What is forex and how can you start

Trading is the buying and selling of securities, such as stocks, bonds, currencies and commodities, as opposed to investing, which suggests a buy-and-hold strategy. Trading success depends on a trader's ability to be profitable over time.

1 . Open a Trading Account

Find a good online stock broker and open a stock brokerage account. Even if you already have a personal account, it's not a bad idea to keep a professional trading account separate. Become familiar with the account interface and take advantage of the free trading tools and research offered exclusively to clients. A number of brokers offer virtual trading. Some sites, including Investopedia, also offer online broker reviews to help you find the right broker.

Financial articles, stock market books, website tutorials, etc. There's a wealth of information out there, much of it inexpensive to tap. It's important not to focus too narrowly on one single aspect of the trading game. Instead, study everything market-wise, including ideas and concepts you don't feel are particularly relevant at this time. Trading launches a journey that often winds up at a destination not anticipated at the starting line. Your broad and detailed market background will come in handy over and over again, even if you think you know exactly where you’re going right now.

Here are five must-read books for every new trader:

Stock Market Wizards by Jack D. Schwager1Trading for a Living by Dr. Alexander Elder2Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets by John Murphy3Winning on Wall Street by Martin Zweig4The Nature of Risk by Justin Mamis5

Start to follow the market every day in your spare time. Get up early and read about overnight price action on foreign markets. (U.S. traders didn't have to monitor global markets a couple of decades ago, but that’s all changed due to the rapid growth of electronic trading and derivative instruments that link equity, forex, and bond markets around the world.)

News sites such as Yahoo Finance, Google Finance, and CBS MoneyWatch serve as great resources for new investors. For more sophisticated coverage, you need look no further than The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg.

Study the basics of technical analysis and look at price charts—thousands of them—in all time frames. You may think fundamental analysis offers a better path to profits because it tracks growth curves and revenue streams, but traders live and die by price action that diverges sharply from underlying fundamentals. Do not stop reading company spreadsheets, because they offer a trading edge over those who ignore them. However, they won’t help you survive your first year as a trader.

Your experience with charts and technical analysis now brings you into the magical realm of price prediction. Theoretically, securities can only go higher or lower, encouraging a long-side trade or a short sale. In reality, prices can do many other things, including chopping sideways for weeks at a time or whipsawing violently in both directions, shaking out buyers and sellers.

The time horizon becomes extremely important at this juncture. Financial markets grind out trends and trading ranges with fractal properties that generate independent price movements at short-term, intermediate-term, and long-term intervals. This means a security or index can carve out a long-term uptrend, intermediate downtrend, and a short-term trading range, all at the same time. Rather than complicate prediction, most trading opportunities will unfold through interactions between these time intervals. 

Buying the dip offers a classic example, with traders jumping into a strong uptrend when it sells off in a smaller time period. The best way to examine this three-dimensional playing field is to look at each security in three time frames, starting with 60-minute, daily, and weekly charts.

2 . Practice Trading

It’s now time to get your feet wet without giving up your trading stake. Paper trading, or virtual trading, offers a perfect solution, allowing the neophyte to follow real-time market actions, making buying and selling decisions that form the outline of a theoretical performance record. It usually involves the use of a stock market simulator that has the look and feel of an actual stock exchange's performance. Make lots of trades, using different holding periods and strategies, and then analyze the results for obvious flaws. 

Investopedia has a free stock market game, and many brokers let clients engage in paper trading with their real money entry systems, too. This has the added benefit of teaching the software so you don’t hit the wrong buttons when you are playing with family funds. 

So, when do you make the switch and start trading with real money? There’s no perfect answer because simulated trading carries a flaw that’s likely to show up whenever you start to trade for real, even if your paper results look perfect.

Traders need to coexist peacefully with the twin emotions of greed and fear. Paper trading doesn’t engage these emotions, which can only be experienced through actual profit and loss. In fact, this psychological aspect forces more first-year players out of the game than bad decision-making. Your baby steps forward as a new trader need to recognize this challenge and address remaining issues with money and self-worth.

Start to follow the market every day in your spare time. Get up early and read about overnight price action on foreign markets. (U.S. traders didn't have to monitor global markets a couple of decades ago, but that’s all changed due to the rapid growth of electronic trading and derivative instruments that link equity, forex, and bond markets around the world.)

News sites such as Yahoo Finance, Google Finance, and CBS MoneyWatch serve as great resources for new investors. For more sophisticated coverage, you need look no further than The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg.

3. Learn to Analyze

Study the basics of technical analysis and look at price charts—thousands of them—in all time frames. You may think fundamental analysis offers a better path to profits because it tracks growth curves and revenue streams, but traders live and die by price action that diverges sharply from underlying fundamentals. Do not stop reading company spreadsheets, because they offer a trading edge over those who ignore them. However, they won’t help you survive your first year as a trader.

Your experience with charts and technical analysis now brings you into the magical realm of price prediction. Theoretically, securities can only go higher or lower, encouraging a long-side trade or a short sale. In reality, prices can do many other things, including chopping sideways for weeks at a time or whipsawing violently in both directions, shaking out buyers and sellers.

The time horizon becomes extremely important at this juncture. Financial markets grind out trends and trading ranges with fractal properties that generate independent price movements at short-term, intermediate-term, and long-term intervals. This means a security or index can carve out a long-term uptrend, intermediate downtrend, and a short-term trading range, all at the same time. Rather than complicate prediction, most trading opportunities will unfold through interactions between these time intervals. 

Buying the dip offers a classic example, with traders jumping into a strong uptrend when it sells off in a smaller time period. The best way to examine this three-dimensional playing field is to look at each security in three time frames, starting with 60-minute, daily, and weekly charts.

4. Practice Trading

It’s now time to get your feet wet without giving up your trading stake. Paper trading, or virtual trading, offers a perfect solution, allowing the neophyte to follow real-time market actions, making buying and selling decisions that form the outline of a theoretical performance record. It usually involves the use of a stock market simulator that has the look and feel of an actual stock exchange's performance. Make lots of trades, using different holding periods and strategies, and then analyze the results for obvious flaws. 

Investopedia has a free stock market game, and many brokers let clients engage in paper trading with their real money entry systems, too. This has the added benefit of teaching the software so you don’t hit the wrong buttons when you are playing with family funds. 

So, when do you make the switch and start trading with real money? There’s no perfect answer because simulated trading carries a flaw that’s likely to show up whenever you start to trade for real, even if your paper results look perfect.

Traders need to coexist peacefully with the twin emotions of greed and fear. Paper trading doesn’t engage these emotions, which can only be experienced through actual profit and loss. In fact, this psychological aspect forces more first-year players out of the game than bad decision-making. Your baby steps forward as a new trader need to recognize this challenge and address remaining issues with money and self-worth.

5. Other Ways to Learn and Practice Trading

Though experience is a fine teacher, don't forget about additional education as you proceed on your trading career. Whether online or in-person, classes can be beneficial, and you can find them at levels ranging from novice (with advice on how to analyze the aforementioned analytic charts, for example) to pro. More specialized seminars—often conducted by a professional trader—can provide valuable insight into the overall market and specific investment strategies. Most focus on a specific type of asset, a particular aspect of the market, or a trading technique. Some may be academic, while others are more like workshops in which you actively take positions, test out entry and exit strategies, and engage in other exercises (often with a simulator).

Paying for research and analysis can be both educational and useful. Some investors may find watching or observing market professionals to be more beneficial than trying to apply newly learned lessons themselves. There are a slew of paid subscription sites available across the web: Two well-respected services include Investors.com and Morningstar.

It's also useful to get yourself a mentor—a hands-on coach to guide you, critique your technique, and offer advice. If you don't know one, you can buy one. Many online trading schools offer mentoring as part of their continuing ed programs.