Today I am pleased to introduce you to Thierry Martin from OnlineTradersForum.com. I asked Thierry, an expert Forex Trader, to talk about his experience in Forex and how the market has changed since he first started.
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by Thierry Martin / OnlineTradersForum.com
Like so many long-time stock traders, I have noticed over the last few years a constant stream of ads with the purpose of getting stock traders open an account to trade foreign exchange, or forex. These ads make it sound like we're in the wrong business, because they usually point out all the advantages of trading forex compared to all the disadvantages of trading stocks. If you are like me, you were curious, but never bothered to actually go through with it and give it a try. 
Well, finally, I gave in. What triggered my decision to get my feet wet was that I opened a new stock trading account with a company that also offered forex trading. The minimum deposit needed for the stock trading account was $2,000 but for the forex account it was $250, what they call a "mini" account. This sounded like a reasonable amount to risk on something I knew very little about, so I went ahead and funded it.
While waiting the three days for the account to be processed, I started learning how to trade forex by using a simulator account, something that almost every forex dealer offers. These accounts are funded with virtual money, and operate exactly like a live account with the obvious difference that you can't lose your money if your trades go south. I found this very useful, since I made a lot of mistakes that would have cost me real money otherwise. The simulators or "practice accounts" are a very good way to learn forex, although
you need to remember that your trading will be less relaxed when you are trading with real money.
Many forex firms offer the practice accounts to anyone who wants to open one, even those who aren't funding a real account. So you really have nothing to lose trying your hand at forex this way, and finding
out whether or not you want to trade later with real money.
Experiencing the forex market with a practice account, I started to see the validity to many of the claims I heard over the years. I am a late-night person, and it was great to be able to trade at 2:00 a.m. - some of the currency pairs were trading thinly at this time, but there were others with massive moves and huge volume.
Trading long or short was simple, with the same amount of risk, in contrast to shorting stocks where you need to follow certain restrictions. I was able to get out of forex trades going in the wrong direction and reverse my position immediately, and often recoup my losses quickly.
Another great advantage with forex trading is that you don't need to worry about day trading rules - you can trade in and out of a position as much as you want, scalping for small profits 24 hours a day, and you can start with as little as $100 with some forex brokers. (You should probably start with at least $250 though, this is the minimum you need to allow you to make mistakes without getting wiped out completely.)
In my next article I'll point out some more "advantages" to forex trading versus stock trading.
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Thierry Martin operates the popular stock trading forum OnlineTradersForum.com - http://www.onlinetradersforum.com & the new forex trading forum ForexSuperForum.com http://www.forexsuperforum.com
What great advice you guys have around here. Since Thursday, 5th of June, I have had it very bad with my selling position with USDCAD and EURGBP. Currently am down by more than 1800 dollars only left with just about 300 dollars. I am afraid these currency pairs may continue their rise. Should I simply close my positions or patiently wait in this precarious situation.My account is going down south at a rapid rate. A little confused! Need help.
Thanks for the post, still have a lot to learn..
I remember my first two trades quite clearly.
My first lessons in forex were to use MACD and look for divergence along with pivot points. My first trade was losing, I got upset and so I closed it and went the other way, and then made my money back!
My next trade was based on the COT data, in which I shorted the AUD and made money.
From there, I lost the most money in my whole trading career! LOL
Wow, what a ride!
I just play with forex market,but i am realy not much happy with market club about forex news,event
and stratagies. Adam don't discuss much about forex market. I am also waiting for forex club but i don't know how long you guys will take to open it for members any way best regards.
Harris
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I tried forex with a company called AVA and just yesterday, in their list of things bound to affect the market, there was nothing said about Trichet, head of the European central bank. He gave a speech and as a result, the Euro rose 250 pips...the biggest single day move of this year. In contrast, when Bernanke, head of the fed, spoke, his upcoming speech was front page news, highlighted in red, and the market moved less. Really caught me by surprise, so be prepared, and always put in stops.
Reply for Sam
I see your new to Forex so I will give you a little advice just from my experiance. This week is the week "Non Farm Payrole" It has been my experiance that the week of this event each month can be a rocky one. I too saw the triangle signal on eur/usd but chose not to take it due to this event and the fact that it had a buy signal on a bearish candle. Remember the triangles are just one of your tools.
Good luck on your next trade.
Tom
oops: huge.
I'd be delighted to trade the other end of the rope against the guys that just dive into fx after a couple seminars. The risks are hugh.
Adam, could you comment on Sam's eurusd trade, if there is anything more to say than you win some, you lose more, so make the losing trades smaller than the winners?
I started trading Forex few weeks ago,I took the traingle approch and lost $1600 today. Trade Triangle showed to go short on EURUSD 06/04 daily chart @ 1.5409. Look at the price today EURUSD is @1.5549. I guess Market club works only when Adam does his videos. Showing backtest result are no gurntee for future outcomes. Very disappointed
This happens to be very timely for me. I attended my 1st Forex seminar 2 weeks ago and I am very enthused to learn all I can about this.
Thank you