The Road to Financial Freedom Series... Part No.4 - The Beginning of My Experience

They say that the greatness of a man is not measured by the number of times he avoids to fall but by the number of times he is able to stand up. No sentence would be more appropiate for anyone during the first years of any financial endevour - and specially to me. I remember clearly my first years of forex trading when I was a lot younger and a lot less knowledgeable (although I still consider that the knowledge I posess is very little) and a friend of mine suggested I started to trade the forex market with him. At the time it seemed like a very good idea and since I was very eager to make large amounts of money this was the absolutely perfect opportunity. Nevertheless, things turned out to be a little different. Today I want to talk to you about my beginnings in forex trading so that you can learn from my mistakes and start your journey towards financial freedom in the financial markets.

When I started trading, my friend was pretty clear with me : "forex trading is very easy, you can make a lot of money in a very small amount of time". The best thing for me was that - although this sounded too good to be true- he had the proof to show that this was possible, he had taken a 500 USD account to 5000 USD in less than 2 months. For me this was like a dream come true, finally a way to invest and become rich starting with a very small investment. I saved my first 500 USD and opened up a foreign exchange account to start my way towards financial freedom while my friend was already managing more than 50K in money from different sources. Another friend also started to trade with us and managed to take his initial 200 USD investment to 1000 USD in less than a month by following the simple trading strategies our other friend had been teaching us for the past few months.

My account was also in very good shape. Through the use of his trading tactics I was able to turn 500 USD into nearly 800 USD in about 2 weeks...Then reality kicked in. For those of you who are experienced traders or who have read my blog for a while it should be evident that we were trading with a very large market exposure without even knowing so. Evidently, we started to lose money as the market started to show us unfavorable trading conditions. As the newbie traders we were we increased risk taking as the weeks passed ending with a "win all, lose all" situation in which I decided to bet my last 50 USD to make them 500 USD or lose them in the process (of course, I lost them). My other friend had 900 USD and decided to bet them against an NFP; he lost all his money two hours after the news were out. The story of our "trading father" was not much better either, he ended up taking his 50K (which was managed) to 20K only to then get it back to 55K after some nerve-wrecking trading experiences, in the end he got lucky but after these events he said that he would never trade the forex market again.

To this date, I am the only one of us who is trading successfully and I can say with confidence that it was because I wasn't afraid to accept my problems and tackle the issue again. After losing this account, I lost another and only then did I start to look into forex trading with different eyes. I realized that the gold mine I was looking for which could turn my 500 USD into a million in four years just wasn't there and I decided to analyze the problem and find a solution. I looked for people who had been trading the market for more than 4 years, people who managed accounts, etc to know how much money they were making and what I was likely to make with the capital I had. The results were both discouraging and encouraing since the forex market could definitely be a better investment than traditional stocks, mutual funds, etc, but it was much harder and much less than what I had been promised in the beginning.

I believe now, after having my own experiences and reliving these events through the tales of others, that you should tackle issues yourself. You should always have in mind that people will try to tell you that this or that can be done but usually these claims will either be short termed and unrealistic with no substantial evidence that this can be done in the long term. In the end you should always develop knowledge and analysis yourself, do not take my work or anyone's word as carved in stone, search for your own answers and in time you will find them. Certainly, it will be a GREAT effort and no product you can buy will get you there. If you are lazy and you do not want to process all this knowledge yourself, the market will punish you. While others know what is happening and learn from the events that unveil you'll be like a blind-folded man, without the slightest opportunity of looking beyond your nose.

Finally I can give you a wonderful piece of advice which gathers all these experience. If there is something you think you can do to improve - do it -, because if you don't, someone out there will do it and that person will have an edge you don't have and that person will take the money you will lose. Take out of your mind that forex is for quick riches, that you can simply set and forget an automated system and see the profits roll in or that you can just buy or sell the red and green arrows of an indicator to be profitable, it won't happen. It is much more than that, something which is terribly obvious and at the same time extremely difficult to understand. Once you do, your true journey towards financial freedom will start.

If you want to get an education regarding automated trading systems and you would like to learn more about how you can make profits in the market with realistic profit/risk targets developing your own sound trading systems based on knowledge about the market please consider buying my ebook on automated trading or joining Asirikuy to receive all ebook purchase benefits, weekly updates, check the live accounts I am running with several expert advisors and get in the road towards long term success in the forex market using automated trading systems. I hope you enjoyed the article !

The Road to Financial Freedom Series... Part No.3 - Organizing your Life Around Your Goal

Through the last two posts of the road to financial freedom series we have discussed the definition of financial freedom and the attitude necessary to finally attain this goal. Today I am going to focus on explaining what should be the first step on anyone's journey towards financial freedom for anyone who wishes to succeed in forex trading without sacrificing other much more important aspects of their lives.

First of all, I will have to tell you that I am not the kind fo person who thinks money can do everything and I am therefore not willing to do any possible thing for money. I believe that there is a lot of value in having financial freedom but I consider that there are other things in my life which are far more valuable than the fact that I can live without having to work a 9 to 5 job. I have always had this very clear since the start of my journey in forex trading and I want to communicate to you what my first step in forex trading was : Organizing my life around my goals.

What does this mean exactly ? Well, when you start a journey in forex trading you have to think that you are not the only one starting the journey. Probably people around you (family, friends, etc) will be affected by your decision to seek proficiency in trading. The first thing you have to do when you make the decision that you will be trading and trying to do it profitably is to talk about this with the people around you. Bear in mind that by talking I don't mean telling. You need to truly explain what you will be doing and the time you plan to spend on trading and see how it affects your life and relationship with others around you.

Once you talk with the people around you you should build a schedule with them in order to guarantee that your new endevour will not affect your present relationships. For example, if you are married you should talk to your wife about what time you will be trading so that this time is exclusively devoted to this matter. Even if it is only half an hour or a whole hour a day your partner and closed ones should be aware of it so that they understand what you are doing and leave you your space to do it. This of course, also comes with the fact that you need to place boundaries in your life between trading and other activities. When you are playing with your kids or having dinner with your family don't think about trading, that is not what you are doing :o).

Another important issue, especially if you are married, is to discuss the financial issues openly and honestly with your partner. Don't make promises which you are much likely not going to be able to keep and don't go behind your partners back to use money to later "surprise them" with profits (more likely loses by the way !). Always be open about the very high risk of forex trading and the amount you will be investing. Talk about the potential in the future with your family but also make it clear that you may lose all that money in the beginning.

I have found often that failing to be open and communicative with the people in your environment about trading often leads to very bad situations like having to disclose your partner that you lost your lives saving (yes, this happened to someone !), or realizing that after years of training you are finally profitable but your wife and kids have left you because you were no longer a father and husband but merely a trader (this is also a true story !).

I was very communicative and open with my close family when I started my journey in trading and I have to say that I don't regret it a single bit. In fact, I believe that support from my close family was one of the positive factors that guided me towards success in trading. All the time I had people around me who knew what I was trying to do and who were understading when things turned sour. It is very important to understand that you are not alone in the world and that a big decision such as seeking financial freedom needs to go hand-in-hand with the support and affection of those around you.

If you would like to learn more about my achievements in trading, particularly automated trading and how you too can start to follow a path towards long term profitability using expert advisors please consider buying my ebook on automated trading or joining Asirikuy to receive all ebook purchase benefits, weekly updates, check the live accounts I am running with several expert advisors and get in the road towards long term success in the forex market using automated trading systems. I hope you enjoyed the article !

The Road To Financial Freedom... Part No.2...Is this Right for You ?

It is not uncommon for people to persue the dream of "financial freedom" thinking only about the fact that they are tired of a 9 to 5 job and want to have an easy way to earn a living in which work is hardly ever present. On today's post of the road to financial freedom series I will try to give you a good insight into what I think the goals and mindset of a person who wants financial freedom should be and which people should not seek financial freedom because they are either doing it for the wrong reasons or with the wrong perspective in mind.

In what I have seen, there are mainly two types of people looking for financial freedom (trading wise at least). The first are people who are willing to do whatever it takes, work as long as they can, do whatever effort they have to in order to arrive to the dream of profitable trading -manual or automated- and then there are those who simply just don't want to do anything and think of trading as a way in which an income can be achieved without lifting a finger.

Things evolve differently for those two kinds of people. The first kind often struggles a lot in the beginning and have to work about 10 times what they thought they would have to, many with obssesive personalities end up with broken families, health problems, etc, due to the sometimes long hours and inevitable amount of hard work that must go in either manual or automated trading. The fact that they also put a financial burden on their families and take money to trade - almost certainly losing all of it at first- makes things harder for the people around them, specially spouses who sometimes fail to understand the goal to be achieved (mainly because the non-trading partner is usually more rational at this point).

The second kind works almost as hard as the first but in a different area. Their work is not centered on actually learning what they are doing but it is centered in the finding of the "system" that will make them rich without signficant effort. These people often give trading a try for a while and after 1 or 2 years they give up because of the fact that everything they have tried has eventually failed them (or has not achieved the income level they wanted), eventually they find out that their is no "free lunch" and that trading is not the bottomless "gold mine" they read on the sales newspages. These people either quit, or become part of the first group.

Now, there is also a problem associated with the intented amount of money people want to make in trading. Often I hear people talking about a 5-10% consistent monthly profit in forex being a "rational" thing to expect (these people NEVER know someone who has actually been making that kind of money consistently -for a few years-, it is just a dream created by the sales pages). Oh boy, 5% every month would turn 50 USD into one trillion dollars in less than 60 years. The profitable traders I know are often happy with a 1-3% average profit per month, which is very good for most purposes. Take into account that in financial markets, doing better than the S&P 500 is considered to be "beating the market" in the sense that you outperform buy and hold strategies. That is something that very few people in the world are able to do.

Novice trader minds are often "contaminated" with the unrational notion that the forex market is able to give very high profits, thinking that 10-20% per month or more is a rational expectation. The worst thing is that people get into their minds that it is something they can achieve if they work hard. The people who are hard working but believe they can achieve a profit level which is simply unprecedented are the ones who get the worst out of it. They lose and lose money and they struggle and struggle trying to achieve something which is simply not within realistic expectations (taking into account what most profitable traders I know do achieve ). They often get beat up, chewed and spit by the market and in the end they are beaten and defeated. These people usually quit at this point when they realize that they will not get to that million dollars from that 1000 USD account.

My objective with this post is to speak to all of you and tell you that you should give this a very HARD and long look and think about if trading is really what you want to do. Trading is a very intense, time consuming, work intensive way of life. Starting to trade with realistic expectations for success requires good capitalization (at least 2 to 5 times your expected yearly salary if you expect to live from this) and a commitment to work through all the emotions and frustration that will arise from attempting it. Trading is also not your 9 to 5 job so you may have long periods of loses with no paycheck at your door and there will be no one there to pat you in the back and tell you that everything will be ok. As I said on the last post, it is entirely up to you. Your possibilities are limited by your efforts.

For most people out there, forex is not a good opportunity for "financial freedom". Most people are simply undercapitalized, unfamiliar with the whole concept of trading and unaware of how their emotions respond to the trading world. Most people are also unable to deal with the stress of having no paycheck in the mailbox, no "fixed" income and no guarantee of future profits. The extremely large amount of hype and useless things out there don't make it easier for them either. The fact that 90% of new traders fail speaks for itself. If you think forex is not the way to go, then it does not mean you cannot achieve financial freedom, you can always look at a brick and mortar business or an online business which aligns better with your knowledge and personality.

However, if you are truly interested in trading after all that I have said, then you will enjoy the rest of the road to financial freedom series in which I will explain to you the steps I took and all the things I have done (and what I would have liked to do) in order to achieve financial freedom with forex trading. My first step was simple. I wrote in a piece of paper : "I am going to be a profitable forex trader". If you are also interested in my work and would like to know about how profitable trading can be achieved with realistic profit and drawdown expectations on the forex market 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 !

The Road to Financial Freedom Series... Part 1. What is Financial Freedom After All ?

A person suggested on the last post of 2009 that I dedicated some time to telling people how they could become financially independent and achieve what most people "look for" when going into the world of forex trading. For this reason I decided to write a series of posts called "The road to financial freedom series (RFFS)" which aims to give you my point of view and experience in what refers to reaching this "thing" most people look for but so few of us seem to be able to find. I have found through my interaction with new traders that in general the problem is that the vision of what is exactly "financial freedom" is often opaque and mistaken for a life which is simply not quiet possible. In this first post of the series I will go through what I think "financial freedom" is and what I think people have as the "wrong picture" when going into the world of trading, specially, automated trading.

So what after all is financial freedom ? Many of you may just define it as having some means to live without having a 9 to 5 job, others may define it as having no boss while others may just see it as "not having to worry" about your finances, being "free" of the burden of money. For me it was a matter of independence. Definitely it was a matter of not wanting to have to work a 9 to 5 job and a matter of being my own boss and having only my talent and willingness to work as the limitant factors to my success.

I will tell you what financial freedom is not. It is not being a lazy arse. The idea that people try to sell sometimes that there is a way in which you can just watch money flow and sit in a chair while your income goes into your bank accounts without you doing anything is just not possible, it simply won't happen. Sure, there are people out there having money going into their bank accounts and they are not doing anything right now but certainly they did work extremely hard to get where they are right now. Do you think Warren Buffet, Bill Gates or Steve Jobs got their lives by just sitting under a palm tree ? Certainly they did not.

The reason why most people do not have that kind of life when they are 40 or 50 is mainly because the path that takes you there is much harsher than the path you have to follow in your 9 to 5 job. There is no boss to tell you what to do, there is no pressure and no motivation besides the pressure and motivation you give yourself. Being financially independent is perhaps one of the hardest things that I have done in my life. It required years of my constant work and patience and it required a lot of discipline. Much much more than getting my major or working a regular job. I needed to push myself to do things for the long haul, no immediate reward. I was doing things for the rewards I would take in 5 or 10 years.

What are the benefits ? Well, I certainly don't have to play by anyones rules or follow any schedule. I work when I feel like it and I don't when I don't feel like it. That is obviously a double edged sword because it requires a lot of discipline to get yourself to do things everyday you simply don't really have to. I find that the road at the end leads to nothing but satisfaction and personal growth. It is really good to push yourself and see how much you can really raise the bar. Things depend on you, not anyone else. However this does not mean that you should dedicate yourself 24/7 to doing this, do it slowly and smell the roses. That is what I did and I am glad it happened that way. I always have time for the people I love and never ever put my work before any of them, just remember the words of John Lennon, "life is what happens while we are making plans".

I can say today that I live from the market and this was not something easy to achieve. It was not plugging in a 97 USD robot or finding a holy grail. It took years of analysis, learning, programming, experience, patience and practice. If you think you can live from a simple forex system you will buy online without any further effort, just introduce me to ONE SINGLE PERSON who makes a living from one of those. I would be totally thrilled to get an interview :o).

If you want to learn more about my work with automated trading system and what profit/risk targets can be realistically achieved 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 !