Day trading is a great way to make some small income on the side or as a great career path. Whichever the direction you choose, the starting point is all the same. This article is being written specifically for Secret Entourage readers. This will be a very direct process and 123 approach to begin trading Forex Trading (Currency Trading). We’ll assume that you know what Forex trading is (currency trading), and that you know why you want to trade the Forex market. For example, you want to make money on the thought that the Mexican Peso will gain 5% over the next year, so you want to buy Pesos now and then convert them back into US Dollars in a year for a 5% gain. This simple example is why many people trade currencies due to the simplicity of the trading.
The Forex market is actually one of the easiest markets to understand and begin trading. This doesn’t make it easy to trade profitably, rather just easier to learn how it affects your investment.
Let’s get started!
We begin with getting a trading platform. There are many out there and the ones you want to look for are those that offer free demo accounts and a rebate programs such as FIPRebates.com.
There are many brokers out there that offer demos, but FIPRebates offers demos plus rebates. Why the importance of rebates? Well, when you begin your live trading, you will begin to learn what it costs to place your trades (your spreads). A rebate program will pay you back partial costs. It is very important to consider this before you begin your trading, as it can be another revenue stream for you and also allow you to build a relationship with that broker. Most people don’t know of this feature when they are trading, but it is a little insight for SE readers in order to help you become profitable traders.
More than likely you will get a platform called MT4. When you first open up the program, it will ask you to fill out your information and it will also have dropdowns such as leverage to use; leave this as default. What you should do is trade the actual size of account you want to trade with live money, as you need to be realistic as possible here. If you feel that your live money deposit will be $10K then choose the $10K option. The purpose of this is so you become comfortable trading this value and see the possible growth and risk involved with the account balance. At this point follow the screenshots and continue to load the platform. The server will generate a user and pass for you. You can reference this information in the “mailbox” tab near the bottom of the platform screen .
Now that your platform is loaded and you can see your starting balance at the bottom of the screen, you’re ready to get trading! MT4 is a very popular trading system for Forex. If you have questions about particular things, there are plenty of videos and tutorials online regarding this. The purpose of this article is to explain how to place a trade and what it means to your balance.
At this point you will be looking at a default workspace and chart. This is what most traders will use to base their trades off. By studying the chart, traders are able to determine the potential movement. This information on charting will be saved for another article. For now, we will just look at placing a trade based on your intuition as in our example of the Peso.
In Forex, everything is traded in pairs. EUR/USD (Euro against US Dollar), USD/CAD (US Dollar against Canadian Dollar), or EUR/CAD (Euro against Canadian Dollar). What this represents is one countries currency against another. For example, if you see the Euro currency being affected more by something happening in the US, then the best pair to trade would be EUR/USD. In addition, if you see the Euro affected by something the Canadians are doing, then the EUR/CAD would be a better pair to trade.
In this example we will focus on EUR/USD. Let’s speculate the EURO will fall based on what is happening with the EUROZONE and investors want to put their money into USD for safety.
Now before we place a EUR/USD trade, you need to know where to find the chart to trade. Within the Metatrader platform you will see symbols and prices on the left side of the platform. This is called a “market watch”. If you look in this market watch, you should see the pair EUR/USD; right click on this and you will see all of the options to view the chart or buy and sell this pair.
When you place a trade on the platform you have a few options for contract values. These values are called: micro, mini, and standard. A micro lot represents $.10/tick (enter as .01 on the platform), so with each tick or point move, it is $.10. A mini lot represents $1/tick (enter as .1 on the platform), so with each point move it will be $1, and a standard lot represents $10/tick (enter as 1 on the platform).
So, we decide to sell or “short” the EUR and place a 1 standard lot or contact value in. If the EUR/USD moves down 100 points from our entry, you would make $1,000 ($10 x 100). The great thing about Forex is that 100 points can be within a matter of minutes, or within the day. That is why many flock to Forex because of the potential. However, you must understand that the same profit also equates into the same loss as well.
Starting point for lot sizes: If you have a $1,000 account, it is best to start with micro lots, when you get up to a $5,000 – $20,000 account 1 mini is safest. Above this, you can begin trading safely with 1 standard, but be aware of how large your stop-losses are and take profits are. Many brokers will let you lose 20% of your account before closing the position for you. This means if you have a $20,000 account and you trade 1 standard lot, it will take 400 points (20% of $20K = $4,000 ~ 1 standard lot = $10 x 400) in the wrong direction before you will automatically be shut out of the trade. Be aware of this percentage when trading, this is called your “Margin”.
Now your trade is into profit, do you close it or ride it out?
If you are asking yourself this question, then you are falling into the statistic that most traders fall into, which is using emotion to exit your positions. What you should be asking yourself in this situation is what next price levels are coming up where the price will struggle to break. This is the point for exit. Don’t let your emotions get the best of you when trading. You need to look at the Forex market with less emotion than other markets, mainly because this market is so vast and it is hard to sway this market with rumors / emotional traders. You also have the option to get out of risk by moving the stop to the entry price in the event the price comes back it will break even.
When you are ready to exit this position, you will see an order window at the bottom of the platform. In this window you will see your position, right click on the position you want to close or modify if you want to move out of risk.
The process to trade in Forex is straight forward. What you will find becomes difficult or confusing is all the options that each trading platform offers. Once you dive into the software, it can get overwhelming. I highly suggest you begin with simple trades NOT using tools, so you can see how the movement of the market affects your balance. Then you can start looking for strategies to trade with.
For reference:
Babypips.com (Education on Forex including strategies to use)
FipRebates.com (Rebate provider for trades)
ForexFactory.com (Be up to date on news and interact with a Forex community)
About Holland Global Trading: Holland Global Trading is a registered commodity-trading advisor (CTA) with a client base that includes a unique blend of both seasoned Forex veterans and people who are completely new to Forex. Our trading team is dedicated to providing research and technical excellence.
As with any investments we MUST state: Disclaimers and Disclosures – Forex trading carries a high level of risk and may not be suitable for all investors. Trading on leverage magnifies the potential for profit and loss. Before deciding to trade forex, you should carefully consider your financial objectives, level of experience and risk appetite. Any opinions, news, research, analyses, prices or other information contained herein is intended as general information about the subject matter covered and is provided with the understanding that this website is not rendering investment, legal, or tax advice. You should consult with appropriate counsel or other advisors on all investment, legal, or tax matters. The information and opinions found on this website are for general information use only and are not intended as an offer or solicitation with respect to the purchase of sale of any currency. All opinions and information contained in this website are subject to change without notice. The reports within the website have been prepared without regard to the specific investment objectives, financial situation and needs of any particular recipient. While the information contained herein was obtained from sources believed to be reliable, author does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness, nor does author assume any liability for any direct, indirect or consequential loss that may result from the reliance by any person upon any such information or opinions.
