According to Malcolm Gladwell, the author of the seminal book, Outliers, to be a master at something, it takes 10,000 hours of intensive practice, both physical and psychological dedication.
If you want to be The Master at forex trading, then, TO BEGIN WITH, you must set this idea of the 10,000-hour rule in your mind as well.
Forex is the world’s biggest financial market, with nearly $6.6 trillion of volume exchanged every day. As predicted by the market expert, if 100 people enter into forex trading, more than 75% of them will fail to even start to trade; 20% will definitely lose money, and only 5% to 10% of them will earn a profit from trading. Thus, to become one of the top 5% of traders, you must follow some rules and train/ discipline yourself according to a set of plans.
Here is a good estimate of how long it will take and what you will need to do to learn Forex trading.
Preparation-
1. Learn the basics, which include
1. Fundamental and Technical Analysis
2. Basic Terminology,
3. Currency Pairs’ Characteristics and their Historical Events, What and How they Changed
4. Be Up-To-Date with the Current Market Conditions and World News
5. Enroll yourself in a Forex Training Course and learn directly from the Trade Master
6. Start Journaling Your Knowledge.
2. Emotional Investment
1. Make a habit of tracking how many hours you devote to learning to trade.
2. Avoid distractions and stop listening to others’ suggestions who are not professionals in Forex Trading trainer
3. Measure your competence in calculating and memorizing global and historical events
4. If you want to invest real money soon, you need to be disciplined and able to keep your emotions in check.
5. Be financially stable. You must keep a year’s worth of savings in your bank account, including your living expenses, bills, and every basic financial need.
Month 0 – 3
Demo Trading
1. Dedicate yourself to learning to trade at this point. Learn from dedicated courses, YouTube Tutorials, BabyPips, etc.
2. Study the theories of Forex and start to analyze the trading strategies.
3. At this point, you can practice most kinds of trading strategies on your demo account. Backtest everything to figure out the possibilities of which strategy to take.
4. JOURNAL EVERY LITTLE DETAILS OF YOUR TRADING JOURNEY
5. Take risks on your demo account.
6. There are plenty of currency pairs that create great volatility from time to time. So try out everything, but focus on the most volatile pairs.
7. Set up your entry, take profit, and stop loss as precisely as possible. Moreover, be precise in controlling the lot sizes.
Month 4 – 8
1. Real Trading Account
1. By this point, you have already invested nearly half a year in learning the basics and have participated in demos to test if your plan goes with the flow. Now, it is time for you to open a real account. Keep in mind that choosing a good broker who offers tight spreads in large volumes.
2. Focus on Safe Trading rather than profit
3. As you have already acquired some market experience and collected market data, try to find the best currency pairs that suit your trading style. Now is not a time to Practice and Backtest your trading style, rather, you have no chance to make any mistakes.
4. Find the Best Trading Strategies according to the currency pairs and the time of the market.
2. Controlling Emotional Trading
1. This is The Most Anticipated mistake you will be making while trading in forex. It is very upsetting to lose money, and it is also very difficult to control emotional trading, especially revenge trading.
2. Mark these emotions out in your journal whenever you are trading in forex, and in the future, try to control them.
– Fear
– Greed
– Anger
– Hope
– Excitement/euphoria
Month 8 to Future
You are at the level of post-beginner lessons in trading. Now, your focus will shift from safe trading to taking profit from trading. Create a daily routine in which you will trade every day based on market volatility. If you see potential in trading, then invest more to increase your chances of profiting more. Always keep in mind that discipline and emotional stability are the keys to succeeding in the forex market.
