How to become a trader?

Motivation

For sure, you have seen movies like “Margin Call”, “The Wolf of Wall Street” and many more where market pros go through personal dramas while making millions just by looking at financial charts. Probably, you wanted to do the same. The idea is indeed attractive. Who wouldn’t like to earn money studying the market movements on the screen and making trades based on the analysis? It is truly possible and worth your time, so let’s see how you can make it your reality. 

Just like in a movie

The abundance of various devices and the availability of the Internet makes Forex trading technically very easy. What a trader does, be it a once-a-week hobby or a full-time occupation, is reading the news, understanding how they affect prices, looking at various charts which represent those prices, and making trades according to the obtained information. All of that may be done through a desktop, a laptop, or a mobile device. A smartphone and Internet success is all that makes a trader’s toolbox. 

You decide

There is absolute flexibility with trading in relation to your lifestyle. You can become a full-time dedicated trader living 100% on the profits you make in the market, you can have it as a part-time additional source of income, you can do it just for fun or any other reason, be it profit-making, curiosity, or self-development. This liberty in incorporating Forex trading into your lifestyle is another advantage that makes it worth considering. 

Not a problem

From the technical side, things are pretty easy if you want to try trading: you register, confirm your credentials, deposit funds, and start making orders. From that moment, you can consider yourself a trader. If you are completely new to trading, not accustomed to a trading terminal or a personal area – don’t worry: you will master all these things before you notice it. Take some time to check the guidelines for beginners – we have prepared texts and videos that will make your first steps in trading really smooth.  

Orders of magnitude

Now, you will naturally ask a question: how do I become as good as all those famous traders who, just like in the movies, make millions? The answer is: there is no need for that. All you have to do is to orient yourself at becoming a better version of yourself. That means, if a trader can start the month with a $100,000 and end the month with $105,000, that’s good. If another trader starts with $100 and closes the month with $105, that’s equally good. Therefore, don’t compare yourself with other traders and don’t give into a gambler’s mentality. Measure your success only in relative percentages between your own initial and final amounts – this approach will make your self-evaluation most effective, easy, and honest. 

Training dojo

Try a demo account first, it’s really useful. It gives you a sense of how things work in real life – from the technical point of view. That’s also one of the best tools to feel familiar and comfortable with your trading terminal, personal area, and related applications. So you will be already technically savvy and practically prepared to do the same with the real money that you have been doing with the demo. Take that as a flight simulator any pilot has to master before taking the steering wheel of an aircraft with people on board. Obviously, there will be a difference between trading demo and real money, just like there is one between flying a real plane and a simulation. You want to make that transition as smooth as possible, right? Then the demo is designed for you. 

Emotions

You may consider it ridiculous, but your emotions will be your main problem when you go on trading. Not the techniques, not the lack of knowledge, not market fluctuations, nor anything else. All external factors out there are pretty easy to handle: some are manageable, so you manage them; some just come as a given, so you just react to them from your side. This picture, however, gets a bit more complicated when emotions kick in, and they will kick in at times because it is your money at stake. Just keep that in mind and be prepared: while there are many things to manage in the outside world, your inner world is what needs to stay in the focus. If you make sober market decisions, your trade will be fruitful. 

Intuition

Just like in any art or profession, some things come with time. Market intuition is one of these things. There is nothing really special about it, but a lot of traders just don’t get quite close enough to it – primarily because they think that techniques are all they need. Similar to handing a flight, just steering an aircraft and checking indicators is enough to become a pilot. A good pilot, however, goes extra mile learning, trying, and waiting. The same works here: to start developing market intuition, you will need time, observation, patience, and sobriety of mind. Be there to contribute it to your trade and to dedicate yourself to trading in those minutes, hours, or days which you decided to spend with Forex. Be sure – you will be rewarded generously, and your intuition will be there to help you. In the end, there is no need to win against the market all the time. Even the best traders make mistakes. All you need is to tilt the balance of the right decisions above 50%.   

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Author: FBS Analyst Team

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