Need some direction

OK. I'm not some guy who wants to make a million dollars next week. Well, if you're offering, I'll take it, but seriously... I've been watching the forex market for a week, and I thought to myself, I really like this. I'm not talking about making millions of dolllars, I'm talking about strategies, numbers, complexities, sitting in bed doing "work". Anyway, I would like to spend the next year working part time to learn how to do this. Probably 20 hours/week. I don't want a fast solution, but I would be very grateful for some serious direction. It can be as technical or as simple as it needs to be, I'm all ears. I have been reading this site, but a lot of it deals with how do I make money in 5 seconds, and I know the experienced traders here are sick of that, but I have yet to find a concise "how to make this your career?" Maybe I just need to read the whole site. Any info would be appreciated. Thanks.

There's no shortcuts. You've got to figure out what sort of trader you want to be. There's no winning formula for everyone, for some there might not be a winning formula at all. So you might check out Jacko's thread and despite it being a quality source of information and a proven approach for some, it would be remiss to say that you will have the same experience. You may come to the conclusion that you want to learn to program an EA to help you, or you want to scalp trade, or you want to trade from daily time frames and no less..... There are an almost infinite number of variations and the only way to figure out which road you're going to go down is read around, find what resonates with you and explore further. Within time the concepts that you naturally gravitate to will reveal what sort of trader you could become. People spend too much time caring about what their neighbour is doing, how much money they have in the bank, how much they are winning, how many pips they brought in last month, how they trade, what they learnt etc.. These things are not as important as you might think, much more important is to have the patience, discipline and keeping an open mind to learn things for yourself the right way. Threads like 'has anyone got a system with >90% success rate' only add to the confusion and frustration of noobs, so they ditch the way they have been learning about and then attempt to follow someone else who appears to be wildly successful until the frustration settles in again, and so the cycle continues. I am not saying that these people aren't wildly successful, but just because they are does not mean that if you attempt to emulate them that you will achive what they can - on the contrary, a trader will be able to trade the system of their own creation better than anyone else could trade it, or any system created by another hand.

Sooner or later the things that you have found worked for you become part of your unique trading repertoire, you formulate a strategy of your own that you believe in and have faith in. Then, and only then can you start worrying about the hard part, actually executing your trading plan with money.

There are threads here, websites on the net, and recommended books to read which are considered essential reading. Look around for similar threads in the past and you'll get extensive and complete lists.

First, please forgive me if I'm coming across as negative, but I'm only trying to be helpful. First realize that 99.99% of all posting on all forums is complete crap written by idiots, the first job will be to separate the diamonds from the crap.

Second realize that forex is only part of the trading universe, often good information can be found on forums which are not forex specific.

Become familiar with MT4, it's not perfect, but it's free and a start, learn the basics, placing trades, spreads, order types, position sizes, what indicators are etc. If you have a math/programming/logic bent, this will also be useful, but your most useful asset will be cold hard objectively, ask why? does this stack up? do I really understand what is happening here?

On this forum I would read everything by topherhk88, I would then join Elite Trader and read everything by ericp & acrary (as you read these threads, look for other people making intelligent contributions, search out their other posts). I assume that a lot of the terminology used may be obscure to you, but help is probably only a Google search away, these people treat trading as a scientific exercise with well defined goals, which is the sort of approach you will need to take if you are serious. Given these people seem to be automation oriented, but the approach is valid for all styles of trading.

Realize that the journey will take years and cost money, there will be many times where you think you have arrived only to have your hopes dashed, but nothing worthwhile is easy.
In the end the most important thing is learn to think critically for yourself.

I agree with the above responses and would like to add that it sounds like you are off to a good start.

Also I would add this:

If a boxer's qoal is to win fights he/she may loose to the boxer who loves boxing, fighting and has the goal to win.

Dale

Thanks for the posts. Already been very helpful. Of course, I'm not dissuading anyone else from writing feedback.

From your original post, it seems that you have the right constitution for trading, if indeed you are prepared to do all that you say.

I agree completely with Craig's post. The most important thing is to think critically for yourself, and to have a reasonable basis for every trading action that you take. Never fall into the trap of thinking that you possess some prescient instinct for the markets. There are few shortcuts to the process, but if you approach it without preconceptions, unsubstantiated ego, or a get-rich-quick mentality, you will be leagues ahead of many that are in your shoes.

Best,

Chris

I appreciate the response topherhk88. I've read some of your posts, and they are indeed insightful. I'll be honest, I'm not sure if I have what it takes either to do what I say, but I am pretty stubborn, and prideful, so just the fact that I posted it will probably help me to stick with it. Anyway, I just wanted to thank you for your contributions to this forum. Your article about a scientific trading system rocked, and I am excited to get into the "lab".

Hi,
You better not read the whole site because 90% is misleading cr*p.
I see somebody has already suggested Jacko's thread. Others that may be of interest are James16, Bobokus and Skunny, Jaroo's DIBS thread and also Joel Rensink at his blog called infiniteyield.

Eveyone is different, so what suits some will not suit others - I can't scalp but pehaps you could. You need something that suits your personality, the time of day and how much time you have available and also the capital you have available to trade.

If you are really desperate you could read my little thread.

Good Luck,
Ian

Hello Dallavise,

I am not where I want to be yet (where we both want to be)but I can very much relate to your position.

The best thing I can tell you is that your journey is inherently going to be self driven and unstructured at first, this is fine. You have to start somewhere. Read, read, read. Forums are great but also read financial news, read books, magazines, essays, etc. Paper trade not only forex but equities and futures, commodoties, and whatever other demo platforms you can find. Not only will this give you chart time, it will give you familiarity with various platforms and give you a tatse for what kind of features you like or dislike.

There are so many facets to the financial markets and you have a heck of a mountain to climb, but just be persistent and shrug off your frustration and press on. I find that when my brain begins to feel like mush and the charts seem to become incomprehensible and I press on is when I begin to make breakthroughs in my understanding, which gives me such elation.

also, a lot of people would disagree but i think it may be helpful to open small ?(25-100$) micro account and dip your foot in the water, nothing trumps experience.

hopefully this helps!
rob

I shouldn't have forgotten this one ...
No Brainer Trades - Billy Ray Valentine's thread. It makes reference to Sam Seiden - catch his videos at forexstreet.

Since no one has suggested it yet, check out www.babypips.com
A good source of basic information, terminology etc.

Someone in a previous post said, always have a valid reason for entering a trade. Don't trade on a "Gut Feeling", or because some idiot on a thread said
" I am long from 19999. If you have a reason, and lose, at least you had a reason. Go back over your decision and see what went wrong.
Try not to take signals from other traders. Learn to think for yourself.
If you stick with this for a while, you will start to learn things about yourself.
Not just the fear of monetary loss, but the fear of failure. You will learn about greed as well.
Someone else mentioned opening a small live acct. I agree. Even trading a penny a pip, there's nothing like seeing your acct balance go down, to let you know something you are doing is not right.You say you are stuborn, thats good, you will need it.
You say you are not looking to make a million dollars, thats good too.
Its sounds like you will be doing this part time. You have to think of this as a second job, there will be times when you are tired, but make sure you show up for work.
I don't know what your capitalization will be like, but a modest goal would be, maybe after a year or two, being able to make a car payment from your trading profits.

Sorry for going on and on.