by Ntombi Malatsi | Feb 22, 2016 | FOREX FOR BEGINNERS
Few common excuses that traders make
We (traders) at some point have messed up, like really messed up our accounts, especially traders who went straight to the markets and traded their real money without proper guidance/training (yours truly is as guilty as charged). I did that as well, I somehow thought I was too smart to fail but I think I missed the part that, one needs to learn first then remove the (L) and earn, all I wanted was to earn right away, I paid the price though, enough about me. This post is about the few excuses that traders (you can take me off the list now) make every time they fail. It seems like a normal thing to find someone to blame, but sometimes it is all our fault you know, listed below are the most common excuses of all times.
1.Blame it on bad luck.
Market has no favoritism, it gives everyone a fair chance to dive in. If you are facing losses day in and day out, it is not bad luck at all. You simply need to pay more attention so that you can identify the problem and find out what makes you to lose so much, but the first thing that comes to mind is to find someone/something to shift the blame to. Lets learn to look within, before shifting the blame, because most of the time, we create the mess ourselves.
2. Blame the unexpected economic news
Ooh well, I have done this a countless times in my early days of trading. First of all, the economic news are never really a surprise, there are hundreds of sites that provide us with information and daily economic news as they unfold, you can actually check the calendar for the whole week/month or more, in that way, you’ll be able to avoid being on positions prior to the release of any important economic data. Many traders would argue that the effect of news release never last, but unfortunately, it is that same effect that never last that is the main cause of their positions being stopped out or thrown to the wrong side of the markets in a split second, creating major losses or even blowing their trading accounts, unless maybe you are trading on a monthly chart (which is rare for day traders), an interesting part though is that, the people who are forever saying that the effect never lasts are day traders who trade daily charts and shorter time frames, and they are mostly affected but they are still not paying attention, take yourself off this list and be an informed trader who listens to the market. It is our own responsibility to listen to the markets, you do not have to be a die-hard fundamentalist, but you need to pay attention, the market doesn’t know that we even exist and it does not owe us anything, click HERE for economic calendar and be informed.
3.Blame the broker
You came across a link of a broker online, you started to talk to them and they called you to assist you to set up your account and they made all kinds of promises, how they’ll call you every day and actually trade with you blah blah (you know the story), most brokers are very supportive and they actually do that, they do call you to assist in every way possible, but they are also in business, they cannot really dedicate all their time teaching you for free , it always works better when you already know how to trade, the assistance comes in handy. It is still your responsibility to take it upon yourself to find a mentor or a teacher, read as much as you can, the assistance you get from a broker will never be enough, they are doing their part to assist you, do your part as well, find a mentor.
4.Blame the “gurus”
When a trader follows many gurus, he/she becomes more confused as to which method to follow, and it becomes dangerous when you try to trade your real money by following many methods, select few people to follow, try not to confuse yourself by trying to do everything at once, traders who trade their real money by following lots of gurus tend to fail and they experience more losses as compared to people who have mentors and follow few gurus. Remember, every guru has the ‘best’ strategy/method. I know few traders who are still failing even with the kind of knowledge that they have, the problem is when you learn a skill and expect to make it right away, the process to being a successful trader goes like:
Learn>>Practice/Demo trade>>Go live>>Continue practicing and using what you’ve learned>> Continue Learning>>Master the skill>>Earn with ease and be a sustainable and a profitable trader forever (that is how a successful trader is born). Get yourself into this list.
But for most traders it goes like: Learn>>Practice/Demo trade>>Go Live>>Stop practicing>>Stop using the knowledge that you have>>Trade on Tips/Stop listening to your mentor>>Find a new guru>>Trade higher volumes even when your equity is decreasing>>Use new strategies (trading your real money) that you do not even give a chance to see if they work>>Join Forex forums/groups>>Get more confused and lastly, lose all your money. (that is why there are traders who are funding their accounts every month). Take yourself off this list please.
Then when all is done, you start blaming the gurus. You have a responsibility to decide how it is going to be for you. I have done all the above mentioned as well, and it got me nowhere. The only way to master any skill is to practice what you know, not adding new strategies everyday. You’ll be a jack of all trades and a master of none and you’ll never make money in Forex. Thank you for stopping by and happy new week.
by Ntombi Malatsi | Jan 5, 2016 | FOREX FOR BEGINNERS, FOREX TRAINING
Trading during the London session?
We all know that currencies can be traded at any time as the market is opened 24 hours 5 days a week, but even so, we need to know when is the best time to trade certain currencies and when is the best time to stay away from certain currencies.
It is common sense that in order to trade successfully, we must try to trade the currencies when the people of that specific country are awake because there is more liquidity.
The Forex market comprises of 4 trading sessions which open and close at different times, see Forex market hours HERE.
This session is the busiest of them all, it is the most traded and volatile session in the Fx market. London is the largest dealing centre in the whole world. The London session presents traders with more liquidity.
================>Trade with regulated brokers here
The moment the London session opens, the volatility in the markets increase and during this session, we (traders) often see price movements in some currency pairs. London session is also known as European session.
My own trades are mostly during the London session, but I also trade the New york session which overlaps with the London session . I do trade other sessions as well, especially during news flow that takes place during later sessions of the day.
Which currency pairs are mostly traded during London session?
Gbp pairs in particular trade very well during London session because there is also a lot of NEWS FLOW AFFECTING GBP. When looking at economic calendars ( which is something very important to me) we can see mostly news that are specific to GBP are released at 4:30 am NY (10:30 am South African standard time) which is during London session.
I used to hate trading GBP pairs and now I realise I hated it because I traded it the most when I was still not paying attention to the daily economic calendar. My trades were always affected negatively by news, that has changed though.
GBP pairs are just fine and I trade them more often now even though their margin is a bit higher than most pairs, we are blessed in South Africa to have the most volatile session during our day time. Some traders from other countries have to actually wake up or stay up to catch the London session.
Some facts to consider
When Asian/Tokyo session opens, the companies in Japan are opened for business and will be buying and selling currencies in order to carry on with their day-to-day business deals.
This explains why we should trade the currencies when the people of that specific country are awake. This way, there will be high volume of Japanese Yen (JPY) exchange with the companies they do business with.
When Europe’s businesses are open for business, the EUR will be highly traded in high volumes, due to European businesses trading with companies from other countries.
In short, each session has its own currency pair that trades well in high volumes because of all the factors mentioned above.
Most traded currency pairs during the Asian/Tokyo session
The above mentioned currencies are mostly traded because they are domestic currencies of markets that are opened at that time. As the European session is near to closing , the volume is decreased and the volatility dies.
Another factor that lowers the volume/ liquidity is the UK and U.S bank holidays, when these two countries aren’t participating in the markets, the liquidity dies as they are the important players in the FX markets.
I also do not mind waking up sometimes to trade the Australian Dollar during the Asian/Tokyo session, the AUD news mostly happen during Asian session and when I really want to trade it. I wake up for it, as I have mentioned on my previous posts that waking up at night should be by choice and not because you are worried sick about your trades.
If you need to open a live account, for the safety of your funds, do it with a regulated broker HERE. For further assistance in terms of selecting the best broker for your personal needs, you can WhatsApp me on +27 64 510 4132 Or +27 76 966 9392.
For more information on my private mentorship, read this post HERE This is my first post of 2016, thank you for stopping by and happy trading if you are trading already. Sharing is caring, kindly share this post, thank you.
by Ntombi Malatsi | Dec 21, 2015 | FOREX FOR BEGINNERS, FOREX TRAINING
Gratitude – Last post of 2015
Hello fans, subscribers, visitors and followers, the year is coming to an end, in few more days we’ll be saying goodbye to 2015, it has been a great year of engaging and learning, I enjoyed every post I’ve written here, I hope you enjoyed reading as well. I would like to extend my gratitude to all of you for sticking around, thank you for your support and for pushing me to share even more of my journey and my mistakes with you, you have shown me the importance of sharing and to my subscribers, thank you for assuring me that I am not writing all this for myself but there are people who actually read and are always looking forward to a new post and thank you to everyone who enrolled for private lessons, thank you for trusting me. When I started this blog, I wanted a space where I could just speak openly about Forex without feeling stupid, pressured and without sugar coating anything, at first I needed a group or a forum where I could meet traders who were willing to admit or share their real challenges but I could not find, for some time I actually thought I was the only one who was going through some challenges as no one was really interested in sharing such, all I could find on groups and forums were traders showing off, putting each other down, disrespecting each other and even swearing at each other a lot (which was not really my scene), every time I tried to share, I would either be sold some new system or some robot or looked down upon, and therefore I decided to start “talking to myself”.
I decided to start this blog which was initially on a different free platform (blogspot) and was later migrated to this platform and became what it is today, at first I was just blogging because I knew no one would oppose my thoughts hence this blog is mostly about what I personally went through and I found that space where I can speak openly and I must say, I have managed to reach out to masses that I never thought I would manage. My aim ever since has been to reach out to those who are looking at venturing into Forex trading, I wanted to be that “go to person” to everyone who needed information, I mean real information about Forex, I wanted to protect people from being misled, scammed and lied to like it was done to me. I kept it real throughout the year and I shall continue keeping it real next year and many more years to come. To that person who really wanted to know what to expect in Forex trading and what exactly is this Forex thing, I hope you got most of your questions answered from FAQs post and also from the Forex trading lies post. And If you needed to know how are brokers regulated and who regulates them, I hope you got the information on FSB regulated brokers and you have learned how important it is to use a regulated broker and also the importance of understanding the trading sessions and the best time to trade Forex.
To that person who came across this blog and he/she was already trading, I hope you also learned a lot from my mistakes and you also picked up some few things that you can implement to improve your own trading, I hope you related to most of my stories as they often happen to almost every trader, though traders are not interested in sharing the challenges but only interested in selling the good and beautiful story. I have shared the most embarrassing moments of my journey, My Forex story and the painful moments just so I can show you the reality of trading and to make sure you do not repeat the same mistakes like when I depended on paid signals without education. I hope you also learned from my experience on copy trading and you can make up your own mind if you would like to go that route, and lastly, I hope you learned more on what moves the Forex market.
To that person who did not know the difference between Forex trading and HYIP programmes and thought he/she was participating in Forex market while he/she unknowingly participated in a Ponzi scheme, I hope you learned from Forex scams post, and you’ll do yourself a favor by staying away before you get yourself into trouble like I did. Below are some few questions that you need to be brutally honest about, It is a good thing that you’ll be doing this on your own, so just be honest, it is for your own good.
Reality check for those who traded live in 2015
- How many times have you secretly funded your real account in 2015?
- How many times have you taken money home from your trading account in 2015?
- How many times have you encountered margin call in 2015?
- How many times have you switched or changed technical strategies in 2015?
- Have you followed your trading plan in 2015? Did you even have one? If not, you can still use the one I posted on my last post of 2014 HERE .
Thank you so much, I am hoping to see you again here next year, let us continue to keep it real and set realistic goals and by doing so, we can change the stats and be counted among professional and successful traders, thank you , thank you , I really appreciate you, without you, this blog is nothing, and thank you so much for your comments, your feedbacks, your gratitude and the shares on almost all my posts. Stay safe till we meet again next year.
Love & Light and God bless you.
If you are still confused about how exactly is money made in Forex market, simply click on the link below and DOWNLOAD.
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by Ntombi Malatsi | Dec 12, 2015 | FOREX FOR BEGINNERS, FOREX TRAINING
Why does Forex market move?
What makes the price move in Forex market? Maybe you have been asking yourself this question, but never really had an answer. The price in currencies move because of supply and demand, when there are more buyers than sellers, the price is pushed up higher, the price is pushed further down when there are more sellers than buyers in the markets. But maybe the big question to ask should be, why are the buyers more than sellers, or why are there more sellers than buyers?
Why do we buy?
We buy because markets perceive that the currency that we intend buying is more valuable than others, for an example, markets perceive that the Canadian Dollar (CAD) is more valuable than US Dollar at that time, then more investors would be buying the Canadian Dollar (CAD) against the perceived weaker US Dollar (USD). The real question that we should be asking here is, why do markets think that the Canadian Dollar is more valuable than US Dollar? The real reason is fundamentals/news, no economic news, no perception and no movement in the markets and the value for each currency would be fixed, got that? Central banks are the most important voice in Forex market.
Most traders would argue that trading fundamentals or news does not work because the effect does not last, but it is the very same effect that does not last that wipes their accounts. And this post came at the right time when south Africa is facing the shocking weakening of the Rand due to some speech by our president which resulted in our currency depreciating heavily. I had a discussion with my trader friend and she made me laugh when she said “”WHO SAID WE WANTED THE EFFECTS TO LAST”” and she made a valid point, the only thing that we want is to profit from it and if it doesn’t last, we are still ok with it because we know it is short-term and we are very aware of that, and we will also know when it changes (short-term again) and we can follow the new direction and bank on it as well, yes I agree that the fundamentals are more of a long-term and the effects or the results may last for few minutes to few hours, but the sentiments are the “”NOW”” and that short-term price move does affect open positions/trades which are opened prior to an economic news in a big way, and mostly in a negative way, the price moves are short-term but they can be very hectic and deadly, just imagine what happened to a trader who was SHORT (SELL) on USDZAR at the time the shocking news hit the markets, the price move was not random, it was due to the news.
A lot of times traders are faced with this dilemma of being thrown to the wrong side of the market while they were so convinced of their trades and all criteria that they usually check before entering a trade were met, it becomes so confusing I know, the next thing that traders do, is to blame their system and change it only to find out the problem persists. If you are a day trader and you are trading shorter time frames ranging from M5 to H4, I think it makes sense to just pay more attention to the speeches and the daily news because when the news results are released, the sentiments in the markets change and take over and you get affected, you must consider this, it might help. The traders who are not affected by the short-term price move that happens as a result of an economic event are those who are trading weekly charts or even monthly charts. Mostly those who are telling you that the news do not work are longer time frame traders, but they forget to tell you that they do not trade shorter time frames as you do, the time frame makes all the difference.
The question that you need to ask yourself is simple, are you a long time frame trader or a short time frame trader, If you are not trading a daily, weekly or monthly time frame, maybe it is about time you pay more attention to daily market sentiments, you can benefit a lot from it, I have learned that as a day trader I needed to pay attention to the daily news as I was mostly affected and stopped out and thrown to the wrong side of the markets as the news happened, yes it is short-term and so is a trader who trades anytime frame below daily, weekly or monthly.
Categories of news that contributes to currency movements
- Economy
- Infrastructure
- Inflation
- And a lot more other speeches by government
Interest rates
All major currencies interest rates are controlled by the government or independent organisations that reports to the government. If the inflation is high, the interest rates will be raised to slow down the economy, higher interest rates mean higher costs to borrow money, higher costs on the monthly credit card bills, higher costs to buy a house etc. and the economy slows down, by increasing the interest rates, the value of currencies also increase
Higher interest rate=higher inflation=higher currency value
Lower interest rate=lower inflation = lower currency value
Notes
- Every currency pair moves differently
- Use correlations to other currencies as confirmation to your existing trades or the planning of your future entries
- Limit your trading to few currency pairs; try not to trade more than 4 currency pairs, it makes it easier for you to focus on few pairs instead of trying to understand all currency pairs, it is really unnecessary.
- Trade currency pairs at the time when the people in that country are starting their day, learn more about forex market hours here, it makes more sense as the liquidity is more due to the day activities, trying to trade GBPUSD in Asian session or late London session will never provide you with much actions and your position might just stuck in a range, because of lack of liquidity.
Thank you for stopping by and reading here, If you find this post informative, please kindly share it with your social media friends using the share buttons below.
by Ntombi Malatsi | Nov 20, 2015 | FOREX FOR BEGINNERS, FOREX TRAINING
Bad Idea!! that’s all I can say:
Welcome back, If you have not yet found yourself in that situation, this is your chance to learn and to make sure it doesn’t happen to you. It happened to me because no one was looking out for me and no one really talks about it, everyone is interested in selling the beautiful story. This is how it goes. It is Monday, you start off your week with a bang, everything is going so well you are making some tangible pips, same thing happens on Tuesday, you make even more and as you make more you become more confident in such a way that you think to yourself “why not increase the lot size” of course you see it fit, you increase your lot size and wow!! it feels like the best decision ever. Wednesday you start feeling really confident now, you have to let your friends know how you are “killing it”, the feeling is so good you really cannot keep it to yourself.
The unthinkable happens:
You are so consumed by the pips you cannot even think straight, now the “profits only” mentality rules, you are no longer paying attention to your margin and your free margin, all you think about is your next pip, you cannot really take any loss, your account has moved incredibly from where it was on Monday, you have progressed a lot and now you are despising the most important things and you are only chasing pips, all you are focusing on at this point is to make more pips so that you can close your week with a bang, and you can imagine it happening already. It is Thursday, you are operating on another level now , everything is on point, everything is higher, your lot size is higher and so are the pips made, you have made more since Monday till Wednesday without any losses, then you make a loss of just 30 pips on Thursday, it shouldn’t be a problem though to take a loss and walk away right? but no it becomes the most difficult thing to do, all you want to see at that point is nothing else but profits, you are even failing to see the bigger picture, you have made total of 100 pips since the beginning of the week so making a loss of 30 pips should not be really counted as a loss because you are already in profits, instead of closing the losing trade and walking away with your 70 pips and see on Friday, you become so obsessed and you want to trade more to make up for the loss, and that is too bad to even think about but unfortunately that is what comes to mind.
The end:
Then you go on and you place a trade using a higher volume (to cover up for your “loss”, so you think), then instead of making profit as usual, your trade goes against you and you make a huge loss, you are there watching it, and it is so hard to believe that it is really happening to you, but yes it is happening to you and the only feelings that you have are feelings of regret. Then comes Friday and you LOSE, you do not only lose the profits but the whole account, was it worth it though? no, I don’t think so, you were trying to plot some revenge by overtrading to make up for a “loss” which was not really a loss, and you ended up with nothing. It happened to me, do not let it happen to you. Being confident is good, but being overconfident is certainly not good in this market, less is more and what matters is moving your account from point A to point B, if you try to move from point A to point Z, yes you can do that, but also note that you can also lose that. Some things are not really good for your blood pressure. Rather be safe than sorry, learn to take a loss, walk away and keep your profits. The only way to be steady and sustainable is to “walk” slow, speed kills. Thank you for stopping by, kindly share the post and do come around again.
by Ntombi Malatsi | Nov 16, 2015 | FOREX FOR BEGINNERS
Where should you start?
To the regulars, welcome back and if you are here for the first, please feel at home and I hope you enjoy reading this post as much as I enjoyed putting it together for you. I got this image from Pinterest and I am loving it, I think it is cute. So you want to trade but you are a bit confused on who to follow or which method to follow. The Forex market is such a giant and there are thousands if not million ways to participate in this global market, but it becomes too difficult for someone who is trying to get into day trading Forex. Some few years ago I embarked on this journey of day trading Forex, the first thing that comes to mind when we want to start/learn something new is to go to Google to do some research and to find out more, and many times when we do the search we only focus on the first pages that comes up when we type our keywords, if you can go to Google now and type the word “Forex” you will see the results in just few seconds and there is a lot, I mean a lot of information, some sites will warn you against trading the daily breaking economic news while others will warn you against trading technical, everyone has an opinion, but at some point if you really want to get started, you have to stop the research and just start, do not be the kind of person who is suffering from analysis paralysis (the state of over-analyzing or over-thinking a situation so much that a decision or action is never taken), by stopping the research I do not imply that you stop reading or learning altogether, but you have to use the information that you have already to get started and once you have started, you can then keep learning because learning never stops.
A Few days ago I had a conversation with a very experienced SEO expert, he asked me a simple question,”Ntombi what is your niche”, boldly I responded and said Forex is my niche, he said to me Forex is not your niche but a general niche ( I must say I got confused a bit) he wanted to know which segment of Forex trading is my focus on. I am telling you this to make you understand that even though we are all doing Forex, we are not in any way focusing on one segment. So each one of us has a duty to find out which segment or form of trading suits us, it starts by identifying your own needs and mostly your personality. You cannot just approach this Forex market in a general way, you have to focus on that specific area.
There are so many ways to day-trade Forex, some traders do so by focusing on technical side, nothing else but technical, some traders do so by trading the daily breaking economic news and sentiments (like me). You are new and you have no idea which method to choose. If you happen to learn from someone who is purely into technical trading, stick to what they teach you and if you are mentored by someone who is into fundamentals and sentiments, do yourself a favor by sticking to that at least until you can see if you can make money or not, another thing that makes beginner traders to switch without giving what they are taught time, is because they are mostly in a rush to make it, which is not really a good idea, good things takes time and being sustainable in this market is something that most traders will never get to experience.
It might sound like l am saying you need to restrict yourself as beginner, It is not really restricting yourself but rather focusing on one thing at a time, because if you do not focus, you will find yourself switching a lot without getting anywhere, because everyone has the “best” way than others, there is nothing as ineffective as trying to learn everything at once, it is not only exhausting and confusing but it can also be the number one reason why some people spend their entire life just learning and never put what they learn into action, and besides, what is the point of learning if you are never going to use the information. The Forex market is such an exciting field and it is through that excitement that most people enter the markets only to lose their money.
Why did I fail so much in the past:
During the early days of my trading I followed so many teachings and the most popular one which is purely technical, I tried to learn from different sources which is the reason why I ended up with so much losses, I do not see anything wrong with trying to learn from different sources but when real money is involved, focusing on one method at a time is all you need, you can use different sources as long as it is to enhance what you have been taught initially. Learning is good and learning different ways of trading the markets is very good, but you are not going to be a master of anything if you try to learn all the methods at once, you will be a jack of all trades but a master of none, take it from me, you do not really need to learn all forms of trading at once, one method at a time is good to make you money.
I mostly trade the sentiments and fundamentals because I believe that is where I found peace of mind after failing so much on other methods (note that I am saying after failing, meaning after I traded real money for such a long time and lost a lot using other methods) therefore I had to find the form of trading that will suit my needs and personality. I personally feel at ease trading the reason without cracking my head with technical analysis (which I am not saying is bad) but it was probably bad for me, it all depends on an individual. Use what you have currently, It doesn’t have to be popular to make you money believe me, because if you do not use it , how will you ever find out if it works for you or not?. Just stop switching and start focusing on practicing what you know already, that is the only way to master any skill, ask anyone who is a master of something, they will tell you that the only way to gain experience in anything is to do and do and do.
I recently got an email from a beginner trader who has just finished her training course from somewhere else and she wanted to learn from me as she felt that she paid a lot of money for “nothing”. I asked her why is she saying that, she said to me, she has been following me on my blog and she is also a subscriber, so she feels that her mentor has deprived her some information because he never spoke of fundamentals and the economic news which then makes her to be so confused as she receives daily news alerts from my blog and she has no idea how to use the information.
Wow I saw myself in her ( jumping into learning something new without putting into action what I was taught). Being me, I advised her to start focusing on what her mentor is teaching her, I did not try to make myself a heroin by trying to discredit what her mentor has taught her, but instead I explained to her that she must use the knowledge that she has, It could be the only way she can make it in this market, the truth is, she paid her mentor but she wants to trade her real money using something which is totally new to her. I sent her back to her mentor and told her that there are million ways to trade Forex market and her mentor is teaching her what he believes in and what works for him, if she needed a site to learn from, definitely my blog is not for her at the moment as she feels more confused. I also advised her to subscribe to another blog which will actually speak the language that is in line with what she was taught, because learning never stops, but following me does not enhance her skills as I am using a different approach to what she knows.
This is a terrible mistake that many beginner traders make and unfortunately they do not take advise from anyone, they mostly prefer to make their own mistakes and lose their own money before they can listen, but some of the things are just common sense. If you have never heard your mentor talking about Bank of England (BOE) do not feel deprived, they might just be a die-hard technical folks, and if you do not hear your mentor talking about the Fibonacci, do not feel deprived, they might just be a fundamental and sentiment traders, they surely have that one area of Forex trading that they are focusing on. On my next post , I will explain why I prefer the method of trading that I use, which is sentiments and fundamentals mostly, watch out for the post and read my forex story here. Thank you for stopping by and please kindly share with your social media buddies, someone might just need to hear this or maybe it is what you needed to hear.
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