Most people probably got in to forex trading after being taken in by the wild claims of easy riches. There are so many faux gurus out there, each telling the unsuspecting they're only a few clicks away from untold wealth. However, once you've shelled out your cash the promises fade in to the background at roughly the same speed as the guru running away with your money.
It's as wise to remember that someone as successful as Warren Buffet plainly states that he hasn't found the golden fleece yet. So the chances of an unheard of internet chancer succeeding when no other financial institution with all the world's financial resources and access to the greatest minds on the planet are nil, zitch, zero, nought......
I got in to forex over a year ago and have devoted hundreds, maybe thousands, of hours to it. It's often frustrating, rarely easy and in the beginning ludicrously complex, stressful and costly. I've said it before, TUFXP is as guilty as the rest of them for their fanciful marketing claims, but when you've seen as many trading systems as I have you'll start to understand it's better than most of them, albeit hugely more expensive than the majority. The new back testing facility is a fantastic addition and will help you tweak your settings with great effect.
The vast majority of newbie forex traders give up, perhaps deterred by the reality that forex trading isn't as easy as the first impressions given. Some of us have stuck in there, persevered, gone on to
Forex Trading: Online Currency Trading in the Foreign Exchange Market and done their (superb) training course (it's free), learned by bitter experience and now make money from forex. It's essential that you immerse yourself in the forums -
www.forexfactory is in my opinion the best. Forum members are often incredibly generous with their time and advice. And there are hundreds of trading systems on the forums, all offered for free, usually with the system owner willingly providing support and assistance.
I use TUFXP every day, and make money from it. But my biggest and best "system" is one I've developed myself - for free. After studying for what seems like an eternity it just popped out off the screen at me. Thing is, and this is the frustrating part of forex trading, what works for one person doesn't work for another. I've explained it to a colleague, who then went on to trade it. We used the same pairings, the same time frames and the same trading MetaTrader platform. I made money, he didn't. It suited my personal psychology, but not his. My system is based on a combination of Bollinger Bands and Parabolic SAR's - I assess the entry and exit points myself. So it's not possible to "teach" how to use it, it's all down to the individual.
Here are my potted suggestions for newbies trying to find your way around forex:
1. Do the
Forex Trading: Online Currency Trading in the Foreign Exchange Market course;
2. Surf the forums;
3. Learn one system at a time, but look to develop maybe 3 methods so you can spread your risk in case a system stops working or is banned (don't laugh, the US authorities banned a certain type of hedge trading this week);
4. Sign up for a free MetaTrader demo account (in my opinion Alpari provide the best MetaTrader platform in the UK);
5. Play around with the currencies, timeframes, indicators and settings. If nothing else, you'll learn more about forex than you knew before.
6. Think long and hard whether you're most suited to short term scalping, day trading, position trading over 2-5 days, hedging or long term trading.
7. Use the demo account briefly, but quickly start to trade real money (at the lowest possible stakes). This goes against what most people will tell you but I honestly don't believe you'll react in the same way when trading fake money and real money.
8. Never, never, never trade if you can't afford to lose your trading bank. Quite aside from the fact it's financial suicide you'll find it unbearably stressful and you won't trade rationally.
Hope this helps.