Take two traders, give them the same starting capital, the same trading platform, the same market and the same trading system with precise rules for entry and exit. Come back a month later and what will you find? One trader will be up 20% and the other down 40%.

It’s amazing isn’t it, how two people can have the same opportunities in life and yet get very different results. The answer to success in trading lies within each of us. Whatever happens it’s your fault, plain and simple, it’s not your trading system or some other factor, it’s you. Yes, you!

Therefore, understanding the truth about trading, the ability to see the big picture is vitally important, especially for the beginner or the trader who is loosing money. Once you understand the foundational truth about trading then you are on your way to success. This is the first step.

Trading is a game of probabilities!

Let’s flip a coin. Heads I win one dollar, tails you win one dollar. Heads should come up half the time and tails the other and we are both even. However, unknown to me you have a loaded coin. For every 100 throws, heads comes up 49 times, and tails comes up 51 times. You have a license to print money. Let’s call it the Tails Trading System.

All you have to do is sit back and bet on tails all the time and eventually you would win all my money and anybody else’s one bet against you. The only thing any trading system does is give you an edge, a favorable bias, something that is more likely to happen than not.

Whatever trading system you use be it pattern breakouts, trend-following, Fibonacci, moving averages, channel following, oscillator signals, Bollinger bands, swing trading,
opening gaps or any of the myriad of other systems about the place, you are essentially relying on a positive bias. Your system says when I see “x” then “y usually follows”. Big emphasis on usually. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn’t. Most of the time it does.

All your trading system does is help you identify high probability trades, enter them correctly, and protect yourself while allowing your profits to grow. Some trading systems are better than others. Find a system you are comfortable with, paper trade it, test it in real time with small amount, then stick to it. Don’t waste time looking for the perfect system. It does not exist.

A cool disciplined trader will take an average system and make money with it. An unsure, lacking confidence Trader will take a great system and wreck it. All traders have good days and bad days. Some days you will make small profits and others you will make small losses. A couple times a month you will make some big profits. Problem is you never know when. You have to keep playing the game to score the big winner. If you are not in the game you don’t have a chance.
You must see the big picture. Realize that the current trade is only one of many. On that basis the current trade hardly matters. It’s like a little piece of plankton in a very large ocean.

Trading is all about managing risk and then surrendering yourself to the oldest law in the Universe: The ancient law of probability. That my friend is the first truth about trading.

When you begin to investigate this business of day trading a plethora of information comes at you. Type in day trading, do a search and you get close to a million choices. That’s a lot of info to sieve through. So where do we start?

There are some basic necessities that you must have before you can begin. A fairly good computer is a must. The prices are going down and the power is increasing all the time. So these days you can pick up a new machine for about $800 that will do the job. A high end trading machine with all the bells whistles will set you back about $1500. One thing you must consider is how many monitors are needed. I recommend 2 because you can’t go wrong with screen real estate in this business. Believe me it won’t go to waste. This will push up the price a little, but it is well worth it. Make sure you get a flat panel LCD which comes standard when you buy a new machine. Remember your eyes. Don’t try and save a couple of bucks by purchasing an old fashion flickering monitor. Hours in front of the screen can be a daily occurrence in this business. Computer auctions are a good option.

The second item is a fast internet connection. There are many options available here, but do not go below ADSL. The speed of the information coming to your computer is very important.

Finally, on the hardware side, make sure your setup is comfortable. The desk should be at the right height and a swivel type reclining business chair is really nice.

Now you are all set, so what do we trade? There are 3 basic categories to choose from. These are stocks and options, futures and commodities and foreign currencies.

Let us look at stocks. There are thousands of them. Then there are the exchanges such as The New York Stock Exchange for the big boys then there is the NASDAQ for the internet type younger companies. We also have pink sheets for stocks with low trading volume. How do you decide which stocks to trade. There are various software packages that screen stocks for whatever parameters you input You can screen for gapers, which are stocks that have gone up or down by a fairly large amount when compared with the previous days close. Then there are lows and highs, unusual volume, earnings reports, other reports that affect the stocks price, sector performance and on and on it goes. It can be a daunting task deciding “how” if you want to trade stocks. What about options? They are too specialized for the beginner in my opinion. Learn something simple and then you can graduate to options if you so desire.

Futures and commodities on the other hand offer the trader a much smaller basket of goods to choose from. I would stay out of commodities if you are just learning. Commodities such as grains, orange juice, coffee and pork bellies etc. require the trader to acquire knowledge about the peculiarities of the commodity. For instance, when is the end of the grain harvest? How has the weather affected the harvest, and a host of other variables. There is an easier way!

When we take a close look at foreign currency trading we see some decided advantages compared to the other instruments already mentioned. Foreign currency trading, commonly called forex, involves the buying and selling of one currency against the other. One of the huge advantages of forex is its’ liquidity, which is the volume of transactions measured daily, weekly or annually. The liquidity in forex is second to none. This is important because it means when you trade you will almost always get your fills. Can you imagine buying a stock and it starts to dive and you can’t get rid of it because of lack of liquidity! This would not happen in forex trading. Another advantage is its high daily range. This means every day the currencies increase and decrease in price enough to allow the trader to have opportunities for trades every day. The forex market also gives you flexible work hours. All around the globe the same currencies are being traded from almost sunrise to sunrise. You can literally choose when you want to trade. It is ideal for learning and practice if you have a current job and want to transition to trading over a period of time, or if you want to just trade on the side. One of the biggest advantages of trading foreign currencies is the leverage it gives the trader. This means you can start with as little as US$2000 or sometimes less and start to trade right away. Another advantage is that you can focus on one or two pairs of currencies and really learn to trade them very well because you will get to know them so well. You do not have to wonder which stock should I going to trade today.

Finally the opportunity exists for you to be trained by experts on all aspects of forex trading for a very reasonable price. You do not need to try and reinvent the wheel. It has all been done for you already. Researched, experimented, tried, tested and proven to work.

When I thought about some of the first things I learned before trading the Forex market, fundamental analysis came to mind. Fundamental analysis refers to factors that affect the price of a currency pair. It is important not only to perform technical analysis based on your charts and indicators, but to also be aware of the macroeconomic events that can affect a currency pair. What helped me in my forex education was learning each currency’s characteristics. Whichever pair or pairs you choose to trade, knowing each of their characteristics is extremely valuable because it aids in the accuracy of any trade you perform.

Europe- Euro. This currency is rather new. It began trading in 1999; however the EURO/USD pair is the most traded. Because of this, the EURO/USD is very liquid. The euro is greatly affected by interest rates. If you are trading the EURO/USD pair, you must pay attention to the Euribor (Europe’s three-month interest rate), to watch for any changes in investor reactions when trading the EURO/USD pair since the Usd and Euro rates affect each other. The EURO/USD is my personal favorite pair because of the many opportunities it gives for potential trades.

Japan- Japanese Yen. Japan is the largest economy in East Asia; therefore the yen is used as an alternate for the whole region’s economy. If there is trouble in the surrounding countries, the yen may drop in value. The Bank of Japan is known for intervening in the forex market to defend the yen’s value. Another factor affecting the yen is the overall strength of its banking sector.

United Kingdom- British Pound. This currency is important to watch because the U.K. is one of the largest economies in the world. The pound is affected by energy and oil prices. As they rise, the pound should strengthen.

Switzerland- Swiss Franc. The Swiss Franc is known as an investor’s safe haven in times of crisis and uncertainty. Since Switzerland’s banks controls much of the world’s wealth, any reports of bank mergers and/or poor earnings directly affect the value of the franc.

“The Commodity currencies” as they are called refer to the Canadian, Australian, and New Zealand dollars. Since commodities consist of the majority of Canada’s exports, the currency will strength or weaken depending on these prices. Usually the Usd and Cad will normally trend in the same direction because most of Canada’s exports are shipped to the U.S.

Australia- Australian Dollar. The Australian dollar is most connected to gold prices. The interest rate differential is monitored because it can guide the long-term trend.

New Zealand- New Zealand Dollar. The New Zealand dollar is linked to commodity prices. It is also closely related to the Australian dollar, meaning they can act as alternatives for each other.