[tradingwolves]

I'm new and somewhat lost, on ways to know when to get into a trade and if i should buy or sell, and what i should be looking at. i do have a demo account, i thought that would be the best way to start out and not lose a great deal of money right off the bat.

[RealDemo]

Here are some links to get yourself a little bit less lost, hope it helps:


Learning Center

Forex Training Online: Learn Foreign Exchange (FX) Currency Trading

Forex Money Management

Try to be methodical and disciplined in your education right from the start. It can sometimes be at this time that the novice trader is prone to picking up bad habits that can be difficult to undo later on.

This is a good reference as well: http://www.investopedia.com/university/#axzz1f7EM8NYK

[henryduncan12]

At initial stage, you should go for demo account. It will help to avoid real money loss as well as assist to learn more and more about forex trading.

[tradingwolves]

thanks for the feed back... i have been reading and i see a lot of things about signals of what i can get out of it is that referring to the candle stick? The candle stick i'm lost, i heard this off of fxcm.com in one of there training via there online training. what do you use is there better ones out there then the candle stick?

[John Bradford]

I wouldn't jump into Forex at the beginning. I would trade stock first, then options, then forex, and only go to the next step when I was comfortable and profitable.

Candle stick refers to a method of drawing stock charts. Go to finance.yahoo.com and pick a stock and click on Basic Tech Analysis in the left hand column. You'll see a selection where you can pick how you want to draw the chart... Line : Bar : Candle. Select candle and you can see what it looks like. There are advantages to looking at a stock chart in candles over line or bar charts. Do a google on stock market candles or something like that to see what candles are all about.

So I think the steps for you are:
1. Read Rule #1 by Phil Town and The Little Book that Beats the Market by Joel Greenblatt. That will give you the basics of Fundamental analysis.
2. Pick 5 companies that you want to follow and read the news on them at least weekly. You can get more than enough info at finance.yahoo.com
3. Spend an afternoon at the library reading books on Fundamental Analysis and Technical Analysis.

It's a long road; there's no shortcut.

John

[cfrn]

Have you decided what markets you want to trade?
Equities
Emini Futures
Metals
Agriculture

It's a big list and it can all be a bit overwhelming. I suggest finding one thing and then sit with it for a while. You're in a good place and there are many on this forum who can help you with your journey. Take it slow. Keep your money in your pocket.

Read "Trading in the Zone" by Mark Douglas.

Find a mentor. That's easier said than done but keep asking questions and you'll find somebody you click with.

Most of all........ exercise patience.

Trading's not easy - but it can be simple.

Best Wishes!

[fadenscales]

The one thing that changed the outlook on my trading and improved my understanding of the market more than anything was Market Profile and then Volume Profile trading. I went from a trader obsessed with indicators to a consistently profitable trader when I started to understand market auction theory and how to start analyzing what the market had done, what it was trying to do and how well it was doing it. It may be a little more advanced than you are ready for, but as soon as you have a grasp of the basic process of trading I highly recommend reading more into market and volume profiling and working it into your trading. It can work in any market, although I have seen better success within highly liquid markets such as the ES, FESX, DAX, 6E. There are some excellent posts on this site relating to market profile from beginner explanations, to advanced reading of the charts and related strategies. Wish you the best and if you have any questions relating to this topic feel free to PM me.

Tom
Fade 'n' Scales

[zdo]

tradingwolves,

Capitalize and (or) De-leverage and (or) PositionSize to the point that your account can accommodate 100 losing trades in a row and it would still be only in a 40% drawdown and start trading LIVE!!!! In this LIVE, forward testing mode, explore methods, instruments, timeframes, platforms rapidly and playfully – like you’re a freakin’ Percival with ADHD (and ADD too). When you find sets of those that are true to your nature then, and only then, mature out of grail search mode and train intensively on sim in 2 to 4 per day 90 minute max length sessions for at least 3 weeks. In training, focus as much on training your mind and body as you do on ‘understanding’ and ‘mastering’ your methods, instruments, timeframes, platforms … in things like getting back in the correct ‘state’ as efficiently as possible – whether the last trades were winners or losers, etc. And when you go back live expect / be ready to be confronted by some unforeseen challenges. Summons the courage to “get up in your own face…”, to ask and answer questions that can’t be answered ‘analytically’, to carry the tension of the discrepancies btwn the trading you do and the trading you know you can do… and also learn how to really care for and take care of yourself... In performance work, we are always either in prehab or we are in rehab!
”The essence is the idea of learning to be comfortable being uncomfortable and having something to go to when the garbage hits the fan, because the garbage will hit the fan and let's be ready for it” ... the theories of Ken Ravizza, a professor of Kinesiology and author of several books on sports psychology.Mental Preparation in Baseball and Trading


all the best,

zdo