Introduction

You can trade for a living.

Really. You can.

The question people ask me most often is, not surprisingly, “Can I be successful at this?” Mostly, they ask me the question after a devastating loss. It’s a natural time to ask the question, but it’s a horrible time to answer it yourself.

Why? Because you can be successful, and every time you start to feel depressed about losing, you stop believing in yourself. If you stop believing in yourself, you stop working as hard, and if you stop working as hard, you start to make more mistakes, and a vicious cycle begins. Losses bring depression which brings more losses, and then before you know it you’ve lost your entire first account.

You don’t have to trade that way. There is a better way to trade.

I trade currency for a living, and so can you. Maybe it will take you more than a year to become successful. Maybe more. But you can do it. You don’t have to be better than most people at math. You don’t have to score high on an IQ test. You don’t have to be the smartest person you know.

You just have to be disciplined.

The Hard Way

I learned how to trade the hard way. By losing. Over and over. Think of a stupid mistake that traders make: I made that one. Think of another one: I made that one too. Only by keeping excellent records, staying determined, and learning from my mistakes was I able to being to trade profitably on a consistent basis. But along the way I learned that if you would rather flush your profits down the toilet, you should do the following things:

1. Trade as much as possible. Trade all the time.
2. Never close a losing trade.
3. Always close a winning trade as quickly as possible.
4. Never test a trading system. Trade it live ASAP - (As Soon As Possible).
5. Fund your first live account with all of your savings.
6. Fear: losing, winning, trying, failing, and succeeding.
7. Ignore the trend.
8. Don’t ask someone better than you for help.

Anyway, you get the idea. I did all of this stuff, and much more. Boy, I was really stupid. But that is all over now. Once I turned the corner to profitability, I never looked back.

The Basics

Before we get into specifics, I want to make sure you have a basic knowledge of currency trading. You might want to skip introduction section if you know what a pip is, how margin works, and that kind of stuff.

Good luck and happy learning and trading in Marketiva,