Forex Trading Basics: Concepts and Psychology

1. Commissions and Spreads

How much commission or spread do you pay per trade? You should know this answer without hesitation. Is your spread competitive and reasonable? That might have a number of different answers.
How much you pay for commissions is critical. Before we start it's important to acknowledge that reliable and quality fills are equally as important, that customer service when needed and a well-designed trading interface are also critical to an active trader. So don't let what follows mean we think you should just pursue the very lowest commission charge. That's not the case, but you should be sure you are trading with a firm that is very competitive in all areas - commissions, service, fills and trading platform.

Let's take an example. What if you had a trading system that in 100 trades would "win" 80 times. That's a fairly spectacular 80% win ratio. If you were told you had a guarantee to win 80% of the time, chances are you wouldn't hesitate much more than the time it takes to hit "Submit" to place your first order. But do you realize that it can be fairly easy to actually lose money, even with a system that wins 80% of the time?

Forex Course: A Quick Forex Guide for Traders

In this brief Forex course we will review some steps you need to take care before you venture into your trading journey. Most traders venture into the Forex market with little or no experience in the Forex market.
The first thing you need to realize is that, it is not easy to make money as a forex trader. As every other endeavor in life, where important rewards are to come after mastering it, you need to work hard. You need to get very well educated and experienced before having the possibility to receive important rewards on it. The key on mastering the Forex market relies on commitment, patience and discipline.

Ok, you have decided you are going to trade the Forex market. You might think this is your opportunity to reach your financial freedom, right away, time is money, why waiting any longer if you have the opportunity to make money now. Forex traders, make transactions based on a set of rules. These sets of rules are what we call a Trading System. Our systems tell us the exact time where we need to get in the market and out the market in order to make a profit (i.e. buy low sell high.)

Don't Change Time Frames to Stay in a Losing Trade

Too many times I hear about new traders opening a trade using the 5-minute chart (not my favorite approach) and when the market moves against them, they move to the 15-minute chart to justify staying in a little longer, hoping that the market will turn around.

Then if the market continues to move against them, they move out to the hourly chart to look for a reason to stay in the trade. As the market continues to move against them, they shift to the daily chart to hope to find a reason to stay in the trade. The next step is to get a margin call because they have no funds left to maintain their position. Of course, the main issue here is that they were looking for a way to stay in a losing trade rather than closing it out at a small loss. Taking a loss does not mean that you do not know what you are doing.