It all started in 2008 when I ran into some Forex broker’s ad promising “easy money”. So, I decided to give it a shot to find out more about how to trade financial instruments. Needless to say, the training provided by that particular broker was not the best. I ended up several grands short and lost faith in that broker. But I was hooked! I wanted to find out as much as possible about the financial instruments to make it right the next time.
At first, I started searching “trading” on Google to educate myself about the topic as much as possible. This was followed by several attempts to find the fastest way to earn money by buying several “signal” services. It usually works like this – the service offers you to send a text message or email when you have to open some deal. Initially these service providers have fantastic transaction or signal history but once you start doing business with them, as a rule, they always hit the rough patch. And what do you do then? Of course, you lose your money again. Another lesson learned.
Then I realized that the web is full of strategies that work with 90% accuracy, but all these strategy or signal traders are feasting on historical results only. In another words – they are excellent salesmen but are far away from actual trading. The following boom was the automatic trading systems and various mathematical strategies. Needless to say, all of this ended "as usual", with no meaningful result, unless acquired experience counts. That’s when I finally understood that there’s NO EASY MONEY in this industry, as in any other I presume.
Since my curious mind was still set on the trading industry, I decided to set my next goal – to find a job in a company where I can further educate myself and get more experience on the matter. Soon enough I found a job at one of the trading firms as a client consultant were in addition to my responsibilities to offer products and services to the clients, I was eligible to receive a proper training. The emphasis was placed on Forex (FX) and CFD (Contract For Difference) – financial instruments with the highest leverage available.
That was tough! The training my employer provided was very poor. In fact, it was strictly product oriented, to help consultants like me to sell these products to prospect clients and attract the new ones. The selling part wasn’t that difficult since most of the clients that turned up were already interested in investing. Contrary, the customer service and advisory support was a nightmare. At that point I realized that majority of company’s clients were actually losing their money. Another takeout lesson – the broker is not a trustworthy friend for a customer, even though he usually pretends to be one. Simply because the broker has primarily his own interests in mind. I can’t disclosure more details on this matter since I’m still bound by disclosure agreement, but I would be very cautious when someone from any brokerage company would claim client’s best interests their top priority. May main lesson from working in brokerage company is that you can’t really trust the broker you don’t know personally well enough (even that might not help you). I’m not claiming that all brokerage companies are selfish crooks, but you really have to be cautious to entrust someone your money.
For several years I further developed my trading skills managing several accounts and applying different strategies and tactics. Some of these accounts went bust, some doubled or even tripled in value during rather short period of time. But looking back on these quick-profit accounts I can honestly say that I have been lucky.
Currently I trade at relatively modest pace, even on conservative side. Not risking too much, looking for results in the long run, ensuring stable outcome. In general, I’m after steady flow of income. I’m trading mostly in medium term (so-called swing trading), holding trades from a couple of days up to several months. Then I trade other various instruments as well. Mostly forex, commodities, indices, and, of course, stocks. I also trade cryptocurrencies every now and then. I have my own crypto mining farm about which I will write more in detail later in my following posts.
I want to write this blog about trading and investing to share my experience. To help others to avoid mistakes I have made. To help you to develop trading skills and knowledge about the industry and push myself further to educate and pace myself (I still have overtrading problem) as well. Don’t expect glossy, perfect blog posts because I am not. But I am passionate about the industry and how things and circumstances work and interfere with each other creating endless possibilities you can choose and benefit from if you know what you are doing.
So, do expect some real stuff, my real monthly trading results, actual trading deals and tips which I’ll be sharing with you and eventually, this will turn into some sort of trade magazine. We’ll see.
Stay tuned!
Agris