Hi from Manchester!

Just short little post to say Hi from Manchester! Finally met up face to face with my little niece for the first time since she was born a few months back.

How is everyone doing with the lessons from babypips? Do update me.

You know, seeing the innocence and joy of my niece makes me think about life. We are born, raised up, go to school, get a job, get married (some of us), grow old and finally die. Along the way, so much of our freedom is lost and never gained back for many as we are told by society to go to school, study hard, get good grades, get a job etc.

While there are a few lucky ones who love their jobs and have the nice pay to go with it, many I have spoken to do not have this luxury and freedom. I'm sure many of you would had many conversations with people complaining about their jobs (demanding clients, @sshole bosses, long hours, low pay etc). In fact, you may be even one of them. Even some of them who have amazing pay packages do not have the freedom to choose when to work and when not to work as they know that when they stop work, the amazing pay packages stop as well.

So my question of the day to you is simply this. What have you done to gain both your financial freedom and to regain your freedom of time?

As usual, thoughts and comments appreciated. Meanwhile here are some pics I took.

 

Til then,

-Leo

Forex 101: Learning the Talk

PRELUDE: As some of you guys have already know, I'll be away to Europe for 3 weeks. May not have as much time to post then but you can still keep those questions coming in and I will post up the answers when I can.

Ok...the post some of you people have been waiting for. Before we can proceed further, we need to be speaking the same forex lingo. Basically when I mention terms like Moving Averages, London Open, margin calls etc, you will need to know what I mean.

It's gonna take me ages to come up with a good curricular for Forex 101 so I'm gonna leverage on other people's good work and direct you to somewhere else where they have a pretty good beginner's guide to forex trading.

The site I am recommending is babypips. Now before you click on the link, do finish reading this post so I share with you how to optimize your learning experience:

1. Just focus on the 'school' section of the site. Go through from Pre-School to College. DON'T READ ANYWHERE ELSE for now.

2. Take the tests at the end of each section. If you fail, do it ALL OVER AGAIN!


3. Take your time to master the sections. Remember Success is NOT OVERNIGHT. Some people may take longer, some people can catch it faster. It's alright to be either one as long as you put in the effort to master it.

4. Once you pass ALL the tests, REPEAT ALL the above steps TWICE.


5. Lastly, have a notepad ready by your side and JOT down any questions you might have. Post them to me and I will try my very best to answer them.

Do take note however, that while www.babypips.com/school is an amazing resource to learn the Forex lingo, please remember that going through all these lessons are almost the equivalent of learning tourist speak, it's a good basic but will not qualify you as a master debater.

I guess that should be enough homework to keep you guys busy for the 3 weeks I am away.

Happy Learning!

-Leo

Forex: Risky OR not?

I'm very very very very sure that most if not ALL of you want to know - "Is Forex Trading RISKY?". Why am I so sure? It's because I have been asked this question so many times that it's easier for me to count the number of steps it takes for me to walk from my home to Singapore than it is to remember the number of times I have been asked this question. Slight exaggeration but you get my point ;)

Now, I totally understand why people would think like that. There are probably about 8,811,967 horror stories out there of how people have lost money through scams or trading forex themselves. But I can't help feeling agitated when people tell me that "Forex Trading is VERY RISKY" when they themselves do not even know what it is all about! Think about it. It's like someone who has never played a game of soccer/football and commenting on a professional player's performance on TV. "Oh he SHOULD HAVE kicked the ball slicing it with his outer foot, bending his body at 49.67 degrees angle to get a better balance and shifting his left hand so that was aligned with the energy of the sun."

SO...Is FOREX TRADING RISKY? Well my answer is ALWAYS this. It depends. That's it?!? No direct Yes or No? I'm sure you would love a Yes or No answer but here's why I say it depends.

Is driving a car risky? Yes or No? Well, it depends! Is the driver a 5 year old? Has the driver been trained to drive a car? Does the driver have vision acceptable for driving? AND EVEN IF the driver has been trained and is reasonably suitable to drive a car, does it mean that driving is 100% risk free? I'm sure you all know the answer is a BIG NO! (I would have typed the NO in much bigger font but it will screw up the text formatting). However, through training AND experience, you would have reduced the risks of driving a car  drastically!

Translating the above to Forex Trading, here's what you need to do to reduce the risks of Forex Trading drastically!

1. Education
- This is the first and the most important task if you want to Succeed in Trading Forex. You'll be surprised if I tell you how many people want overnight success in forex trading but refuse to invest in education nor do they diligently learn the in and outs of being a successful forex trader. Spend time and effort on your education and be one step closer to successful forex trading.

2. Experience
- Education alone will not take you there. You will need forex trading experience. Experiencing the vast range of emotions that tag along with forex trading, the different behaviors of price movement etc. is similar to driving in the real world. Getting a driver's license will not make you a good driver. You need to have on the road experience.

There you are, my answer to whether forex trading is risky or not. So what will your answer be the next time someone asks you about the risks of forex trading?

Comments and questions welcome as usual.

Til then,
Leo

20 Minutes work and Conversations with the Old Man

It's been a very very busy day for me. Spend the day running around doing errands and such. For those who don't know, I have a trip to the UK planned next week and will be visiting England and some of Europe. So I had to spend a lot of time booking my flights and planning with the nice people whom I will be meeting.

Ironically, the best part about all these is I worked a total of 20 minutes today. The rest of the busy day were all chores.

For those who know how to read the table above, you can see that I'm up 80-90 pips nett (could be 8 USD, 80 USD, 800 USD, 8,000 USD or 80,000 USD depending on your contract size). Certainly not bad for 15-20 mins of work (though it doesn't mean it will happen every day!). I'm posting this not because I want to brag but simply to show you the freedom forex trading can bring. Though it will probably take you awhile before you can achieve consistent results.

And a side note to my two tweeter buddies who think I'm a millionaire/billionaire, I AM NOT. At least for now...:p

NOTE: For those who know how to read the table, PLEASE DO NOT FOLLOW MY FOREX TRADES. Following it without knowing how I trade is VERY VERY RISKY! You have been warned ;)

Conversations with the Old Man
After I finished my chores, I drove to my parents home which is about 2 hours from where I live. Took a drive out with dad after dinner just circling town and outskirts and really enjoyed the 1-2 hours spent with him in the car headed nowhere. He has just sold off his business and retired and I took the opportunity to thank him for providing for the family and bringing us up. If you had not had such conversations with your dad, you should try one day if you can.

One of the questions I asked him was whether he had wanted to do anything else as his career besides what he did. Instead of answering, he asked me back the same question and I told him I really love trading forex and also one day I would love to be involved in some sort of a movie or do some singing (fat hopes but we'll never know if we don't hope right?)

That will certainly not be my last drive with dad. I told him that when I'm more successful in my forex trading, I will certainly be able to spend much more time with the family.

LOVE YA DAD!


So you see, forex trading is NOT about money only. It's about having the freedom to live life with your loved one AND being able to enjoy life.

Keep those questions coming!

-Leo

p.s. Apologies to those who are waiting for me to tell you how to get started. I will be posting about getting started very soon.

Charting Software: To Pay or Not to Pay?

Ok...so I got a message from someone just now to ask me to look at this particular charting software for X dollars a month. Here's a part of the transcript (name changed for privacy reasons):

[11:02:16 PM] JLo: u heard abt XXX charting?
[11:03:03 PM] Leo: no
[11:03:05 PM] Leo: what is it
[11:03:23 PM] JLo: http://somesortofchart dot com
[11:03:31 PM] JLo: it's a charting software
[11:03:39 PM] JLo: quite good but gotto pay
[11:04:09 PM] Leo: ic
[11:04:13 PM] Leo: why do u need it
[11:05:39 PM] JLo: :)Hee... they have lots of indicator and the charting is easier
[11:05:53 PM] Leo: do u need a lot of indicators?
[11:06:04 PM] Leo: will it make u a better trader?
[11:06:57 PM] JLo: Well... (think) no
[11:07:06 PM] Leo: ok
[11:07:08 PM] Leo: there u go
[11:07:34 PM] Leo: so u can now donate 50% of the money u were planning to spend to my paypal account

There you go. Unless you have a particular need for a specific indicator that is not offered for FREE or you're trading millions of dollars, there is almost no distinct advantage of having to pay for charting software. Those available for FREE will do the job perfectly most if not all of the time.

So there you go, don't pay for something you don't need. If you insist, ask me for my Paypal account first ok?

Happy Trading!

-Leo

Why Trade Forex?

Well I'm sure all the people who are new to trading forex will have this question, "Why trade Forex?". Besides the potential to make BIG $$$ which all of you would already know, here are some reasons why trading is such a great business:

1. You CONTROL your own TIME
- Once you are able to achieve a certain level of trading mastery, you are able to determine your working hours. Whether it's 15 mins a day or 1 hour a day or 6 months a year, you dictate it.

2. You CONTROL where you work
- As long as there is decent access to the internet, you can work from wherever you want. Hong Kong for breakfast, China for lunch, Japan for dinner and Spain the next day? All up to you.

3. No STAFF, no RENTAL, no INVENTORY
- If you are in a business or are planning to start one, you will probably know the amount of headaches the above can give.

4. Your business is SCALABLE
- Once you have achieved consistency in your trading (NOTE: NOT EASY), your same strategy that is used to make ten dollars a day is the same strategy that can be used to make one hundred thousand dollars a day. You just have to adjust your position sizing and your account size.

5. LEVERAGE
- IF you have a profitable trading strategy, leverage will increase your profits. Some brokers offer up to 400 to 1 leverage (NEVER use such high leverage unless you absolutely know what you're doing). The other way round and your account could be reduced to dust. Double-edged sword.

6. LIQUIDITY
- The forex market is the MOST LIQUID market in the world with AT LEAST 2-3 trillion dollars traded every single day! In comparison, the DJIA volume is about 200 billion dollars daily. This assists price stability and allows for much better execution compared to other markets. Such huge volume also makes it very very difficult if not impossible for any single party to manipulate the markets.

7. LOW Transaction Costs
- Compared to other markets, forex trading has one of the lowest (if not the lowest) cost of transaction around. Depending on your broker, you are charged either a low commission per trade or a few pips per trade.

8. Ability to make money in any market condition
- Due to the nature that forex is needed irrespective of economic conditions and that you can buy/sell a particular currency pairing, money can be made irrespective of whether the market is up, down or sideways.

9. LOW cost of ENTRY
- Demo accounts are available for FREE for you to try your hands on trading. Basic education is also widely available everywhere and HERE ;) Trading accounts can be setup with just a couple hundred of dollars (USD)

10. You get to know your PAIRS well
- Unlike some other markets where you have 100s of counters to choose from, most action in forex takes place in only 4-6 currency pairs. This makes your job of tracking them much easier.

There you go, 10 Reasons why currency trading makes a great business.

While I have provided the PROs of why choose forex trading, there are certainly A LOT of challenges that you would have to go through before being a successful currency trader.

As with any other thing in this world, IF you have the desire, education, discipline, commitment and the patience, the fruits from forex trading are certainly very very tasty.

As usual, contact me with questions if any.

Have a great day!

-Leo

My Foray into Forex Blogging!

Just a little background to why I am writing this blog. I have been trading forex or the foreign exchange for almost two and a half years now. Been through lots of challenges while doing it. Even to the point of scolding my monitor and punching it. Finally beginning to enjoy the fruits of my labor now.

A Blog About Forex

I'm not much of a blogger but ironically that's not the point of this blog. I have been receiving a lot of requests to "teach" forex recently and I realize that the best way is to actually start a blog so that I won't have to answer the same questions over and over again over endless chats and messages and everyone can benefit at the same time.

*DISCLAIMER* - I have always said time and time again. I'm not good enough for teaching at the moment but I am willing to "share experiences".

Sharing My Experiences

What I will be sharing, is how to walk this journey of trading (from my point of view), pitfalls to avoid (as well as pitfalls to fall into) - yes I'm serious! as well as how to not lose your money to thousands and thousands of self proclaimed educators, get rich quick, 100% wins, best robot in the world and God-only-knows scammers riding on the coattails related to this multi trillion dollar industry. While I will not be sharing my actual trading methodology, I am considering posting trades taken from time to time just so I can explain certain things.

Ask Me Questions about Forex Trading

Lastly, for those who know me and wish to learn more about the forex trading, please don't hesitate to start sending me questions and ask away (if you know me, you should already have a way to contact me). I will answer and post them onto this blog WHEN I can. For those who don't know me, I will try to come up with something where you guys can post some questions to me (like I said, I'm not a blogger, so let me know if you have any ideas to optimize my blog and/or how to make it better).

Take care my friends and I do hope I will have shared something useful with you whether or not you end up to be a successful forex trader at the end of the day.

-Leo

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