love, goals, politics, news, health, and other interesting things.

[Mysticforex 13]

I have always been interested in investing, specifically forex. The reason I seem to like forex the most is because of the volatility and potential for massive gains. My end goal is to one day trade with profits as supplemental income to my pilot job.

 

I feel lost because I don't know where to start. How do people come up with trading methods? Do they learn directly from somebody or are they in books? Do they come up with their own through trial and error?

 

So basically what I am asking is, those of you who do this as a living or even make money at it, where did you start? What is my first step?

 

 

Pips, if you are interested in spot forex you are not an investor, you are a speculator.

 

 

Learn as much as you can about forex before spending a dime on a mentor. There are some good ones out there, but most just want to get their hand in your pocket.

 

Someone gave you some good references. Another good one is BabyPips.

Open a few demo accounts that use different trading platforms. Learn how to use the platforms inside out.

 

A lot of people can teach you a method. Becoming a trader is an inside job.

If you think you can turn your PC into your own private ATM, You're on the wrong track.

[RJo 10]

I've only been trading spot forex for a few years, but I won't be ambiguous regarding what I've learned in this short time. Forget forex futures unless you have at least $10k due to minimum account size requirements. Avoid all paid services. Yes, they are straight up scams. If you had a system of guaranteed profits, wouldn't you trade it instead of leasing it? The self-proclaimed guru, Henry Leiu, comes to mind. Research your prospective dealer. In spot forex there are no brokers, only dealers. Brokering implies some sort of fiduciary relationship. There is none. Before US reforms kicked in, many dealers were straight up criminals. Bain Capital, formerly operating as CMS Forex and now operating as Forex.com comes to mind. There is no centralized spot market, so you have no access to contract volumes, only tick volumes. You are trading against giant international banks who fund your dealer in an off market exchange where your account resides. Think twice about going overseas to get access to low spreads, hedging, and low margin requirements. This is where the criminals went. Research your prospective platform. If you like freeware, MetaTrader 4 (MT4) can't be beat. I have a library of over 1100 indicators and only purchased one of them (the platform itself is also free). This is how many it took me to create a "better than half-profitable" strategy. For MT4, there is user friendly software out there allowing you to build custom indicators and automatic trading systems (if you think your strategy is that good). But even with frequent updates, MT4 is old and if you run to many charts with too much history and too many indicators, it can freeze up. MT5 is out there but the freebies for MT5 are much fewer. Before you even get into indicators and/or trying to build a strategy, I would investigate the various ways of viewing price data in the first place. MT4 only allows 9 time frames ranging from 1 minute to 1 month, and only half of those of useful for day trading. You can use time frames based on any number of ticks, seconds, minutes, hours, days, range bars, or renko bars (just google Flexichart, RenkoLiveChart, and RenkoRangeBarsEA). Your indicators and systems will display vastly differently depending how you display your price on the chart. For example, some traders use Renko Bar charts and no indicators at all! Unlike many traders, I no longer attempt to follow any economic calendars or news events. In reality, any news is probably too old to trade by the time retail traders receive it anyway. Besides, when a rate decision or a natural disaster triggers my technicals I either get stopped out or a profit run--same as always. Books are entertaining if you want to know why EU was nicknamed Cable, but again you will find better information for free in the multitude of forums online. By now it should be clear that I'm a day trader who feeds off volatility. If you want to be a long term investor, I don't have the slightest clue. Do your research, open a "demo" account, settle on your data display(s), and start trading play money. Keep reading, keep reading, and keep reading the forums. Good trading to you.

[Mysticforex 13]

@RJO I may be wrong, ( it has be known to happen in the past ) but I think you mean GAIN Capital ( aka Forex.com ). Not to be confused with Bain, as in Peter Bain. I've met him and he seems a decent fellow. Otherwise agree completely.

 

I know it's a tedious process but perhaps you could U/L a few of what you think are your better indis to the MT4 indicator section.

 

@ PipsonPips BTW, what Time Zone are you in? There are some better times to watch the market than others.

[RJo 10]

Mysticforex, you are indeed correct. I meant Gain. Bain is well outside the scope of this thread. Is there any way to edit that post? Maybe I'll add some paragraph breaks as well.

 

I will certainly post some indis to that section.

[Williamfx65 10]

well one of your first steps can be to open a demo with zulutrade - will resolve all your questions about forex- meaning you sip you cofee and your signal providers trade for you

[Mysticforex 13]

well one of your first steps can be to open a demo with zulutrade - will resolve all your questions about forex- meaning you sip you cofee and your signal providers trade for you

 

 

Re: Signal providers...

 

Do they work as well as the signals provided by any other brokers? :o

[Williamfx65 10]

Mysticforex,

 

zulutrade is platform and supports different brokers, so traders perform differently along with the brokers they choose sometimes they can have signals from 2 or more different brokers - it deppends on the followers, i guess.

[gavind 11]

I have always been interested in investing, specifically forex. The reason I seem to like forex the most is because of the volatility and potential for massive gains. My end goal is to one day trade with profits as supplemental income to my pilot job.

 

I feel lost because I don't know where to start. How do people come up with trading methods? Do they learn directly from somebody or are they in books? Do they come up with their own through trial and error?

 

So basically what I am asking is, those of you who do this as a living or even make money at it, where did you start? What is my first step?

 

Hi buddy, it's been a while already. I'm just curios about your progress. How is everything in terms of trading for you?