learn forex trading

How to learn Forex? Stages to be a good Trader

Perhaps the title may seem very pretentious, given that I do not believe; "There is only one way to learn to operate in the Foreign Exchange Market" (FOREX). However, if I think (convincingly) that there are steps and stages that a trader (I refer to the operator) must go through and in many cases repeat again so that they are part of his unconscious when making operational decisions.


This article is dedicated to many new traders that I see are increasing every day (that seems great), but nevertheless, they tend to operate without preparation and end up destroying their accounts or those of other people (which is worse).

To begin I would say that if you are operating real and you are still not sure of your system and even more of your psychological control when operating then I recommend you stop operating the real one and do it only in the demo. Only then will you avoid yourself (for the moment, keep punishing your real account). An advice, from someone who won and lost money and knows what he is talking about. It does not make sense to enter the market if you are not sure. If someone was lucky in some operations, but he knows he is not prepared enough, he would tell him to keep his enthusiasm and take advantage of his "good luck" ... because it was just that. And good luck does not last a lifetime.


There are no magic recipes. It makes me very sad when some people write to me saying that they have acquired a magical strategy that will make them millionaires. Friend, do not look with the Forex to be "millionaire in one year". Look for consistency.


Stages that you must experience in order to be a good Trader
Stage 1.

Take Forex courses, where they teach you Technical, Fundamental and Psychological Analysis. The most advisable thing is that you make a consistent and serious preparation. With this I do not mean that you can not learn in a self-taught way, it is also valid, however for those who are not familiar with the statistical, financial and economic analysis it can be more difficult and tedious to understand them on their own. I do not recommend any specific course (nor would it be ethical), in addition to the charlatans and people who offer their programs as if it were the solution to all the problems of the world. But if I can tell you how you can filter if a course is worth or not (in my humble opinion, obviously some will not agree with me).

First of all, discard the courses that offer you become a millionaire in months or have 50% monthly profitability always. To say that is little more serious in a market as difficult as forex. Second, take into account the duration of the course. The course to which you point must have a respectable duration. And in third place, the best courses are those where you have a tutor when you operate the demo accounts, either live or in weekly meetings so that "your Tutor" tells you what is wrong and how to correct yourself. Said tutoring should be constant and above all, it should be applied when you are already operating in the demo accounts, that is, putting into practice what you have learned.


I insist on the following. If you do not have the means to finance a course do not complicate life either. You will have no choice but to learn on your own. In that sense, there is a lot of free information (posted on the Web) that will help you learn. Information left over, therefore the effort you put in you will mark how long it takes to have the basic knowledge.



Stage 2.

Having a basic knowledge, you must find an appropriate strategy to be your first work tool. That is to say, it will look for a method that will have to prove it hundreds of times. This set of tests or simulations that you will perform on your method is called Backtesting. The question would be: Where do I find a method? Simple answer They abound. There are thousands of methods posted on the Web, in forums or specialized forex pages. Thousands of methods and thousands of hybrids of such methods, even when you have experience, could create your own methods. The methods or strategies already exist (you do not have to discover the gunpowder). What you are obliged to do is to try the method you have chosen against the past (that is the Backtesting). I want to be emphatic in the following. Testing your method means that you test your strategy against the past. For example. Take the months between January and December 2009 and test the effectiveness of the EUR / USD using your MetaTrader or the platform that you use the most. The Backtesting is shown on an Excel sheet where you must enter data such as the entry price, the exit price, the normal profit, maximum profit, maximum loss, operating hours, etc. Only then will you be able to quantify if the method you are using is good for something or else discard it and use another method. Forex trading is a subject of PROBABILIDADES you can have a strategy that of 10 entries 8 are good and 2 bad. So if you have reasonable limits and stops your strategy should work and in a month your account "should" be with nice numbers for your eyesight. It happens that novice traders make the mistake of not trying a strategy as it should. An excess of confidence that in the long run will become very, very expensive.


In the Education section of Planeta Forex, I have written an article about how to do a good Backtesting, I invite you (for those who want to learn it) to review it. A very important point is that the Backtesting that you make must have between 100 and 300 data at least. Why so much?. Because it is a good enough sample in order to know if your method is effective and you can use it in various fields. Obviously, there is a lot of criteria on your part too, because if you take a strategy that has too many negative (lost) entries, there's no point in continuing to test it. Meanwhile, do not trade real money. A classic mistake is to make entries (in your time of testing that strategy) that have nothing to do with the system. I know that many traders while testing their systems combine with other systems or make entries "by common sense" or "because I think" and end up ruining the sample of the initial strategy. Conclusion, they never knew if the evaluated strategy was good, or deficient. You must be disciplined in that sense and make operations "only with the strategy" and nothing more than strategy. Another common mistake at this stage is to test the strategies without taking reality into account. That is to say placing very large lots, very high stops and all those things that in real life you would not do. Then test your strategy with the minimum amount of batches and limits and stops that are reasonable (nothing to do heroic or very risky operations).

Stage 3

When you have found an adequate strategy and that offers reasonable returns of at least 4 to 6 months of continuous profits. When you arrive at that instance then just there you can have a certainty that you can enter to operate real accounts. Even reaching that level is not a guarantee that you have an assured success, however, I am sure that a lot of money (and read it well) you will save if you do a learning based on constant, sincere and responsible practice.


To get started; operating a demo account is different from a real account in several aspects, such as psychological, for example (that's why I mentioned the importance of having a tutor before). The management of control and emotions is another. However, everything is learned and there are techniques that help you to control the blissful psychological factor that (in my opinion) is the most important to be successful in this business. I recommend that you start with small amounts of money (when you are ready to start with a real one) and always be RESPONSIBLE WHEN OPERATING

The neuronal part of the operative is the Psychological one.

 No method works but you are well prepared in that regard. Do not be afraid of the tickets, respect your method, be responsible, trust in the probability of your method, and many other aspects make the difference between a mediocre trader and a good one. Operating is a matter of control and not many people can learn it. Unfortunately, it is like that. Learning to control ourselves is the most difficult and the door to success. That is why only 5% of traders that operate forex are doing well and 95% goes flatly wrong ?. If friends are why. That 5% controls its psychological part well enough. Every day that I operate and that I have the opportunity to teach other people, I realize that this is the case. To operate forex and succeed you do not need to be an expert market analyst or be a fortuneteller of the fundamental methods. I am one of those who thinks that the method can be found anywhere ... anywhere. That you can try it as many times as you wish (in the end it is operative are numbering and these do not cheat), your probability of a method well tested in the long run should come out and not fail statistically speaking.


Conclusions
Who teaches that a novice operator is controlled and does not make entries without sense or at random? We only learn that with the blows and losing money. Unless we have a good mentor to help us from the beginning and teach you that "horrors" should not be committed in the operation. Unfortunately, not all of us have that luck. If you know capable people and with time operating then ask for advice, listen to experiences, ask many questions, practice and keep practicing, study sincerely. Only this way a good trader is formed.


I hope you can serve my appreciations. Forex offers an important potential to make capital and fill us with benefits, and even more to teach other people to take advantage of it, but it is also true that this task is full of blood sweat and tears and a lot of control, that end should lead us to success and good capital management. And remember: do not try to become millionaires in a month, the greedy are the first to lose. If they think like this they will not last anything when they are operating real. All work performed by operating must be patient, sincere and reasoned. I wish you good trading.