Recently, I have received many emails asking me on how to get started in Forex trading. Therefore, I have decided to write a short posts on how to get started in Forex trading, and I hope that the below information I provided is enough for you to kick start your Forex practice.

Step 1: “Subscribe to Internet Service”

Yes this may sound dumb, however, I have know of some new traders who thought that they can trade online without subscribing to the internet!! So getting connected with your local internet service provider is the first step to start Forex trading.

Step 2: “Open a Demo Account”

Many brokerage houses offers demo trading account and it’s free. Demo account is design to help new/experience forex traders make dummy bets in a trading real environment. Yes, did I say experience forex traders also used demo trading account at times? Yes, demo account will be one of your best friends your forex trading, and it is better to lose your virtual money than real ones.

In case your preferred broker does not offer any charting service, you can download free Forex charting here.

Sept 3: “Practice, Practice, Practice”

Before, you start doing any virtual trades, read up some books or attend courses on Forex trading, and pick on a strategy that suits your lifestyle. It is important that you treat your demo trading as real trading (some people may have difficulties doing that and you need to remember that losing virtual money is better than real ones).

You will need to record all the virtual trades you have made (including profit and losses). Take this time of virtual practice to know more about your own personality in Forex trading.

Step 4: “Know Thyself, Know Thy Enemy”

Forex trading is about knowing your own personality and it is very important to build a series of good habits from the beginning. If you find bad habits surfacing, eliminate it immediately. The below are a lists of common bad habits;

-Unwilling to cut losses immediately

-Mental stop loss

-Overtrading your lot size

-Taking losses too hard

-Trading for revenge

 Step 5: “Your Journey Begins”

After a period of demo trading and you have attaint certain confident level (consistency in virtual profits). You may want to test your skill in the Forex market with real money. It is simple; just request an application form from your broker and they will be more than willing to assist you in opening a live account.

I hope you enjoy this short article I have written to help some of those who want to get started but don’t know how.

This article on How to Start Forex Trading is brought to you by www.onlinetradingfx.com

One of the most amazing thing I have found out is that, most amateur Forex traders believe that the results of the Forex trading is not random, yet they can’t seems to produce consistent profits. Shouldn’t a random market produce inconsistent results and a nonrandom market produce consistent results?

What those new Forex traders fail to understand in Forex trading is; Events with probable outcomes can produce consistent results. Experience traders treat trading like a game of probability, which is similar to the way casinos and professional gamblers approach gambling.

To give you an example, let’s take a look at the game of poker. In poker, the casinos have approximately a 4.5% edge over the player. This means that, over a large sample size, the casinos will generate net profits of $0.45 on every dollar wagered on the game.

You may find that 4.5% might not sound like a lot, but if suppose a total of $100million dollars is wagered collectively in the casino over the course of a year. The casino will net 4.5million profit!

Every professional Forex traders understand that every individual trade is an unique event, where the outcome is random relative to the last trade or the next trade. New Forex traders must know that in each individual trade, there will be a random, unpredictable distribution between winning and losing. But on a collective basis just the opposite is true. If a large number of trades are executed, patterns will emerge that produce a consistent, predictable, and reliable outcome in Forex trading.

Now, let us get into deeper psychology into how new Forex traders can succeed in producing consistent results by applying the following simple Forex trading beliefs. Firstly, they need to know that it requires 2 levels of beliefs to be aligned in order to produce consistent results in a random situation.

At the first level, they must believe in the uncertainty and unpredictability of the outcome of each individual trade. On the next level, they must believe that the outcome over a series of trades executed is relatively certain and predictable. The degree of certainty is a function of how good their edge is.

It is the ability to believe in the unpredictability of the Forex market and simultaneously believe in the certainty of the outcome when a series of trades are executed that makes an individual Forex trader successful.

The belief in the uniqueness of each trade prevents experience traders from engaging in the pointless endeavor of trying to predict the outcome of each individual trade. Experience traders have learned and completely understand the fact that they don’t know what is going to happen next. Most importantly, they don’t need to know in order to make money consistently in Forex trading.

When you don’t have to know what’s going to happen next in Forex trading, you don’t place and special emotions on each trades. In other words, your egos involved will not get in your way of trading Forex effectively.

This article on Creating Consistent Profits in Forex Trading is brought to you by www.onlinetradingfx.com

It’s a beautiful Sunday today, though its a bit hot in Singapore. Sometimes the temperature gets abit on my nerves. Just like some of the scalping pitfalls in Forex Trading.

Scalping for small profits is one of the most popular strategies in Forex trading. Scalpers rely on trading regularly and taking consistent small profits. They usually liquidate their trades on the same day. However, the problem with this Forex trading strategy is that it has the tendency to turn you into a compulsive gambler (especially for beginners in Forex trading). Why did I say that? There are various reasons for leading a new scalper into a compulsive gambler, and in this article we will take a quick look at the 2 common reasons for that and discuss on tips to scalp efficiently in Forex trading;

1. Addiction to Random Profits

Most newbies thought that they can make some quick profits by taking small profits in Forex trading everyday. They enjoy the random rewards from the market, which may turn into an addiction. It is just like teaching your dog to perform a task and randomly rewarding it every time a task is done. In this way, there’s no way your dog can know when it will be rewarded. As a result, there is no reason for your dog to quit doing the task, even without being rewarded for doing it.

2. Trading for Revenge

There is a common saying among scalpers; “Trade for today, not yesterday”. Many newbies try to recoup their money back after their losses a few hours ago. They cannot swallow a loss or losses and became mesmerized with their fond memories of their past winnings. They keep thinking on how to win back their money, which tends to cloud their judgment on the market. At this point in time, they begin to fantasize opportunities in the market to enter a trade. This will eventually lead to their emotional attempt at revenge, which is doomed for failure.

The followings are lists of powerful tips to help you to be more successful in Forex trading; 

1. Determine the direction of the day by first looking at the daily chart.
2. Using candlestick studies, trendline or pivot points to enter a trade in the hourly chart.
3. For the above it must be use together with support and resistance.
4. Trading on continuous trend has a higher probability of success.
5. For contrarian trading, always enter at a better filled price or average your lot size to enter the trade
6. “Scrape” your trade if you do not feel comfortable after the point of entry or it takes too long for the trade to go in your direction.
7. Stop trading for the day if you have 3 losses in a row.

This article on Scalping Pitfalls in Forex Trading is brought to you by www.onlinetradingfx.com

Forex trading is too risky!

Any forms of investments or trading are risky! However, it is only risky if the traders themselves are not educated in Forex trading. It is just like driving a car without learning how to stop the car. Many losers prefer to listen to their friends or so-called “analyst” instead of enrolling with some Forex trading courses to get educated. They prefer to pay expensive ‘course fee’ to the market and learn nothing from it.

You need large amount of Capital in Forex Trading!

Not True! Many losers think that they would be successful if they have more money or could trade a bigger account. All losers get knocked out of the game by a string of losses or a single huge lose. Often after they are square off in the losing position, the market reversed and moves in the direction he expected.

A loser is not under capitalized, his mind is underdeveloped. A loser can destroy a big account almost as quickly as a small one. He will overtrade and his money management is sloppy. He risk too big, a streak of bad trades puts him out of business. It is important to have the right education for your success in Forex Trading.

So start trading part-time first!

This Software Will Make You Money$$ Without Even Knowing How to Trade!

Imagine a stranger walks into your driveway and tries to convince you an automatic system for driving your car. Just a few thousand dollars for a CD or chip install in your car and you can nap in driver’s seat that brings you to work. You would probably laugh the salesman out of your driveway. Now, would you laugh if he tries to sell you an automatic Forex trading system?

Traders who believe in autopilot myth think that the pursuit of wealth can be automated. Some try to develop, while some buy from ‘expert’. Men spent years honing their skills as lawyers, doctors to be one. Do you?

I am not totally against automated trading. It’s just that before you buy the next autmated trading software, you need to ask yourself if you know your stuff.

This article on 3 Common Misconceptions of Forex Trading is brought to you by www.onlinetradingfx.com

I have personally noticed that Forex trading gurus in Singapore has been in a high demand for the past 3 years. They have continue to sweep the markets conducting courses. The Forex trading gurus are springing up faster now than they did decades ago, and how can you know which courses to choose?

As i was previously involved in the Forex trading education industry, i would like to share with you the top 10 tips on choosing a Forex trading course;

1) The Background of the Trainer?

A good trader does not mean that he/she is a good trainer. I would like to share with you the market truth, and urge you to think twice, before putting your signature on the enrollment form.

For newbies, Forex trading seem complex and mysterious. This type of Gurus like to perpetuate this myth so you’ll enroll in their “Superstar” courses at ultra-high prices. They want you to believe that there is a super-magic formula to “trade like the pros in the banks”. This is not true! The real professionals in the banks trade with simple trend and momentum trading systems with sensible money management skills.

In my personal experience, choosing a trainer who will share with you the downside of Forex trading will be a better choice. You can always check the forum for the credibility of the particular trainer (pls beware of the marketing hype posted their business associates!)

2) How Much Hype is Being Used?

It is very common for Forex trading courses to use some marketing hype, and this is part and parcel of running a business, and i am not againist it. Afterall, a business need to have some form of marketing to survive.

However, i would like to warn you of “gurus” who make unrealistic promises to lure the greed in their audiences.

Some of the overhype headlines;

“How i turn $10k to $2 million dollars in 2 years’

(Yes i believed its true, but what is your initial capital? $150k)

“I make 1000% in 2 days”

(if i use $1 to make $10, i make 1000%, but what is your success ratio? 10%?)

“I make $100k in 1 year”

(Yes it is achievable, but can it be done for newbies? And what is your trading capital?)

P.S Even the world greatest investors/traders like Warren Buffet & George Soros have a consistent profits of 25% per year.

3) What kind of Supports are Given?

These Magic Formula Gurus usually charges you super high prices to trade with them, high fees for newsletters, and produced endless flows of theories. They are so good at motivating the audiences that created a group of followers.

A good Forex trading course should provide free support or review sessions for an extended period of time. Just like surgeon who needs to go through a period of training before they can operate on the patient. As new Forex trader, you will need alot of guidence, especially in the 1^st year.

Some of the supports you should be looking out for;

-Forums

-Is the trainer easily accessible

-Support groups

-Review sessions

-Live trading sessions

-Live Chat sessions

4) What Are The Drawbacks of The Strategy?

Forex traders are always looking out for a cutting-edge trading tools or better methods over others. They are like medieval knights shopping for new weapons or armour to kill the monster. And in any kind of strategies used in Forex trading, there are always some draw backs. Lets look at the performance chart below;

An initial look at the performance chart (1990 to 2006) above shows profitability of the strategy, and it is indeed impressive! However, looking closer at the circled areas, you will notice that there are a drawback of almost 20% from Jan 1992 to Jan 1994, and Jul 2002 to Dec 2003.

The questions you need to ask yourself truly are; Are you able to take the drawback of your Forex trading account in the period of 2 years? Will you lost confident of your strategy during these dark period?

5) Ask for Feedbacks From Course Attendees

Some of the course providers will invite former attendees and lied to the audiences about them being successful and volunteering to share their experience. This is the tricky part, because you need to differentiate between the voluntary ones from the paid ones.

Some of the things to observe are;

-Do they put their names in the enrollment forms (usually for referral commission in a successful enrollment)

-Are they aggressive in pressuring you to put your name in the dotted line?

-Ask them if they have experience 100% winning trades (every traders will experience some form of cutting losses from time to time, there is no 100% winning trades!)

Sometimes, you need experience to differentiate between a sales pitch and something from the heart.

This article on Top 5 Tips for Choosing a Forex Trading Course is brought to you by www.onlinetradingfx.com