Pointers for beginners

After reading through numerous threads on FF rookie section I felt that I should make a post of some things that have helped me and may help you.

MOST IMPORTANT POINT

For me money management is key, not enough people pay attention this. They are more concerned about strategy.. if people spent even half their time working on their risk management strategy they would be in a far better position.

DEMO ACCOUNTS

For me I would NOT advise people to spend too much time on demos max 1-2 weeks get use to the platform and how to place trades etc. NO MATTER HOW well you treat your demo IT IS NOT LIVE .. many people are expert demo traders and fail live. The emotions of losing your own money, bad runs in the market etc need to be felt. THERE IS NO WAY you can replicate that in a demo. You need to be able to remain cool and calm after losing in the market and that will only be felt in live market conditions. Even if you open a small account and trade small... that is a lot better than trading any demo.

SEEK HELP

It amazes me the amount of people do not seek for help through a coach /mentor... the usual response " they are all scammers etc " the answer is no not all scammers people are not looking in the right place. . I found my mentor on linekdn looking for background in the industry.,.. not someone analyzing the market that has already happened on youtube... at the end of the day if your are struggling if your pumping the money in the market why ... spend some money on coaching there is no shame... and if you do like someone you like make sure you get a VERIFIED TRACK RECORD .. OR maybe someone has worked in the industry at a professional level.

REALISTIC EXPECTATIONS

I was like anyone when I started trading, thinking I could make something like $1000 per month with a $2000 account. Now, not to say this cannot happen maybe 1 month or 2 month but we want to be in this game for the long run and its about making consistent returns each and every month. Making 2-5% per month is achievable and reasonable making 20% per month is not... So yes someone can make 70% per month but at what cost? what dd?

When you see someone with 145% return have a look at their track record have a look at their balance have they started with 100usd and taken 0.3 lot size traders and have won a few trades ? what's their dd? what their sharpe ratio? For me these numbers are much more important than the gain on the account

For me personally I trade for private clients and working through some prop stuff and the DD is something that needs to be watched...
The more I can show that risk can be controlled the more likely I will get more funding ...

This leads me in to the next point about capital... if you want to trade full time you need a lot of capital,,, why? because making 2-5% of a large account is sustainable making 20% is not

eg 1% of 100k account = 1000.... 20% of 5k = 1000 which is easier to sustain?

KEEP GOING

If you love this don't stop.. keep going... by having realistic expectations as i have mentioned above you should be able to maintain your account for a long time... most people have unrealistic expectations blow a few accounts and that's it ...

It may or not be everyone's intentions to trade other people's capital but know this there's enough money in the world not enough GOOD traders

Maybe people will agree and some will disagree with what i have said but like i said this is just what helped me get in the right frame of mind and has helped me.

GOOD LUCK!!!!

Very informative post. It will help all the new traders to make their decisions easily.

Every new trader should read this to get a good knowledge about trading in the forex market.

As for me, it is very important to start with a small for a beginner.
If you have already learned the basics of trading and are successfully trading on a demo, then it's time to open a real account. How much do you need to fund it? Some experts argue that the amount should be large enough, say $5000, to ensure that the amount of risk in each trade does not exceed 1%.
However, if you deposit a significant amount of money into your first real account, you will be doomed to failure. Why?
Professional traders know how to control their emotions, as opposed to beginners. The more time you trade, the better you will be able to control yourself. The psychology of trading is not easy to master, and at first, your emotions will be very disturbing.
One of the most destructive emotions that you will encounter is fear. Fear of loss will force you to constantly do various stupid things in your trading. So if you are trading a large enough deposit, you will be constantly afraid of losing your money. Imagine that if you lose just 1 dollar in one unsuccessful trade. Then you wouldn't be too afraid, right? Well, what if your risk on the deal was 1000 dollars?
For this reason, it makes sense to start Forex trading with a small amount of capital. You must constantly learn to cope with negative emotions and strengthen your trading psychology. Over time, you can gradually add more money to your account. If you start with a small amount, it will give you the opportunity and time to work on your trading psychology.

Of course, you have discussed some important issues that will be of great use to new traders. There is a lot to learn from this post. So thank you so much.

learning from post is very common issue , its all about like bookish knowledge , but knowledge can be useless if you have not enough practice session. so learn from own mistake and emphasis on practice.

correct .... it’s what you do with the information that’s the important thing

Yes i totally agree with you

I like what you wrote about not spending to much time on demo accounts. Yes they are great for practice however you do not really learn and dive in until you place money in a real account. Your strategy should be good enough, well thought out, and prepared for trading in a real money account anyway if you use a demo like a real one. Why wait? you might miss out on some potentially great returns by using the strategy in the demo accounts.

It is considered that professionalism in trading comes after three years of hard work, experiments, victories and losses. Experienced traders assure that five years is not enough. Each person is individual and goes his own way, the duration of which depends on the speed of receptivity, analytical mindset, ability to analyze mistakes. There are statistics that only 5% of beginners reach the title of "guru", but there is no official confirmation of this data anywhere.
A trader is considered an amateur until his or her statistics show positive results for at least one year. This period is also the most important indicator for the investor, as it indicates stability and is trustworthy.
To achieve such performance in trading is possible, the main thing is to find your way. If a trader puts money first and does everything for its sake, he is doomed to defeat. The distinctive feature of a pro is that he does his favorite thing. Even if he has to go through a difficult path for the sake of it. Finance is an inseparable part and a reward for the efforts made. Remember that the profitability of trading depends very much on the broker you choose.
Everyone is mistaken. The main problem of any beginner is wrong money management. With experience, the trader considers excessive risks to be stupid and absurd, which he will not do anymore.

please can you explain the part where profitability depends on the broker???

Every new trader should make a good plan to make money from this market.

Very important article for the new traders. Every new trader should follow this to make a good trading career in this market.

Or at the very least they should learn how to make a plan first.

Every beginner need to gather all the basic knowledge before starting forex trading.

Very positive information, decisions and plans are very important. This is especially important for beginners.

Basic knowledge and then some. One can't profit on basic knowledge alone.

basic knowledge generally comes from demo trading and the main problem is we the traders always ignore the demo account ,
as a result our knowledge become poor to survive in here accurately.

you miss the point....... the one thing that demo does not teach is emotion...

what benefit does demo have if you trade demo for 2 years and then lose every month trading live?

this is the the problem too many new people give too much weight to demo...

Again this is the BS advice given to beginners and most retailers. Until one can control their emotions and manage RISK ON A LIVE ACCOUNT you will never make it. DOES NOT MATTER what you do on a demo !!!! because the most important part of trading is psychology and live risk management and that cannot be replicated on a demo.. People can say whatever to make themselves feel happy about trading a demo...

i have met plenty of demo experts who crashed pretty quickly trading live .....

AGAIN miss the point ...

ONE CAN have the best strategy ever execute to perfection on demo but fail LIVE ...

try applying for a prop firm with a demo results and see what they say ?

you want more funding? go to an investor and say this is what I did with play money .. see what they say?

Here’s a recent example .. I stream live everyday and one of the viewers started trading live recently :.. at one point in time during the trade he starts doubting the trade ... maybe wants to close it early ... his mind starts to think well if I close this now ill lose less... you do not go through these emotions in demo trading And those emotions and the ability to control them is more times than not the difference between a profitable and non profitable trader...