I got to know about the world of OTC currency trading in August 2012 when I attended a free, three-day course on the basics of forex trading. Since then I have maintained several demo accounts and my confidence grew when I started to trade live on the markets. I had mixed feelings when thinking of engaging in live trading and I never figured out why until I finally placed funds on a live account. However, live trading comes with more reality than most novice forex traders can imagine, emotions of greed, fear and anxiety. In my experience, any of these factors, or a combination of them, can seriously help to reduce the possibility of a beginner trader experiencing a flood of emotions as they make their first trades on the market.
Invest time and resources to get educated
The importance of relevant and focused training and education cannot be over emphasized. You can understand this better if you decide to go ahead to fund your live accounts to trade and in few days your account gets wiped out. It is better to time take out to learn the markets and gain some level of understanding to help keep you in the market long enough when you get started! It is so because no one can assure you that you will make profit in your first trades. As much as we expect profits in forex trading, it is good practice to plan ahead in case of a loss or a string of losing trades. Good education can help you minimize your losses and maximize your winning trades.
Find a mentor
It is necessary to find a mentor because one can draw ideas to trade and receive lessons from their experience of successful trading on the forex market. A mentor should be a successful trader who has earned the right to be successful by maintaining profitable trades over the course of their trading history. You will gain a lot of good inspiration when you see someone doing what you aspire to become.
Join a support group
This step involves following the age long saying that one should surround himself with those on the same mission as himself. In this kind of group, you get to find synergy and share positive energy to enthusiastically pursue your dreams in the face of adversity. You get to share tools and resources and also valuable ideas when you enter into group discussions regarding past trading sessions or upcoming fundamental news data. A support group has a lot to offer a new trader, more than anything he can gain on his own. Support groups are a key ingredient to experiencing success in your trading career right from the start and avoid getting burnt too many times.
Search for a broker who offers client support services
Support services range from weekly forecasts, to news updates and trading system strategies. When you find a broker who offers these services and more, you discover that you have a lot of tools and information to help you make decisions on an upcoming trade. However, you must know what is most important to you at this stage of your trading career. There are brokers who offer the best range of educational support services in seminars and webinars, you can do some research on such brokers to find out their range of account types and so make an informed decision as to which broker you feel safe to do business. For brokers and other stakeholders in the forex industry, it is a well-known fact that when you win the confidence of your clients, it goes a long way to ensure more business over the short, medium and long term. If there is a strong support structure in place for new clients as well as old clients, you can be assured that more clients will join and this means more business, eventually leading to a successful and thriving business for the service providers.
Get a feel for trading the markets with virtual money
In other words, you need to get involved in demo trading. The frequency of your trades will determine how long you need to stay trading demo accounts to get a feel for what it is like to trade forex. This practice will enable you get familiar with the MT4 platform and perform basic tasks such as opening a position, determining the appropriate position size, deciding on currency pairs to trade, etc. One major setback of demo trading is that you are cut off from price movements due to strong economic data and fundamental analysis on specific currency pairs.
Invest your seed capital, open and fund a live account
This is where you get to test your strategy and see how good or bad it is. Starting from now, you will get to experience what it feels like to be a trader doing the business of buying and selling currencies for profit. All the knowledge you have acquired so far comes into play to help you make informed decisions and open profitable positions. The truth is you never become a trader until you go live. Forex trading is lucrative and also highly speculative, therefore it is good practice to learn not to risk more than you can afford to lose.
Good luck and best wishes in your days ahead trading world currencies.