Currency trading is the modern gold rush in recent years. Lured by the preached easy, quick, and huge profits, people jump into the bandwagon of forex trading everyday without knowing what’s exactly ahead of them. The purpose of this article is to help new forex traders to have a clear big picture of online forex exchange trading, and lay down the steps of how to trade currency like a pro. I will not discuss the basic knowledge of foreign exchange trading here, such as what is a forex pip, how to pick an online forex broker, or how to open an forex account. I will assume you already acquire that information. The goal of this article is to help forex trader who is still struggling crawling out of  learning curve to achieve consistent performance.

Step 1: Make a Decision to Go Pro
If you can’t make this commitment, you’d better take the money out your trading account and fly to Las Vegas. You might experience the same results, but at least you’re having some fun. This may sound harsh, but it’s the reality. So far the only people can consistently take money out of forex market are professional traders. If you really want to make a living by trading currency, you’d better make the decision even before your first currency trade. How many times have you heard that any amateur fx trader make money trading currency? So try to treat forex trading like a business, which means a systematic approach to forex trading.

“Everybody gets what they want out of the market.” – Ed Seykota, Market Wizards

Step 2: Get Educated (Book Smart)
To trade currency like a pro, you need to think and trade in a professional way. It’s difficult to find a professional forex trader as your mentor who can take you under their wing when get started. Thanks to the information age, there are hardly any real trading secrets out of touch. Of course it takes lots of time and effort to gain this information. All the needed information is right at your finger tip; all you need to do is a willing heart and savvy eyes to find them. Below is a minimum list of best trading resources I am personally benefited a lot. If you could really grasp its essence, it should be sufficiently enough to lay down a solid foundation for your forex education. For more recommendation, please refer to forex resources.

Best Trading Books

• Market Wizard by Jack Schwager
• The New Market Wizard by Jack Schwager
• Reminiscences of a stock operator by Edwin Lefevre
• Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets by John Murphy
• Pit Bull: Lessons from Wall Street’s Champion Day Trader by Martin Schwartz
• Trading in the Zone: Master the Market with Confidence, Discipline and a Winning Attitude by Mark Douglas

Best Trading Course

• Hector Trader’s Forex Course of Price Action Forex System
  

Best Trading Tool

• Forex Point and Figure System

“… I learned early that there is nothing new in Wall Street. There can’t be because speculation is as old as the hills. Whatever happens in the stock market today was happened before and will happen again.” – from Reminiscences of a Stock Operator

Step 3: Gain Battle-proven Experience (Street Smart)
No matter how book smart (step 2) you are, or how great your trading system is, if you can’t make money in the real forex market, it’s all useless. The first step to test your forex system or forex knowledge is to trade with a demo account (Click here to open a Zecco practice account). I know there are argues about whether demo trading is beneficial or not. I won’t take sides here, because both sides have a valid standing. Since the psychology is quite different when the real money is on the line, I would recommend demo trade at least for a couple of weeks to get desirable results, then switch to a mini account. If you need more time to test before taking the plunge, you could just open a micro account (for as little as $50) to manifest the emotional roller coaster of real forex trading. Just don’t stay demo for way too long.

Step 4: Find Your Edge
After you get the proper forex education (step 2) and trade awhile (step 3), if you can statistically take money out of the market, then you are well ahead of the game now. If you haven’t got a desirable result, you need to get back to step 2 (if your decision to go pro haven’t changed yet). Your trading system could be either discretionary or mechanical. But don’t be fooled to think that you could just pay a few hundreds or even thousands dollars to buy a black-box system, then get money out of the forex market as a ATM machine. Black-box systems aren’t your edge for sure.

“If you’ve been playing poker for half an hour and you still don’t know who the patsy is, you’re the patsy.” – Warren Buffett

Step 5: Money Management & Risk Control
You find your edge, now what? Most people would spend lots of time, efforts, and money to look for the next killing trading system or trading strategy. Yes, read this as the search for the Holy Grail. Money management is equal important as other trading factors. While there are so many resources on this topic, it’s easy to get overwhelmed, I would recommend to start with The Original Turtle Trading Rules.

“The key to long-term survival and prosperity has a lot to do with the money management techniques incorporated into the technical system. There are old traders and there are bold traders, but there are very few old, bold traders.” – Ed Seykota, Market Wizards

Step 6: Consistency is King
You have nailed down your trading system, and you already trade profitably with you edge while risk is under controlled. You are more than half way to achieve your goal to go pro at this stage. All you need to do is to rinse and repeat what you have learned during the process. If you could take money out of the forex market on a consistent basis, you can’t go wrong with that approach.

The above six steps should be sufficient enough for new forex traders to start their journey to go pro. Hope you could trade currency with minimum pre-defined risk just like a professional fx trader.

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