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Popular Forex Trading Questions

In this video:
00:25    Fantastic feedback from last week’s video and podcast
01:58    There are no prizes for trading more
03:36    Stick to one strategy
08:00    Why trade Forex
 
Hi, traders. It’s Andrew Mitchem here, the owner of The Forex Trading Coach.

In today’s weekly video and podcast, I’m going to be discussing five more very popular questions that I get asked on a regular basis. So let’s get into that right now.

Hi traders.  Well, following on from the fantastic feedback that I’ve received from last week’s video and podcast, I’ve got five more questions that I’ve been asked, and I get these on a regular basis.  So, I’d like to go through those, because, as I said, the feedback from last week’s was just tremendous, so it’s helping so many of you which is really good feedback, and I’m very pleased to do that.  You know, that’s the aim of these, is to help people progress further with their Forex trading.

So let’s get into the 1st point.

A lot of people say to me, “Hey, look, Andrew, I have a full time job.  I just don’t have the time to dedicate to Forex trading. How can I get into trading with family and life, and children, and sports, and hobbies, etc. How can I get into Forex Trading because I really don’t have a lot of spare time?”

Well, quite simply the answer is this: you don’t have to be trading all of the time. I’ve got a client over in Canada who’s a full time Forex trader, and he trades no more than 4 ½ hours in a week total. That’s it. So you don’t need to be spending hours and hours and hours watching charts, watching every pip move up and down. In fact, I would suggest that you get away from those charts if you are currently looking at those, because so many people spend so much time watching the short time frame charts. Now, it’s really good if you can trade those charts and if you like to trade those and you have the personality to trade those, but I really don’t suggest that most people start at those charts.

There’s a phrase that I use all the time and it’s called, “There are no prizes for trading more.” When you think about that, it’s so true. You don’t have to be trading all of the time in order to do really well, because if you do that you’re going to burn yourself out, you probably not enjoy your trading, and all you’re doing is feeding your broker’s pocket which you don’t want to be doing.

So, my suggestion if you have a full time job and you don’t have a lot of time to dedicate to trading is get to the longer time frame charts. Look at the 4-hour charts or the daily charts or the weekly charts or even out to the monthly charts. You know those longer time frame charts show some fantastic trading opportunities with very high reward to risk trades, and it just means you put the trade on and basically walk away and leave it for a number of hours, a number of days. You don’t have to be there watching the charts all of the time. So please try and get away from the, a lot of people had the mentality, because it’s out there on the Internet, on forums, that you have to be trading 5-minute charts and 15-minute charts.  You don’t.  You don’t have to do that. Get to the longer time frame charts. So, I hope that helps.

Another question: “Andrew I keep jumping from one system to the next system. Help me.”

Look, I used to do that as well, so I have full understanding and appreciation of the draw out there in terms of emails that you get all the time, new systems and strategies, forums telling you, starting new threads, someone’s found the latest greatest robot EA, you know it’s out there all the time.

What I would suggest you do is you either stick to one strategy or you develop your own strategy.  If you want to buy a course or a strategy such as mine, that’s fine. There are several good ones out there, not many, but there are few. But regardless of that, I’m not just saying come and buy mine because I have one. Mine suits me, and it suits a lot of traders like me. Likewise with other courses out there, you know, there are people that trade news, there are people that trade the combination and all sorts of people that scalp, there are people that look at this indicator crossing over that indicator, whatever it is make sure it suits you as a trader. Make sure it suits your trading personality. Make sure that it’s something that’s not restricted to certain pairs or certain time frames or only works at certain times of the week, because you can highly predict that if they do have restrictions they probably are not very good trading strategies. So what I would suggest is if you do end up investing in education or a course, whatever it might be, give it a good go. You know, if it’s proven to work for other people, give it a chance.

I say to a lot of people who look at my course, give it two or three months. Don’t expect to suddenly become this super fantastic trader after one week of studying the course. It’s certainly possible to be making some really good money after few weeks, but don’t expect that to happen to everybody all the time. Give it time.

If you were to invest in your education and go to a college or university, you’re giving yourself years and years of education before you’re ready for the workplace. In some ways trading, yes, it’s condensed because it has a lot more information readily available, but it still has the same philosophy.  Give it time to work and for your eye to look for the setups and your mind to understand the strategy. So don’t rush into things, but try not to jump between system to system and adding bits of an old system to a new one thinking you’re suddenly going to re-invent the wheel, because likelihood is you’re going to end up with the same problem in a few months time, back to yet another strategy.

Another question, and I suppose I’ve already answered it in some ways, because some people say to me, “How long does it take to learn your strategy, my strategy?”

You know it does take time. Everything that you learn takes time. I’ve mentioned on many of these webinars and podcasts that right now I’m learning to fly a helicopter. It takes time. I’ve been going for eight months. I’ve gone solo. I’m still far from being any good, but you know, it’s taking me a lot of time, a lot of dedication, a lot of investment in myself as time and monetary investment, and a lot of education, a lot of learning new things. But it’s getting there, and that’s the same thing with the trading strategy. It’s getting there.  Don’t expect it to solve all your life’s financial problems and your trading problems overnight. But give it time, and over time, if you stick to the rules, then the money from trading won’t become an issue. It just will happen.

The next question: “Andrew do you trade the news?”

Well, not really, is my answer. I know that there are people out there that do trade news, and that’s absolutely fine. I just chose to be a technical trader. I’m aware of the news, and that’s one of the great things with Forex. You can look on Forex Factory and other calendar sites and see when the news is coming. I’m aware that tomorrow is the Scottish Referendum results coming out. I’m aware that this weekend in New Zealand we have the General Election. I’m aware that the clocks change here in New Zealand next week and the week after in Australia and in November they change in America. And so, things like that.  I’m aware of the FOMC meetings. I’m aware of GDP figures. I’m aware of employment data. I’m aware of all those things that are coming out and news events, but I don’t specifically chose to trade the news. The reason being is I like to look at the charts, and I see the likely results of that news announcement, of most announcements, already factored into the market by looking at the charts.

The last question: “Andrew, why Forex? There are so many other markets out there, why did you choose Forex?”

Well, for me there are so many reasons. When the market is open, it’s open 24 hours a day. That’s a great thing. You have weekends off. Another nice thing.  You don’t have to be doing it seven days a week. You don’t have to know a huge amount about what’s happening in terms of; I can be aware of 7 or 8 different currencies and economies around the world and know what they’re doing and that covers the most of the Forex pairs. I don’t need to be aware of which CEO resigned or which company and who’s bringing on a new product and things like that like you do in stocks and shares.

I love property also, but unlike property I can use leverage from my broker. I don’t need to go to bank in terms of applying to have big debts and loans and mortgages. So you can use your broker’s money to your advantage as leverage. Of course leverage is a double edged sword. There’s good things and bad things with leverage like all types of leverage but if you know what you’re doing leverage and Forex can be a fantastic asset to have.

Other things: low cost to entry. I’ve got a computer and four screens here behind me. You don’t have to have four screens. You can work off a desktop or a laptop. Very, very low cost entry. Get yourself educated, give yourself a few months and you can be making some really good money from trading. So there’s a lot of good things there. You get no gaps in the Forex market, apart from maybe a weekend opening gap. It’s not dependent on the U.S. time zone. There’s many, many things other that just make Forex, in my opinion, the best market to trade.

So, I hope that you’ve gained a lot of good information from those five tips. If you have anything that you’d like me to discuss on future webinars and podcasts just email me: [email protected]. It will be interesting to see what happens with Scottish Referendum, personally I think that the “No’s” will probably win it, again, by looking at the charts and what I’m seeing out there. As for the New Zealand general election, I’m anticipating and I’m hoping that the National Party get re-elected for a 3rd consecutive term, as our economy is absolutely booming over this side of the world.

So, that’s it for now. Have a great weekend. I look forward to talking to you this time next week. This is Andrew Mitchem from The Forex Trading Coach.