I am currently in a college and have always been interested in banking and equities. My first experience with investing in equities left my account at 50% of the original.(I lost about 3000 USD within a month). Basically, I was the typical new investor, thinking that trading was easy money. I succumbed to greed, fear and followed blind leads. I held on to stocks that were dropping by the day, hoping they would rebound, but the price just kept dropping by the day. Finally, I pulled out bruised and battered; cursing the market for all that it was worth. I was just 21 then and 3000 USD was a LOT of money to me. It took me a while to recover from this experience and started to search for a way to earn back the money lost, and then I stumbled upon forexfactory.
Lessons learnt so far
Despite reading the forums for about 3 weeks, I am still pretty much clueless about most things (perhaps I am a slow learner). I am struggling with understanding indicators, brokers, implications of news reports etc etc. However, after reading through the key threads in the beginners forum at forexfactory, my initial thoughts and expectations about forex have been molded in the way I have least expected. I hope to share these thoughts with everyone and hopefully learn more! They are as follows
- Forex trading is not a hobby. It is a profession that requires a huge amount of knowledge and discipline. I must be prepared to put in time to consistently educate and improve myself.
- Education can come in various forms. Through forexfactory, books and learning from other’s experiences. I must be open minded about the various resources available. However, I must be discerning about the various schools of thought.
- Everyone has their own trading style and one size fits all does not work in the context of forex trading. I cannot take trading systems at face value. I must fully comprehend systems and MODIFY them according to my own trading style. Forex trading requires independent thinking; I should not be following someone blindly.
- Forex trading is a psychological battle against one’s own self. I must follow my system strictly and not succumb to greed or fear. I must accept that losing trades are inevitable. I must not sink into a spiral of taking increasing greater risks to recoup losses.
- I must be prepared to demo trade and remain profitably for 6 months before I start live trading. Even then I must be prepared to blow 1 or 2 accounts in the beginning stages and not be demoralized. I must accept this is part and parcel of learning how to trade successfully.
Concluding thoughts
Forex is NOT easy money as the advertisements put it. It is an incredibly difficult journey that requires a lot of time, effort and patience. I am not expecting to get rich from forex, rather I hope to make a consistent income every month to supplement my regular job income. (I am not sure if this is the correct mentality and hope more experienced and senior members can correct me!) However, I hope that in the future I will come to love the challenges of the forex market. Even more, when I become more experienced, I hope that I will share my knowledge with beginners as myself, as I know forex trading is not simply a means of earning loads of money. It is a journey of learning and sharing ; Forex trading is a lifestyle.
This is my first post and hope that senior members can correct me if I have misinterpreted anything I have learnt from the forums so far! I hope that beginners can also learn from my experience! Feel free to PM me!
