Beginner basics
Happy Holidays all - 🐣🐥
After writing a few educational posts recently, it has been interesting to see the comments & DM's. Years ago we set out training traders the basics; we called the trades "starbuck bets" the idea was for some people, extra money each week was what they were looking for from trading. For others it was extra money for a daily coffee on the way to the 9-5.
Skip forward several years and now the training has gone mostly online - this is great on one hand, but a nightmare on the other. Where do you go for education? why go with a certain company? How much should you pay? What do I get?
The issue now is although forex is a legitimate instrument there is a lot of people out there, making more from training than they are trading - how do you navigate this? How do you know who is going to teach you what you really need.
In terms of the basics - a great FREE tool is babypips. If you are new to trading, it's well worthwhile going to get to terms with the basics, at your own pace.
Pointers from the pros - some other great resources include sites such as investopedia. Although this is a bit more specific if you are researching an indicator or want to understand more about an instrument and so on.
Obviously, there are some great books available (see related ideas) I posted an idea a few weeks back with 20 books worth a read as a trader.
5 key pointers when starting out
1 - 🐑) Selecting a broker; even before you get here - go read babypips and follow these 5 points. But after that, selecting a broker should include searching for regulated companies, check with the local (per country) regulation authorities such as the FCA in the UK, the SEC in the states. Most countries have lists available for this. If there's no record of the company being regulated then you should treat it as a red flag. To manage money in most countries*** it's a requirement to have some kind of financial license.
2 - 📖) Go read, babypips first and from there take a deeper dive into understanding the market. Read financial articles, stock market books, website tutorials, etc. There's a wealth of information out there and much of it inexpensive to tap even free. It's important not to focus too narrowly on one single aspect of the trading game. Even reading through ideas on tradingview - just don't follow the ideas, you should be doing your own research.
3 - 🎲) Study the basics of technical analysis and look at price charts—thousands of them—in all time frames. And when you think you have done enough, go back and study some more. Get a feel for the character of the instruments you are keen to trade. Again another pro tip - don't go chasing too many pairs, you can make a lot of money on a single tool. So try to spend the time to learn 1-3. Think of this step like learning a language, you wouldn't try to learn Russian, Chinese and Australian (joking about Australian) all at the same time. Treat the charts the same!!!
4 - 🔤) Demo account - Start off with a demo account, try to find one that might offer the same kind of money as the amount you intend on investing. If you have a demo account of say $100,000 but you only intend on trading $1,000 - then I would suggest you open a trade at $10,000 a pip and lose 99% of your account! Then start with $1,000 demo size. Some brokers you can message and they will set this for you. Treat this like a real account, try to make it feel as real as possible - feel the pain, feel the stress and understand the power and value. If you treat a demo 10 times or 100 times more than you plan on trading just as a game - when you invest real money, the market will eat your investment for breakfast!
5 - 🎯) The most important of all of these points - RISK MANAGEMENT If you learn the basics, go through babypips, learn the charts and then use the demo account. The golden rule of trading is pure and simple "proper risk management" you can lose 80% of all of your trades and still be successful. If you learn to obtain a market edge and use statistics then you will have a long-term advantage.
The issue is people come to trade, thinking "traders make money", "trading is easy", "trading is a get rich quick thing" - the issue is over 75% of new traders lose money!
Although this is only covering the basics - I hope this helps. If you need to ask, should I buy or sell - go back to step one, If you don't know how to set a stop loss or even what a stop loss is - go back to step one.
Happy Holidays!
Disclaimer
This idea does not constitute as financial advice. It is for educational purposes only, our principle trader has over 20 years’ experience in stocks, ETF’s, and Forex. Hence each trade setup might have different hold times, entry or exit conditions, and will vary from the post/idea shared here. You can use the information from this post to make your own trading plan for the instrument discussed. Trading carries a risk; a high percentage of retail traders lose money. Please keep this in mind when entering any trade. Stay safe.
After writing a few educational posts recently, it has been interesting to see the comments & DM's. Years ago we set out training traders the basics; we called the trades "starbuck bets" the idea was for some people, extra money each week was what they were looking for from trading. For others it was extra money for a daily coffee on the way to the 9-5.
Skip forward several years and now the training has gone mostly online - this is great on one hand, but a nightmare on the other. Where do you go for education? why go with a certain company? How much should you pay? What do I get?
The issue now is although forex is a legitimate instrument there is a lot of people out there, making more from training than they are trading - how do you navigate this? How do you know who is going to teach you what you really need.
In terms of the basics - a great FREE tool is babypips. If you are new to trading, it's well worthwhile going to get to terms with the basics, at your own pace.
Pointers from the pros - some other great resources include sites such as investopedia. Although this is a bit more specific if you are researching an indicator or want to understand more about an instrument and so on.
Obviously, there are some great books available (see related ideas) I posted an idea a few weeks back with 20 books worth a read as a trader.
5 key pointers when starting out
1 - 🐑) Selecting a broker; even before you get here - go read babypips and follow these 5 points. But after that, selecting a broker should include searching for regulated companies, check with the local (per country) regulation authorities such as the FCA in the UK, the SEC in the states. Most countries have lists available for this. If there's no record of the company being regulated then you should treat it as a red flag. To manage money in most countries*** it's a requirement to have some kind of financial license.
2 - 📖) Go read, babypips first and from there take a deeper dive into understanding the market. Read financial articles, stock market books, website tutorials, etc. There's a wealth of information out there and much of it inexpensive to tap even free. It's important not to focus too narrowly on one single aspect of the trading game. Even reading through ideas on tradingview - just don't follow the ideas, you should be doing your own research.
3 - 🎲) Study the basics of technical analysis and look at price charts—thousands of them—in all time frames. And when you think you have done enough, go back and study some more. Get a feel for the character of the instruments you are keen to trade. Again another pro tip - don't go chasing too many pairs, you can make a lot of money on a single tool. So try to spend the time to learn 1-3. Think of this step like learning a language, you wouldn't try to learn Russian, Chinese and Australian (joking about Australian) all at the same time. Treat the charts the same!!!
4 - 🔤) Demo account - Start off with a demo account, try to find one that might offer the same kind of money as the amount you intend on investing. If you have a demo account of say $100,000 but you only intend on trading $1,000 - then I would suggest you open a trade at $10,000 a pip and lose 99% of your account! Then start with $1,000 demo size. Some brokers you can message and they will set this for you. Treat this like a real account, try to make it feel as real as possible - feel the pain, feel the stress and understand the power and value. If you treat a demo 10 times or 100 times more than you plan on trading just as a game - when you invest real money, the market will eat your investment for breakfast!
5 - 🎯) The most important of all of these points - RISK MANAGEMENT If you learn the basics, go through babypips, learn the charts and then use the demo account. The golden rule of trading is pure and simple "proper risk management" you can lose 80% of all of your trades and still be successful. If you learn to obtain a market edge and use statistics then you will have a long-term advantage.
The issue is people come to trade, thinking "traders make money", "trading is easy", "trading is a get rich quick thing" - the issue is over 75% of new traders lose money!
Although this is only covering the basics - I hope this helps. If you need to ask, should I buy or sell - go back to step one, If you don't know how to set a stop loss or even what a stop loss is - go back to step one.
Happy Holidays!
Disclaimer
This idea does not constitute as financial advice. It is for educational purposes only, our principle trader has over 20 years’ experience in stocks, ETF’s, and Forex. Hence each trade setup might have different hold times, entry or exit conditions, and will vary from the post/idea shared here. You can use the information from this post to make your own trading plan for the instrument discussed. Trading carries a risk; a high percentage of retail traders lose money. Please keep this in mind when entering any trade. Stay safe.
Related publications
Disclaimer
The information and publications are not meant to be, and do not constitute, financial, investment, trading, or other types of advice or recommendations supplied or endorsed by TradingView. Read more in the Terms of Use.