Yes, I have installed MT4 . What next?

Based on your trading style, ask the broker to stuff your demo account with capital and let them know preferred leverage too.

Briefly, you have to understand the terminology relating to Price quote, Order placing, Leverage, calculation of margin & profit/loss. And the way indicators are copied , their interface and the way values are input, dragged to the chart. Similarly, understand screen tools and how the mouse is dragged to move horizontal or vertical lines on the chart.

Exercises that include

Buy/Sell exercises: Find ideas and describe the rationale, frequency, target, calculation of margin needed depending upon whether trading momentum, news , scalping or positions.

Since paper trading does not affect your psychology as does live trading, a trader is expected to do live trades as soon as possible. Demo trading (like a video game) can be addictive if you spend more than a week on practising it.

Record keeping; Supplying trading data for analysis through online tools or analysing manually a log of trades won and lost is a good discipline. A free tool will be provided and the significance of analytics will be explained.

Exercises for practice on the chart

FX trading is a business which largely involves guessing and exploring probabilities since you are exposed to only the tip of the market iceberg.

Exercises (only by executing trades)

Record Observations of ADR at edges and try to find out why the price levels exceeded the high low boundaries

Record observations of Breakout zones

Record observations of news trading

Observe why spikes occur, how long they last and how liquidity is created :

Execute buying 2 trades for 5 days in one symbol and sell 2 trades for another symbol. Ensure only two trades (one lot for each) are left open. The maximum loss allowed: 80 pips.

Pip value: $0.10 one lot per trade. Can trade as many trades as possible but can't keep more than 2 trades open. Have to close all trades except two trades.

Select randomly any of

Daily targets:

weekly targets:

Monthly targets:

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Casino mentality: Metatrader platform, with its colourful graphics and free indicators, activates the gambling instinct. Unfortunately, the gambling addiction is hard-wired and perpetuated by the media. Most of the newbies come in with the casino mentality. They place their bet and cross their fingers. There is no way to stop people from gambling, regardless of how many times you tell them to avoid the traps.

Almost 99% of the newbies lose their money and self-esteem. Not everyone starts trading with gamblers mentality (red or black, win or lose). You have to have a business attitude and a you will graduate to the next level.

Having a positive attitude does not insure success. "Effortless Success" is a fantasy. At the same time, having a negative attitude does not help. Failure does not guarantee a negative attitude. We can choose how we handle failure. A negative expectation on an outcome will always, in the end, be achieved. Sometimes pure luck will postpone the negative but not always.

"If you believe you can do, or, you believe you cannot do, you are correct."

How to find ideas?

Mode 1 (Manual) and Mode 2 (semi-automated)

Practise trading based on an understanding of the market structure and forces active in it and finding a reason (rationale) to do it.

Pre-select symbols: Try a few currency pairs to find out which one currency pair you like to specialise in. Each asset class, including different instruments or trading symbols, have its own DNA of volatility. The knowledge will help you manage your expectations and emotions.

Selection should mainly be based on on :

Hot hours based on volatility

Active Sessions

Websites that provide volatility data and update in real-time every 5- minutes will be provided

Execute Entry and exit signals based on a style of trading you like.

Fundamental: Pre-news and post-news trading

Technical: Based on Average Daily Range ( probable exhaustion points) or breakout zones identified by price action. Simple Price locations will be determined by doing manual calculation of Pivots and Daily Range percentage.

Fundamental and Technical combined: It is a proven profitable trading plan. It involves the trader giving 10-30 minutes on plotting probable volatility push points on the daily, weekly and monthly economic events calendar and entering the trades based on Pivots Points . The probable exhaustion points, determined by Average Daily Range, will help in exiting the trades.

For Manual Mode: Plenty of simple exercises idea will be provided for practice on the Mobile smartphone

For semi-automated trading you will need indicators:

MT4 Indicators (thanks to public-spirited traders providing them free of cost on the web) are provided

A few indicators will be used to save time on

• • drawing a visual map of hypothetical trade;

  • setting up a simple strategy that provides basic lesson on what is support (or demand) and resistance (supply);

  • conducting a reality check whether your choice of trades planned is off the track ( like a free assistant to show you the mirror) and

  • a calculator to help manage margin, lots, Risk and Reward Ratio and Equity Stop-out points.

Essentially they will be used on Metatrader 4 chart for semi-automated trading style:

1. Risk Reward ratio indicator draws hypothetical Profit and Stop Loss levels based on Risk of 1 to Profit of 2 reward system (1:2 RR) based on the market price. It facilitates visualisation of placing pending limit orders or executing market orders. You can use them to visualise price levels you intend to enter and exit.

2. Smartinfo indicators provide information and projects demand and supply lines. What they do is:

(a) Print Average Daily Range in text to indicate probable price exhaustion points based on past performances.

(b) Project supply and resistance lines based on the daily range average.

(c) Show Margin needed for the trades and displays Pip value for lot based on account leverage provided by the platform broker.

(d) Act as a reality check since the planned trades should lie between the two high low daily range. It paints a picture of hypothetical profit and loss and forces you to be realistic about your expectations.

3. Past and Future vertical timelines drawing tool to see historical and future timelines. Look back at the past and sharpen your skills to predict probable future action . Essentially to see how quickly the market becomes hot'; how soon it cools down and how patient you have to be in order to catch the future moves.

4 A live balance sheet on the chart will record Peaks and Bottoms (in industry lingo knows as high-water mark and low-water mark) and act as reality check in terms of Drawdown (meaning temporary loss). The indicator will show temporary equity and actual balance of the trading account.

5. Pivot marker (daily, weekly and monthly)

6. Breakout zones indicator plots probable support and resistance areas on the chart.

3. Mode 3: Black box: use Expert Advisor (EA)

4.Mode 4: Outsourcing : Find signal providers as per the strategy which you are comfortable with after analysing the price action.

For trading practice, you decide what kind of trader you want to be based on your temperament and personality :

Day Trader : of different types. Essentially a day trader looks for short-term intra-day duration transactions.

(a) Scalpers aim at quick gains of a small amount in minutes.

(b) Momentum traders depend on velocity and speed to deliver results.

(c) News Traders look for trading on volatility that forms before the release of economic reports as well as after the news is released. for quick results .

Swing Traders hold on to trades for several days at a time. They keep monitoring their charts from time to time.

Position traders aim for trades lasting several weeks, months or even years. These traders base trades on certain currencies mean-reversion tendencies and fundamental themes.

A free tool for doing analysis of trades will be provided. You have to maintain a two-minutes learning journal (using text or voice) to note down the following information after each and every trade done.

Why I did : explain why you traded and give the reasons in just one sentence

What I did : How simple or complex did you find the suggested setups and strategies? Explain in a few words

The Way I controlled an urge to trade impulsively: Did you find controlling risks effectively by any one or more of the following methods:

• Trading small Lots

• Using lowest leverage

• Putting wider stops

• Restricting the amount of open trades

• Plotting specific targets to measure performance

Users of mobile trading platform will not be able to use these indicators. Desktop/laptop computing power is needed to use the indicators on the chart.