by Ntombi Malatsi | Apr 7, 2016 | FOREX TRAINING
I used to spend almost the whole night watching YouTube videos trying to learn this and that and trading was not fun at all. It became this one thing that I so wanted to learn and master, but it was taking over my life in a very bad and overwhelming way. Most of the time I felt like I was suffering from some rare mental disorder *smiles, it wasn’t nice at all, not to mention emotionally draining and exhausting. I was also not a fun person to be around anymore.
I would make a lot and lose it all again. Funding my account month after month was normal to me. When I started, I did not really have clear goals of where I wanted to take this trading thing. I was just excited to be one of the female traders and learning a new skill.
Personality plays an important role in whatever we do
I believe that when choosing a career or business venture, one needs to consider his/her personality. I am naturally a very calm and a reserved woman. I love peace and quiet, I do not like noise and overcrowded places.
I really enjoy being on my own. There I was trying to get into Forex trading and it took over my whole life. I am a wife and I have a son. Trading took me away from everything that matters to me. Because of the amount of work and efforts that I was putting into it, the long hours and staying up all night, friends and family members assumed that I was making a lot of money, and that alone added some pressure and I just had to keep up.
The truth is, I was living a very stressful life hiding behind charts. Those charts are very attractive when you are still a newbie and the more lines I could draw on charts, the smarter I felt. where am I going with all this? I am trying to show you how important it is to consider our personalities in everything that we do because our personalities lead us to do things the way that we do them.
How was my quality of life affected?
I struggled to balance life and everything else. I loved trading and I knew that I could make money but it was just too much. I would stay up all night studying charts, I would be glued to my laptop the whole day watching over charts, it was emotionally draining for real.
How do I trade now?
I am no longer consumed by charts and I sleep very well at night. If I happen to be up and trading at night, it is always by choice. I set up an alarm and wake up to trade then go back to sleep again, isn’t it lovely?
I can do my own trading, teach and coach 8-10 people every month, run this blog and still manage to take care of my other business, cook, sit with my family in the evenings and attend to social media and tons and tons of emails that I get daily. Life feels so normal
I trade the economic news and I only use technical analysis to confirm my entries and exits. I am not saying other methods are bad, but probably bad for me, my personality, my lifestyle and my needs. This method that I use works better for me and what matters the most is that I am now trading less, living a normal and simple life but I make more money than I used to.
I used to stay away from the markets during the high impact economic events until I learned how to trade them, (most traders still do, but the economic news are my bread and butter). I listen to what the market says and follow it where it goes. I strive to be on the right side of the markets by trading only after the daily speeches are released.
Try something new
We usually shut down any ideas that are not popular or that are not “in your face” or when we do not understand how it’s done. I am loving this form of trading and I have no regrets. The economic news makes sense to me, knowing what moves the currencies make sense to me. I can trade and still find time to do everything else that matters to me, if I can learn how to bake a cake, my life will be complete *smiles.
Benefits of how I trade
- My trading sessions are pre-planned, I do not do random trades, I wait for the market to decide, then follow.
- Emotions are far less than when I was consumed by charts.
- I do not worry about the quantity of trades, but the quality, therefore I do not trade 20 times a day.
- I make more money than I used to do before, and I actually keep what I make and it does get into my bank account.
- I have monthly targets which I break down into weekly and right down to daily, read more HERE.
- I can do other things that I enjoy, like cooking, and ooh well, I am about to learn how to bake a cake (sorry, I am too excited about that, I keep mentioning it).
- I can also get to spend time with my family and I am not always irritated ( I used to stress a lot, my son would even say that I control the mood in the house, he was joking but it was the sad truth).
- I do not miss my beauty sleep, not even by chance (unless I choose to)
- I spend less hours trading.
- In the beginning of the week, I always know the currencies that I would be trading the whole week. I check my weekly economic calendar and do my weekly trading schedule every Sunday and know my 3 W’s (what, why, when)
- I get time to check up on my mentees on a daily basis and also plan our trading sessions and trade together during news release (1-2 times a day ) depending on our economic calendar. Our sessions take about an hour or so, making it possible for people who are at work to manage. Sometimes we don’t trade on a specific day and it’s still OK not to trade 5 days a week, remember it’s quality over quantity.
Remember it is all about your needs, your lifestyle and most importantly your personality. If you are trading already and it feels like you are not the same person that you were before you started trading, you are constantly worried and you do not have time to do anything else, your life is now all about charts and markets, it is about time you change how you do it.
Trading should not be a stressful event, if you feel that you are like me, maybe you need to explore this method, but learn first. Thank you for stopping by and kindly share this post with your peers.
by Ntombi Malatsi | Apr 6, 2016 | ECONOMIC NEWS
Go where the markets go
Recap from last Friday, the U.S employment rose about 215k as opposed to expected figure of 209k , while the Average Hourly Earnings also increased 0.3% from previous month, which was 0.2%, Unemployment rate came out at 5.0% as opposed to 4.9% expected. Now that the NFP is over, we are looking forward to FOMC on the 26-27 April, read more about it HERE, and check out our economic news table below, happy trading
| ECONOMIC CALENDAR APRIL 4th TO APRIL 8th
LearnFxTrading.net |
| DATE |
NEWS |
NEW YORK TIME |
LOCAL TIME |
FORECAST |
CURRENCY |
| 04th April |
Construction PMI |
4:30am |
10:30am |
54.3 |
GBP |
| 04th April |
Trade balance |
9:30pm |
3:30am 5th |
-2.55B |
AUD |
| 5th April |
Cash Rate |
12:30am |
6:30am |
2.00% |
AUD |
| 5th April |
Services PMI |
4:30am |
10:30am |
53.9 |
GBP |
| 5th April |
Trade Balance |
8:30am |
2:30pm |
0.9B |
CAD |
| 5th April |
ISM Non- Manufacturing PMI |
10:00am |
4:00pm |
54.1 |
USD |
| 7th April |
Unemployment Claims |
8:30am |
2:30pm |
271K |
USD |
| 8th March |
Manufacturing Production |
4:30am |
10:30pm |
-0.1% |
GBP |
| 8th March |
Employment Change |
8:30am |
2:30pm |
|
CAD |
| 8th March |
Unemployment Rate |
8:30am |
2:30pm |
|
CAD |
by Ntombi Malatsi | Mar 27, 2016 | ECONOMIC NEWS
We are approaching the most significant event in Forex market, read more about the Non-Farm Payroll HERE and learn how to trade it and what to look for in this particular event. Listed below, are the high impact economic events for the upcoming week, happy trading. If you wish to learn how to trade the economic events, send your request to admin@learnfxtrading.net, subject: Economic events. Please be advised that it is a paid service, thank you.
| ECONOMIC CALENDAR MARCH 28TH TO April 1st
LearnFxTrading.net |
| DATE |
NEWS |
NEW YORK TIME |
LOCAL TIME |
FORECAST |
CURRENCY |
| 29th March |
CB Consumer confidence |
10:00am |
4:00pm |
93.9 |
USD |
| 30th March |
ADP Non-Farm Employment Change |
8:15am |
2:15pm |
194k |
USD |
| 31st March |
Current Account |
4:30am |
10:30am |
-21.8B |
GBP |
| 31st March |
Canada GDP |
8:30am |
2:30pm |
0.3% |
CAD |
| 31st March |
Unemployment Claims |
8:30am |
2:30pm |
269K |
USD |
| 1st April |
Manufacturing PMI |
4:30am |
10:30pm |
51.3 |
GBP |
| 1st April |
Average Hourly Earnings |
8:30am |
2:30pm |
0.3% |
USD |
| 1st April |
Non-Farm Employment Change |
8:30am |
2:30pm |
208K |
USD |
| 1st April |
Unemployment Rate |
8:30am |
2:30pm |
4.9% |
USD |
by Ntombi Malatsi | Mar 25, 2016 | FOREX FOR BEGINNERS, FOREX TRAINING
How much can you make in Forex trading-Set your daily targets

I am on a mission to provide practical solutions to traders out there. I have been doing this trading for some few years now and I have seen the key points that causes failure in trading. This post is not for traders who are hyped up as it won’t be providing any adrenaline rush or even appealing to them, but this is definitely going to speak to the kind of a trader who is looking at building a healthy Forex trading account, this is not meant to be exciting at all. To a trader who is looking for excitement, I am so sorry, you won’t find it in this post. This post is for a trader who is into Forex trading as an investment and actually looking at growing it further, and learning how to protect his/her capital and be sustainable in the markets, the small changes that we make in our daily trading activities can have a huge impact in how things turn out for us, this is not about certain strategies, most of the time, failing has nothing to do with your strategy. If this is you, then keep reading and if it is not you, then you might as well just stop reading now because this is going to sound so boring, too slow and too simple for your liking, investing is not supposed to be exciting and I am also not trying to get you excited.
Every aspiring trader wants to know how much they can make, it is mostly the first question people ask me daily, when they enquire about Forex trading. I speak to many people on daily basis, but most of them are turned off by my honesty, when they ask me how much they can make, I always start by saying ” I don’t know” and continue to tell them the facts and the truth (which is not what they want to hear), most people who are enquiring about Forex trading are always hyped up by what they see on social media (which is not the reality, well mostly). But I am so far, very glad that the people who end up working with me, are mostly the people who are realists, which then makes my work very easy, because I am a realist too (of course it is not attractive in this industry). On my previous post I covered an issue about TRADING CAPITAL and how it can impact your returns/profits. If you have a goal, and your goal is to be sustainable in the market for years and years and you also want to do away with “every trader needs to blow some few accounts before making it” mentality, then you are at the right place right now, keep reading and I hope you do find this post helpful, if you do, kindly share it with your peers, I will try to keep it simple and as practical as possible.
There is a massive range of income potential when it comes to day-trading, but there is also a huge percentage of people who are flooding the markets only to donate their money daily, the latter are the traders who have unrealistic goals and are impatient and undisciplined (discipline is something that each and every trader needs to teach him/herself, a mentor can only do so much and the trader needs to come to the “party”). I promised you to be practical, therefore I will not confuse you with jargon but I will keep it simple, I am a big fan of simplicity. For a clever trader, the table below might appear as a “stupid table” and too slow or too small amounts, but for a trader who is financially savvy (who understands how other investments work), will see a very good plan and not slow at all. If you are trading already, you should try it (you have nothing to lose), go back to your trading account while you are reading here and start planning right away and see if it won’t bring changes in your trading activities (you can thank me later). If you do not have a trading plan, find it HERE. Before you can try to implement this to your own trading, try showing it to your fellow traders, most of them will laugh at you and ridicule you for having such “small goals”, never mind them, just implement it anyway and watch them grinding daily with their big goals and making huge cash while you stick to your plan, at the end, you are the one who is going to take money home soon, while the ones who are chasing dollars keep on funding their trading account from time to time because they got wiped out by one bad trade (we all get bad trades from time to time, but it shouldn’t harm your account).
What if I do not reach my daily target or what if I make nothing?
If you do not reach your daily target but make less or even nothing (there is no loss there), walk away and come back tomorrow, it could be the market not providing trading opportunities or you are simply not seeing your setups ( it happens), tomorrow will come and you’ll trade again and make even more than your daily target, but make sure you do not feel like you have to force yourself to the markets even when the trading opportunities aren’t there and the market is sleepy ( maybe due to bank holiday ), that is something that has to come within you, you have to teach yourself to walk away if you have to, your mentor can give you support and all, but you are the one who is doing the actual trading and it is your money after all, you have to look after it, and you have to be emotionally matured and know when to walk away. Stop putting pressure on yourself, it is OK to trade few hours per day, your life doesn’t have to stop just because you have a live Forex trading account, have a plan and trade smart. I treat my trading account as a private property and that alone, takes pressure away, try to avoid over trading by all means.
I am not going to talk about some risk ratios and refer you to some online calculator that might just confuse you, I am here to keep it simple for you, you can use it or lose it. I am all about simplicity, this is not a fancy formula, but it works, daily targets seems like nothing at all, but wait until you see them accumulating nicely in your account without worrying about loosing all your capital.
Please kindly give feedback (should you decide to use the table), you can do so by leaving a comment, or for your privacy, you can email ntombimalatsi@learnfxtrading.net and tell me if you are finding it helpful, see table below with some few examples, you can alter it to work for your own trading capital, this is just a guide, but a guide that has kept me and my mentees consistent, on a bad day, a trader is still not supposed to lose all his/her capital.
Formula:
Trading capital times 40% (monthly target in percentage) , divide by 4 weeks (weekly target in dollars) and then divide that by 5 days = daily target in dollars. Of course, results may vary, considering other factors or events that lead to this particular event (profit taking) that we are discussing here, sometimes you might not trade the whole 5 days, (which is OK), but I hope you do get the idea of the table.
Thank you for stopping by and reading till the end, I hope it was worth it.
| Capital In your Account |
Monthly Target In Percentage |
Monthly Target In Dollars |
Weekly Target In Dollars |
Daily Target In Dollars |
| $500 |
40% |
$200 monthly |
$50 |
$10 daily |
| $750 |
40% |
$300 monthly |
$75 |
$15 daily |
| $1000 |
40% |
$400 monthly |
$100 |
$20 daily |
| $1500 |
40% |
$600 monthly |
$150 |
$30 daily |
| $2000 |
40% |
$800 monthly |
$200 |
$40 daily |
by Ntombi Malatsi | Mar 21, 2016 | FOREX FOR BEGINNERS, FOREX TRAINING
Trading capital-how much do you really need for your live account?

Ok, I think it is about time I address this question about trading capital. Most people are not going to like this, but I have to say it anyway, someone has to say it, and the truth shall set you free. Your earning potential depends on your start up capital. Every trader dreams of turning his/her account into a million dollar account. It is definitely not impossible, it is doable but not everyone can do it ( I am so sorry to burst your bubble). Forex trading is good money, but it is also exaggerated a lot by most traders who are vocal about it. Most are either selling dreams or their flashy lifestyle, and aspiring traders are buying into that. Millionaire traders are out there selling their lifestyle to you and they forget to mention to you that you are not going to make a million out of $500. They also forget to tell you that what they are showing you cannot be achieved by a start-up cash of $500, your trading capital does play a huge role in determining your returns. Forex market is flooded by new traders with unrealistic dreams and goals on a daily basis, these unrealistic goals are as a result of what is being sold to them through the seminars and social media.
The brokers can tell you that you can start with as a little as $30, but realistically speaking, it is impossible to make money with that amount. Then there are brokers which have a minimum deposit of R5000, when I started trading a few years ago, the rand was trading at R10 to the US Dollar, which then meant that R5000 was actually $500. Things have changed a lot since then, the rand is now trading at +-R16 which means R5000 is no longer $500 but +-$300. Now again because I am a realist, $300 is too little to trade with, you cannot trade much with it, yes you can start there, but I always advise my team to work on topping it up (if they can). This is to create a better trading environment, as well as trading commodities and other financial instruments within the Fx markets. Your goals are a deciding factor, it all depends on what you are trying to achieve with your trading account. 0.01 volume is recommended for a $300 account, but if you want to take some money home month end, you cannot expect that from $300 right away. A trader who doesn’t gamble can compound his/her profits and gradually increase the lot size, but it does not always happen that way, it is something that is easily achievable on paper. It takes a lot of patience to trade such account and the quantity traded is too small. You have two choices if you want to start with a small account or if you already have a small account, you can either top it up/invest more or stick to the recommended size, which is 0.01 and exercise patience and lots of it.
Common issues associated with trading an account with small trading capital
I believe the most important part of trading is to get it right more than anything. Learning how to protect your equity, learning to accept when you are wrong, learning to let go of bad trades, being disciplined and having a trading plan with good money management skills to accompany all that (that is what I preach to those under my mentor ship), setting monthly targets, breaking it down to weekly and all the way down to daily. The consistency come as a result of practicing all the above mentioned ( it doesn’t happen over night). The amount of money that you start with, does not make any difference if you do not pay attention to the above mentioned. If you are a profits only trader, rather start with that $30 and lose it all. There are certain challenges that are associated with trading small account.
A trader who is trading an account of about $1000 and above, is likely to relax and trade without feeling pressure, but a trader who is trading with below $500 equity is likely to stress too much and end up taking large positions in order to grow the account faster, even when the market conditions aren’t really favorable, this trader just wants to trade. Even though profits can be accumulated and be compounded, this trader becomes too emotionally attached to the account. So how about we agree that when trading small account , you should not expect to take some money home at least for some few months, just so your account can grow and you can also increase your lot size (quantity traded) to create a better trading environment and to make more money . Am I saying you should start with large sum of money? No, not at all, if you can manage a $500 account, you can do the same thing with a bigger account, but consider the facts above, if you do start small, start with a minimum and top it up later just like with any other business, you are likely to use your money to grow it at the beginning. You can also just save up towards your trading account on a monthly basis, say maybe set aside R1000 and top up your account month after month, it works wonders for serious traders who are willing to grow their accounts. Everything depends on you, it all depends on what do you want to achieve with your trading account, but it all begins with being a realist. A trader who is unrealistic will always face disappointments and be at risk of over trading and end up getting a margin call. Thank you again for stopping by, sharing is caring, if you find this post informative, please do share with your peers, for further assistance, leave your comment or send an email to: ntombimalatsi@learnfxtrading.net
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