Newbie jitters

Evening Guys,

After a few years of false starts I am finally dipping my toe into the world of trading. I decided on Forex trading principally based on the reason that it involves a fair bit of fundamental geopolitical analysis, which oddly enough for a 25 year old happens to be a bit of a passion of mine.

I've been demo trading for 4 months now, the last two being pip positive, very modestly I might add (Circa 100 pips each) If I have two more Pip positive months I am going to invest a very modest amount of capital (3k) does this sound wise to be considering real trading after only six months? I have a risk management strategy in place at no more than 1% risk per trade.

I wanted to bounce something off you that keeps niggling in the back of my head, Forex seems to have some what of a murky reputation, why is this? Secondly do any retail traders make money in this game? Any other nuggets of wisdom to add?

If there more senior FX traders amongst you could shed some light on this I would be eternally grateful.

Cheers!

Was it something I said?

NoviceTOP said:

I wanted to bounce something off you that keeps niggling in the back of my head, Forex seems to have some what of a murky reputation, why is this? Secondly do any retail traders make money in this game? Any other nuggets of wisdom to add?

If there more senior FX traders amongst you could shed some light on this I would be eternally grateful.

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Hi NoviceTOP,
Welcome to T2W.

No, fear not, the lack of response has nothing to do with you or your post. Just 'one of those things' and the fact that you've joined at a time when many of the regulars are focused on discussing the fallout from Brexit than on trading!

I'm not best placed to answer your question as I don't trade forex at all, so I'm certainly not a 'senior FX trader'. That said, the reason I don't trade it is because - in part at least - it does have a 'murky reputation'. Anyone and everyone offering a trading related product or service have zeroed in on Forex as the magic trading elixir that will generate shed loads of cash. And it does - for them. Punters who buy into the myth of easy money trading forex are, often as not, brought down to earth with a jolt. Essentially, it tends to be mis-sold as being an 'easier', 'better' or 'more profitable' market to trade than say, indices or equities. Needless to say, that's complete rubbish. Few novice traders realise or understand that there are at least as many good reasons not to trade forex as there are to trade it. For an insight into what these are, click on this link.

HTH.
Tim.

There's no easy money in trading, but you just have to keep applying the basic principles - protect your capital, stick to your entry/exit rules, don't trade without a stop-loss, don't trade emotionally, make sure you have a damn good reason for trading against a trend or against a geo-political situation, don't try to play news events, be very cautious trying to pick a top or a bottom - all this applied to forex will help.

Hi Guys,

Thank you for the feedback, are you saying that broadly speaking the best way to trade is to find S/R area wait for the area to break and look for the BPC Long/Short? Essentially only trade with the trend?

Principally I chose Forex because personally I found it to be more interesting. I am hoping my personal interest will carry me through.

Hi NoviceTOP,

NoviceTOP said:

Thank you for the feedback, are you saying that broadly speaking the best way to trade is to find S/R area wait for the area to break and look for the BPC Long/Short? Essentially only trade with the trend?

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I'm afraid I don't know what you mean by BPC - so I can't comment on your approach. Generally though, there's no 'best' way to trade, other than the way that's best for you which could well be a total nightmare for someone else. However. as Tom has said, trading with the trend is highly recommended. Fading the trend can be done, but I would never recommend it to a novice trader.

NoviceTOP said:

Principally I chose Forex because personally I found it to be more interesting. I am hoping my personal interest will carry me through.

Click to expand...

There's nothing wrong with forex per se - just be sure you know why you like it, what it's drawbacks are and why it offers you more and / or better opportunities than other markets. So long as you're clear about those things - then forex is probably the best market for you.
Tim.