Are you new to trading? Maybe you have mixed results of trading? Are you scared it will be sleepless nights and more worries than happiness? It is very easy to fail and hard to win without having the right skills. Trading is actually not a one man’s show. That is why I want to share my Forex experiences with you. The intention with this site is to create The best guide for new Forex traders out there.
What is the Forex Market?
What experience have you got with different currencies? Currencies are traded at the foreign exchange market. When you are going on holiday to a country with another currency, you need to exchange money and of course you want to get as much as possible out of your money. This is how most people know the exchange market. Sometimes your currency is weak and you get a bad currency, while other times it is strong and you will feel “rich” in the country you are having the vacations in.
In the Forex Market we compare two currencies, e.g. EUR / USD and try to maximize the profits by selling when the market is high and buying when the market is low. If you live in the United States of America and want to import a French wine, you want to get the best exchange value for your American Dollar, USD. Everybody needs to exchange currencies, and that is why the Forex market is the largest financial market in the world. According to Investopedia, the Forex Market traded in excess of U.S. $ 4.9 trillion per day. The market is open 5 and a half day a week, and thanks to the different time zones the currencies never sleep. The largest market for Forex traders is definitely the Spot Market although there exist a forwards and futures market as well. The Spot Market or cash market is a public financial market where currencies are traded in the moment. There are many different ways of trading the Forex. You may be a Forex Scalper. The definition of being a scalper is to open and close a trade within a timeframe of 1 to 5 minutes at most. Like most trading methods scalping requires a considerable amount of technical analysis and strategies, combined with experience and knowledge. Scalping is not about gambling or luck. A successful trader combines unique features of the forex market to make profit. He may scalp at economic events or when there is a fundamental announcement or use indicators as well. Swing trading is another method which is considered to be less risky, but again, everything depends of knowledge and experience. Swing trading is about using support and resistance lines, channels and price patterns. E.g. when the USD is at a daily high price, it’s time to consider if you should sell. Swing traders needs to indentify the range and trend, the technical analysis. For beginners, scalping is a better way to learn how to trade than scalping. You can stay in the trades for a longer time frame and you don’t need to be precise about the entry and exit points.
About 95% of the raders in the Forex industry will try to skip the simple steps and try trading on their own. Some will even scoff at this step because it has nothing to do with technical analysis or indicators at all. But a few people will put this into practice and immediately see the results. Are you ready to become one of the few who consistently win in Forex trading?
We have to mention this first: You should never spend money on trading you can’t allow to lose. It’s the main rule in this business. But when that is said, who wants to lose? You want to make a lot more money than the safe interest the bank can offer you, right? The interest in the bank is almost nothing. Wouldn’t it be great if your invested amount could be doubled in one year or so? Let me reveal the fact. There is a risk involved. And you need to know what to do. Otherwise you may lose a whole lot. You need to be careful out there. As many as 90-98% are losing on trading according to Ezine. So many traders lose more money on their losing trades than they are able to make on their winning trades. That means you need to be among the 2-8% of the successful traders. Otherwise, it is safer to stay away. Lots of people do mistakes in trading. There may be a couple of reasons, but newbies have been told trading is easy and people set their lot values too high. You also can get a good profit from the Forex market, and that is what I want to focus on. According to Investopedia there is no single formula to be successful in Forex, and it’s correct. There are many different strategies. Some of them are more successful than others.
The simple steps of trading 
To be able to trade you need one of the free charting softwares. You have the chance to get free Charts or paid charts.
YahooFinance is a great charting which is easy to use, clear and just what a regular trader needs.
Finviz.com is also a great choice for charting software. You will also get technical analysis overlays by default which is very handy.
TradingView.com is one of the most popular ones. Their charts are easy to read and are very user friendly. The free version contains lots of ads. They offer 30 day free trial to the premium version without ads. 
Stock Charts offers free charts too but uses a smaller part of your screen, and there are big google ads placed on the right hand side which is very annoying…
Most trading platforms give you access to free charts as well, even with just a free demo account.
The best guide for new Forex traders out there
Placing your first trade is very easy. You have to decide whether you’re going to Buy or Sell. Do you think the market will rise or fall?
You need to Enter the market. Then you will open an order ticket. You can track and monitor all your open trades. You have full overview and can also view the price that you opened the current position and the current price.
You will need to see the Market Directions.
Lot sizes: You need to decide if you want to use micro lots ($20 investment), mini lots ($200 investment) or standard lots $2000 investment). For newbies it’s better to start in the small with micro lots only.
Don’t be frightened of the statistics saying that only 2-8% can make it with Forex. I wonder how many accounts that are opened and closed due to margin call, but this is a part of learning process and count’s as failure. You need to be a responsible trader. Don’t expect to double your account in a week. Trading is not a lottery, at least not if you want to be in the game for a long time. Cutting losses is the main aspect of it. Even established traders should use demo account to test out new ways of trading. The live trading accounts should only be used for serious trading.
Which platform to begin the Forex Trading with?
I have personally traded with several automatic systems for years, and I still have an active account in both Etoro and Zulutrade. The reason why I have paid more attention to Zulutrade than the others is because I really love the simplicity of everything. You don’t need to be a pro to understand Zulutrade; you will be in full control of all you need to know about every trade, lot sizes, stops, limits and so on. It is seldom a problem to change any settings if I see something goes wrong. ZuluTrade enables you to copy trades of your chosen systems directly into your account. Create your own portfolio without paying any performance fee or management fees. It’s working well both for my Android phone and my Windows computer, and they have also similar solutions for Apple users. It is cloud based, and it’s a great benefit. You don’t need to have your computer turned on 24 hours. You don’t need to be worried about your router or network. ZuluTrade runs everything on its own dedicated servers. You can just log in to your app on your mobile phone or computer.
How to keep the motivation up when trading in Forex?
It is always good to have some inspiration when you try something new. The opportunities are huge with Forex. But if you are left alone, doubting at some point is natural. Forex works better in a team. You should look for social groups online where you can share your success and failures. Tradecrowd has collected a list of 5 talented traders you should pay attention to.
Bill Lipschutz has turned $12.000 to $250.000 and afterwards he has made $300.000 in just one year. Admiralmarkets write about George Soros who is the probably world’s most successful Forex trader.
Stanley Druckenmiller never had one negative return and pulled off some historic trades while working for George Soros.
Bill Lipschutz is also one of the world’s most successful Forex traders.
Any trading idea needs to be well planned before you place the trade. Build a position as the market goes your way and exit the same way. Then start to ease up once there are signs that the fundamentals and the price action are beginning to change. There is a need to be aware of the market’s focus. Forex is a 24-hour market and doesn’t stop moving when you go to bed. They mention the success factors and it gives you the motivation you need when the drawdown makes you insecure if you should change strategy or not.
There are 4 important properties you should know before starting to trade on your own:
- Discipline—the ability to recognise when a trade is wrong and therefore minimize losses.
- Risk control—having a strong understanding of a trade’s risk/reward.
- Courage—the willingness to be different from the rest of the crowd, most of the time.
- Astuteness—judging how perceptions are shaping market trends.
Where to get the best Forex signals?
There is a jungle of Forex signal providers out there. Some of them have linked to MyFxBook.com so they are transparent and you can follow their daily closed trades and monthly winning and losing trades, while others don’t share everything there. My Forexchart has collected a long list of signal providers that are worth to check out. Again, if you go for one of them, begin with a demo account and see if they are profitable on a long-time basis before you deposit real money you are not willing to lose.
I was contacting the only signal provier they mentioned in the article that linked their results to myfxbook.com, the Forexsignals.com.
Here is my interview with them:
I haven’t tried them myself, and I’m a bit sceptical. If you should follow other traders, you need to make sure they have a better mindset and skills than you have yourself. They need to handle drawdowns and losing trades and still deliver every month. They also charge $79 per month for each of the three trade copiers.
In Zulutrade the trade copier is free. I have found both good traders and bad traders there.
I will make review videos of some of the best Zulutraders out there and publish them here on the site. Stay tuned!