Here are some tips to make it into a profitable career:

In this Blog, we will be taking a deep dive into how to start Forex Trading. We receive hundreds of emails and questions from you guys asking how you can start Trading the Forex Markets. So we thought we’d create this post as a general guide to help you start your Forex Trading Journey. Below are the sections this post will be split in to, feel free to navigate your way to the one which suits you most: 

1. Analysis of the Market
2. How to read a Quote 
3. Starting Trading

1. So to start off with, the basis for all Trade Setups and Ideas comes from a kind of analysis. This can either be Fundamental or Technical. While a large proportion of the forex market’s activity is dominated by currency exchanges between large international banks, A small minority of the market’s activity is utilised by forex traders who attempt to take advantage of the price fluctuations that exist between currencies, with the hope of making a profit. As mentioned above, there are two main types of Analysis, and we will cover both of these below:

1a: Fundamental Analysis

Forex Trading Fundamental Analysis involves studying the economic calendar, news events, government data releases and policies as well as the intrinsic value of currencies. Common things to look at while conducting Fundamental Analysis are: 

• Inflation Rates
• GDP Figures
• Interest Rates
• Balance of Payments Deficit 
• Fiscal and Monetary Policies 
• How interventionist government policies are

How a Government handles a country’s current account, inflation rate, interest rate and financial policies are the driving factor behind how strong/weak a currency can look on a global stage against the others. There can also be considerable market moves when news and other economic information is released. Many traders utilize this information and data to inform and aid their trade ideas, and therefore inform their trading decisions. 

1b: Forex Technical Analysis 

Forex Trading Technical analysis involves the study of current and historical price action over time, and the practice of trying to use this data to predict what might happen next. The most common Technical Analysis Tools are; 

• Chart Patterns
• Moving Averages
• Stochastic Indicators
• Point and Figure Charts
• RSI Indicator
• Elliott Wave Theory
• MACD Indicator
• Fibonacci

Traders in forex trading markets can use many of the same western technical analysis techniques as other markets, including trading patterns like wedges, triangles, channels, double tops and bottoms and head and shoulders. Forex traders also are able to use eastern technical analysis techniques, such as identifying patterns on candlestick charts, particularly for short-term term trading and identifying key turning points. Some of the more popular forex candlestick patterns​ used for analysis include dojis, hammers, hanging man, morning and evening stars and engulfing candles.

2: How to Read a Forex Quote 

An exchange rate can be difficult to understand at first, but it’s easy once you understand how to read it! 

An exchange rate is one currency measured against the other, so, lets use GBP/USD as an example here. At the time of writing this, the GBP/USD Rate is 1.3925. This means that 1 Pound Sterling will buy you 1.3925 US Dollars. 

In the Forex Trading Markets, the Base currency is always quoted first. This is known as the Base Currency. In the example above, GBP (Pound Sterling) is the Base currency and USD (US Dollars) is the secondary currency. The secondary currency is often called the Quote Currency.   

3: How to Start Trading Forex

3a. Developing your Trading Plan

A trading Plan is paramount to your success in the Markets. The key to your success comes from having an Edge in the Markets, which is a way to repeatedly beat the odds with the same method, which leads to consistent profits over a long period of time, and ultimately financial independence. It is important as a successful trader to adhere to your pre-set rules. This will help to protect you from yourself. Very often, your emotions will tell you to do something controversial or contradictory to what your trading plan states. Traders that adhere to their trading plan are better able to resist the emotional temptations that are present in speculative markets. Following a trading plan can also help you to reduce stress, maintain objectivity and learn from your mistakes when learning to trade forex.

When you create your Trading Plan, ensure it answers the following questions:

• Are you comfortable holding risk open overnight?
• What are your preferred Trading Times?
• What is your Risk Appetite?
• What are your Profit Targets?
• What are your Stop Loss Rules?

3b. Develop a Risk Management System

One of the more common mistakes made my new traders is not following a Risk Management System. This is the fastest way to blow all of your money. The volatility that exists in this market, which is the largest in the world, means that price can swing from one direction or point to another within a matter of minutes, and sometimes seconds. This can play on a Traders emotions which leads to over-risking, over-trading and ultimately failure. 90% of traders will fail at this mark, so if you can create and stick to a Risk Management System, you’re already more than one step ahead of the rest. When you create a Risk Management System, you should consider the following:

• How do you apply and distribute Risk within your strategy?
• What is your minimum viable Risk to Reward for a Trade to be Valid? 
• How well protected are your Stop Loss levels?

3c. Know which Markets you want to trade:

There always have been and always will be winners and losers in the markets. However, successful traders shift the balance of probabilities in their favour by continually gaining knowledge about the markets within which they spend so much of their time. Knowing the characteristics of the markets within which you trade can really improve the edge you have over other traders and therefore the market as a whole. Sometimes, sticking to a few currency pairs and really getting to know the way they move can be advantageous, this can also help shift the odds in your favour. Before placing a trade in the Forex Markets, you should ask yourself: 

• What are the Fundamental Factors driving this currency? Do I understand them?
• What are the underlying time zone characteristics?
• What are the key Economic Events that relate to this pair? Always be sure to check the economic calendar before entering a trade to make sure you are aware of high impact news, and can therefore manage risk accordingly.

Summary: 

Assuming that every trade with no preparation, prior research or strategy will be profitable, will place more risk upon an already risky environment. Whenever trading, as well as having a well-versed strategy in place, risk management tools like stop-losses should be implemented to prevent significant losses.

So, you want to try your hand at trading the Forex Markets? Or are you already a retail trader but looking to brush up on your skillset and expand your knowledge? Becoming a profitable and consistent trader is no easy task, and at times it can be very lonely and challenging. It’s not so easy to find a community of people who you resonate with, or who aren’t just out for your money as well. Unless you’ve worked in a bank or on a trading floor, you’ve probably never come across a group of likeminded people. Of course, there’s always the Gurus and Wizards online and on social media who promise to make millions out of pocket change, but most people who’re serious about trading can see through these scams and want to find some form of ‘Trading Family’. Is Forex mentorship the answer for you?

What/Who is a Forex Mentor? 

Simple answer is, anyone! However, they have to be able to provide value to you, and teach you how to Trade the markets, or refine your skills. There’s no point paying out heaps of money to someone who doesn’t know what they’re talking about. That’s one of the reasons why we created Trading Mentor Online, so aspiring traders can find legitimate and trusted mentors without being scammed out of their hard earned money. 

A Forex Trading Mentor who trades the same style as you’d like to is often the best route to go down, as they are probably an expert in this field if they’ve spent years building their own strategy to attack the markets with. Depending on what style you want to learn and adopt, you will need to search for different kinds of forex mentorship. Someone who’s a Position Trader isn’t going to be able to teach you about Day Trading as well as someone who Day Trades is. It’s all about finding what works for you and building a Strategy and Plan around that. 

How to find a Forex Mentor?

Right here at Trading Mentor Online. We have worked tirelessly to have a range of different traders for you to choose from, from Scalpers to Position Traders. Whatever it is you’d like to learn, we can provide the resources you need to do it. Feel free to head on over to the Mentors Marketplace and have a browse through our current Mentors who can provide forex mentorship. Due to our Vetting Process’ strict guidelines, we only take onboard Trusted and Legitimate Mentors, so you know you’re getting the most out of your money and time. 

How to tell a Real Mentor from a Scammer 

First and foremost, when looking for forex mentorship you have to have someone who both mentors and trade. Obviously, you look up to this person and you are trying to learn from them so they have to be up-to-date with all news about the forex market and know what strategies work the best in the current moment.

Surprisingly, many people claiming to be professional forex mentors are actually the one who failed to trade. What you need is a first-hand experience and a successful path you can follow. However, there are also many successful forex traders who make a significant profit but they remain unnoticed and are not involved in contributing to the mentoring world due to a number of reasons.

To bring this post to a conclusion, it’s all about what you want to learn and how well you get on with your mentor. That’s why we allow a free consultation call to see if you and your mentor Gel and they are teaching what you want to learn about. Our Mentors hope to see you soon!

There are many different CryptoCurrency Exchanges, but which one is the best bitcoin trading platform? Today Trading Mentor Online investigates the best Crypto Exchanges available in 2021.

Best Overall: 

CoinBase 

For some while now, CoinBase has been an industry leader and most popular bitcoin trading platform, owing (at least partly) to the fact that you can invest in Crypto directly with USD. You can also purchase a plethora of Coins and Currencies on the Platform, such as Ethereum and Litecoin, and 30+ more. 

You can also earn interest on USDT (Tether) and earn token rewards by completing activities on the site. Each user also gets a $5 bonus when opening an account! 

Best for Beginners:

eToro

eToro has been around in the UK and EU for a hot minute now, but has recently opened its doors to US customers as well. It is one of the best platforms for Social Copy-Trading and Crypto Trading. eToro also has a very user-friendly web platform and app (Android and IOS) which is awesome for casual traders and beginners who are looking for a Bitcoin trading platform. 

Best for AltCoins:

Binance

Binance has to be the best Exchange for choice of coins, especially when it comes to new Coin IPOs and existing exotic Altcoins. With over 200 coins to choose from, there’s plenty to invest in and keep you busy! Led by its charismatic leader Changpeng Zhao, its defining features are innovation and new features, proactive community, ability to buy bitcoin and altcoins with more than 40 fiat currencies, their own Binance Chain and Binance coin (BNB), Binance Futures and margin trading with up to 125x leverage, and vision to morph into a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) in the coming future. 

Best Decentralised Exchange: 

Bisq

Bisq was the first Decentralised Crypto Exchange, and since its birth in 2014, it has been one of the leaders in Bitcoin trading platforms. Most of the exchanges are centralized and web-based (Kraken. Binance, Huobi, HitBTC, etc). Unlike most of the exchanges, Bisq exists in the form of a client, not a website. The trading process takes place right on the blockchain and not on the servers of the exchange. It is an important feature that saves the Bisq network from censorship and prohibitive regulations. On the one hand, the exchange is praised for its high security and resistance towards censorship. Experienced traders regard that the Bisq interface is better compared to other decentralized exchanges. Reviewers say that it is not typical for decentralized exchanges to provide so many supported currencies including fiat money. On the other hand, even given the better interface of Bisq it is still not very simple for total novices, while veteran traders won’t be happy about the lack of numerous specific trading features.

Regardless of the market you’re trading in, it’s vital that you only take the highest quality trade setups that you’re presented with. Not only does this mean that these setups are more likely to play out, positively impacting your P&L, but it also means that your strike rate increases (along with your psychology and belief in your trading system). 

In this post, we’re going to take you through the 5 main steps each Trader should have in their Plan to ensure their setups are as probable and profitable as possible. Now, it would be impossible to name each ‘High Probability’ setup for any given Strategy or Plan, as there are infinite ways to attack and trade the markets. Instead – what this post will detail is areas which are universal of any trade setup, such as Stop Loss, Entry Triggers, Risk to Reward and Targets. It will soon become clear why it does indeed pay to wait for the highest quality trade setups. 

The Setup: 

In order to be able to even consider taking a position, the initial Setup conditions need to be met in accordance with your plan. As with the rest of this post, all of this comes with the supposition that you’ve got a Trading Plan which defines what your Trading Conditions are.

For example, let’s say you’re a Trend Trader. You will need to identify a market which is trending. This is fairly easy to see, but can become more complex when identifying entry points on the Lower Timeframes. 

This image shows a Bullish Trending Market. As I’m sure many of you have heard before, the Trend is your Friend. Trading against it decreases the probability of your setup, and therefore cannot be called a High Probability setup. If it is within your Plan, always look to trade with the overall (Higher Timeframe) Trend.

The Entry Trigger: 

Now is the time to employ an entry system which can be used for every trade. Consistency here is key, as it determines the Risk to Reward of your trade. Lets say you’re trading the trend, and looking to Buy upon a pullback in an Bullish Trending market. Some areas of the trend are better to enter into than others, and offer better opportunities with better Risk to Reward.

Some Traders like to enter upon a Break and Retest of a Liquidity zone, or a trendline. Others like to look for a show of Bullish strength out of an area of High Value, such as Key Levels and Support and Resistance. If you’re a Price Action Trader, it’s also prudent to look for Patterns and Formations within price, which can help confirm and add value to your setup. For example, if you’re going long and a 4Hr Evening Star forms in your Area of Value, this can be used as an added confluence to support your Trade Idea. 

The Stop Loss

This part of the Trade Setup is probably the most vital so far. Managing Risk is one of the hardest parts of Trading, and one most new traders struggle with. It’s vital to have the correct conditions for your Stop Loss, and know that it’s protected above or below various confluences. These can consist of (but not limited to); Key Levels, Support or Resistance, Trendlines, Fib levels and Previous Highs or Lows. Most Traders tend to use 5-10 pips below the most recent Swing High or Low as a rule of thumb, but always be aware of other confluences to protect your Stop Loss with. Once the Size of the Stop Loss has been calculated, you can then work out your Risk which will determine your Risk to Reward Ratio. 

The Trade Target

Establishing a Target, or multiple Targets, for your trade setups are a must when considering taking profit. A Profit Target is based on something tangible and measurable, not feeling or personal opinion. Here it is prudent to mark out areas of possible reversal on the chart (things which stand in the way of price). Areas to look to take profit can be things such as previous Market Structure, Formations or Patterns & Key Levels. 

If you’re trading a highly volatile market, such as Bitcoin or other Cryptocurrencies, it’s recommended you use Trailing Stop trade setups, which follows current price by a range of pips (usually 20-40, or an EMA). This avoids you sitting at the charts and updating your Stop when the market moves, and also allows the position to be taken out if in profit if price aggressively reverses. The areas marked with dotted lines on the image above show areas of Structure, within which it may be advisable to take partial or full profit. 

What are trading strategies and which should I choose?

How many times have you seen a Guru on YouTube or Facebook try to say that his/her strategy is the best and will work for anyone, and you should buy it off them for an eye watering price? This is what many traders have become accustomed to seeing in their feeds, but it’s not the way to learn how to trade or build a strategy. 

Trading strategies with an Edge should be developed by yourself, as only you can build or build upon a strategy which suits your lifestyle. With this being said, here are the top 5 Trading Strategies which can be applied to any Market, at any time, by anyone. 

Swing Trading

Swing Trading is a Trading Strategy which focuses on profiting off changing trends within the market, normally over fairly small timeframes. Trades are usually held from 5 days to a few weeks, and focus on trying to catch upswings or downswings in price. Traders who use this kind of strategy often rely on indicators to help them identify areas of value within the market, and where to enter/remove profit from a position. Swing trading is one of, if not the most, popular trading strategy and therefore features high up on our list of Top 5 Trading Strategies.

Position Trading

Position trading is essentially Swing Trading but on a much larger timeframe. While Swing traders tend to use the 1 to 4 Hour timeframes and sometimes the Daily, Position Traders focus more on the Daily, Weekly and Monthly charts. Position Trading is a Strategy in which trades are held for weeks, months and sometimes years. Traders identify if a market is either in a long term bullish or long term bearish trend, and then buy or sell based on this analysis. Many call this Buying and Holding, as Buy trades are much more common with this Trading Strategy than Sell Trades. 

Trend Trading

Trend Trading is one of the most popular Trading Strategies among Traders, therefore it features very high up in our list of the top 5 Trading Strategies. It’s also one of the simplest ways of trading the markets, all it requires is for the trader to identify a trend, and find a way to enter into said trade. As the age old saying goes, the Trend is your Friend. Traders can look to identify a trend or trending market in many different ways, but some of the most popular are; Reading Price Action, Technical indicators such as the relative strength index (RSI) or trendlines. Whilst a market is trending, traders will look to enter into it unless there is a reason otherwise, which usually comes in the form of a Price Action Pattern or Formation. 

Scalping

A Scalping Trading Strategy is also a very common strategy among Traders, hence why it features high up on our list of the Top 5 Trading Strategies. Scalping takes advantage of price movements over a small period of time, usually 1 minute to an hour. Scalping requires Traders to have strict rules on how they Enter and Exit trades, along with a strong case for their bias. Whilst Swing Traders often look to take no more than 10 trades a week, Scalpers can find themselves taking up to hundreds of trades a day. This Trading Strategy requires a lot of time spent at the screens and is often hard to backtest owing to the use of low timeframes. Traders who use a Scalping Strategy often find themselves using the 1 minute, 5 minute and 15 minute timeframes to trade with. 

Day Trading

Day Trading is a kind of Trading Strategy which refers to opening and closing a trade within the same day. These Traders often focus on the 15 minute and 1 hour timeframes to take advantage of intraday moves within the markets. This Trading Strategy is used most often by those trading the Forex Markets as it benefits from markets with large daily transactional volumes. Day Traders can also use News, Economic releases and Markets Psychology to their advantage when taking technical analysis into account. Day Trading Strategies can benefit largely from Intraday moves which can show as just a wick on the Daily or Weekly charts. 

Overview

Whether you’re new to Trading or a seasoned professional, Backtesting is something every trader must do in order to test their Trading System to ensure profitability. Different Trading Systems will require different approaches to backtesting, but the overarching premise is the same for all. 

Backtesting is the name given to testing a Trading System on historical price data, and evaluating how well a strategy would have performed. This often gives Traders the confidence to take the strategy forward and use it within the live markets. The theory is that if a Strategy is proven to work in the past, then it’ll work in current markets, and continue to do so in current markets.

In order to access this past price data for when you’re backtesting, you’ll need to have some form of software to access the Markets. One of the most popular these days is TradingView owing to its modern design and ease of use. However some prefer to use MetaTrader 4 & 5 as it allows greater functionality for EAs and Trading Robots. 

Why should I backtest?

You may be wondering: ‘Why should I spend time Backtesting if others are using the same strategy as me and it works for them? Surely it works and I don’t need to test it?”

Backtesting isn’t just to check if the strategy works or not, it’s to allow you to get accustomed to the rules of it. When you see a trade setup present itself, you want to know if its High Quality; how and where to place your Stop Loss, How to Enter, where to exit or remove profit and how to read price in relation to the direction of your Trade.

In order to know the Ins and Outs of your Trading System, you need a plan within which is the criteria for your Strategy. We recommend using a checklist with all the bits of information that you need to know before entering or rejecting a setup. These can be boiled down to the following:

1. What are the Market Conditions needed to validate your setup?
2. How much are you going to risk per trade?
3. Which Markets are you Trading?
4. What is your entry trigger to enter a trade on the setup?
5. What timeframe do you analyse on, enter on and monitor on?
6. Where will your Stop Loss be?
7. How will you exit or remove profit from a position?

Backtesting Strategies

So, we’ve covered why you should backtest, now we’ll take you through how you can backtest on different software platforms. 

TradingView: 

This is one of the easiest pieces of software to use and Backtest with, especially if your strategy is rules based and not in the form of a Robot or EA. TradingView gives you the functionality to take price back to any point in time and play it from there as if it was happening in real time. 

These steps give you a rough outline of how to Backtest in TradingView: 

1. Choose the Market you’d like to conduct the Backtesting on
2. Use the Chart Tools to plot all the necessary tools to fit your Strategy, when you see price entering your High Value Area.
3. Ask yourself if there’s a High Quality Setup at this point in the chart
4. If yes to the above, mark out your setup in accordance with your plan and record the results of your trade in Journaling software or Excel
5. Now continue to play price forward till you find more setups which meet your plan. 
6. Rinse and Repeat this process till you have over 100 trades for each/any of your systems. This is the lowest amount of trades needed to gauge the profitability of a system. 

Backtesting Software:

There’s plenty of paid software you can use to backtest your systems and strategies, however they are all essentially the same thing once you peel back the advertising. Some of the most popular include Forex Tester 4 and AmiBroker. Both of these pieces of paid software are powerful in the fact that all you need to do is input your system parameters and click a button, and they’ll test the strategy for you. 

This being said, they are pretty complex, and take some form of coding knowledge to use with any ease. We would recommend you use TradingView or MetaTrader4 to backtest your strategies as this is how you’ll be trading in the live markets, and it allows you to see how your strategy performs with hands on involvement (which is as close as you can get to trading the live markets, without actually doing it).

How to record your Backtested Trade Ideas

We’d recommend using TradingVault, an online journaling software which allows you to record all your trades with ease and calculates all the metrics you could ever need. Check them out at https://trading-vault.com/?via=jake19 !

However, if you’d like to create your own journal, there are a few pieces of vital information you should take away from your trade setups when backtesting, these include but are not limited to:

• Time and Date the Setup was taken 
• Timeframe of Setup
• Type of Setup within Trading System
• Which Market you’re Trading
• Size of Position 
• Direction of Trade
• Price Entered and Exited (also Scaled in/out)
• Stop Loss price and Size
• Profit and Loss (in Pips and Currency Value) 
• Setup Risk per Position (Risk to Reward Ratio of Position)

All of this information will help you when looking back and reviewing your Backtested Setups and choosing which are High Quality, and those to look out for in the live markets. 

Conclusion 

So, here’s what we’ve been through in this blog post: 

• Why its essential to have a trading plan and idea of how your system works before backtesting it
• How to test it on TradingView, MetaTrader 4 and automated software traders
• Why you should Backtest
• How you should Journal your Backtested Trades

Now all that’s left for you to do is go ahead and start to Backtest your trading system!