Hello from London

[julianj]

Hi,

I am a writer with an arts background who lives in London. I am a total newbie as regards forex trading. I scarcely knew it existed until a few weeks ago, but I need a second income. Have been trading LMT on a demo account for a couple of weeks and done 11 trades - 9 wins and two losers - up 1734.03 pips.

After all I've heard about the dangers, I am still a bit wary.

[marc walton]

Hi Julian, glad to see you are doing well BUT be careful. trading real money is a whole different ball game. the stress, the fear, the greed ! I blew my 1st account when I started to do well. Over confidence can be worse than lack of. lots of free stuff on the site and here in the forum. ALso free e-book to download from the blog if you wish. Best advice is if you do start to trade with real money is only do it with a micro account, trading cents per pip. Good luck, regards, marc

[julianj]

Ta! Marc, will bear this good advice in mind

[julianj]

I have got more aware of how to trade forex, although it has been an unusually hard learning curve for me (I pick things up quickly - I have to for my work as a writer).

Unfortunately I am an "owl": a night person, rather than an early morning "lark". I often feel I haven't got into gear until after 9 am GMT when the markets have been open some time.

I am extremely fortunate that I can work at home to my own schedule, but I find that I am best when I concentrate on whatever I have to do, finish it, and move on. Multi-tasking isn't something I do well. So it is hard to concentrate on writing an article then break off to check how a currency is doing.

So I am struggling with how to manage my trading. Luckily I went down with that unpleasant cold/flu thing that's going round, and while I was recovering I spent some time just watching the FX market (makes a change from afternoon TV!). This was quite instructive as I am having more of a grasp of things, during a volatile time when it wasn't too good to trade.

Anybody got any advice? It seems like trading in the late afternoon or evening the day's "pips" range would be used up.

thanks

Julian

[capsmart]

Hello Julian
And welcome to the club.
I could kill for your results (lol).
I do not have a score of 9 out of 11 in 2 weeks with 1700 pips in 9 trades meaning more than 200 pips per winning trade (taking in consideration the loosing ones).
So you are either a very gifted trader or a very lucky one.
In both cases you need to be careful. As Mark says greed and fear will show when you will start playing with real money and your decisions (unless you are Mr Spock descendant) will be more emotional.
My suggestion is to start with an account that you do not mind loosing. Of course loosing money in such a stupid way is always an issue but it is better to risk one day's work money instead of one month's work money. With time you will gradually increase the amount.

[julianj]

Hi Capsmart,

Don't take it to heart: that was just beginners luck on a demo account! I'm not Mr Spock.

At the moment things are too dodgy to do any trading IMO so I'm just spectatating or doing paper trades.

Julian

[raa]

Hi Julian

I am reading now a book Marc has recommended, Trading in the Zone, and so far this is a MUST READ for anyone who is even slightly curious about distant possibility to be a trader. Could be the best money spend on FX together with a ForexMentorPro.

Cheers
Alex

[julianj]

Hi Alex,

Coincidentally, I've just got some Amazon vouchers so that should be my next buy I think. Doesn't sound too much like bedtime reading though

cheers

Julian

[raa]

Actually it is anything but technical, so could be a pretty much relaxing reading though.

[capsmart]

I agree. Trading in the Zone is not a technical book but rather a psychological book. You need to read it a couple of times.
Another older book from the same author is the "Disciplined trader".
I also liked the come into my trading room from Elder. It is about stocks but the principles are similar.