Before you start trading forex for full time, make sure that you have everything covered. Though, not all people are risk takers and will quit their day job on a whim (like me), you must be prepared on to a new journey of your life. You will look back and if you become successful at this, you’ll realize that its the best decision you’ve made in your life. There’s no better feeling than being your own boss and eating your own kill.
#1 – Money To Keep You Afloat
Save at least 8 months worth of your expenses. Compute all of your expenses per month and then set aside money to pay that expenses for 8 months. This should keep you out of worrying where to get the money to pay for your rent, electricity, water etc. should you take consistent lose on your trading.
#2 – Trading Capital
This is probably will come from a personal preference. But for starters, I’ll try to give a more concrete estimate on how much should your trading capital be. Forget about the trading system for now. Let’s say that your trading system (thru backtesting) produces consistent profits at the rate of 10% per month. And your monthly expenses is let’s say, P20,000 per month. How much funds do you need to produce P20,000 for 10%?
x = TARGET INCOME / % RETURN
x = 20,000 / 0.1
x = 200,000
The answer is P200,000. If you need P20,000 to live with 10% increase per month. You need P200,000 of initial funds. Whatever your target income per month, just use the formula above.
#3 – Money Management System
You also need, and probably the most important thing, to have a money management system. This is not merely how much money should you risk per trade. This is also, how much money should you risk again should you know you are right. And how much money should you take out if you’re right and how much money should you cut off if you’re wrong. There’s a lot of things going on in a money management system, please do a careful research first before trying to broke yourself in trading. Victory loves preparation.
There’s a lot of books in money management. But there’s only one that comes to mind.
Trade Your Way to Financial Freedom
#4 – Trading System
A trading system is a system that will tell you when you will enter and exit the trade. In searching for a system, give more emphasis to the exit strategy than the entry strategy. Why? Because it can either be the profit taking or the cutting of losses in which either case can affect your account and your mental state. Don’t get too hang up on trading strategy, just a simple trading strategy will do. The most important part in your trading is money management and trading psychology.
There’s a lot of books that teaches trading systems. But I guess its up to you on what you will choose. I’ll just refer you to a book about different successful traders of our time so you will know what trading strategies they are using and decide for yourself:
Market Wizards: Interviews with Top Traders
#5 – Trading Psychology
Emotions are the main enemy in trading. That’s why you should learn to control them. Read books about trading psychology to be aware if you’re acting on emotions or rational decisions. There are times when you will suffer consistent winners and consistent losing streaks. Having the mental toughness to overcome that will make you a great trader so never try to skip step and proceed trading without practice. If there is one book I would recommend for this topic, its:
