How to Start Trading Forex (4 steps), start forex trading.
Start forex trading
- Look for a forex broker that is regulated
- See if the forex broker offers a minimum deposit amount
- What is the leverage that the broker offers
- What is the minimum contract size that you can trade
- Bonuses and the terms and conditions (see on our site list of forex deposit bonuses and forex no deposit bonuses)
- Deposit and withdrawal types as well as the terms and conditions
- Trading methods that are allowed by the broker
No deposit forex bonuses
What is forex?
How to start trading forex (4 steps)
Welcome to the world of forex. There might be many reasons why you are reading this article. It could be that your friend or acquaintance mentioned about how they trade and perhaps even make a living by trading forex. Whatever your reasons may be; this article will give you an overview of the forex markets and how to start trading forex … and perhaps make money for yourself.
Step 1. What is forex?
Step 2. Learn forex basics
Step 3: find a forex broker
Step 4: start trading
Step 1. What is forex?
Forex, or foreign exchange is an unregulated market, also known as OTC (over-the-counter) and is the biggest market with average daily turn-over that runs into billions. It is even bigger than the US stock markets. Although due to its OTC nature, no one can really give the correct numbers as to the forex turnover. But nonetheless, forex is indeed a big market and thus allows many market participants. From your neighborhood bank to specialized investment companies, to your friend; the forex markets always offers a piece of the action whoever you are and wherever you are (even from your home).
The basic concept of trading forex is very simple. You trade or speculate against other traders on the direction of a currency.
So, if you believe that the euro is going to rise, you would BUY the euro, or SELL the euro if you think the euro would fall. It’s as simple as that.
Step 2. Learn forex basics
Before you get ready to deposit your funds and start trading there are some important points you must understand, each of which are outlined below.
Forex brokers: in order to start trading forex, you will need to trade with the help of a forex broker. There are many forex brokers out there today who allow you to open a forex trading account for as little as $5. The forex broker is the one who facilitates your buy and sell orders and also allows you to research into the markets (also known as technical or fundamental analysis) to help you make more informed decisions… and of course allows you deposit more funds or withdraw your profits when you want to. ( click here to see our forex brokers rating )
Trading platform:you need a trading platform from which you can place your trades, which are then sent to the broker for settlement. Also, a trading platform is essential for you to conduct your technical analysis and also to see the current market prices. Most retail brokers offer the MT4 (short for metatrader 4) trading platform, which is free of cost. You can also open a demo trading account and practice trading with virtual money to gain the experience required before trading with real money.
Forex trading hours:while you might have heard that the forex markets never sleeps, it actually does. Firstly, you won’t be able to trade on weekends (saturday and sundays). But for the rest of the week, the forex market operates 24 hours a day. This is due to the fact that forex trading is global. At any point in time, you will always find an overlap of a new market session while the previous market closes. What time of the day or which market session you trade plays a big role if you are an intra-day trader or a scalper. This is another vast topic, which we will cover at a later stage. ( click here to learn more about forex trading hours . )
Now that you have a basic overview of the forex markets, here are some final pointers to remember before you start trading for yourself.
What is a pip?:pip is a measure of change in a currency pair’s value and is the 5 th decimal. For example, if EURUSD changes from 1.31428 to 1.31429, the change is denoted as 1pip (1.31428 – 1.31429 = 0.00001). When you trade, the more pips you make, the more profit you have. Ex: buying EURUSD at 1.31428 and selling (or closing your trade) at 1.31528 would give you 100pips in profit. ( read more about forex PIP )
Reading quotes: forex quotes are presented in a bid and ask price (both of which vary by a few pips and from one broker to another). The bid price is the price at which you can buy and the ask price is the price as which you can sell. So, a EURUSD quote would look like this 1.31428(bid)/1.31420(ask).
What is a spread?: spread is nothing but the difference between the bid and ask price. So in the above example, for 1.31428/1.31420, the spread would be 8 pips. ( read more about forex spread)
What is a leverage?: leverage is the amount by which you can request your broker to magnify (or increase) your trade value. Leverage is often quoted in ratios such as 1:50, which means that when trading on a 1:50 leverage, your $100 is magnified to $50000. Leverage is a big topic in itself and it is recommended to read this article to learn more. Leverage is important both in terms of making profits as well as managing risks and therefore, your trades.
What is a lot?: A lot is a unit by which you place your trade. In financial terms, a lot is also referred to as a contract. There are preset lots (or contract sizes) that you can trade. For example a standard lot is nothing but 100,000 units (known as 1 lot). ( read more about lot)
Reading charts: the ability to understand and read the charts is very essential to trading. Depending on your approach, you can choose between a line, bar or candlestick charts and trade accordingly (for example trading based on candlestick patterns). ( read more how to read forex charts)
Placing orders (how to buy and sell): in forex trading, it is possible to either buy or sell any currency pair. Most trading platforms, give you this option. You buy when you think that price will go up and you sell when you think that price will fall. There is a common terminology used in forex trading, which is buy low, sell high; which is an important point to remember. ( read more how to place orders with MT4 )
Order types: besides buy and sell, another point to remember the types of orders. There are two basic order types: market orders and pending orders. When you click on ‘buy’ or ‘sell’ you are basically buying (or selling) at the current market price. A limit order on the other hand tells the broker that you want to buy or sell only at a particular price. ( read more about types of forex orders)
Step 3. Find a forex broker
As mentioned, there are many forex brokers today and therefore it can get confusing on how to choose the forex broker that is right for you. To briefly summarize, remember the following points while choosing a forex broker:
- Look for a forex broker that is regulated
- See if the forex broker offers a minimum deposit amount
- What is the leverage that the broker offers
- What is the minimum contract size that you can trade
- Bonuses and the terms and conditions (see on our site list of forex deposit bonuses and forex no deposit bonuses)
- Deposit and withdrawal types as well as the terms and conditions
- Trading methods that are allowed by the broker
We can also help you choose a forex broker by reading our article how to choose forex broker
Step 4. Start trading
Finally, now that you have selected a forex broker to trade with it is recommended to first open a demo trading or a practice account. Most forex brokers offer unlimited demo trading account (but will be deactivated if not used for 30 days). This is a good way to get acquainted with the forex markets and also help you to understand your trading style (scalper or intra day trading, swing trading, etc) and approach (fundamental or technical analysis). You can search for various trading methods and systems or you can develop one yourself when you have a good understanding of technical or fundamental indicators.
Conclusion:
Forex trading is one of the most active and dynamic ways to trade the financial markets. At the heart of everything, it is the basic fluctuations in currency values which drives everything else. Learning to trade forex and understanding the forex markets can give a good foundation to trading other markets such as derivatives or equities.
How to start forex trading (the right way)
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If you want to start forex trading, you are beginning a journey that can be life changing, economically speaking. And starting something so powerful that it has the capability of changing your financial future for the better can be both exciting and scary at the same time.
The steps you take to start forex trading can be very difficult. Your journey could take years of toil and hard work. But YOUR path to trading forex profitably does not have to be hard, long or scary.
If you have the right reason for trading forex, choose the correct path, adopt the right mindset and follow the right plan… you can be trading forex profitably very quickly.
This page is detailed, so I suggest reading the page all the way through once, and then use the table of contents to revisit specific sections later.
Why start forex trading?
This is important, but not talked about very much. What is your “why”? Why do you want to start forex trading?
Whenever you start something that requires any effort (even as low as 1 minute a day, 4 days a week), you need to have a strong why. You need to be sufficiently motivated. Otherwise, you run the risk of giving up and sabotaging your success.
Yes, I know, you want to start forex trading to make money. That’s true… but that is not the “why” I am talking about. (and frankly, focusing on “making money” will probably lead to failure… but more on that later).
Your “why” needs to be specific and very important to YOU.
I trade forex because it is a MAJOR part of the wealth plan blast off . Forex trading is what allows me to make up for lost time by outperforming other investment opportunities. It is what allows me to accumulate wealth faster so I can achieve lifelong financial security.
In short, forex trading allows me to build the wealth I need, in the time I have.
You see, I desperately want financial security. Circumstances beyond my control made it hard for me to make money, save money and get ahead. And after years of struggling to make ends meet, I became determined to change the direction of my financial future.
I know working harder and saving more is not going to get me there. I NEED to put my money to work to make more money. And because I got a late start, I need to outperform other investment returns.
That is where forex trading comes in.
So as you see, achieving lifelong financial security is very important to me. And I can’t do it without forex trading.
Knowing this… do you think I’m going to stop trading forex? Spoiler alert: I won’t.
Think about your “why”, and make sure it is strong enough to keep you on the path toward YOUR goal over the long term.
How to start forex trading for beginners
As a beginner wanting to start forex trading, you have a decision to make. You have a choice, and how you choose will most likely determine your success or failure.
Most beginners don’t even know they have a choice. So, this could be enlightening.
A lot of people want to become a “forex trader”. They want to be a person with the knowledge, discipline and skill to look at a forex chart and correctly predict what is going to happen next.
They think the way to achieve this goal is to study all the different aspects of trading, learn hundreds of trading strategies and spend hours each day practicing on a demo account for months or years. (sounds exhausting).
The beginner trader believes that if they study, learn and practice long enough, they will eventually be the kind of person that can look at a chart and make split second decisions that leads to more money in their account. In short, they will be a “forex trader”.
Their success is determined by how knowledgeable and skillful THEY are.
If you think this is the path to being a profitable forex trader… you will most likely fail.
Another path is to just learn a simple trading strategy that has already been strategically designed to be profitable over the long term. Simply learn the rules… and follow the rules.
Option 1: make your success about “you”, and try to “become” a profitable forex trader through years of struggle.
Option 2: make your success about the trading strategy, and just follow the rules of a strategy that is strategically designed to be profitable.
Which option do you think has a better probability of success? Choose wisely.
Forex trading blast off 2.0
Build the wealth you need in the time you have with strategically designed forex trading
Accumulate wealth faster, create multiple income streams & secure your financial future in 1 minute A day
Start forex trading with the right mindset
If you start forex trading with the wrong mindset, you greatly hinder your chances of success. It took me years to figure this out, so I know what I am talking about.
- Forex trading should NOT be about making money.
- Forex trading SHOULD be about wealth accumulation.
I’ll admit it. I got into forex trading because I wanted to make money. If you look at this snapshot from google trends, I got serious about wanting to trade forex around where the “lots” note is.
At that time, forex was a hot topic because there were a lot of people selling strategies, automated forex robots and signals services. Unfortunately, most of the unscrupulous marketers were framing forex as “easy money”, “quick riches” and “the fastest way to millions”.
But look at what happened next. Forex trading became “less” popular.
My theory about why popularity dropped is because people got interested in forex for easy, quick and unrealistic riches. Or, they wanted to make consistent, predictable income month after month.
(this theory is strengthened when you see how popular forex trading is now… during a worldwide pandemic and economic hardship where people are desperate and uncertain about their economic future).
But when they figured out forex trading can’t turn $500 into $1,000,000 in a month on autopilot, or make thousands of dollars consistently each and every month… they lost interest.
And that is unfortunate, because they are missing out on the true potential of forex trading… wealth accumulation.
While most investors would be happy with 7% average annual returns, here is what following a simple trading strategy can accomplish on 3 different accounts:
- 2352% profits over 5 years (470.4% average yearly gains)
- 2113% profits over 5 years (422.6% average yearly gains)
- 2794% profits over 5 years (558.8% average yearly gains)
So, while forex trading might not be able to turn you into an instant millionaire, it is one of the best wealth creating opportunities in existence.
But many people don’t see the forest for the trees.
However, if you abandon the “make money” mindset, and embrace the “wealth accumulation” mindset… you’ll have much better success.
Start forex trading from home
A lot of people that want to start forex trading have regular jobs. They already have a busy lifestyle.
But then they pursue imitating the methods of trading of professional traders. This requires sitting in front of the charts for hours on end, day and night. They feel they need to keep up with economic news and try to predict how it will move the market.
I think this is the wrong approach.
There is a difference between being a professional trader and being an at home trader. And quite frankly, being an at home trader has its advantages. (as a matter of fact, it is one of the reasons I can beat other investment opportunities).
Instead of trying to imitate the pros, embrace being an at home trader instead. This forces you to keep things simple. It also makes you fit forex trading into the time you have.
In a way, concentrating on trading forex from home forces you to adopt a way of trading that is much more likely to be profitable over the long term.
Here are the only things you need to start trading forex from home:
- Computer
- Internet connection
- Broker account
- Metatrader4 platform (free from your broker)
- Strategically designed forex trading strategy
- 1 minute a day, 4 days a week
As you can see, starting to trade forex does not have to be difficult. But just because you adopt an approach that is simple to learn and simple to trade does not mean it is not profitable.
Here is what would have happened if you started with a $2,000 investment in each opportunity over the past 5 years. One of my accounts beat the S&P 500, apple, google, netflix and amazon COMBINED.
That means I was able to make more money than all the others combined… with 5 TIMES less investment.
Not bad for trading forex from home, right?
How to start forex trading step-by-step
Since we are talking about “how to start forex trading”, I’m going to assume you are a beginner and don’t have a lot of experience. I want to break down, step-by-step how to get started.
Don’t worry, it really is quite simple.
» choose A broker
In order to participate in the forex market, you’ll need to have a broker account. I’ve gone over some recommendations and what to look for here: best forex broker to use
» create A demo account and download A free metatrader4 platform
The first thing you should do is learn about the trading platform. In my opinion, all a demo account is good for is learning how to perform trading tasks on the platform.
I show you everything you need to know in my course. And you don’t even need to learn how to place trades, because I’ve included scripts for easy, perfect trade placement. But if you want to know more about the platform, go here: beginners guide to metatrader4
» learn A strategically designed forex trading strategy
Pretty obvious what I am going to recommend here…
Forex trading blast off 2.0
Build the wealth you need in the time you have with strategically designed forex trading
Accumulate wealth faster, create multiple income streams & secure your financial future in 1 minute A day
» fund your account
If you are going to make real money trading the live markets… you need to fund your account. The trading strategy is easy to learn and simple to trade, so you don’t need to spend years practicing on a demo account.
Funding your account will depend on the broker you choose. It is a very simple process.
» start trading
At this point, you just need to follow the rules. At the same time every trading day, you’ll open your trading account and see if there is anything to do.
- If there is something to do, complete the task and close your platform. (shouldn’t take longer than 1 minute).
- Many times there won’t be anything to do, so just close your platform.
That’s it. You wanted to know how to start forex trading. Well, that’s it.
In conclusion
- Figure out your strong “why”.
- Choose to learn a mechanical, rules based trading strategy.
- Adopt the mindset of wealth accumulation over “money making”.
- Embrace being an at home forex trader.
- Start trading… and keep trading over the long term.
We’ve gone over a lot here. I suggest going back over this page again. Use the table of contents for easy access to the sections you want to revisit.
Forex trading blast off 2.0
Build the wealth you need in the time you have with strategically designed forex trading
Accumulate wealth faster, create multiple income streams & secure your financial future in 1 minute A day
To your wealth,
edward lomax
Forex trading is the “wealth building engine” of my wealth plan. But trading forex is not the only way you can use investing to secure your financial future.
Related information
How to get started investing & accumulate wealth faster
Put your money to work and become wealthy (even if you get A late start)
Start forex trading
How to start forex trading?
You may have heard stories of how people managed to be completely financially free through forex trading. Financially free in this case means that you would just need to spend a day or a few hours looking at charts, trading, and making a lot of profits in a few clicks. On one hand, it sounds like one of those scammy “get rich quick” schemes, and you would be right because getting rich is never that simple. On the other hand, if you do it right, you could really be financially free. The only problem is that you need to know how to start forex trading and how to do it right.
Contents
The basics: what is forex trading and how does it work?
Let’s head back to the beginning and talk about the thing you’re getting yourself into. What is the forex market and how does it work? Forex is foreign exchange. So, forex trading is nothing more than trading one form of currency to another. Looking at this concept alone, you can say that almost everyone has tried out forex at one point in their life, albeit not for profit.
Suppose that you’re living in america and you’re going to thailand on a summer holiday. You know that thailand people don’t spend US dollars, so you need to get thai baht. So, you sell your US dollars for thai bahts. This is already forex trading.
But in this case, there are ways to make a profit just by exchanging these currencies since their values tend to fluctuate. Sure, making a 0.001 cent profit off your $10 might not seem like much, but on a larger scale, the numbers add up very quickly. This is how some savvy traders manage to be financially free just by trading forex.
So, profit scales quickly with the amount of money. You need to have a rather deep pocket to play this game. For this reason, you don’t find too many people who are willing to jump into it. Large institutions, however, do play this game. Central banks, banks, corporations, and retail traders are the main players on this stage.
What we’re more interested in are the retail traders. This is the individual who dabbles in the forex market to turn a profit. Unfortunately, in the forex market ecosystem, these people are also at the bottom of the ladder. So how do these players interact with one another?
The center of the ecosystem is the central banks. These are the largest players. Then, there are the major banks such as gold man, JP morgan, deutsche bank, etc. These large banks have connections with investment funds and commercial companies such as toyota or BMW, as well as hedge funds who want to dabble in the forex market. In addition, they also have connections to market makers and ECN brokers. From there, this is where your brokers connect to you, the individual retail traders, via their own trading platform.
It starts with the banks communicating with retail brokers, commercial companies, or investment funds. Banks can either dabble in one, two, or all three categories. You, as a retail trader, only have access to the market maker who can pass on your order to the bank directly or however your broker built their trading system.
As you can see, the retail traders are at the bottom of the rank. Therefore, they are not the ones who influence the market. That is up to the big players. Going forward, you will see how many trading strategies advise you to trade alongside the large banks. Going the other way usually does not end well for you.
There are a few benefits to forex trading. They are:
- Low barrier to entry
- Better risk management
- High liquidity
- Trade whenever and wherever you want
- Low transaction costs
Low barrier to entry
Pretty much everyone can join and trade the forex market unless you’re living in a country that is banned from forex trading. Sure, you’ll need to have a rather deep pocket so the profits you make have more oomph to them, but joining the game does not cost you much. There’s nothing stopping you from opening an online account and submit the paperwork so you can start trading.
Better risk management
You can trade very small lot sizes in the forex market. You can go for the micro lot or even the nano lot if you want to play it safe. As the names suggest, they are very small lot sizes that allow you to manage your risk better, unlike stock. For instance, you can buy one share of a blue-chip stock. In singapore, a lot of share is at least 1000 shares. So if your account size is too small, you can’t even buy one lot in singapore. In forex however, you can trade in really small sizes, so you have better control.
High liquidity
You don’t have to worry too much about getting a poor price when you put an order into the forex market since there is a large amount of liquidity. To even move the market, you need to enter really massive lot sizes. In addition, you don’t need to worry about if you get filled or not since when you hit the market, the price you see on the screen is the price you tend to get.
Trade anytime you want
Forex is always open, except for the weekend. So you can trade pretty much whenever you want. You can wake up in the london session, put in an order, and manage your trade in the new york or asian session, for example. For the stock market, it’s only open eight hours a day during their time zone.
Low transaction costs
In reality, there are no transaction costs. Normally, you only pay the spread. So, what is the spread? When you look at a currency pair, you have the bid and ask price. The bid price is the price that you can sell the base currency. The ask price is the price that you can buy the currency. The difference between the two is the spread.
This is how “no commission” brokers make a profit. They do not charge you a fee when you make a trade. Rather, the cost is built into the bid and ask price of the currency pair. It goes something like this:
- When you buy a currency from a broker, they sell it to you for more than what they paid to buy it.
- When you sell a currency to a broker, they buy it from you for less than what they get to sell it.
- The difference between the two is the spread.
Here’s an simple example. Suppose that you want to sell your laptop to a store that buys used laptops. To make a profit from you, the shop needs to buy your laptop at a price that is lower than what the price that laptop fetches when the shop sells it.
So if your laptop can be sold for $1,000 then the best offer you’re going to get is $999. That $1 difference is the profit the shop would make. In other words, that is the spread.
This is different in the stock market. Suppose that you want to buy shares worth about $500. The transaction cost is $25 in singapore. So you pay 5% the moment you go for the trade, and we still haven’t considered the spread on the trade you’ve just paid. The point is that if you trade stocks with a small amount of cash and you buy a small number of shares, that fixed transaction costs in stock trading will cut into your returns.
How to start forex trading in singapore/UK/USA
You can start forex trading in all singapore, UK, or the USA as there are brokers that are based in these countries. There are a few that are based in singapore such as avatrade, oanda, etc. You need to register on their app or platform from that broker and then you can start trading on their interface.
How to trade forex for beginners
Trading forex is a complicated game, but there are a few things you need to know to help you become a more successful trader:
- Research the market: knowledge is power. If you want to be successful, you need to know about the currencies and other factors that influence their values. Many online brokers provide resources to help you with just that.
- Use a demo account: it’s not wise to jump into the forex trading world and start using the money from your account immediately. Again, many online forex brokers give you an option to create a fully functional demo account that you can trade with without the need to make a deposit. That way, you can get a good feel for the market and familiarize yourself with the interface before you make that commitment.
- Fund an account and start trading: from there, it’s just a matter of finding an account and get started. You might not turn your $100 into $1,000,000 overnight, but the risk is also minimal since you can trade in very small units, therefore you can lose less than a cent on a bad trade.
How to trade forex with $100
$100 does not buy you much nowadays, but if you put that into forex trading and play your cards right, you can turn a hefty profit and might even serve as another source of income for you from the comfort of your own home. But you need to have a rock-solid plan to turn your $100 to $1,000,000. For this, you need an excellent understanding of the market, which won’t come to you in a short time. In fact, many traders turn to online tutorials and mentors for help.
Forex trading tutorial
Thankfully, you can find a lot of forex trading tutorial online. These are very useful resources to help you get started with the forex trading game and you should at least go over them once so you have an idea of what you’re getting yourself into. That said, although they are a solid foundation to start from, you should not rely wholly on free resources as they only provide you with very basic information.
You will need to pay for a trading course online to be successful or spend a lot of time trading to accumulate enough experience. The risk here is that you can run into failed traders who just want to sell you empty promises. So, shop around until you find a course offered by a mentor who is successful and has real experience in forex trading. A good place to start is asia forex mentor.
Forex trading app
There are a ton of forex trading apps and platforms out there and they cater toward a unique and niche segment of the market. However, a reliable trading app needs to have 3 things.
The first is real-time updates. This should be the most important aspect of the platform. The value of the currency can change in an instant, so you need the latest information as soon as possible so you can secure the best trade possible. This requires a stable internet connection and large processing power, meaning that trading on your phone is generally not a good idea. You can test out the app with a few small test trades to see if it’s actually responsive enough.
Another thing to look for is the spread. Normally, the spread is only a small fraction of the currency you’re trading. However, if you trade in forex enough times, this can eat into your profit. So look around for forex brokers until you find a good one that offers fair fees to maximize your profit and minimize your loss when you trade.
Finally, a good trading platform should have educational resources. This is paramount in the forex market since it is in constant flux. Having as much information at your disposal would help you immensely in trading. So the best platforms generally provide information for the technical side of trading as well as newsletters so that you can predict how currencies will rise and fall.
With this in mind, you don’t have to waste your time going through all of the trading platforms out there. We’ll tell you 4 of the best apps so you can get started right away.
- Forex.Com: this is the best trading app for beginners as it offers a whole suite of features. It has one of the lowest spread and an excellent mobile app for both ios and android. The mobile platform has all the features as its desktop counterpart.
- TD ameritrade’s thinkorswim: this is a good trading app for intermediate trainers. The interface is intuitive and user-friendly. If you have a brokerage account open with them, you can also trade options, stocks, and futures on their app as well. Moreover, they also offer trading alerts via push notifications as well.
- Etoro: etoro is a good platform for advanced traders. This platform offers various features such as real-time execution of market orders and unrestricted daily withdrawals. In addition, you have access to various analysis tools, real-time data, and more.
- Nadex: nadex contains a whole host of technical analysis tools such as account management tools, real-time direct market access, and other features as well. It might take a while to get used to their interface, though.
Forex trading for beginners – youtube
If you really are just starting out and find free articles out there that aren’t helpful, you can go to youtube for more explanations. Many traders have youtube channels explaining strategies or concepts with illustrations so you should be able to get more value from them. If not, the comment section is a good place to consult if you have any further questions.
If you go to youtube right now, you can look up asia forex mentor (AFM). AFM is founded by ezekiel chew who has over 20 years of forex trading experience and he offers quality trading lessons on his website. He also has a number of forex trading videos on youtube explaining the intricacies of forex trading such as in-depth analysis, trading strategies, etc.
You can get a lot of values from videos like these, although you won’t get everything. For AFM, you can also get a 5-lesson sample from them so you know how to start forex trading and what you’re getting from the full program. In addition, if you do enroll, you can also see ezekiel trade live every week so you can see how the experts analyze the market and set up their trades.
Ezekiel chew the founder and head of training at asia forex mentor isn’t your typical forex trainer. He is a recognized expert in the forex industry where he is frequently invited to speak at major forex events and trading panels. His insights into the live market are highly sought after by retail traders.
Ezekiel is considered as one of the top forex traders around who actually care about giving back to the community. He makes six figures a trade in his own trading and behind the scenes, ezekiel trains the traders who work in banks, fund management companies and prop trading firms.
How to start forex trading from home
This year has been challenging and consequential in many ways. Aside from the public health crisis that the world has suddenly been plunged into, another widely shared experience for millions of people around the globe is the pandemic’s resulting economic downturn.
Whether people felt it pretty quickly or after half a year of the spread of the virus, now, everyone is aware of how big of an impact it has had on their finances. Some lost their employment right away. Some have seen their savings drained. Some are constantly looking for ways to add new sources of income.
For many, forex has become a viable answer to their financial troubles. It’s safe because you can do it in the comfort of your own home. It has the potential to become extremely lucrative, with the right mindset and diligence. In a lot of ways, it is one of the easiest ways to start earning.
This article will help forex novices and hopefuls to understand just what it takes to start home-based forex trading.
What is forex?
The word ‘forex’ is a portmanteau of two things – foreign currency and exchange. Exchanging one currency for another is done for a variety of reasons. Many do it for commerce. In fact, according to investopedia’s data from the bank of international settlements, in terms of volume, an average of over $5.1 trillion change hands every day in forex.
Here are a few steps to take to get you started in the world of trading foreign currency from your home.
Build your knowledge
Although the technologies available now make forex trading simpler and more accessible to anyone, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the fundamental concepts behind it are also easier to understand. Now that you have some basic understanding of forex, it’s important that you keep building on that knowledge. Take your time to understand the market and how you plan on participating in it. Since you’re doing this from your home, you have the luxury to take all the time you need. This will transition well to the next step.
Our blog offers a wealth of knowledge for beginners and seasoned traders alike.
Design a trading strategy
There are a lot of ways to participate in the forex market. Designing your own strategy is essential if you want to make any profit trading foreign currencies. Basically, you need to figure out how certain indicators or triggers in the market will affect your trading. This also depends on how much risk you are comfortable in taking on. Strategies can also vary from focusing on long-term profits to making multiple trades focusing on short-term gains.
It’s important to understand, too, that your strategy needs time to develop in complexity. When you’re starting out, you need to let your strategy mature as you learn more about the market.
Practice what you’ve learned
Now that you have your strategy laid out, you can start trading and testing it out. There are several platforms that will allow you to practice your approach without using (or earning) actual money.
You can also consult past graphs and studies to see how certain currencies perform over time and base your strategy there.
Like with any potentially profitable enterprise, there will always be a degree of risk involved. The more information you take in through studying and practicing, the better equipped you can be in mitigating the risks.
Choose the right broker
There is no shortage of available brokers out there. But not all forex brokers are created equal.
There are two most popular broker types in the forex market – those that use the ECN model or the STP model. Here are their main distinctions.
- STP brokers pass your orders directly to a counterparty. These are usually other STP brokers, market brokers, or even ECN brokers. These brokers make money off of the spreads. STP brokers can trade against their clients which opens the possibility for instances of conflicts of interest – in some cases, your loss can be their gain.
- ECN brokers are the more common choice. This is because when you’re working with true ECN brokers, you will be provided with a clear view of the other side of the trade. This means you can see which entities are completing your trade – these may be money managers, commercial banks, funds, or institutional traders. ECN brokers also can’t trade against their clients, eliminating the possibility of conflicts of interest.
We at fair forex are true ECN brokers. This means we can get you access to the interbank market. They are the primary exchange market.
Our company was founded by traders like yourself and we have vowed to always stay fair – we even put it in our name.
For more information on forex trading, read our other articles or feel free to give us a call at 1-844-600-FAIR.
How to start forex trading as A beginner
There’s huge money to make from forex trading. I want to reveal this business to you in a way you can understand it, different from what you maybe hearing about forex trading. Even if you don’t like the idea of forex trading, but if you want to make more money this year, give me few minutes of your time to explain this to you.
I want to believe I’m talking to beginners. Those with little or no knowledge of forex. Even if you know about forex trading but not an expert, you should also be reading this now.
However, if you think you know too much about forex, then you don’t have to continue reading, unless for pleasure or to amuse yourself the way I’m going to lay down the hard nuts of forex trading in a way a novice would understand.
Understanding forex trading
Firstly, let me start by explaining what forex is and how it’s been traded. Forex simply means foreign exchange. One product that is only traded this way is money. Yes, forex trading is about exchanging money. I will explain better.
Money is supposed to be a medium of exchange. Which means, you exchange goods and services for money. For example, if ‘A’ has a product or a service that ‘B’ needs, ‘A’ can demand for a certain amount of money in exchange for his product or service. That’s what money is normally used for, as a medium of exchange.
But when we talk about forex trading, it means that money is both the product or service and also the medium of exchange. That means you are buying one money with another money.
For example, when you go to the bank or ‘black’ market in nigeria to exchange either naira for dollars, or dollars for naira, you are simply engaged in forex trading. You are either the buyer or the seller, depending on which currency you are exchanging. That’s means if you have ever changed money before, you are a forex trader.
So, to understand forex trading, it means you are either buying or selling one currency for another. That’s the simple definition of forex trading. It’s so simple to understand. That also means it’s so simple to trade, but wait till I give you more information.
The forex market
The forex market is a huge 6 trillion dollars daily transaction. Unlike the aboki that sells dollars in your neighborhood, international forex trading actually follows certain rules and that includes having a defined market where forex is traded.
The closest thing to it is the stock market. In fact, forex and stocks are closely related in the way they are traded but they are different commodities. If you understand the stock market you are more likely to understand the forex market.
Well, if you are a village person like me, you are probably aware of village markets. Some markets trades only on certain days, while some trades daily, depending on what is being sold in the market,
The forex market only trades forex. That means people transact in this market for the purpose of exchanging one currency with another. However, the forex market is only allowed to trade for 5 out of the 7 days of the week. Yes, from monday’s to friday’s, the forex market is open for business. It doesn’t trade on saturday’s and sunday’s. Don’t ask me why because I don’t know.
Investment risks in forex trading
Forex trading is an investment. Investments has their own risks propensities. If you are trading yourself, you have to guard against loses. Since it’s a trade business, there’s possibility of buying high and selling low, since the market prices are mostly determined by external factors beyond your control.
Inasmuch as you should ensure you are current with world news and happenings within the market, it cannot fully protect you against losses. One of the best ways traders minimize their risk exposure is by trading against minimal profit positions.
The less profit they pursue with each trade the lower their risk per trade. That way you mitigate against heavy losses and also ensure profitability from little gains. But, as a beginner this might seem complex at first. That’s why learning forex business is more important than the profit you hope to make from it.
Who should trade forex
One of the questions people ask is, can I trade forex? Yes you can. Anyone is qualified to trade forex. It’s not only the aboki that should be involved in forex trading. You too can get involved. In fact, you may have trading forex without knowing it, if you have ever exchanged dollars for naira or exchanged naira for dollars.
But, I don’t mean you should go to one street corner and start trading forex. Although there is nothing wrong with that, but there’s a better way to trade forex than the way the aboki is doing it.
What you need to trade forex
As a beginner trader, the process is simplified for you. The setup process is no longer cumbersome. With just a smartphone and internet connection you start trading forex from anywhere you are in the world.
However, you will also need funds to trade with. Some forex trading apps allow you to start trading with as low as $10. Some even give you free money to start trading. While these options are good for a beginner, they also have their own risks and limitations.
Even though that seemed a wise investment decision, it limits profit taking. Remember, your returns is based on a fraction of the capital invested. So, if the capital is little, the profit will also be little.
Where you should trade forex
Unlike the aboki that trades around the neighborhood, you will be trading directly on the forex market, connected through the internet from your smartphone. And this is made possible by several forex brokers who have developed mobile apps that gives ordinary people access to the forex market with ease.
There are several platforms to trade in forex market. I will give you a list of some of the most popular ones:
- Omegapro
- IQ option
- Grand trade
- Expert option
- Olymp trade
- Xtrend
How you should trade forex
Before you can begin trading forex, you will need to undergo some training. Each app or platform has its own way of trading. As a beginner you should learn first before you invest your money.
However, I strongly recommend that your entry into forex trading should be to explore options of having others trade for you till you have understood trading yourself. That way you can commit your funds to the business while you learn. And you also get to make profit while you are learning.
It’s always better not to risk your investment as a beginner. Although, having others trade for you may not make you the kind of money you can make from the forex market, but it’s better than losing your money in one swoop.
Start as A forex investor
As a business consultant, I always advise beginner forex traders to start out first as investors. That way you risk little in the market until you are matured enough to take higher risk in the trades.
Forex investors are those who have the money to trade but gives it instead to more experienced traders to trade on their behalf and share profit with them. So, you will need an experienced investor who will trade for you. I will show you how to find one in one of my concluding sub heading. Make sure you read my concluding part of this post.
Investors in forex market don’t usually trade by themselves. They give their money to professional forex traders and take small chunk of the daily profit. However, what makes this option profitable is that you can negotiate a percentage payout from each trade, regardless of gains and losses.
That means the trader can agree to pay you a fixed percentage profit from his trades, whether he gains or not. For example, if he agrees to pay you 10 percent of the amount you invested monthly, assuming you invested $1,000, you will be getting $100 return on your investment monthly.
But let me introduce you to an international forex trader that will trade for you while you take your percentage profit, not monthly but daily instead.
Omegapro forex investment platform
I would have loved to show you different forex investment platforms, but considering the risk involved in placing your funds into people you don’t know, and without any guarantee, I’m limited to just telling you only about omegapro.
I’m bold to say that omegapro has been tested and is trusted to deliver returns to its investors. You will also need to make your own research on this before you decide your investment. Here’s my own information about omegapro.
What is omegapro?
Omegapro is a forex broker. It trades on currency pairs, commodities, stocks and indices. It gives investors opportunity to trade more than 200 underlining assists. Omegapro is registered in the U.K. It combines the profitable power of forex trading, fintech and MLM to create wealth for its investors in over 100 countries.
How omegapro works
Omegapro combines investment in forex with MLM, using the power of fintech. It gives investors the opportunity to invest in forex business and also promote the platform in exchange for commission.
For example, if you invest in omegapro now, you start earning income from your investment. But you can also earn additional income from anyone you referred to the company and registered them under your downline.
Omegapro pays its members who sponsored or referred investors to them. It’s a one time commission for each person you introduce to the system. However, there’s a one time $29 registration fee, plus the amount you choose to invest in the trade.
The investments ranges from $100, $500, $1,000, $ 5,000, $10,000 and $50,000..
What omegapro pays investors
The company pays investors daily for their investment sum. For example, if you invest $1,000 with omegapro, it pays around 0.45 percent of the amount daily, which is about 10 percent monthly. But it pays daily because it’s profit is structured on compound interest. Which means even the profit you earn each day will earn its own profit the next day of trade.
Use this compound interest calculator to check your profit on the compound interest of preferred investment amount with omegapro.
And for the referral, it pays 10 percent of the initial amount of investment the person you referred brought to omegapro. For example, if your referral invested initial $10,000, omegapro will pay you 10 percent of $10,000, which is $1,000.
How to invest with omegapro
If you are interested in omegapro forex investment, I recommend that you first attend one of its training programs. Don’t invest into a business unless you understand it properly.
Omegapro conducts trainings across the country if you prefer a physical training. However, your can start immediately by joining one of its ZOOM trainings for prospective investors. I recommend you call this number 08139006120 now to book for any of the trainings closer to you.
Conclusion
If you are a beginner in forex trading, omegapro forex investment is the right startup plan for you. As a consultant, I have an investment with omegapro. And if you want me to help guide you on how I make money from omegapro, just contact me. My contact details are on my profile.
I didn’t want to raise much of your hopes in this article but I can assure you that forex trading is worth exploring this year, if you really want to make cool income.
God forbid if the pandemic would hit again. This is one investment that is bulletproofed against lockdowns. Forex market was never locked down during the pandemic. Investors where cashing in on their profits. You can join now without much risk whatsoever.
How to start as a forex trader (7 steps)
Do you want to start trading forex but you don’t know where to begin? Check out this video to find out how to start as a forex trader!
How to start as a forex trader
Please note that this article may contain affiliate links.
How to start as a forex trader – script
This video is broken down into 7 steps to becoming a forex trader. Let’s dive right in!
1. Find a reputable broker
There are important points to consider when choosing a broker. Such as:
- What is their software like? You want to make sure that they offer a high-quality software platform, ideally metatrader4.
- As well as a powerful platform, you want to make sure that your broker offers excellent support.
- Fast trade executions
- Low-spreads.
I started as a forex trader by signing up to my broker which is oanda. Oanda offer both a free demo account as well as a live trading account. I have found them to be great and they are based in the UK.
2. Use a demo account
As mentioned above, oanda offer a FREE demo account and I highly recommend starting in a demo. Because it would be incredibly risky and unnecessary to start off as a forex trader using real money in a live environment.
This means starting using paper money whereby there is nothing to lose but you can use the time to develop important skills, knowledge and experience for trading. Starting in a demo allows you to build major skills for trading including;
- Technical analysis
- Risk management
- Trade management
- Trading strategies
Whilst you are using your time wisely practising in a demo, this will allow you to build your trade plan.
3. Create a trade plan
I have a free downloadable trade plan, click here to download a copy. This is my personal trade plan for forex and also includes a template where you can create your own trade plan.
Having a trading plan is essential if you want to take your trading seriously and if you want to become a professional trader. In addition, a trading plan gives structure to your trades. Remember that if you are not following a trading plan, then essentially you are gambling.
A trading plan can consist of; strategies, time-frames, indicators, processes, risk management and targets. It allows you to monitor your performance and review your trades which is massively important to help you to improve and grow as a forex trader.
4. Education
Education is essential for trading. There are many key topics to research and study to become a forex trader. These include:
- Technical analysis involving; candlesticks, chart patterns, identifying trends, channels, pivots and trendlines.
- Riskmanagement; risk is everything when it comes to trading.
- Trademanagement; calculating entries and exits.
- Tradingpsychology; a major factor in becoming a successful forex trader.
5. Major currencies
When starting out trading forex, it is important to stick to trading the major currencies, because these tend to be the most volatile, as they usually have the most volume for trading.
Major currencies: GBP, USD, CHF, AUD, NZD, JPY, CAD & EUR.
6. Start small
A great tip is to start small and to remember that trading is not a race, it is a marathon. It is important to take your time through each stage of your trading journey. In addition, give yourself plenty of practice in the demo. Furthermore, take your time studying and gathering vital experience trading. When you are ready to trade with real money, certainly start small and use low risk per trade during your transition to real money.
7. Be disciplined
Finally, it is important to be disciplined. Whenever you trade in the demo, it is important to carry out your practice seriously and to treat it like real money, because it is not a game. If you treat trading like your job, then you are more likely to succeed long term.
How to start as a forex trader – conclusion
- Find a reputable broker
- Use a demo account
- Create and follow your trade plan
- Educate yourself and build your knowledge
- Trade the major currency pairs
- Take it slow and steady
- Be disciplined and keep your focus
If you follow all of these points, then you are well on your way to becoming a consistently profitable forex trader, and I wish you the best of luck!
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How to start forex trading for beginners
If you have decided to, or are still considering whether to become a professional forex trader, you are probably wondering things such as 'how do you start forex trading' or 'how much money do you need to start forex trading?'.
This article will address such questions, and more, by providing you with a step by step guide on how to start forex trading online today. We will look at things such as, which types of accounts you should consider, how these accounts differ, and then of course, how much money a beginner needs to trade forex.
How to start forex trading
There are a dizzying array of questions and variables to consider when you begin trading. Will you trade using fundamental or technical analysis? Or perhaps, a combination of both? Do you want to start day trading forex or will you be taking a longer-term approach? Will you trade rigidly based on the rules of a particular forex system? Will you take a more discretionary approach? The questions are endless, but ultimately they determine what you will achieve in the market, and how you do it. You can also break these questions down into even more specific directions.
Let's first look at how much money you need to start trading forex. The answer may be smaller than you think – it's actually zero. A demo trading account allows you to start trading forex without an initial investment and experience the live forex markets, without risk, by trading with virtual currency. Admiral markets offers clients the ability to trade virtual funds of up to $10,000 in their forex demo account.
With a demo account, you can even access our expert trading platform, mettrader supreme edition. By mixing the use of a demo account and a live account, you can test your strategies within a risk free environment first, before you move onto the live markets. If you are a beginner, a demo account is the perfect way to start forex trading and get a feel of what the live markets are like.
After all, part of learning is making mistakes – but you with a demo account, you will not have to lose capital by doing so. Another important thing to consider when you start trading is how to implement risk management into your trading. Doing so will enable you to manage the risks effectively, so you are aware of them, and you know how to reduce your exposure to these risks.
Learn to trade forex with admiral markets
If you are wondering what the best way to learn forex trading is, look no further than our forex 101 trading course. This online course is the perfect place for beginner traders to learn the intricacies of the forex market. And best of all its FREE! Click the banner below to sign up to this course today:
The forex market: A market for everyone
Let's consider the forex market for a moment. Much is made of the vast size of the FX market, but its egalitarian accessibility is often overlooked. Small players happily play alongside the largest participants. There is a place at the table for everyone because of the surprisingly low barriers to entry. High levels of leverage allow small deposits to command sizeable positions.
In short, this means you can make trades without tying up a lot of your cash. Obviously, you should never trade beyond your means, but leverage offers a very convenient way of trading.
How much money do I need to open A forex account?
It really depends on the type of account. Because different account types offer a variety of services and generally require different starting deposits. But for the most part, you can open an account with a relatively small deposit.
For example, with admiral markets, you can open a trade.MT5 or a zero.MT5 account with a minimum deposit of $100 (or a similar amount in other currencies). The trade.MT5 account offers low spreads and highly competitive leverage, whereas the zero.MT5 offers ultra-low spreads and institutional-grade speed of execution which is well suited for high frequency traders.
Be risk-aware
Depicted: admiral markets metatrader 5 - EURGBP daily chart. Disclaimer: charts for financial instruments in this article are for illustrative purposes and does not constitute trading advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any financial instrument provided by admiral markets (cfds, etfs, shares). Past performance is not necessarily an indication of future performance.
You should never trade more than you can afford to lose. When considering how much to start forex trading with, it is very much an issue of your own personal finances, and your own attitude to risk. Trading can often be a nerve-wracking and pressure-filled experience. One simple way to ease this is to trade conservatively. This will help you cope with these conditions.
Let's look at an example to get a feel for how much we are talking about. A sensible rule of thumb is that you shouldn't be risking more than 1% or 2% of your capital per trade. For the sake of convenience, let's use 1%.
The minimum trade size with the trade.MT5 account is 0.01 lots. A lot is a standard transaction size for each currency pair and equates to 100,000 units of the base currency. Let's say you decide to buy 0.01 lots of EURUSD. This is a position that means you make or lose 0.1 USD for every pip movement. The margin for a position this small would be covered by your minimum deposit.
How do you quantify risk?
Here's the kicker – quantifying the risk attached to an individual trade is a tricky business. We can broadly say that the risk is the amount of loss you would be willing to withstand before closing the position. However, this likely underestimates the risk because you may subsequently change your mind and tolerate a greater loss. There may also be times when a market moves faster than you can react.
One way to try to draw a line under the position and quantify the risk is to use a stop-loss. But be aware that a conventional stop order is not guaranteed. A stop order becomes an order to deal on the market once its level has been hit. However, in the event of a fast-moving or gapping market, your stop-loss may not be executed, due to slippage.
In short, stops do not mean any maximum loss is set in stone, but they do give you a rough and useful idea of your risk for normal conditions. Let's say you placed your stop 80 pips away. For our rough estimation, we could say that the theoretical risk is 80 pips x 0.1 USD per pip = $8.
If we are assigning a theoretical risk of $8 to this trade, and we are also saying one trade is 1% of our total risk capital, then the total risk capital must be $8 x 100 = $800. These are just some sample numbers, of course.
If you worked with tighter stops, your risk capital would be even smaller. If you worked with wider stops and/or a larger transaction size, you would need more risk capital. Here's another way of considering the question – successful trading is about winning in the long run. To win in the long run, you must not have your capital wiped out in the short run.
Still want to know how much money you need for forex trading? Put simply, you need enough to avoid blowing up. Look at price catastrophes that have occurred historically in your chosen currency pair. Think about what such movements would mean to you with your average trading size. Make sure that your risk capital is large enough to withstand such price shocks.
Once you're up and running, and in a position to make steady returns, you might start to consider how much money you need to start forex trading like a full-time business. If you are trying to find out what realistic monthly returns for a trader are, you are going to be trading in sizes that are much larger than usual minimums. Therefore, your risk capital will have to be larger as well.
Final thoughts
If you start conservatively and use sensible money management, you do not need a large amount of money to trade forex. It is possible to start trading with only a few hundred dollars, provided your trading sizes are small. If you are willing to put in the preparatory leg work, you should be able to discover a trading approach that works for you.
There's one more thing to consider – people who succeed at trading forex, work hard at it. The more effort you put in, the more likely you are to succeed. So, when facing a new, challenging venture, the only correct option is to learn more about what you are getting into. If you would like to learn more about forex, or trading in general, why not check out range of articles and tutorials?
Trade forex & cfds with admiral markets
Professional trading has never been more accessible than right now! Admiral markets offers professional traders the ability to trade on the forex market directly and via cfds with 80+ currencies, including forex majors, forex minors, exotic pairs and more! Open your live trading account today by clicking the banner below!
About admiral markets
Admiral markets is a multi-award winning, globally regulated forex and CFD broker, offering trading on over 8,000 financial instruments via the world's most popular trading platforms: metatrader 4 and metatrader 5. Start trading today!
This material does not contain and should not be construed as containing investment advice, investment recommendations, an offer of or solicitation for any transactions in financial instruments. Please note that such trading analysis is not a reliable indicator for any current or future performance, as circumstances may change over time. Before making any investment decisions, you should seek advice from independent financial advisors to ensure you understand the risks.
So, let's see, what we have: how to start trading forex: what is forex, learn forex basics, find a forex broker, start trading at start forex trading
Contents of the article
- No deposit forex bonuses
- How to start trading forex (4 steps)
- Step 1. What is forex?
- Step 2. Learn forex basics
- Step 3. Find a forex broker
- Step 4. Start trading
- Conclusion:
- How to start forex trading (the right way)
- Why start forex trading?
- How to start forex trading for...
- Start forex trading with the right...
- Start forex trading from...
- How to start forex trading...
- » choose A broker
- » create A demo account...
- » learn A strategically...
- Forex trading blast off 2.0
- » fund your...
- » start trading
- In conclusion
- Start forex trading
- How to start forex trading?
- Contents
- The basics: what is forex trading and how does it...
- There are a few benefits to forex trading. They...
- Low barrier to entry
- Better risk management
- High liquidity
- Trade anytime you want
- Low transaction costs
- How to start forex trading in singapore/UK/USA
- How to trade forex for beginners
- How to trade forex with $100
- Forex trading tutorial
- Forex trading app
- Forex trading for beginners – youtube
- How to start forex trading from home
- What is forex?
- Build your knowledge
- Design a trading strategy
- Practice what you’ve learned
- Choose the right broker
- How to start forex trading as A beginner
- Understanding forex trading
- The forex market
- Investment risks in forex trading
- Who should trade forex
- What you need to trade forex
- Where you should trade forex
- How you should trade forex
- Start as A forex investor
- Omegapro forex investment platform
- Conclusion
- How to start as a forex trader (7 steps)
- How to start as a forex trader
- How to start as a forex trader – script
- 1. Find a reputable broker
- 2. Use a demo account
- 3. Create a trade plan
- 4. Education
- 5. Major currencies
- 6. Start small
- 7. Be disciplined
- How to start as a forex trader – conclusion
- How to start as a forex trader – script
- Ready to become a successful trader?
- You have successfully subscribed!
- How to start forex trading for beginners
- How to start forex trading
- The forex market: A market for everyone
- How much money do I need to open A forex account?
- Be risk-aware
- Final thoughts
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