How to start trading Forex

-----------------------------------------------------------------
## Updated 2012-03-20 ##
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Payouts so far from Cashbackforex:

My Rebate Account

Account Overview

Account Balance (Unpaid Earnings): $

8.79

Net Earnings Paid Out: $

4527.12

-----------------------------------------------------------------
## sign up now! Reclaim YOUR money! ##
-----------------------------------------------------------------

When you want to start a new business (yes, this IS a business, because it´s YOUR money!) you need to do your homework
before jumping on to the train. This will save you money, time and frustration down the line. Believe me on this.

This is where I come in. I am by no means a "super-trader" making tons of money every day, i still have my full time work
to attend to, but i believe i have made most mistakes that can be made since i started learning about Forex.

When i first heared about Forex, i was searching for something to do in my sparetime. As an intercontinental airlinepilot
i found myself sitting in hotelrooms in god-knows-where doing absolutely nothing with my time. Why not learn something new,
something that will generate a second income, and something that will keep my brain occupied while learning it from the ground up.

I found it, and I am hooked.



Because of the nature of the market (24/5, no liquidity problems, fully online managed) i can now
trade pretty much where ever i am, and whenever i have time to spare.

Now - how do I start?

Let me first explain something to you. Something very important.

My job as an airlinepilot might, to some people, seem like incredibly complex and complicated work. And it is.
To some people.

I´m sure you all met these people. You know the guys standing at a party, bragging, trying to make it look more difficult
than it really is, and talking about how hard it is to become a pilot, the enormous responsibility, the massive aircraft
travelling SO fast through the sky, and so on.... My god. I bet they are sleeping with their captain-hat on too.

On the other hand, im even more sure that you have met the other kind aswell. You know, the Neil Armstrong kind of guy,
who doesn´t say smack about anything unless asked about it, and even then don´t really like to talk about work, because
it´s just work, and who the hell wants to talk about work on their days off anyway?! Besides, the job is so easy, so
why would anyone possibly be interested about it in the first place?!



The same can be said about Forex. You will find an unlimited number of systems, autotrading robots, gurus, indicators
and so on, all promising that their way of doing it is the only profitable way. As long as you pay them 97$ for their
latest software first...

You will also find the tech-junkies. These guys are like the over the top pilot i talked about before. They have tons of
indicators and lines on their eight full HD screens at home, with alert signals beeping, Bloomberg news on 24/7, and so on.
If someone asks them, or even better - come to visit them, they will be more than happy to showoff all their gadgets,
telling the story of how hard it is to trade, and how complex all systems are, what all multi-colored lines do (if they even know that themselves). You get the picture.

At some point, you might hear a story about a guy trading daily charts only, with his four year old laptop and an old
roll-style mouse as his only tools. He fires up the pc, goes through all his charts and his very few, simple, indicators,
does his trades in a few minutes, and then shuts off the pc and gets another cup of coffee while thinking about what to do
during the rest of the day.



Now, who, if anyone, of these guys are actually making any money on their trading?
I don´t know. Maybe both, maybe none of them. The point is that you don´t need fancy equipment to be able to trade.
You also don´t need to buy the latest 149$ tradingsystem from a vendor on ebay. All you actually need is a normal computer
and to educate yourself before you start putting your hard earned money in play.

For gods sake, i have colleagues that hardly knows how to copy a folder on a pc! MP3? What´s that? Iphone? No way.
Thay have their old Nokia 5110 from ten years back or whatever. -"It does all i need, make calls and send sms to my wife so
that she knows i´m still alive". And these guys are still airline captains with tons of experience and knowledge. They just
figured out whats important to them.

So, keep it simple. That will keep your frustration to a minimum, and your bank account to a maximum. Period.


Now - The "How to start"- guide


I have summoned up a few steps that will take you from a complete newbie into a -"ok, i know what it´s all bout now. Now i can
make my own mind up about where to go from here".
These are things that i wish someone had told me when i started, because i had to learn all by myself, i didn´t have any
friends trading forex.
It´s definetely NOT rocket science. It´s just a few simple steps to get you started. All my suggestions about brokers, systems
indicators, education and so on, are according to my own preferences. You might wanna change your approach later when you have gathered
some more knowledge about the market, and more importantly - what kind of trader you want to be, and what timeframe to trade on.

So, let´s get started!


1 - Open a DEMO account with a broker. If you have friends trading, check with them which broker they are using, i´m sure
they will assist you in this matter, giving you all pros and cons. Otherwise i can recommend TadawulFX.
This will give you a feel for what the interface and platform look like, and you can play around as much as you like with
the demo-money. Here is a good beginners video tutorial on how to use the platform-


2 - Go to Babypips.com. There you will learn all the basics and more about Forex trading. When you "graduate"
from the Babypips school, you will be well on your way to open a real money account.

3 - When you have demotraded for a while (don´t do this TOO long) and you got a grip on how it all works, then it´s time to
open a real money account. First,let me explain a few things to you. The broker gets his income from the spread, the difference
between the ask and the bid price. This is why you always starts with a negative profit when you execute a trade. The broker
has already taken his money! Fair enough. It´s up to you to trade in such a way that you get your money back. But, it would sure
help if the spread was as small as possible, right? In that way you don´t need to be that much into profit to break even on your trade.
Remember, the broker is already happy!

Now, in this case the broker keeps ALL spread (profit) to himself which is good for him. But what if there was a way to attract
more customers, and only give up a small part of the spread as an incitament? I.e. - reduce the spread, and therefore the profit for
the broker, but on the other hand get more customers, and by doing that also generating more profits.
This is where CashBackForex comes in. They also act as a kind of broker, but for the customers benefit. For every customer that
CBF generates for the broker, CBF will get paid a part of the spread as a "thx for giving us a customer". A % of this part is then
being sent back to the customer as a bonus, straight to the customers PayPal account. So, everybody is happy - the broker gets
more customers, CBF gets paid for helping the broker get customers, and in the end the customer himself gets payback on all
his trades. Man, i wish i knew this from the beginning. I wonder how much money i fed the broker with because i didn´t know this.

So, go to CBF, and sign up for their services. Then, select a broker from their extensive broker comparison
list. Again, i recommend Tadawulfx.com, but it´s up to you to select a broker that suits you.
Open a real money account, following the online instructions, provide some paperwork, fund the account online, and before you know it
you are ready to go! The nice thing now is, that you will be paid back by CBF on ALL your trades, win or lose. This will greatly
improve your total equitycurve, both as a beginner, but also later when you are trading larger volumes. As an example, i get between
$250-550 cashback every month with my hobby-based trading style only. If you have more time to dedicate to trading, or trading larger
volumes, the cashback will of course be higher. AND, remember - this is money that the broker would have kept to himself otherwise!

4 - So, here you are now, with a fresh real money account and a cashbackscheme ready to go! What now?
Well, be prepared for the fear and greed-race to begin! It really sucks to see your money go because you took a bad trade. On the
other hand, when you execute a profitable trade, life is good! The reason we trade in the first place is to get more money, right?
But, the trick is to focus less on the money, and more on the analysis and money management. Try to learn from all trades, especially
the losing ones. -"hmm...that´s interesting, why did it go the other way, what was it that i didn´t see?".

5 - Continue to educated yourself. I can highly recommend FPA as a good start for all your Forex
related questions. Another good forum can be found at forex-tsd.com
Go to the forums, read, ask questions and learn. This is like any other profession. You wouldn´t expect to be a
brainsurgeon after reading a tutorial online would you? There are some really talented people out there, working with Forex fulltime
and they want your money! Make sure you read up on all available material you can get your hands on.

6 - Trading systems, indicators and Expert Advisors (automated trading). Big subject.
Like i mentioned before, this is where all the "fun" starts. Be prepared for the big hype. Every now and then, a new guru comes
along, claiming that he invented a "never before seen" system that is more or less fool proof and has a winning ratio higher than
everyone else. Well, he might have it actually. At least for some time. It´s not really a big problem to design a system that works
for a specific time, ranging markets, trending or whatever. The problem is to create a system that works in ALL markets!
But they won´t tell you this of course. So, you end up paying 97$ and trying it out, just to be disappointed a few weeks later,
because the market conditions have changed.

So, what do we do? What´s the "solution"?

I am a strong believer in trend following systems. Because if there is no trend, i don´t do anything. If there is a trend. i jump
on to it, after it has revealed to me that it infact is a real trend, and not only just a false breakout.
If you Google for this, you will find tons of different systems, made for different timeframes or times of the day. It´s just a
matter of flavour and taste from your side. Find below some of the systems i am using/ have been using. They all have their pros
and cons, but generally speaking, trendfollowing systems have the highest chance of successfully growing your equity. They do have
their losing periods, of course, but in the long run, they will come out on the right side.

PROFX v2.0 - Highly ranked system for the 30min timeframe.

Sniper Forex - Trading System for the 1H timeframe.

FX Child´s Play system - any timeframe, simple is better.

4X Pip Snager - multiple timeframes, only a few indicators.

SrS TrendRider - Another very popular and easy trendfollowing system.


That should be enough to get you started on Your Forex Journey! I do hope that you found this short guide useful, remember to keep
it simple, and good luck with your trading!

Brgds/ Pilotlife