Academics and education are two inseparable things that all of us have to go through in whatever field that we explore. Without doubt, these two elements remain the fundamental towards our judgement, analysis, assessment and evaluation that bring us to certain competency levels and sound decision making skills.
To me, academics is referring to a formal scholarly type of approach whereas education is more on experience that you gained, or self-educate throughout your life. For example, most of us learned about venomous snakes through academics since we either learn from classes, books, national geographic or probably from our parents who had told us during our kindergarten days that snakes are dangerous in general.
But to some, especially to snake lovers and zoo keepers, on top of the training that they need to attend, they probably educate themselves more through their experience dealing with these creatures. Some had even been bitten by these snakes and managed to survive. Some may not. Though their experience is priceless, normal person like you and me probably don't need this kind of experience since the consequence could be catastrophic, unless of course you are interested about the subject matter.
You see with regard to trading, same thing applies here. Most uneducated person would tell you that trading is highly risky, especially with forex. I don't blame them generally since they are not competent in doing this plus, perhaps they had encountered some bad experience in the past that told them to stay away from this at all cost.
That is why I always emphasize that you must always educate and arm yourself with proper knowledge and skills if you are serious about it since it is not a get-rich-quick scheme kind of thing. Trading is a legit business and at par with any kind of investment and financial instrument out there. But before you embark further, you need to prepare yourself with at least some basic understanding so that you know how things work and what you are doing out there.
Have you ever heard a pilot that never attend a pilot school? Never right? Even a crop dusting pilot needs to be certified or trained by his experience father, to say the least.
In my case, though my academic background and qualification is in electrical engineering, On top of some training (i.e. Academics) that I had attended earlier, I always educate myself on daily basis (for the past 9 years) about this trading stuff to a level that at some points, I became paralyze with so much information (and experience) to digest. Losing money seems to be the best lesson of all since it stocked in my head forever. But what the heck, this is where my passion is so I have no regret.
The reasons I highlight this point again and again are simple.
1. So many look at trading forex as a get-rich-quick method. They refuse to learn. Some even have no clue at what support and resistance are. All they knew is just buy at bottom and sell at the top. They used a shorter time frame and miss the big picture. To some extent, they even have the gut to argue that their positions are perfect even when the market trend is showing the other way round. Well, perhaps experience will teach them better.
2. Some gurus are giving their students wrong impression about trading that learning is not really necessary. They told their students that trading does not have to be that difficult without disclosing all the truth and pains that they had endured throughout the years before they come to that level. They named their trading method under certain techniques, just open multiple small positions (i.e. short and long) and close it accordingly when it turns blue or hit the TP level with no stop loss or risk mitigation if things not in their favor. This is easy for sideways pattern (i.e. mainly EUR/USD) but during imminent breakouts, your floating positions could be trapped for months. Ok for big accounts but small accounts will surely get the margin call.
3. Some rely too much on third party signals. I had subscribed to a premium signal provider before for a USD200 per month that promise me 80% accuracy. The fact is otherwise since the signals provided are no better than my own simple setup signal generator. At times, it even clashed with my own signals and you knew what, my signals turn out to be the correct one and I was making these guys 200 dollar richer every month. I stopped my subscription only after 2 months of unsuccessful trading using their signals.
4. The most ignored element is prudent risk management. Most knew that you should not risk more than 2% (or whatever amount that you are comfortable with) but many are left clueless on how to translate this into their trading positions. Again, it is either their trainer fail to teach such thing or the student himself tend to ignore this core element of trading. Without knowing the risk that you are taking out there with your real money, you are just as good as a gambler could be. Definitely not a trader.
With all the points highlighted above, the most fundamental part of all is to accept the fact that the forex market is like a North Pacific Ocean. Your presence is negligible. Nobody knows for certain what's down there. Big fishes, small fishes, sharks, whales and even icebergs. You name it. Before you go sailing and try to make some catch, you need to have some basic sea survival skills, just to make it back to the shore alive in case if you don't make any catch at all.
Weather is another thing that you need to read accordingly (i.e. market's condition). There are times when you can go out and there are times when you should stay on the shore. How far and how big you can catch is also subject to your boat size (i.e. Account). When brokers are giving you big leverage (i.e.1:1000), it is a bait as such telling you that you can make a big catch even with a small boat. Yes you can but chances you may not survive even when a small wave hit your boat.
All in all, don't get me wrong. My interest is always into developing you, my students and aspiring new traders into an independent trader as I am. It is a process that you cannot skip. Further to that, bear in mind that making and losing money is just part of the process but you don't have to lose big money before you can become good at this. All you need is patience and discipline.
Again, I just want to emphasize that you need some trading education and effort to be successful. One of the best way is to learn from the experience of others. If you wish to pay, fine. There are just too many gurus who are more than happy to teach you. But if you want to get it for free, extra effort is required in obtaining these knowledge and skills throughout your own experience. Though it is worth it, it could be extremely painful sometimes.
It's your choice but educating yourself is a MUST by all means, be it the hard way (i.e. read, make mistakes, explore) or the easy way (i.e. pay, listen and do).
Have A Nice Weekend!
