I was all prepared to go to sleep and then i found this post. Before I say anything further, I have traded in Forex Markets and Do trade it once in a while, but its not my instrument of choice, those would be Options, Stocks and Index Futures(e-mini's), in the order specified.
First to target those who think wikipedia is the final word, think for yourself here, any tom dick and harry can go and write what they feel, i myself have a number of pages i put up there, most are still stubs though!
As far as the zero-sum game is concerned, almost every type of trading instrument, money, transaction etc is a zero-sum game! if you think that should stop you go dig a hole for yourself, go live there for a few days until u starve n die, it'll save someone the effort to dig the hole at least. Though on a serious note, that's the beauty of the markets, there is always someone betting against you, it could be someone booking profits, losses, buying, selling, short-selling, its always the same!!
Now to get on with forex, its not really that tough to calculate, one of the main basic principle is the interest rate of the country, if its high, there will be higher demand, hence lesser supply, hence a rally or vice versa, apart from that other factors like the GDP numbers, Ruling Government, Public Opinion etc play an important role. Frankly there are a too many un-related variables that come into play, hence its not worth my time.
I would ask you to do only a couple of things.
1) Learn the meaning of risk - There is no easy way to do this, and the best way is by experience, and that only comes with losses, so if you have $100,000 to trade with break that up into 20 $5000 account and start slowly, with control and rules(self set) blowing your accounts, if an account never blows, good for you! Hopefully u'll have learnt quite a bit by the time ur half way through ur capital.
2) Maintain a journal of trades! ur emotional experiences while trading!
3) Try and learn more than one style of trading!
4) Never blow away your whole capital! u'll need to figure this out on ur own!
5) Dont expect fake money to teach you anything! there is no risk involved and u'll make an emotional wreck of yourself when you decide to go live! unless of course ur style is algorithmic trading, not my style but tell me how it goes!
6) LEARN TO TAKE LOSSES AND BOOK PROFITS!!
If ur into reading I would ask you to read only one book, i.e. Trading in the Zone, it has hardly anything about trading itself, but has everything else that comes along with it.
Lastly, there have been scams in Forwx markets, like all others that sell dreams based on HYIP structures or give u tons of fake money(point 5!!) and get people confident to put in money and hedge their trades and earn tons of commisions, what can I say, its a good business and there are tons of fools wanting to get rich quick!
Btw, try and find someone who will give u real money to trade with at no or minimal risk. (Hint: Propitiatory Trading, also know as Prop Trading, and Prop Shops, if ur in the US look for Bright(tough entry), and if ur in canada look into swift(they'd hire a chimpanzee who can use a keyboard and play video games) there are others too, do your research)
Cheers!!
G'nite
P.s. I will not be answering any PMs for this topic.
