Starting the forex journey has a reason, so you first need to know what you want out of trading once you are familiar with the basics. It is not always about the money, some people like the thrill of trading, however, if you want to have some income out of forex forget about getting emotional. The great thing about forex trading is that it is very flexible for you. You can shape trading how you like it, trade only 10 minutes a day, explore an incredible array of methods possible, and use your knowledge how you see fit.
Now we have mentioned a broad spectrum, when you have so many possibilities people start wondering if they have made the right choice. Eventually, your trading will become a result of what you like but also evolve as you develop the skill and discipline. The right path to consistent results is very hard, that is why most fail. But it is not hard to learn to trade, it is hard to fight with the emotions and urges trading will put on you many times. Therefore, we have made a few steps that will put you on the right track, getting started is a crucial moment that will direct you for some time. Sometimes it may take a while to understand that a particular trading method is not for you, but this is ok, successful traders fail and keep trying.
Treat Trading Like Your Business
If you want to treat forex trading like your little business project, you are on the right track to becoming a professional trader. If you are in for the thrill, make fast money, consult our other articles about this to have at least a bit better luck (probabilities), you are going to need it. Now, making things serious will result in serious outcomes. Forex, after all, will just reflect what you have been doing and how on several aspects: your mindset or psychological aspect, how you manage your capital when trading or risk management, and finally your trading methods. You have to master these three pillars of forex trading. All of these aspects need to align with your personality and lifestyle.
Now that we have outlined the most important things you need to focus on, let’s first get acquainted with forex and trading. Your first stop can be babypips.com. The internet is full of guides about forex, however, this portal has easygoing content beginners like. You can also consider our article about free resources you can gradually explore as your skill and knowledge grow. Some things need to be understood before trading, consider babypips as your encyclopedia about forex, however, we do not recommend applying right off trading methods in the later lectures about advanced trading. This part has to be molded as you want and at the end of the day, where you have the best results. Actually, the biggest part of making yourself a pro is finding where you perform the best, all aspects combined.
Trade Demo First!
After you have a picture of what forex is, you might try demo trading. Demo trading can be done in several ways, and again the internet is providing you the best tools for this. Just two decades before, traders had a lot harder way to test their trades. You can try to handle the tradingview.com portal and try out some trading. Use their charting to explore practically what you have learned from babypips lessons, spend some time getting familiar with the charts. The replay button on the top is very handy if you want to test out your trading ideas.
After you get familiar with charts, time to get to some demo trading. Metatrader platform is great for this and is supported by the majority of the brokers. Find one regulated broker you like, consult our resources to find one, and get familiar with the client, there are many guides online. Demo accounts are where you will spend most of your time, forward testing or trading in real-time, and backtesting your strategies. Only by doing this part, you can know if you have something worth working on further. Of course, there is a proper way of doing this too as we have explored in the previous articles. Know you are most likely into an emotional rollercoaster, what you have made may not work for a long time. If you find yourself in a position you become wondering again, you may need more guidance.
Take Advantage of All Resources
At this point, you may try to find other resources where you can have a glimpse of how professional traders trade. By professional, we mean proprietary firms and fund traders that have real experience trading large portfolios and manage other investors’ money. To find these people is not easy, however, social media is a good source where to seek them. Learning from the greats is completely normal, even required if you want to get to the top of the forex game. Find like-minded people and their channels on youtube, tweeter or forums. It is important to align your trading ways with similar traders or their strategies.
The result from this is that it could point what is missing from your current strategy which is not performing well. But also, inspired to try new things too. Experienced traders have discovered what works and what is junk already, most of the methods and tools are not very good, so do not be surprised if everything you have made so far is way below what is considered good and consistent.
Once you make your strategy sound and rigid, traders at this point often fail on the psychological aspects. Messing up with the rules that could work is a common mistake. It is just a matter of if you can keep consistent with your strategy to get consistent results. Of course, the strategy that works is backed up by rigorous proving grounds you had to endure but everything can fail if you do not follow it to the letter. There are so many reasons to get off track on the psychological aspect many professional traders agree this is the most important pillar. Right after it comes how you manage your risk in trading. Therefore, all things considered, you might want also to include some books while you are exploring other strategies and traders.
Forex Reading Materials
Forex books come in many flavors, however, when you are getting started it is recommended to read those that concern with trading psychology. Some of the most interesting books in this category do not even talk about forex trading, but everyday discipline. Once you have understood some strategies on a more advanced level, and also explored other tools not mentioned on babypips or other media, it is time to make sure you are not making any emotional decisions in forex.
Some of the books we recommend to get started are from Ray Dalio, one of the best economists who can transfer an incredible amount of useful information that is easy to digest. Advanced forex psychology books, but good ones may come from less known traders, such as “No Nonsense Forex Trading Psychology” by Patrick Victor. Books such as these not only point where your drawbacks and mistakes are, but also motivate traders to keep pushing to the top. As mentioned before, not quitting is the only way to succeed.
With this article, you have some starting points but also you know what to do as you progress. Exploring forex trading is a very engaging journey, for those that like the idea they can discover their own strategy or system of indicators that make money over many years will certainly dive into this world and be persistent in their quest. If you need more resources consider our free resources article.
