Beginner Starting Point

I have seen this great forum where the senior members are unselfish in giving advice and hints to juniors. I am a beginner, barely knowing how to read the MACD, Stochastics etc. Wonder if any senior members can advice which of such indicators to learn first? There seems to be tons and tons of them.

Once again thank you for your time.

Go to babypips.com first, get a bit of a foundation under you and then you won't have to be spoonfed.

Since you are new and don't have bad habits yet, you can follow my advice and study trading supply and demand.

Here is a link that has a long list of webinars

I came across this early on in my trading and disregarded it because I wanted a system. It's possible you might do the same as I did, but if you in fact decide that you will go this route, you will be miles ahead of the rest.

Also read Master the Markets by Tom Williams. A lot of traders throw a lot of books around, but this is different from the rest, and is available online just google it.

I wouldn't assume that learning about indicators is the best place to start in your forex education. In fact, some good traders may argue that this is the worst place to start, and an initial question to pose to yourself could be to consider why there are indeed "tons and tons of them," as you say.

I don't know what assumptions you carry right now, if any, but for what it is worth my advice to you is do not go looking for an indicator-based "system" as the solution to your forex journey - because you probably would find one, as many people who trawl the "systems" forums eventually learn.

Instead, why not start by trying to gain an understanding of what a successful forex trading journey looks like (sure everyone is different but there are probably some common themes to be explored). Here we are talking about the capacity and willingness to learn, and to work very hard over many years. We are talking about gaining as much knowledge as possible about the markets, the way they operate, who participates, why and when, and what opportunities this may provide for the humble retail trader. And having an open mind and willingness to adapt as you slowly and carefully discover what sort of trader you might want to be, and what sorts of things work for you, and what doesn't.

To immediately head down the path of "indicators" is to potentially deny yourself of the opportunity of some good initial learning about this business, and to potentially pigeon-hole yourself with assumptions that may cripple your ability to be successful in this business, the evidence of which is littered all over this website. Indicators are not wrong or bad, but they are most often used in an unproductive manner; and indeed they are just one tiny fraction of what may be useful in this business.

imho, the best way to begin is to start with YOURSELF.

assess yourself.
know your strengths & weaknesses (will manifest more as u gain experience in trading)
are u really serious & passionate about trading?
are u fully aware that trading is a business & thus entails risk (& time, etc)?

one's self is the core.
this is the main matter to deal with.

i would just like to share my experience and problems when it comes to trading. Mistakes i made .. books i read and stuff that i learnt.


My first virgin post so please bear with me.


I first started trading at 19 years old (i'm 21 this year).. with my savings of 10k ... i promptly lost 3k or 30% of my savings due to fear, greed, ignorance and hope. (Jesse Livermore) I told myself.. i would read.. acquire the knowledge that i could and go bakc to the market armed to the teeth..

Little did i know that i was wrong. The human emotion is so much harder to over come then the pips... Shorting the EU/USD recently, i blew anoter 700 on my shorts cause i went in at the wrong time and went out at the wrong time.. 700 now is about 10% of my capital left... i have other savings but my 10k is for trading..

Anyway that aside, i worked my ass off.. discipline myself to follow my setup and after hours upon hours of reading, i managed to pull off my first profit.. yup.. it may be small (about 50 dollars) 1 mini contract and only a few pips.. but boy was i happy.. i know that i am currently on track after a painful experience and loads of reading.. i gain so much insight and knowledge from the seniors at forex factory.. and i realize that i have so much more to learn..


Anyway.. that aside, can anyone tell me what's 3156 and stuff you guys use in this forum? can't seem to figure it out despite reading and googling it..

maybe u can get more specific?

thanks for sharing your experience.

drop all the indicators, learn price action and read yourself up in statistics. Statistics is the only thing that will make you profitable. Nothing else

I agree with the indicators.

I respectfully disagree with you about stats being the only way.

I'll have to agree with Custos... statistics are what will keep you profitable. Nothing is garenteed in the market, so you have to be sure odds are always on your side. Winning more than you lose is the only way to stay afloat.

Hi, the first indicator I would advise a rookie learn to read is price alone. If you're trading stocks or futures, accompany this with volume, as volume is a huge edge if you can develop a solid understanding of it. Also, learn to read your trade logs and use those as an indicator. In doing so, you'll also discover strengths and weaknesses within your own self.

Back to studying price, I would advise the rookie spend much time staring at charts in real time. Remove all the indicators and just watch unbiasedly. After some time, try to develop hypothesizes based on your observations and test those in real time (or market reply if your charting program has that feature). Develop unbiased and solid testing methods. I started out using spread sheets to test various theories I had and recorded things such as the percent of the time my theory proved to be correct, the distance it travel, etc.

In my opinion, entries are the easy part. It's exits one must learn to manage properly. This is why I think most systems and programs fail because one can find an entry that works very accurately and wait patiently for that to develop and pounce, but the market will turn on a dime for thousands of reasons which you may not have a rule for.

Anyway, there are many more things I'd advise a new trader to do, but those are some of the main things that I found to help in my success.

Oh and I agree with Custo's advice except I wouldn't go as far as to say stats are the ONLY way, but I can say that it's the only way that I have been successful. I can't speak for others

as you already had great advise maybe this will help

A beginners guide to making money on the FOREX
Many great threads on the FOREX factory , i have made a few over the years
And published my live accounts on them,
with over 25 years living of trading
I thought it was time to show small time traders who work and want to start trading the forex successfully and eventually move into trading full time how to start making money
So here is a simple easy way to start learning how to trade sucessfuly the forex developing
The habits and skills to start learning the basic skills and trading simple making money
SO LETS BEGIN WITH THE BASICS.
Trade only the trend

LOAD ON YOUR CHART THE EXPEDENTIAL EMA 17 COLOR IT RED AND THE 34 EXPODENTIAL EMA
COLOUR IT GREEN
RULE 1 IF THE 17 IS BELOW THE GREEN 34 IN THE 1 HOUR AND 4 HOUR TIME FRAME
THE MARKET IS SHORT ONE SHOULD ONLT TRADE THE TREND
IF THE 17 RED IS ABOVE THE 34 GREEN THE MARKET IS LONG
SO IF THE ABOVE EMA IS 17 IS BELOW ON THE THREE TIME FRAMES THE DAY THE 4 HOUR AND THE 1 HOUR ITS A VERY STRONG SHORT TREND
IF THE 17 EMA IS ABOVE THE 34 ON ALL 3 TIME FRAMES ITS A VERY STRONG LONG TREND
WE SHOULD ONLY TRADE THE TREND DIRECTION BEING NEW TRADERS FOR SAFE TRADES WHILE WE ARE LEARNING
COUNTER TREND TRADING REQUIRES ADDITIONAL SKILLS WE WILL EXPLORE LATER

Now a simple tool is if the opening price is below yesterdays close its probably a short day
If yesterdays close price is below the current price its probable a long day

if the markets close price on the forex is lower than todays price the market is short the reverse for long

SO FOR LESSON 1 I WILL SUPPLY THE INDICATERS A VIDEO HOW TO INSTALL THEM ON YOUR DEMO MT4
FOR NEW TRADERS I ADVISE TO LEARN GREAT TRADING HABITS START TRADING MINIUM LOT SIZES
EG .01 .02 AND .03 ON ALL ACCOUNTS TO LEARN BASIC GOOD HABITS
ITS NOT BIG PROFITS WE ARE LEARNING BUT CORECT TRADING METHODS ACCOUNT PROTECTION LOCKING IN PROFITS FOLLOWING THE TREND , STARTING DEVELOPING PROFIT TRADES AS WE MOVE ON
So even though i will suppy you with the tools the indicaters to trade with first lesson is trend trading eliminating greed learning profit trading following the trend always
here is a video i made re counter trend trading using swap interset a few mistakes in the video but im sure you will get an idea from it
you will need to download tech smiths free canmtasia demo trial to watch this video
http://rapidshare.com/files/43441065...o_only_use.zip
also included some of my skype chats re this strategy

Please note this is for your testing in demo only
it is very basic but i hope you get a few ideas

best of luck from BRIAN

I signed up for forex factory after i finished HS not knowing if i wanted to casually trade stocks options or forex. i found a nice niche in stocks and options so i haven't looked back, until much of the recent macroeconomic problems with Europe and i haven't been able to reliably capitalize on it.

a big pattern i have been realizing just looking at the news with Greece, and Ireland is how it drastically effects exchange rates.

I have a simple theory that would not rely on any systems or indicators.

right now buy EUR... untill another PIIGS nation is in debt trouble then buy dollars, and when that nation gets bailed out switch back over... repeat etc.


long term this should work for the remaining 3 troubled nations, so my attack plan would be to open an account with 100 or 200:1 leverage with $500 and if anything shorterm happens i get stopped out and then i just put in another $500(can do this about 10 times) . and eventually if my longterm plan is correct, I will be able to cross a threshold where I wont get stopped out easily.

any thoughts or comments?

my question to the forum is the physical ability to execute this plan... do forex brokers allow traders to hold positions over night? over weekends? will i be able to hold a high leverage for long periods of time? any advice as to where i should open an account? i have one open at zecco already but havent funded or traded with it yet.

Thanks in advance!

but there are much more uncertains Things about the US Debt Situation

maybe there will be a QE3 for municiple Bonds soon

and just look at the Downgrades of Japan and Taiwan by S&P

and China is "printing" Money as well - nobody really knows, how much

so I see, the EUR has a cleare Advantage