Trading Forex for beginners summarized

Beginner Forex traders face a vast amount of information when learning how to trade professionally. Learning where to start can greatly reduce stress and make the process easier.
 
For this very purpose, we've picked top 10 steps beginner traders should take to advance in trading
 

  1. Learning the basics (currency pairs)
  2. Learn the software (MT4, MT5)
  3. Learn with demo accounts
  4. Find a reliable service provider
  5. Use the service provider’s resources such as tools and guides
  6. Read books on trading and watch videos online
  7. Learn various trading strategies and test them
  8. Create a plan for reading news and doing independent analysis
  9. Keep weekly track of your progress
  10. Start placing live trades

 
All of these may look overwhelming, but beginners usually take it step-by-step so that the learning material is always easy to handle.
 
Forex trading for beginners is extremely hard, it requires hours of hard work. Traders need to stay updated on the news daily. Developing and testing new strategies also takes a lot of time. All in all, it’s not something people can do in a week. It could take months, and sometimes even years.
 
Even the most experienced traders tend to learn something new on the market.


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Ways to learn Forex trading basics for beginners

Learning how to trade Forex consistently profitably is highly challenging. In contrast, acquiring competence in any profession is also difficult and requires hard work. Why should trading be any different? The key to success is having a desire to become a professional trader and working hard towards your goals. 

You can find a lot of educational material online. Most brokers offer their clients tools to learn how to trade forex using certain trading platforms and teach them how to use trading terminology.
 
Simply copying other traders' strategies will not be effective. Every trader is unique and has a different trading style. What works for one trader may not work for you. The best answer to the question on how to learn Forex is to start. However, keep in mind that until you become proficient and profitable in demo trading, it is not recommended to go live. When starting trading live, you should only risk the amount that you can afford to lose. 
 Learn Forex trading for beginners
Forex trading for beginners takes time and resources. There can be many mistakes on the learning journey. However, mistakes are great opportunities to grow professionally. There are three general ways that traders learn how to trade:

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  • Learning through online guides and trading books
  • Learning from signal providers and successful traders
  • Learning from your own mistakes
 
All three of these have their advantages and disadvantages, but let’s focus on some tried and tested strategies.

How to trade Forex for beginners

To open a trading position there are two ways depending on the trading platform. The majority of platforms have buttons displayed right on the price charts to buy or sell the asset. However, this will only open a trading position without stop loss and take profit orders. Sometimes it may be useful for scalpers to initialize trading positions right away to catch the small price movements. For the majority of cases, it may be more sound to click on the corresponding button and open a small menu where you can select the type of order. If you want to open a position right away 

Checklist for beginners to execute trading positions

Here is the list of things to do to successfully open a trading position:

  • Step 1. Check for the trading setup you have outlined in your trading strategy for initializing the buy or sell order.
  • Step 2. Open the menu to select the order type or initialize the position with a click button on the chart.
  • Step 3. Select the order type depending on the setup: buy or sell
  • Step 4. Select market execution or pending order (limit order, stop order) depending on your trading style and strategy
  • Step 5. Set the stop loss from the menu, or edit the trading position to add a stop loss
  • Step 6. Set Take profit order or set up the trailing stop if you want to follow the price without a predetermined target
  • Step 7. Monitor your trading position and write down it in the trading journal

Learning Forex for beginners doesn't have to be expensive

It might sound surprising, but learning Forex trading for free is a definite possibility in this day and age. There's extensive quality educational material online. Most brokers offer free demo accounts to their clients. Demo accounts enable traders to place orders in a live trading environment without risking real money. Demo trading is highly useful when learning how to use a trading platform and develop trading strategies. 

Demo trading is great for practice, however, they are very different from trading live. Yes, the markets move the same and everything seems similar at one glance, but trading using real funds and using virtual money are two very different things psychologically. When trading live, traders are influenced by greed, fear of losing money, they hope that trades will earn them more, etc. Human emotions are considered a flaw in trading as they can ruin trading balance. When transitioning from demo to live, it's recommended to only use the money you can afford to lose. It's important to gain experience in the markets before you risk your hard-earned dollars. 

How can I learn forex trading?

Now, theory is key in learning the absolute fundamentals of FX trading, but putting this knowledge into practice is critical. Forex trading and financial trading in general require strong practical skills and discipline to implement theory into practice. This is true because trading is more of a practical skill than a theory. The demo account is the first step toward gaining practical financial trading experience, however, traders will need to switch to live trading eventually. This is the case because trading on a demo account does not have the same emotional and psychological effects as risking your real money in the markets. 

Start on the demo account

You need to learn the basic functionality of your trading platform. Practice till you are able to freely open the trading position, set stop loss and take profit orders, and close it. No theoretical knowledge prepares you for trading as well as actually taking action and opening and closing trades. You will also check the spreads and how the price movement affects your trading position. The demo account is the first step after learning the basics of FX trading. After this, you will have to familiarize yourself with practical trading and develop a trading strategy. Develop a sound trading plan and test it on the demo account by awaiting trading setups and opening trading positions. 

Switch to the live trading account

Start small is the key phrase here. Every trader needs to start with a comfortable amount to avoid unnecessary emotional burden during trading. Another key reason to start small is to reduce risks before you can trade profitably. Testing a trading strategy on the demo account is usually different from actually using it in practice on a live trading account. Starting small will ensure the losses are always in accordance with your risk appetite and preserve the account balance. One primary goal for every financial trader is to stay in the game in the long term. The longer you can maintain your trading account, the more chances you will have to acquire trading experience and become consistently profitable. 

Exposing yourself to real market risks where your money is on the line is the best teacher for every Forex trader. 

The exact steps for getting from demo to live trading should be similar to these:

  • Step 1. Open a demo trading account
  • Step 2. Familiarize yourself with the trading platform
  • Step 3. Develop a trading strategy that outlines rules for opening and closing trades
  • Step 4. Backtest your strategy on historical data
  • Step 5. Forward test your strategy, meaning trade on the demo account to check the viability of the trading strategy
  • Step 6. Tweak and recheck your trading strategy for any errors or inefficiencies
  • Step 7. Open a live account and start trading with a small capital
  • Step 8. Monitor your trading activity and write down all positions to analyze your performance

Common mistakes that beginners make

How to start Forex trading

Not get prepared for trading

Every trader makes mistakes. Successful traders learn from their own mistakes. They also learn from other people's mistakes. Trading is not like having a job with steady income or a gambling house. Trading professionally is similar to running a business, Some months are profitable, some months are not. Traders should be ready for drawdown periods. If you plan to pay bills from your trading revenue, you will force trades when the market doesn't give you trading opportunities and lose money. Trades should never be done out of necessity. Often, trading is compared to hunting. A trader similar to a hunter should not be wasting bullets on shooting bushes. A good hunter waits for an opportunity, aims and shoots when the conditions are ready. If you are a swing trader or a position trader, you might feel bored while waiting for an opportunity to come. Many swing traders place only one or two trades per month. Boredom can make you place multiple ill-prepared orders. To counter feeling bored, many traders have side hobbies or side businesses. 

No prior research

No professional trader wakes up and buys or sells a random pair because he or she feels like it. Trading professionally requires deep knowledge of the currency pairs that you're going to trade. Every currency pair is different: they have different trading volumes, different liquidity, different spreads, etc. It's also highly important to understand the economical and political factors that influence given currencies. Fundamental traders are highly dependent on such data. However, technical traders also need to keep an eye on the economic calendar, as news announcements can increase volatility on the market. 

Trading against a trend

Many professional traders trade in and against trend direction, however, it's recommended for novice traders to avoid trading against trends. Placing orders against the market sentiment is dangerous and requires certain skills and experience. Keep in mind that it's not critical to be a genius and guess every tops and bottoms in a trend. It's essential to make money. It's much safer for novice traders to follow trends than look for trend reversals. 

No weekly/monthly goals

People with goals succeed in life because they know where they are going. It's as simple as that. Your goals cannot force markets to give you more trading opportunities than it does, however, goals help you stay focused and motivated when trading. Having proper goals are creating healthy expectations and will help you avoid over-trading. 

Leverage and trade size

Leverage is undoubtedly a very useful tool when trading Forex, but it’s also super dangerous when overused. CFD trading is highly leveraged. Traders use leverage to increase their purchasing power by borrowed funds from their own broker. Leverage can grow your profits when a trade goes in the predicted direction, and it can also grow your losses too when a trade goes against your plan. Forex learning for beginners should always be focused on risk management, as the failure to manage their risks is the number one reason why most beginner traders lose money. Profitable and consistent trading is based on probabilities. When leverage is overused, single trades become too significant and can lead to blown up trading accounts. What's more, highly leveraged positions can lead to a negative trading balance since traders are using borrowed funds to open positions. Traders might end up losing more than what was on their trading account prior to opening a trade. Luckily, many brokers offer negative balance protection to their clients. 

Controlling the impact of leverage on the trading risk is possible by carefully selecting the position size. Trading position size is how much money the trader is allocating for each trading position. Using excessive levels of leverage and trading with large trading lots is especially dangerous for beginner traders. While leverage is a double-edged sword that can cut your balance, position sizing is the way to control this sword effectively

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Key steps to getting started with Forex trading

Let's summarize the key factors on how to learn forex trading:
Forex trading lessons for beginners


Finding a reliable service provider

Forex trading is done through broker companies. These companies come in various shapes and sizes, so the trading experience can be very different depending on which you choose. Great brokers have reasonable fee structure, are well regulated and have great products. Most Forex brokers offer MetaTrader platforms, along with mobile and web trading terminals. What's more, the vast majority of brokers offer free of charge demo accounts. When you are unsure on how to study Forex trading, it's important to pick a broker that provides clients with extensive educational material. 


Start trading with the amount you can risk

Demo trading is essential in developing trading skills and strategies. In addition, Demo accounts help trade risk-free and gain confidence. However, there always comes time to deposit real funds. As already mentioned, live trading comes with certain challenges such as increased greed, fear, hope, boredom, etc. Even if you were successful in a trading demo, it's unclear whether these factors will affect your trading or not. Therefore, it's recommended to only deposit the amount you can afford to lose. 


Choosing a trading software

There are various trading software programs on the market. The most popular ones are MetaTrader platforms. MetaTrader 4 is generally used for trading currencies, whereas MetaTrader 5 is an all-in-one platform. While both may seem outdated, they offer all the necessary tools for technical analysis. The main reason why these platforms are still so popular is that both of them are highly reliable and capable. Your broker might be offering you some other platforms such as cTrader and others. At the end of the day, it's up to you as a trader which one to choose. Your platform of choice should be offering the trading instruments of your interest, be user-friendly and offer reliable execution.

Try new strategies

Every trader is different and has his/her own trading style. Which is why it's essential to try different strategies in order to find out what works for you. There are two ways to test trading strategies. You can either demo trade or backtest before going live. Demo trading uses live data to create trading simulation. Demo trading is similar to live trading, the only difference is that the funds are virtual, and trading psychology is different. When backtesting, the trader compares strategies to historic data and therefore, everything happens much faster.

Forex trading for beginners - FAQ

How do I learn Forex trading step by step?

There are many approaches to how to start trading Forex sustainably. You can learn from the educational material that is widely accessible on the internet, and you can also learn from your own mistakes. The first step in learning how to trade is to learn how trading works, what are the concepts, trading terminology and how to use trading platforms. Afterwards, it's important to learn about trading strategies, traders psychology and risk management. 

How do I choose a service provider?

Service providers are typically selected based on taste and preferences. However, most people tend to pay a lot of attention to a company’s license. And rightfully so, well regulated brokers are safe for traders. When selecting a broker, it's also essential to pick the one that offers the assets for trading that you are interested in. In addition, trading fees and trading platforms are also critical. 

How do I do research?

Research includes learning about political and economic developments that can influence the markets. Research is done by gathering information. Research takes most time for position traders, swing traders and investors. Intraday traders spend more time on technical. Most brokers offer economic calendars for such a purpose. 

What software should I pick?

Your software of choice should be easy to understand, easy to use, and have all the necessary features that your trading style needs. In addition, make sure the platform offers the trading instruments that you want to trade. Good trading platforms are usually free and offer demo accounts. 

What types of Forex trading software is there?

There are Forex trading platforms that are solely built for FX pairs. And there are multi-asset platforms that offer various asset classes, including Forex, stocks, indices, cryptos, commodities, etc. What's more, most trading platforms come with mobile and web terminal versions as well. 

Which currency pairs should I trade?

There are Major, Minor, and Exotic currency pairs. Majors are the most liquid and are the preferred choice by both professional and novice traders. Major pairs have major world currencies, such as EUR, JPY, GBP, CHF, CAD, etc. coupled with USD. Major pairs have the best spreads and are the most attractive. Minor currencies are currency pairs of major world economies that do not include US Dollar in neither quote nor base currency. Exotic pairs have at least one currency from a developing country in a pair. Typically, exotic pairs have low liquidity, high spreads and most traders avoid trading them. 

Why shouldn’t I use leverage?

Leverage is a very useful tool, especially in Forex, where exchange rates change very slowly and not too sharply. Leverage helps traders benefit from even small changes in currency valuation. Without leverage, CFD trading wouldn't be possible. However, it could be extremely dangerous too if overused. Leverage is a double-edged sword that can increase income and similarly increase losses.
 

What is the best way to learn forex trading? 

The best way to learn Forex trading is to dedicate your time and energy. Read, watch and learn everything that you can get your hands on. Unfortunately, there's a lot of low quality information online. The more you learn, the better you'll be at telling the high quality content from the low quality one. Learning how to trade takes time. You should avoid risking more capital than you can afford to lose while still learning. In fact, Demo trading is ideal for beginner traders. 


What to learn in Forex trading from the very beginning? 

From the very beginning, it's important to learn how to use terminology and trading platforms. Learning terminology will increase the speed of your learning process. In addition, communication with other traders will become easier. Learning how to use trading platforms, order types and trading indicators is also highly beneficial. After learning about technical details and developing trading strategies that fit your personality, it's essential to work on your psychology. 

How to learn to trade Forex, and how long does it take?

Learning how to trade profitably and consistently can be a different journey for every trader. As already mentioned, beginners start with the basics such as terms and trading platforms and advance to developing trading strategies and trader's psychology. Learning period can take a couple of years. Learning any profession also takes time, and trading professionally is no any different. Developing a trading journal can speed up the process, as journals help traders learn from their own mistakes. 
 
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