When it comes to Forex and trading, there is a lot to learn. In fact, there is so much that not one person will ever know everything that there is. There is no single database that contains all of the information that one would need, especially as Forex is always changing and the amount of information expanding.
Due to this, it is important to understand that you will not be able to learn everything. In fact, you will most likely never learn more than 10% of what there is to know. What is important is that you learn what is relevant to the trading that you are wanting to do, and that you learn it in a way that is relevant to the way that you learn and that will allow you to use your strengths to assist your trading.
Some people love to learn by simply reading, they love to sit down with a big book and just read, they take in the information as they go, sometimes re-reading what they have already gone over to help cement the information into their mind. Others will sometimes learn better by doing. Actually, trading is the best way that they can learn, whatever you are more suited to is how you should be trading and learning.
So let’s imagine that you learn best by doing things, reading is boring and can’t hold your attention for long, that is fine, a lot of people feel that way. So how can we learn when there is not much information? You can simply break down the information into bite-size chunks, you then take that information and try it out on a demo account, this way you are not getting stuck in reading page after page and you are actively trying out what you have been learning, cementing that information in and more importantly, doing it in a way that suits your own learning style.
In general, there are seven main learning styles, we will briefly look at each one and what they involve, this can help give you an idea of how you prefer to learn so you can adapt the way that you are learning to trade to better suit your own style.
Visual
Visual learning is all about what you see, you learn well by looking at images and pictures, have a spatial understanding of what is going on and simply watching someone else do something can be enough for you to pick up a lot of information. This sort of style is often accompanied by an audio explanation. However, images and pictures can often be enough to learn. There are plenty of places online that help you learn trading via images and examples.
Aural
This is all about what you hear, you learn by listening, one of the reasons audiobooks came out was to help those that do not like reading get into listening to books. The same can go for learning, you do not like reading but listening to the information helps you take it in and learn, this is all about sounds and music. Listening to YouTube or podcasts can be a good way to pick up information on trading that suits this style of learning.
Verbal
Verbal doesn’t just mean what someone is saying, it can also refer to written words. This means that you are able to learn through words, either reading them or having someone say them to you. This is the most common style of learning, it takes place in school, university, and training courses. It is also the most prevalent when it comes to learning to trade, there are hundreds of resources online that can help you to learn in this manner.
Physical
This is all about actually doing things, while trading is not actually a physical thing to do with your hands, you are actively taking part and having to do things in order to trade. A demo account is a perfect way to learn this way. If you have read or heard some information, try it out on a demo account, this will help you to see how it works and what was told in real-time and in a real-life scenario, doing is often a great way of learning, so demo demo demo.
Logical
Logical learning is all about using logic and finding the reason behind the things that you are doing, in regards to trading, it is working out why certain things move the markets or why you should be placing certain trades. This looks into each subject in a lot more detail, but it allows you to get a much more in-depth understanding of each subject matter. There are sites available that go into the real nitty-gritty details of trading and those are the sites that you would want to look out for.
Social
Some people love to learn in groups, be it one other person or a group of 10. These people thrive on relaying information between them and by discussing what is being learned. There are sites south here for learning in groups, forums are also available and offer great places to talk and learn with others. Team members often push each other to achieve and learn more.
Solidarity
The opposite of learning in a group, learning by yourself can also be someone’s choice of learning style. You do not want the distractions that come from others, you want to be able to concentrate on what you are doing and are easily able to self-motivate yourself to get the learning and work down. Too many people mean too many distractions, this allows you to learn at your own pace. So those are some of the learning styles, there is one key part of learning that we have not mentioned yet, that is simply the learning that you can get from mistakes and losses.
When we are trading, there will be mistakes being made as well as losses being accrued. It is important that we use these opportunities as a new way to learn. If you think back to school, some of the knowledge that you have would be simply from making a mistake, as soon as that mistake was made, you learned what made it right and have most likely never forgotten it since. It is exactly the same as trading.
Every single time that you make a mistake or make a loss, take a look at why that loss occurred, what was the curse, you can then use what you have learned to better understand what happened and to help prevent it from happening again in the future. Doing this enables you to become a much better trader, prone to making far fewer mistakes. It can also give you an insight into subjects and topics that you would have never looked into otherwise.
So those are a few of the learning styles as well as the importance of learning to trade in a way that suits you. There is no point trying to follow the footsteps of someone that learns or tutors in a way that does not suit your own style, use your strengths to learn, you will then be able to learn a lot more and a lot quicker.
