Foreign exchange, Forex or FX for short, is the exchange of one currency for another at an agreed price. It is also known as currency trading and Forex trading. It existed since biblical days which underlines its indispensable role in commerce.
In modern times, Forex is a decentralized global market. It is a place where most of the world’s currencies trade. It is the largest and most liquid market in the world. Daily trading volume runs in multi-trillions. The price of currencies float and the market is open 24 hours, except on weekends.
Because of these facts, Forex offers endless opportunity to make money. Having said that, it is a risky investment and could result in total and even negative capital loss. A study showed that 95% of traders lose their investments within 6 months only.
When I started trading in 2009, I thought that this is where I belong, but I ended up in the 95%, haha. There’s this saying: “If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.” Ignorance is very costly indeed as I lose big since it took me years to realized what was wrong. I was trading for profit and it is a blunder a beginner is bound to make.
If I have only one advice to share, this would be it: “Don’t trade to profit, trade to learn instead. Don’t be an expert, be a student. Spend the majority of your time studying the market and learning from your mistakes. By learning, thru time you and the trading strategy will become more mature and refined. Profit comes to those who learn so to speak.”
Interested in doing Forex trading yourself? Here are more practical tips to get you started:
First things first, learn the basics of Forex trading. Don’t rush, start with baby steps and head towards BabyPips. Speak the financial and Forex lingo using Investopedia.
Next, open a demo Forex account at a regulated broker. Exness is reliable. But still, do your due diligence. ForexPeaceArmy has a comprehensive review of Forex brokers to help you decide.
While on the demo, learn and develop a trading strategy for as long as you like. You’ll be needing a lot of information and tools in your analysis. ForexFactory, MyFxBook, and MQL5 are excellent sources of indicators, systems, and news. These sites have an active community that never stops sharing information. Receive lots of third-party commentaries from DailyFX and ForexCrunch.
If you don’t have an online payment processor yet, sign up with Skrill. It is a leading digital payments company used to send and receive money with low fees. You may need it to fund your trading account.
Once you’re confident, open a Cent account at Exness. Be on the safe side, cents make more sense. Even when you lose in a real trading, you lose cents and not hundreds. Mind you, the anxiety of actually losing money is nothing compared to what you experience in a demo. Believe me.
Last but not least, do yourself a favor and get paid while trading. CashBackForex gives cash rebates every time you trade. They provide one of the highest rates in the industry. It doesn’t matter if you are winning or losing, you still get the rebates. Compare the rate of each broker here.
If you are lazy like me and have no time to learn all these, there’s MyDigiTrade. It’s a copy trading platform. No sweat, just let the pros do the trading for you. You must, however, choose the right strategy to copy.
Another trading platform is Etoro, they are not MetaTrader based and they have their version of copy trading.
Forex trading is a lucrative business, at the same time, it is fraught with risks. Learn the intricacies first. Develop a reliable trading strategy before investing a huge amount of money.
Tried to install an MT4 Expert Advisor(EA) but you can’t find it in the Navigator? That’s most probably because it didn’t install properly. MetaQuote’s latest build of MetaTrader has a completely revamped directory structure and EAs, indicators, scripts, and libraries are now located in new directories. The old EA’s were not updated to install in these locations.
To fix this problem you need to manually place the EA files in their respective folders. But how to extract them from the installer?
Not a problem at all. You can use Universal Extractor or UniExtract for short. It is a program specifically designed to decompress and extract files from any type of archive or installer. To use it, browse for the target installer then click “OK” button and it will start extracting the contents. EA files usually consist of the EA itself which have an extension of .ex4 and the library file(.dll).
After extraction, go to your MT4 and on the menu, select “File”, then “Open Data Folder”. Open the “MQL4” directory and copy the extracted .ex4 file and paste it in the “Experts” folder, while the .dll goes to the “Library”.
That’s it, restart MT4 and you’ll find the EA waiting for you in the “Navigator”.
Disclaimer: Forex, futures, and options trading involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for all investors. Do not trade with money you cannot afford to lose. This website is neither a solicitation nor an offer to buy or sell currencies, futures, or options. No representation is being made that any account will or is likely to achieve profits or losses similar to those discussed on this website. Any information contained on this website is provided as general market commentary and does not constitute investment advice. The website owner will not accept liability for any loss or damage, including without limitation to, any loss of profit, which may arise directly or indirectly from the use of or reliance on such information. Remember that the past performance of any trading system or methodology is not necessarily indicative of future results.
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