Friday, November 20, 2009

Forex Trading... Is this really for you ?

Today I wanted to write a post aimed at those people out there who are looking to try, starting to try, or have been disappointed by forex trading. Today my objective will be to describe what in my opinion are all the draw backs of forex trading, manual or automated that are always overlooked or ignored by people who start trading the fx market.

Sure, I remember too when I started trading this market. Everything you read is positive and sincerely you get the feeling that with a little work and dedication all those things they promise you might become true for you. For example, most of the time you hear that forex trading will "free" you from your 9 to 5 job, that it will bring you an amazing amount of profit working from home and that you can, as other people have, achieve a "stress free" luxurious live style. This of course, as it appealed to me, may appeal to the thousands of people out there getting into foreign exchange trading every day.

Whats the catch then ? Why don't we see thousands of millionaires or independent people living from forex trading each year ? Truth be told, forex trading is not for everyone and most people discover this the hard way. Not because everyone is not capable, or because people are not intelligent enough, no, not because of these things. Trading is not for everyone because everyone does not have the psychological or financial capabilities to deal with the facts of forex trading. I will now try to outline the things that happen in forex trading that people NEVER told you that may make you look for other different opportunities best suited for your personality and psychology. What are these things then that are bad about forex...

  • Forex is NOT a 9 to 5 job. That is, trading does not offer a fixed amount of predictable profits every month. There are losing months, winning months, breakeven months. If you try to pressure into getting profits when it is not time for profits you will only get more loses. Why is this so stressful to most people ? Well, most people are used to getting a paycheck every month. What happens if you don't get one for 5 months ? would you be able to survive ? This is something that people who trade know and something they do to plan things out.
  • Trading requires much more education than what you think. People often think this is not the case if they use automated trading system. I outline in my ebook the reasons why it is EVEN MORE the case when you use an expert advisor to trade your account. I spent nearly three years trading before I could get 3 consecutive profitable months. It certainly takes a lot (at least it took me alot) to learn how to trade the forex market, manually or automatically.
  • You need a good starting capital. Of course, I have said in other posts that you need to have at least double your desired yearly income invested in order to be able to live from forex trading. This is absolutely true. If you try to live from forex using a very small amount of capital, chances are that you will lose all your money. Being underfunded is one of the MAIN causes why people lose their money in trading.
If you want to have a check at your door every month and you want your income to be predictable to some degree you can choose another form of independent life that is more suited to what you want. For example you can start a small online business, a brick and mortar business, a consultant business, all these things have a lot of profit potential and require just as much work as forex trading, however they have the advantage of being more reliable and less stressful (well, this depends on what each person finds stressful) than forex trading.

To be extremely sincere, forex trading is not what most people put it out to be. This is not a get rich quick opportunity, or something you can do with just "a little work". This is like starting a business that relies 100% on your dedication and which may sometimes give you no profit, and sometimes give you a lot. Is it for everyone ? No. But sure, they are independent opportunities for everyone who wants to live without having a 9 to 5 job.

For those of you along for the ride, forex trading is a challenge and it has to be treated as such. There will be frustration, there will be bad times but in the end if you have the dedication (which is a LOT of dedication), you will see things get better and you will get something which is priceless, the ability to make money in trading. If you would like to know more about my concepts about automated trading and how you can evaluate and build your own long term profitable trading systems, please consider buying my ebook on automated trading or subscribing to my weekly newsletter to receive updates and check the live and demo accounts I am running with several expert advisors. I hope you enjoyed the article !

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