Your Crucial 1st Steps in FOREX

As in starting any business, it is wise to learn the ropes before plunging in head first!

There are quite a number of avenues to this end, some reliable some not so reliable. Some can turn out to be expensive lessons in vain if you're not careful. Let's look at some of these avenues available one by one.

First, let's look at the set of tools we need to trade, our trading tools.

To start trading Forex, you will need a platform to trade with and trade in. Most brokerage houses offer a free trading platform with the opening of an account and more often than not the platform used is the MetaTrader 4. Some may have their own variation of the MetaTrader or even entirely different platforms altogether probably for differentiation purposes. However, you will never go wrong if you stick with MetaTrader. My experience with various different platforms tells me quite clearly which platform to place my trades with and in.

You can download the Metatrader 4 platform for free at www.metatrader4.com and start placing trades in demo mode with none of your hard-earned money. This way you gain invaluable experience without experiencing the pain of less than desirable trade results. Get it?

One more thing about platforms, the more you use any platform the more comfortable you'd be using it and the more adept you'd be in Forex Trading. And since MetaTrader is the most commonly adopted platform amongst brokerages, you'd be able to find one that offers the same platform should the need arise.

Having the tools is one thing and knowing how to use 'em is yet another but it is not the same as having the technical knowhow or expertise since this is going to be your field of business. After all, you would not want to invest in something you aren't 100% sure about, right? So, great, you've got the tools but how and where art thou gonna learn about the ins and outs of Forex Trading??

There are previews and seminars which you could attend usually free for the former but for the latter you'll have to be prepared for damages ranging from 5 to 6 grand! The previews are free, supposedly eye-opening talks about Forex, well at least for the uninformed, they are. They are also a vehicle to sell the hugely lucrative 5-star seminars.

Well before deciding to register for any of these life-changing money-magnet seminars, do all the homework you can and always, always ask for a program or course outline and Google them and do some research. Also try and get any assurance you can (guarantees would be ideal, but you don't see this word so often anymore these days do you?) on what you would be able to achieve at the end of the seminar or least of a long-term support programme way after the seminar. If there is no such assurance, it would very likely be a waste of your time and money! Mostly you'd end up with chunks and chunks of information usually already available on the web with a little effort and research. If you're lucky, you may get a list of strategies with which to ply your trade, so to say. In any case, a back-test on the strategies is essential to reveal their efficacies or the lack thereof. Otherwise, you'd be none the wiser.

And, if you do attend any such seminar all the homework you would've done will make you a more informed student and you'll be able to ask not only sensible questions but also questions that will make a difference in your understanding and grasp of what you'd be learning as well as in your investment in the seminar.

Ultimately, this will also have prepared you more sufficiently for your Forex business.

Next we shall look at Forex terms and jargons and what they mean to you as a trader.

Forex ForREAL