https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-become-a-self-taught-successful-forex-trader-in-6-months
I am not going to say it is impossible to be a successful trader within 6 months, but it is unlikely if you are going to be self taught. I blame the marketing and advertising that brokers put out there, selling the dream of becoming a millionaire in a short period of time.
The problem is that it is possible, but its similar to me saying you should go ahead and spend all your money on lottery tickets so you can become a millionaire. It’s possible you could win big, but highly unlikely.
Don’t worry, I will get into the good stuff soon. I just want to lay out some of the cold reality first.
One thing that I have come across quite often in my years as a trader, is that the number one account killer comes from people not having the right foundation. They start trading with little or no knowledge of what is actually happening and this is similar to gambling. You get the occasional person who wins big and they post all over the internet, and you rarely hear from the ones who made nothing or lost everything.
Then when it comes to strategies there is no such thing as a holy grail strategy that always works. And one strategy that works for one person may not work for another. Different people have different risk appetites, some people feel the need to trade a lot and gravitate towards faster moving scalping systems and others prefer the long game. So finding the right type of strategy for you is important. and then work from there.
Now for the good news. I have met traders who managed to start making profit a few months after starting, with live (real) accounts. The amount of profit varies depending on the time they put in as well as how much money they could start with.
These are the steps I feel that everyone who is learning to trade Forex should take. If you’re just doing it for fun then whatever, but if you are considering it as an actual career or a consistent income then you really need to make sure you follow the right path.
- You need a good understanding of what it actually is, not just download and stare at Meta Trader for a while.
- Learn about different strategy types. Not just scalping and long term trading, but also the difference between Technical Analysis, Fundamental and Sentiment trading strategies.
- Learn the basics of each of the main types. And try it out, see what works.
- Find the two that you feel most comfortable with and practice more with those. The one as a trigger (reason to consider entering a trade) and the second as a way to confirm your trade decision.
- Explore more strategies based on your main strategy type. For example, if you are using Technical analysis as a trigger and fundamentals for confirmation, you might want to learn how cross over systems work, then double stochastics, MACD and so forth. To expand your portfolio of expertise.
If you are genuinely wanting to do this for the long term and not need to have a boss, then take it seriously and do it properly. I know my approach is not as fun as most of the things you’ll see out there, but if this is more than just wanting to gamble with some money you will have a better chance of succeeding if you take this seriously.
Now here is my shameless punt. I released a free course (no funny strings attached) which a local broker is hosting to help people out and hopefully stop them from being scammed. If you want the course which covers all of those things and gives you a great foundation to work from, go to Online Courses – JP Markets. You can also check out our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/jpmarkets which already has quite a few videos on it, and I plan on releasing a whole new series of videos there.
