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| You’ve heard the statistics. Most traders lose money! It's estimated that as little as 5% of active traders are ultimately successful… and yet the number of new traders entering the industry continues to grow each year. With such an astounding failure rate one would ask: “why are so many new traders lining up to try their hand at this
difficult occupation when the failure rate is so high?” |
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The answer is simple: the lure of the professional trader’s
lifestyle. Make it as a professional trader, and you can become part
of an elite group of traders that enjoy being part of the ultimate home based business. |
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| Why is Trading the Ultimate Home-Based Business? |
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Trading for a living gives you the freedom and power offered by owning your own business without many of the hassles traditional business owners deal with. The professional trader has none of the hassles of traditional business
ownership, such as employees or inventory to
manage. When you trade your own money
for a living there are no customers to
answer to and no suppliers to haggle
with. Although many traders fail,
the ones that succeed have the
luxury of running a hassle free
business for a living with
potentially unlimited rewards. |
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The number one reason why most businesses fail is lack of sufficient capital.
Can you imagine starting a business that is working out and having to shut down simply because you didn’t have sufficient startup capital to keep the business alive? Trading is one of the few businesses that allow you to prove your strategy with a small amount of capital and build up slowly over time. In fact, because you have the ability to track the market in real time without committing capital, you can develop and test your strategy without risking a penny of real money.
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The freedom to determine your own working hours is another reason why trading can be
considered the ultimate home based business. Research has proven that longer-
term strategies that do not require sitting in front of the computer all day to execute
tend to be more profitable than super active strategies where transaction costs eat
up profit. Because you do not have to sit in front of the computer all day, trading is
a career that you can start in your spare time, and that will afford you the
freedom to spend your days as you would like once you become successful. |
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The business cycle for most successful products is very lengthy and many times causes even successful products or services to fail. Even if a new business’ product or service is extraordinary, it still takes time for word to spread and to gain clients. Successful traders avoid this dilemma as trading for a living is one of the few businesses where feedback is immediate. Trading success also leaves little room for interpretation as ones profitability or lack thereof is the only true measure of success. |
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| How Can YOU Increase Your Chances for Success? |
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| Now that you’ve decided to be a trader, what can you do to increase your chances for success? Most importantly, it is a must to realize that although trading as a business offers what is potentially one of the best combinations of lifestyle and business, the high failure rate shows that it is no easy profession.
As with any business, if you wish to be successful you must invest the necessary time and energy to master your craft. The fact is that if trading was easy then everyone would be doing it and everyone would be rich. While the barriers to entry for traders are limited to having enough capital to get started, one should not equate this business opportunity to one that requires less work to become successful. |
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The freedom to determine your own working hours is another reason why trading can be considered the ultimate-home based business. Research has proven that longer term strategies that do not require sitting in front of the computer all day to execute tend to be more profitable than super active strategies where transaction costs eat up profit. Because you do not have to sit in front of the computer all day, trading is a career that you can start in your spare time, and that will afford you the freedom to spend your days as you would like once you become successful. |
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As stated above, one of the largest benefits of trading as a business is the ability to test your strategy without risking any real money. Trading profitably for several months is a minimum requirement for proving a strategy and should not be skipped. |
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| Because emotional control is a large part of trading, you should ease into trading live money before risking significant capital.
Trading as a home-based business can be one of the most satisfying and lucrative careers around. While it is no easy task to become a profitable trader, those who are able to master the art of trading are rewarded with both riches and reprieve from dealing with the traditional hassles of the business world. |
| Do YOU Have what it takes to be Part of the Elite 5% of Successful Traders? |
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It is is important to have a general understanding of the markets, that you will be trading. For the purposes of this article, we will focus on the foreign exchange market as most foreign exchange dealers offer free paper trading accounts, which allow you to test your skills out and learn the market without risking any live capital. Because the same fundamental factors that affect the currency markets affect other markets as well, another benefit of cutting ones teeth in the FX market is that you will be |
able to apply the same techniques used to trade the FX market to trade other markets as well. Below are several resources to help you get started learning about the foreign exchange market:
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The FX Power Trading Course
Want to trade for a living? Let us help you.
For $19.99, you will get a 8 day online course, personal instruction from Forex experts, charts and real time news. Enroll today! |
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Day Trading the Currency Market
An introductory book on trading foreign exchange by FXCM Chief Fundamental Analyst Kathy Lien.
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Demo Trading Account *
Free Demo Trading account with real-time quotes, charts, and 24-hour news feed from Thompson Financial's IFR Markets. |
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The second step once you have a general understanding of the markets is to gain a strong
understanding of the psychological aspect of trading. Probably the most overlooked aspect of
trading successfully, emotional control is considered by most successful traders the number 1
factor that separates the winners from the losers. For more information on developing a
winning mindset, check out: |
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Trading for a Living
One of the few books on trading psychology written by a practicing
Psychiatrist, Dr. Alexander Elder |
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Market Wizards
One of the top selling trading books of
all time, Market Wizards is a compilation
of interviews by Jack Schwager with
17 of the world’s top traders |
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The last recommended step before beginning to trade live money is to be informed! If you're a technical trader, that means utilizing real-time charts to analyze market movement. If you're a fundamental trader, that means accessing research and staying abreast of live market news. There are a ton of free and premium resources |
| in the market. We have compiled a list of that will give you a great overview of the FX market and trading in general. All will help prepare you to begin trading a live account. Remember that trading is like most things in that the most successful traders are generally the ones that put the most effort into perfecting their craft. |
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www.freeforexcharts.com This site is an excellent resource of all the free charting packages out there. It includes feature overviews as well as user ratings and tons of other information. |
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www. DailyFX.COM This site is one of the most comprehensive forex sites on the web today. Access live streaming headlines as well as proprietary research, forex message boards, and currency specific news. |
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* Trading foreign exchange on margin carries a high level of risk, and may not be suitable for all investors. The high degree of leverage can work against you as well as for you. Before deciding to trade foreign exchange you should carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite. The possibility exists that you could sustain a loss of some or all of your initial investment and therefore you should not invest money that you cannot afford to lose. You should be aware of all the risks associated with foreign exchange trading, and seek advice from an independent financial advisor if you have any doubts. |
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