Of course, before you start learning anything in practice, you study the theory. For that, there is no better school in the web than the one published at forexpeacearmy.com . That's a good start. Once you've done that, you're welcome in my virtual class room.

Knowing the jargon and the facts, does not make you a trader. At least not a winning trader. What else does NOT make one a winning trader?
  • Blindly following a "superduper always winning" strategy. Such strategies do not exist. Every strategy needs a trader to handle it. There really is no strategy for apes and neanderthals.
  • Buying a strategy-in-a-box or a course-in-a-box. Waste of money.
  • Thinking money can be made easily by trading.
  • Being a dumb-ass (sorry for the expression).
What is absolutely a necessity for becoming a successful trader?
  • Being able to control your emotions as greed (that is the most important one), impatience and doubt.
  • Being able to learn from mistakes. Only bad trades can improve your trading, good trades make you less careful.
  • Some basic calculus capabilities and being able to think logically.

See the previous article : my promise to give back Pandora's Box

I had a nice talk with my new community friend VictoriaVika about math, logic as opposites of intuition and emotion. We sort of came to the conclusion that the ability of thinking logically does not rule out the ability or even the nature of being an emotional or intuitive person. In trading however arguments like "this trade feels good..." are the best way to loose money.



So all decions in trading are always made on non-subjective arguments. And that is good news, because those are easier to learn than intuitive decisions.

What is next? I'd say: start drawing lines in charts. Look for straight lines (not for nice curvy lines that we find on the beautiful women in our Miss Dukascopy Contest) on tops or bottoms of candles. Then draw a line along side of them in charts. With no other goal than finding them. Now remember: every line has to hit three tops (not exactly) or three bottoms. Like in the example below.


This is the beginning of pattern recognition. By far the most important aspect of trading. By doing this you learn to see the movements in charts. And do yourself a favour, turn the charts upside down and draw the lines again, as in trading there is nu up or down, there is only long and short. Looking down is just as important as looking up. And do this with one pair only: the EURUSD for example.

When you are drawing and looking at charts try to recognize curves and pointy patterns. They tell you a lot about where price is going.

Lunch time. Tomorrow (or the day after): next lesson. And please let me know if i need to go on with this.
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