So you're new to Forex trading and decided to explore and take the plunge? Don't get too anxious or intimidated. Starting Forex can be easy and you can learn and practice before actually beginning. Demo accounts will allow you to get a feel for the Forex market. These demo accounts are offered by almost every broker, and are almost exactly like trading with real funds.

To get started in Forex trading, we have to get to know what FOREX is. FOREX trading involves buying and selling the different currencies of the world. Buying one currency and selling another at the same time make a Forex deal. Forex is the worlds largest most liquid market. It yields an average turnover of $1.9 trillion daily and the figure is nearly 30 times larger than the total volume of equity trades in United States. Although FOREX trading involves such a big volume of trades nowadays, it wasn't made available for the public until 1998. In the past, the FOREX market wasn't offered to small speculators or individual traders due to the large minimum business sizes and extremely strict financial requirements. At one time, only large banks and multi-national companies were able to participate and trade the currency markets. Only until the late 90s, FOREX brokers are allowed to break huge sized inter-bank units into smaller units and offer these units to individual traders like you and me.

Before participating and trading and much like buying and selling stocks, you need to select a good Forex broker. Take the time to research and learn about who you select as your broker, often times it can make or break you in Forex Trading. This is especially the case if you are using an automated forex trading system. Are they a registered company and fully authorized and regulated to trade Foreign Exchange markets? Regardless of how many other people are involved, make sure that your own personal fx trading system takes into account your limits and your financial goals. Some brokers give great incentives to open an account. My first broker deposited a small percentage of funds credited to my account even before my first trade. You may also want to start small and open up a 'micro' account. With micro accounts, you can trade much smaller until your account grows.

Will you invest solely as a hobby, with any profit just being a bonus?? Do not invest more than you can technically stand to lose, no matter how strong your strategy to trading is and what you eventually choose, it crash or fail at any given time, so do not bet on a "sure" thing and risk your family's financial well being. Trading Forex is never a guaranteed investment, so be sure to invest only money you can afford to lose. Don't invest next months rent or mortgage. Start small and practice proper risk management, this is the cornerstone of good trading, perhaps the most important thing you will learn. Many new traders who start out trading FOREX get off to a good start. Eventually though they end up with failure and money lost because they never learned the fundamental methods needed to succeed. Often they will try trading strategies once, twice, then move on with the crowd to the €next big thing€ if they don't find profit immediately or the outcome was not what they expected.
There are many types of trading methods available, but it's probably best to choose one or two and try to master those thoroughly. Eventually many new traders learn the best ways are the simple trading strategies rather than finding some magic formula or software.

Types of systems and methods you may want to learn:



Support and resistance - Buying long and selling short based on calculated price levels. There are different methods to calculating these price levels, so choose a system you feel confident can do this accurately the majority of time.

Breakout Methods - In volatile markets, this type of trading works great. When prices range(move up and down with no clear direction), you wait for the price to break this range, whether it's upwards or down, you profit from the movement beyond the range where you entered.

Divergence and Trend trades using Indicators- Enter trades based on inverse direction of an indicator and price action. Here you're measuring a decrease in momentum. The idea is when price movement loses momentum, you can profit from weakness before the direction of the price changes.

Pattern recognition trading - The idea here is that price moves in recognizable patters. These patters often reoccur and can signal where and when a price may move. Harmonic pattern trading and Elliott Wave models are some of the methods you may run across in this style of trading. These happen to be two of my personal favorites.

Which ever method you choose, what broker, how much to fund your account. You'll find that the FOREX is a very fascinating market. It changes almost on a daily basis, there's always something new to learn. If it's not a new method of trading, you'll learn the other important aspect. You'll learn about yourself, your emotions, your psychological tendencies when put under the stresses of trading. Remember to always be mindful of the leverage that FOrex brings, always practice good risk and money management. You will find this is a great market, one of the most unique in the world.