Five Myths about forex trading

Posted on Thursday, May 23, 2013 by Unknown

1 – If I know how to trade stocks, I know how to make money on Forex:
If you have experience trading stocks and think you can simply apply your knowledge on Forex and make money, you’re going to be disappointed. The Forex market is much more complex. Firstly, the Forex market is open 24 hours a day. This may not seem a big deal but it’s a significant difference in relation to the stock market. As the Forex market is open 24 hours a day, this brings more complexity to a trader. If in the stock market you have periods of higher and lower volatility, in the Forex these differences are even higher.

Many stock traders think the Forex market is easy because it is open 24 hours a day. They think they can trade whenever they want and make their quick bucks. Truth is you can make money in Forex. But for that, you need to have a deep knowledge about this market.
The indicators that work in stocks don’t always work in Forex. The Forex market is more complex and, this way, the indicators that you use on stocks don’t work so well here.
Brokers are another huge difference between stocks and Forex. In the Forex market, due to the lack of regulation, a lot of Forex brokers don’t act in their clients’ best interest. It’s a lot more difficult to find a good Forex broker than a stock broker.
2 – Since the market is open 24 hours a day, you can make money anytime you want:
Once again, this is not true. In order to make money, a trader needs volatility. Although this market is open 24 hours a day, in the majority of the time there isn’t enough volatility to make good trades. This is a big challenge because volatility can appear at any time of the day and the trader can’t be watching the market all the time. He has to adjust his strategy in order to trade only in high volatility periods.
3 – Commission trades are free on Forex market:
You don’t pay a commission fee when you place an order. Although, you pay the spread, which is the difference between the bid and the ask. This way, the more you trade, the harder it will be to make money in Forex because you’ll have higher fees. In the Forex market, as in any other market, a trader must avoid the overtrading at all costs.
4 – You need to predict what will happen in order to make money in forex:
In order to make money in Forex, you need to react to what is happening. This is not the same thing as predict. A good trader simply reacts to whatever the market is telling him. He analyses charts, reads the news and all information he has at his disposal in order to react as fast as possible to market movements. A good trader is always looking to evolve and learn.
5 – The more complicated my strategy, the best:
This is another myth that has nothing to do with reality on Forex trading. The truth is that usually the simple strategies or systems outperform the complicated ones. So, there’s no need to use plenty of different indicators at the same time. Study the market, find your favorite system or strategy, and stick with it.

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