TGIF!! I hope everyone had an amazing week and there were lots of good wins. I finally got to fund my account this week to trade and what an awesome feeling it is to call a good trade. Trading with control and discipline, where it doesn’t feel like gambling because you know more of what to look for and when to stop is truly awesome. This post will be, to sum up a little bit of what I have experienced and learned so far and some basic info about trading that I have learned so far.
When I trade, which so far has only been a few times with real money, I focus on currencies but you can also trade commodities and crypto. Commodities include oil, copper, beans, etc. I don’t trade with commodities just because it’s not something I have really thought about, I just know it’s a thing. Like I have mentioned before I have bought cryptos such as dogecoin, Ethereum, and bitcoin. Now of course I have only bought a small amount of bitcoin and Ethereum because I can’t afford to spend 50,000 (yet) but I do own a part of each. I do not however trade crypto! I buy and hold and just ride that wave. I know many people who have bought and sold bitcoin and regretted it because they didn’t believe in it. I do not want to make this mistake and so far, so good. I have used bitcoin to fund my trading account before which was actually really cool. I bought bitcoin using Cashapp and then sent it using this address online. It was pretty easy and now the leftover I have is growing. One currency I gravitate towards is EUR/USD. This currency pair means I’m buying EUR and selling USD.
This past week was NFP week, which stands for Non-Farm Payroll and it is a major indicator of the US economy. Forex traders love this week because they can make huge profits, but of course, this means they can also have big losses. The gov basically releases the number of jobs that have been added in the US economy that don’t include government, farm, non-profit, and private household employees. This information is used to help prepare and predict the time after it’s released. Me knowing very little about NFP week going into trading, did not experience huge losses, thank god, but because I am pretty conservative when it comes to trading, only risking about 3% of my total I did not make bank as others did. I did however make a few bucks which were nice because it rained a ton the other night and I did not want to DoorDash in the rain. So, I was making money on a rainy day while drinking hot chocolate in my pj’s. Now that I know a little bit more about NFP, and hopefully by the time the next NFP comes which will be the beginning of next month (technically the first Friday of every month but the whole week after is affected from my understanding) I will be a lot more prepared to carefully take advantage of it. Oh and one more reason this is an important week is that unemployment rates are also released and that could affect the value of the dollar. High unemployment means low interest rates to stimulate the economy, which as I said reduced the demand for the dollar. So low jobs, low economy, and vice versa. So, the currency pair that I like, EUR/USD was affected by this, as well as a few others.
(see chart in my video down below)
Found this chart https://www.dailyfx.com/nfp
“It reflects the surveyed net change in US employment, excluding farm workers, non-profit organization and private household employees.”
Obviously, this is very good information to know when trading! I also think it’s good to know in general because it affects the market and economy overall.
Another, key thing to keep in mind when trading is not only the time of the month but also the time of day you decide to trade! There are four times:
(see chart in the video, until I figure out how to post pictures again)
I hear that London and NY are the two most popular markets to trade but I think it also depends on what your motive is, your availability, the market itself, what you’re trading, etc. There’s a lot that can factor into what time you like to trade and within which market. I personally like to trade late so the Sydney market or in the morning where London and NY overlap. If you’re trading during the London session then most people like to focus on the EUR, myself included. If you’re trading during the NY session it’s good to focus on the USD but of course when they overlap. So, focus on what makes the most sense! Depending on the broker you use too I think there are different times that you are even allowed to trade. So, make sure to check with the broker before signing up or funding an account, just in case they don’t have the time that you want to trade.
The broker acts as a middle man between traders and inter-market. This means that when you place a trade, the broker does too and therefore gets a percentage or commission. That percentage depends on what you’re trading so sometimes it’s 30% and sometimes it’s 50% that the broker makes off that trade if it clears. I try to focus on trades that I gain 70% or more. There are many different brokers that you can choose from. When I first started, I used PocketOption because I only needed to fund my account 50 100 bucks, they gave me an extra 50 for signing up and it was easy. One downside to PocketOption that I soon realized was that there was no rollover option. A rollover option is valuable sometimes because it gives you extra time for your trade to go thru. There were a lot of trades I took both on the demo account and with my money that if I just had a rollover option I would have cleared. Now I use Videforex. I use Videforex now because of the rollover option. Although the rollover option sounds simple enough, I still don’t quite understand how it works because when I used it for a trade, I felt like I was waiting a long time for the trade to clear and there were numbers that I didn’t know what it meant and apparently if you click on the rollover a few times it can increase the amount of money you are risking…. So, although a simple concept, it is still sometimes something I am figuring out.
Videforex does ask that you put 500 into the account but it also gives you money when you sign up. Also, you can use a credit card with Videforex but not with PocketOption. Although I had issues with my card not working so I had to buy bitcoin and somehow managed to only put 250 into my account thru Videforex but 16 went to another site for mining? Yeah, I am still trying to figure that one out. Mining is a whole different thing that I haven’t really even tried to understand yet. Taking it one thing at a time… Anyway, there are many different brokers and they all have unique features. It is important to check regulations on holding trades over the weekends and holidays, what crypto and currencies pairs are available and what aren’t, policy on margin, low spreads, and a solid customer support system is always helpful. It is a good idea to check reviews and maybe ask around and see what others are using as well. I also have Robinhood, Schwab, Webull, and Acorn but I don’t really use them for trading at this time. I have watched a few YouTube videos on Webull so I dabble with stocks, but mostly I buy, hold, and forget I even have these apps.
Available leverage is also important when looking into a broker! It can be really helpful but it can also work against you. So, I don’t recommend trading with real high leverage unless you are more experienced but for me, let’s keep it low!
(again see video for chart)
Basically, borrowing in order to (hopefully) boost your return!
Hopefully, this was helpful for anyone who is new to trading and interested in starting. I probably won’t be trading until Sunday night when the market opens up again. But my next post will go over some more key basics!! I’m learning and sharing as I go 😊
PS I am still trying to figure out this whole picture issue! I made a youtube video to show the charts. Just keep in mind that I am not a Youtuber, I don't know how to edit, I just learned how to make it so I could share my screen and record! Baby steps I guess lol :)
