By Mark Bond
My first few forex trades were horrible. I jumped into the market on a whim and of course I lost money immediately. I was very discouraged, but I was determined to be successful at this vocation, no matter what!
I have been working at the same dead end job for the past 7 years, only making enough to pay the bills. I came across the TradingHeroes.com website and got inspired to look into learning forex trading. The lifestyle that these traders have is awesome!
At first it was kind of confusing, like with most endeavors. The thing that confused me the most was trying to figure out when a currency pair would go up or down according to fundamental news. After a few months of fiddling around and getting nowhere, I decided to find at least one inexpensive course to at least learn the basics. I bought it and it was great!
I was trading (and still am) a practice account, but I was still losing money. At least I was losing money at a slower rate.
After reading blogs and forums, I heard a lot of people talking about backtesting software. What the heck is that?!
Further research led me to such software programs as Metatrader and Tradestation. These were great programs with one small problem. They allowed me to test automated forex trading systems, NOT discretionary systems. What I needed was a forex software simulation program that let me practice executing trades candle by candle.
This would allow me to try out different technical analysis indicators in “real time” and actually judge how I would probably react in certain market conditions. I couldn’t find anything searching on Google at the time, but while reading the TradingHeroes.com blog one day, I heard about this great forex simulation practice software.
I checked the website and it was very inexpensive so I downloaded it immediately. It is a great piece of software and they even have free data that you can download from the website to import into the program.
After that, I became a forex strategy simulator machine! One thing I discovered was that I had a tendency to trade during illiquid hours and was getting stopped out in large moves. I have found that the best times to trade are during the London and New York sessions.
The latest strategies that I have been testing are moving average crossovers and “box trades.” Box trades are technical signals where if price breaks out of a box, I would enter the pair in the direction of the break.
I am always looking for new strategies to test. One good place to look for new strategies to test are the forums at Forex Factory.
I’m not a professional yet, but being able to test technical analysis indicators has helped me progress tremendously. I can practice forex trading anywhere that I have my laptop. I can test any forex trading strategy or system that I can come up with. The best part is that I will never lose any real money.
I am still learning and I will pass on more useful tips as I come across them. This was the biggest discovery for me thus far! Thanks for reading!
About the Author
Mark Bond is an aspiring professional forex trader. He has been greatly inspired by Hector Trader and the Trading Heroes website. He would like to share his experiences with others and further his education to reach his goal.
