Hi all, great forum here thanks to great minds. Let me give you some background. I would consider myself a reluctant investor. I dont find this business exciting offhand. I see money as a necessary evil to pursue things I'm better at or absolutely need. I can rebuild an engine, a kitchen, or a web site but trading goes into an abstract part of my brain that I find myself a little slow at...maybe its just all the unfamiliar jargon and principals. The problem is the stuff I'm inclined enjoy or find personal benefit from is either a money drain (making my 12 year old 4x4 run like its brand new) or a long term gain (home remodeling) ...and I could use some extra money now. Add to that the fact that I've seen little return on the vocation I've chosen. Following a slew of corporate buyouts that left me unemployed many times, I switched to being self employed in the marketing communications field. I'm good at what I do but I've come to the conclusion I need lots of money to make any money. I've got coming in about $50K/yr guaranteed on one contract. I pick up other jobs on the way, some months I'll make nothing extra, next month I'm looking at approx $4K. The $50K is what I need to take care of our needs more or less. If I'm lucky I'll bag an extra $12-$16K this year. I want to approach investing as an aside - using the cash I get above my guaranteed contract as the capital for this market investing venture. I won't feel alot of emotion if I lose it all - I'm used to it (I've worked for alot of startups). All that to say I intend to take an aggresive approach to this with a laid back attitude about where I end up. Some assumptions: - Don't need alot of sleep. My trading time would best suit my schedule from around 11pm Central Time till about 1 or 2am. (Gotta babysit clients during the day ) - I figure I would give this carefull attention 3-4 days per week. - I'll kick the account off with $3-4K. - Cash out around Sept - #3 is due and we need a minivan. The more I make the nicer/newer the car. I prefer to pay cash for the best-selling worst investment available - If I enjoy it and/or like how I did I'll stick with it thereafter with new cash. ....... Some questions: - I have a game account with Oanda. I've heard good things about them. However taking into account my aggressive mindset and (for now) short term goal - should I look into one with greater leverage? FXSol? - What are the best pairs to trade during the above time period and what days of the week? - Any free strategies/systems websites worth looking into? Fxstreet.com and the like have been helpful but as far as systems - so far trolling your threads here have been the most helpful - though usually only explained in passing. - Am I barking up the wrong tree? I'm seeing gold as a volitile market. Others? These are things I just don't know enough about so some direction is greatly appreciated. Feel free to flame - I can take it
I'll be the first. You may just be joking, but if not... I don't trade fx, but I can't imagine that it is where they give the money away. If you have so little money to trade with you should wait until you have at least $50k saved. I don't know how you could possibly succeed with less. Then I'd suggest that a new trader give getfolio.com a look.
Oanda's leverage should be enough, with 400:1 you'll just blow your account faster unless you have a well tested risk strategy which absolutely needs as high leverage as that. Use FXGame to learn the platform and then move on to FXTrade practicing with small trades. Really small. As your confidence and abilities grow adjust trade size percentually upwards.
here's a thread that has just gotten started - i think it identifies the stages of progression quite well. http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?threadid=76369 i also can't seem to understand a lot of posts from new traders looking to trade forex. i am guessing this is due to marketing from forex bucket shops which have mushroomed during the dollar slide in the last few years. from my analysis, the more liquid the market, the fewer opportunities it offers - in fact, my analysis doesn't matter, it's just logical that liquidity drives efficiency. best of luck in your trading.
Bretwalda, I trade forex, successfully I can tell you that forex is a good place to make money any pair will do, I do EUR/USD spread is thin however you should know that I used my futures knowledge to adapt to forex and it took me 3 years to learn futures so you will blow up, that is a fact. but also as sad as it is, blowing up is also necessary IMO. I blew up 2 times in my first 1.5 years. so go blow up come back, blow up again. then you will decide to seriously research it, and third time is the charm