the most important things in forex

hello, I am from Indonesia, so sorry if my english is not good.

I have learned forex about 5 months

then I found a lot of indicators, fundamentals, MM, psychology, 95% traders go brooke, etc.

so, what is the most important of all that I have mentioned, in order to get a profit from forex.

maybe you could give the two most important things, so I can focus on that

thank you

Hi isdi,

in my opinion it depends on the phase you're in. In the beginning it makes sense to imitate what others do. In that way you will learn different methods of assessing price direction, get familiar with the terminology etc. Also learn the different basic technichal assesment strategies (trends, support/resistance, fib retracement, moving averages etc.) Even if you don't include them in your system later it is very good to know how these work and they might give you the edge by knowing what other traders are likely to do. In short I would describe this phase as 'imitate and learn'. Read a lot, imitate a lot, demo trade a lot.

Once you've found a thing or two that seem to work (e.g. makes you a break even trader), you can focus on these and try to build your own stuff around it. Combine different methods you learn. Look where price is likely to change or continue its direction. See how confluence of different factors (trendline, S/R, fibs, possible stop hunting etc.) will highten the probability of a trade working out.

Then comes stage three. From my own history I can tell you that this is one of the hardest parts. Once you have a system/method/whatever that proves valid you have to make the final step from break even (BE) or slightly negative to profitable trading. And this is where patience and psychology likely have the greatest impact. As soon as you can come out BE on a constant basis you are likely already profitable but yet don't know it. The missing factor may be your patience. This you can develop by getting the emotion out of your trading. And how do you do that? First of all, with a strictly defined rule book (write that down!). See what and when and why trades work (or don't) and derive your rules from these observations. Then be strict about them and see what happens. Once you see the results you may have finally done it.

In all these phases also try to get rid of unreasonably high expectations (quitting your job a week into trading, expecting to make a living the moment you start to become profitable, that this can be done in a few months time etc. pp.) and get used to the emotional rollercoaster trading and the learning process can be. Try to be aware of when and how frustration and enthusiasm build up and subside again. It's a good indicator for your progress. The less manic-depressive you feel in terms of trading the higher you are likely on the ladder to success.

All that said, I believe that the most important thing in terms of trader's knowledge in general is to really understand what is driving the markets and how that is visually represented on the chart. You may want to focus on technical aspects first, which probably are price action, supply & demand, stop positioning (i.e. where do other traders put their stops) and market microstructure in general. Some names that come to my mind and that you might want to dig up are James16, Sam Seiden, Jarroo, Ifmyante, Darkstar (most of them here on FF) and others.
Then come the fundamental aspects. I believe that you can be profitable without ever reading a newspaper, but at some time in your trading career the information on macroeconomics and on what fundamental traders might expect may come in quite handy.

Furthermore I would strongly recommend every aspiring trader to purchase the Forex Tester Software. With that you can test your strategies in real-time on historic charts. It will greatly steepen your learning curve and will probably make your journey a much shorter one.

Hope this helps you. Best,
Hans

psychology is for losers and indicators are not important.

learn the fundamentals and MM and some basic technical Analysis,thats all you need imo

plus now is not a good time for trading forex.forex market is dead.trade the indices (nasdaq,s&P500 or Jakarta Stock Price Index )

why do you say dead?

In my own opinion,

Money mgmt / risk mgmt is the most important aspect that you should build your trading system around. That's essentially a major part of your trading plan.

Next important will be psychology. However, this only comes with experience, so you will have to get in and be there to feel it.

Next will be your technical + fundamental knowledge. These are basic ABC knowledge that can be studied pretty quickly.
Then again, it takes only a month to study these knowledge, but it may take a lifetime to master the market.

Indicators, these are good to know, but really not too important. Some indicators help calculation in certain situations, but I prefer to remove them once I see what I needed and keep a clean chart.

THANK YOU @ hansolo, @ 200km, @ Alex.C
i realy appreciate this suggestion

because the volatility is down,trading volume has diminished and the market is choppy and unpridictiable.

top 50 twitter account to follow

http://thetraderfx.blogspot.com/2014...-accounts.html

Maybe the markets are unpredictable and choppy, but you can be assured that things aren't gonna get easier. Systems are changing daily and all you can do is learn and adapt

This is number 1 imo - if you don't do this you simply won't succeed. People who aren't even profitable yet thinking they can double their money every twelve months or less.... I did it too when I was starting out..... in hindsight it is absurd, and a little insulting to serious traders.

Number two is patience - when you are trading don't try to be brilliant, or clever, don't try to pull off outstanding entries or exits, don't think of long term goals or aspirations..... the goal of each trading session is simply to push the balance of probabilities slightly in your favour and end the session without making a big mistake. Then do the same tomorrow, then the next day etc., if you can do this consistently you will get the long term results

good luck

But doesn't that need higher capitalization to begin with? And what about demo accounts, are there any brokers that offer them? I remember a few years back there weren't too many.


Very well said, numbnuts!

1. Study price movement as much as you can.
2. Place one MVA on a 5min ,15.1H,4H and a daily
3. When price moves take note where it is on all the above timescales and in relation to your MVA
4. Draw Support and resistence lines on all timeframes
5. When price reaches these lines notice how it reacts
6. Develop a trading plan and stick to it
7. Do not listen to news forecasts and where the markets may , should or could go ( DO NOT READ FX NEWS FORECASTS. IT creates a bias in your mind and WILL distract you from your trading plan)
8. Trade price as per your charts
9. Al the above means nothing if you do not know how to apply dicipline........and
10. NEVER EVER GIVE UP!

you can trade indices on windoser brokers ,fxpro and fxcm.open demo accounts and practice.

http://www.windsorbrokers.com/en/content/cfd-indices

http://www.fxpro.co.uk/trading/products/mt4-futures

http://www.fxcm.com/uk/products/cfds/symbol-guide/

Great, thanks!

3 things , 1 PA , 2 FA , 3 MM . thats basicly the holey scripts of trading , what ever happen with FA has to go to TA , what ever TA do has some things to do with FA , what ever happen with FA and TA inorder for you to trade youneed MM .

#1 thing in trading: "1. Accept everything just the way it is." - Miyamoto Musashi

These are ALL IMPORTANT.
it didn't matter which one you wanted to study first, you would need to master them all anyway in order to be a good trader.
So make up your mind and get started.

One, head over to baby pips and review the free resource material on the markets, and for another, develop a good trading strategy and use proper MM..
Start with a small account, that's it and good luck.

There are more than just TWO things you need to master before profitable.

learn them all, there is no first or second. U would need them all.

1. discipline
2. patience