By Todd Judkins

Close to 95% of all Forex traders will lose money. We’re not just talking about novices, either. Whether you trade Forex for a living, as a hobby or just for fun, odds are against your success. That’s a simply astonishing fact. However, the remaining 5% of Forex traders somehow manage to break even and there are those lucky few that actually make money in the currency market – consistently!

Like the TV show says … “How’d they do that, anyway?”

That’s the million dollar questions, isn’t it? Countless books, seminars and expos have been hosted to answer this very question. That sad fact is that thousands of books have been written and countless seminars and interviews have been conducted in an attempt to answer the magic questions. The reality of the situation is that there is no magic formula; no one single Holy Grail of Forex trading.

So what do the successful traders do that the rest of us have simple not comprehended. They have mastered a process of winning where they combine and customize several factor to produce consistent results. They have mastered the Process of Trading.

The Process of Trading is:

Strategy > Money Management > Self-Mastery

Here are some simple Forex Education tips to help you master the process of forex trading:

Success Tip #1 – You’ve Got To Have a Plan

You must have a written business plan that will detail all aspects of your trading. When are you going to trade, how much to risk, strategies for entries and exits are just o name a few. To become a consistent (profitable) Forex trader you have to plan your trade sand trade your plan.

Simplicity rules! Don’t make this plan too complicated. One sheet of paper for you mission statement and another for your trading plan should suffice. Anything more is probably too complicated.

Success Tip #2 – Focus on Your Personal Psychology

Knowing yourself will allow you to master the discipline necessary to execute high quality trades with solid money management techniques. Lack of discipline is fatal in Forex trading. Go on a personal journey to identify you attitudes towards risk and money. Get intimate with your strengths and weaknesses as a trader and build in to your trading plan strategies to minimize those weaknesses and maximize your strengths.

Different personalities lend to different trading styles. Get familiar with all the different styles and over time you will begin to gravitate towards one particular style. Don’t fight the urge like I did. I insisted I was a day trader, but had only limited results. I found my winning percentages were much higher when I entered swing trades. Guess what’s my bread and butter strategy now!

Success Tip #3 – Be Realistic About Your Expectations

This is a hard one, I know! I am on the internet every day and the amount of advertising is staggering. Brokers are offering free education (fox in the hen house if you ask me), forums of all different trading styles and points of view. Gurus pushing their system as “the one” that will make you the big bucks. How do you get through all that noise?

Let me tell you loud and clear right now – everyone is right and everyone is wrong. You have to make a personal commitment to become a successful trader, find a trading style that works for you and expect a slow and steady approach to wealth building through Forex.

What works for me may not work for you. Expect to go through an exploratory period where you are learning and at the same time exploring yourself as a trader. Keep an open mind and don’t pay attention to all the noise out there.

Success Tip #4 – Exercise Patience

Rome was not built in a day and neither will your trading account. In fact, I tell all of my students that while they are studying to become successful Forex traders they should not look solely at their account balance as an indication of success or failure.

By tracking and increasing your percentage of high quality trades you execute is a far better barometer of your progress than your account balance. Cause and effect rule here. Over time when you increase your probabilities through the execution of high quality trades your account balance will respond accordingly.

Keep the focus on the process and with time your results will blow your mind.

Success Tip #5 – Money Management Is Top Priority

I would rather have a shaky strategy and excellent money management techniques than the other way around. This topic warrants its own blog post to do it justice. Limited your exposure (read “risk”) allows for you to stay in the game and allow the laws of probability to work.

Let’s take a casino for example. They need gamblers to frequent their slot machines to make money. Why? They have a game that has a greater than 50% chance of making money for the house. The more people that play the slots, the greater the casino’s profits.

The casino controls risk by payout tables (always favoring the house!) and increases their probabilities by keeping gamblers at the slot machines (read “free drinks”). As a trader you must limit your risk by committing only 1% – 3% of available capital to a single trade. When you execute enough trades with a high probability strategy you too can clean up like the casinos – but only by staying in the game long term.

In conclusion, Forex trading is not easy. It’s hard work and will test the limits of your patience and perseverance. If anyone tells you otherwise .., buyers beware! It can be a very rewarding and profitable venture if done correctly. In the end it is a profession that requires a learning curve and practical experience, no different than an airline pilot or engineer. Understanding how to approach and learn this game will allow you to reap all the benefits advertised. It is your Forex Education that you will master the Process of Forex Trading.

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By Brian McAboy

Forex, or foreign exchange, is a special arena of trading securities that consists of the simultaneous buying and selling of world currencies. With hubs in New York, Tokyo, Sydney and London, there is a 24-hour market that allows for round-the-clock trading of currencies. As is the case with many securities markets, Forex trading is speculative and requires that a person attain a certain skill and knowledge level to achieve consistent profits and to avoid suffering the leveraged losses. In this internet age, many choose to learn forex currency trading online.

Numerous sites are available to learn forex currency trading on line. These range from brokerage sites to platforms, educational sites and general sites, such as YouTube. Many forex brokers will offer free webinars to help you learn forex currency trading online, whether or not you open an account with them. Many also offer demo accounts so that you can both trade and learn forex currency trading online, with mentoring and live chat areas.

Educational sites offer various resources to learn forex currency trading online. These range in media type and include such items as online sessions and downlable files, interactive lessons with mentors, online seminars and home study materials. These resources to learn forex trading range in cost from free to sometimes thousands of dollars.

There is a certain curriculum to learn forex currency trading online, and it has the same basic structure as many other trading arenas. First one must learn about how the markets work, the nuances specific to forex, the terms, money and risk management, etc. Understanding the charts and how trading currency pairs differs from other securities is critical to learn forex currency trading online.

In learning forex currency trading online one must have a broker, but unfortunately there are few resources on how to select the best broker and platform for you. This is usually a process of investigation into various forex trading online brokers, then getting to know them and their platform before opening and funding an account. This is often the most critical step to learn forex currency trading online. It is intended to be a long-term relationship, so exercise considerable caution to ensure that you are comfortable with your broker and that they meet all of your needs.

All too many people get into forex trading online before they are properly prepared. Since this is a speculative endeavour and the leverage can empty your account faster than it will make you rich, take the time to educate yourself and get to know what you are doing. One key element in your trading is having a proven forex trading system. Relying on broker advice and tips is risky, as they are human and trading the opinions of others is one common mistake many make in trading, even the opinion of your broker. Above all, treat your trading as the business that it is, and make sure that you learn forex currency trading online to build both your proficiency and skill before putting money at risk.

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By Kelly Price 

If you are new to Forex trading you may consider day trading but beware of the fact that day traders ALWAYS lose for the following reason:

All short-term price volatility is random

There are countless millions of traders each day that trade trillions of dollars worth of currency and to say that you can measure what they will do in a few hours or a day is the biggest myth of currency trading.

THE PROOF

You may say that you have seen forex trading systems that claim profits and what they do is claim and NEVER produce a real track record.

You normally get the following:

1. Outrageous Claims

Advertising copy pure and simple, with no substantiation – designed to appeal to the greed and naivety of the buyer.

2. A Hypothetical Track Record

Let me explain what this is, for those of you who don’t know:

It’s a hypothetical track record done in hindsight KNOWING the closing prices! How hard is that?

Anyone can do it and there not worth the paper they’re written on. The fact so many traders don’t question them or don’t ask for a real track record, means they lose and wonder why.

Anyone can make money knowing the closing prices but in Forex Trading you don’t get that luxury – its what makes forex trading so hard.

The reason you don’t get a real time day trading track record is simple – day trading DOESN’T work.

If it did you would see a day trader with a real track record but of course if you try and find one you’re in for a long search.

Day Traders don’t make money – PERIOD.

If you want to make money with forex technical analysis you need to trade in time frames where the data can help you get the odds on your side and this means normally data of a few weeks minimum, not a few hours.

Think about it – if you have random volatility that can and do take prices anywhere in a day, its impossible to apply any technical tools to it. The tools maybe good but the data is unreliable and that’s why day traders lose.

The proof is a real time track record and you wont get one in day trading – try asking one of the vendors who try and sell day trading systems for one and get ready for a long search.

Day trading does not work and never has and it’s one of the biggest myths of trading that forex traders fall for – dont fall into the trap or you will lose to.

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By Kelly Price 

There is one mistake made more often by novice traders than any other. If you make this mistake you will never win and never achieve currency trading success, lets take a closer look at it.

The mistake that most novice Forex traders make is:

They think that they must predict price direction in advance to make money – It’s a fatal error for the following reason:

If you predict you are hoping or guessing that the market goes your way. If you hope or guess, you are going to lose and lose quickly. You can win without predicting but let’s first look at why this mistake is made by so many fore traders.

The Myth Of Prediction

The myth of prediction is common and as vendors selling forex trading systems use it all the time – to appeal to the greed and naivety of traders and the main culprits are those that say markets move to scientific theory.

King of them is Elliot wave and Fibonacci numbers but there are many more who will tell you that you can predict market tops and bottoms with accuracy. Of course, if markets were scientific we would all know the price in advance and there would be no market. Markets move because of opinions and thats a fact and no one can predict these opinions with scientific accuracy.

If the people selling these systems had discovered how to do what they claim they wouldn’t need to bother you – they would be making to much money!

So How Do You Trade?

You don’t predict – you CONFRIM price momentum is going your way then trade. For example – You see prices moving to support, but you don’t just jump in and hope – you wait for price momentum to turn up above support and then execute your trading signal.

If you trade with price momentum on your side you are shifting the odds in your favour.

Two great indicators for doing this are the stochastic and Relative Strength Index – Look them up in our other articles if are not familiar with them. These are not only good for entering trades but also for exiting them as well and you need to use momentum indicators if you want to win at forex trading.

The biggest error a trader can make is trying to predict – always confirm and you will have the odds on your side, which will ultimately lead you to currency trading success.

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By Monica Hendrix 

If you want to trade forex you need a forex trading strategy, which will allow you to enter the elite 5% of traders who make money and avoid the 95% who lose all their money. Let’s look at a forex trading strategy for success.

1. Basics

Many people think they can buy success from a vendor on the net but you can’t – most of the advice sold is junk and you can get better info for free. Any one who promises to give you success for a few hundred bucks is lying – success comes from within only you will make yourself rich, no one else your on your own.

Educate yourself from the great free resources on the net as the basis of your forex trading strategy. Use a technical approach it’s far easier than fundamental analysis. The latter, will get your emotions involved and with news instantly discounted, its impossible to trade it so don’t try.

Your Forex Trading System

If you educate yourself on technical analysis then you need a system and here is what you need to look at:

1. Learn about breakout methodology (see our other articles) its easy to understand and apply and works.

2. A fatal mistake made by most traders in their forex trading strategy is they try to predict where prices will go.If you do you will lose. You are relying on hope and if you rely on hope like in any venture your are going to lose.

3. Trade the odds and this means price momentum should support your view and confirm the trade before you enter. Two great momentum indicators are – the stochastic and the Relative Strength Index – look them up and use them.

4. Money management is essential and you need to protect what you have – with a breakout methodology that’s easy, your stop will be close behind the breakout when it occurs.

If you follow the above 4 steps in constructing your forex trading strategy, you will have the basics of a system that’s easy to understand apply and makes big profits.

3. The Key To Success

The key to success is to have confidence and discipline

The above system will give you that.

Confidence is essential as it leads to discipline and if you don’t have the discipline to follow your system you have no trading system in the first place.

The other key is to work smart not hard – You get no rewards for effort just for the success of your forex trading signals, so trade infrequently.

Using a breakout system and only trading the best trends means that you can learn everything in about a week and your forex trading strategy will take around 30 minutes a day to apply.

If you base your forex trading strategy on the above 3 points you will have the ingredients needed to enjoy currency trading success.

Good luck!

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