Definitely do not engage in forex trading -- unless you're a professional trader, it's essentially gambling. It's very, very easy to lose your shirt trading currency, especially since most people use leverage to juice profits.
Hey Skitalets, what you said sparked a lot of interest for me. Since your post over a month ago, I have been actively reading every article, blog, thread, post, and book possible about Forex. You're right, some people have DRAINED their accounts faster than you can blink!
It seems that over 90% of Forex traders lose money (and lose it quick!). My personality has always allowed me to benefit from going against the norm and that's what has really gained my attention about the Forex market. In fact, my average hours slept per night went from 4 down to about 2 for the past month. I can't stop reading about this stuff! :computer: It seems that the only profitable people are the "slow and steady" folk who can really (and I mean REALLY) stick to a system. Managing risk and reward allows traders to have a win percentage of 50% and still be profitable (reward:risk ratios like 1:1 and 2:1).
I think my age of 23 can give me a big advantage of time that others may not have. I'm in no rush to earn millions and I've got some money to invest that won't kill me if I lose it (although, ideally it'd be very hard to lose due to my low risk trade mentality).
Enough boring chit-chat. I opened up a demo account of $250 three weeks ago and have successfully grown it by 4% (compounded) per week. No trades ever risked more than 1% my account balance at any given point. I made a lot of trades, even some "day trades" that I wouldn't normally be participating in down the road but I needed to get a feel for the Meta Trader 4 platform one way or another. Some poor trades I took on purpose just to see the consequences so I could understand them better.
Obviously a month of research and three weeks of demo trading doesn't mean I am an expert yet by any means, but Forex really interests me. Anyone else considering it should definitely check out
BabyPips.com and go through their School program.
Anywho, thanks Skitalets for pointing out how dangerous it was. It got me to do my research first! I'll keep checking back in to this thread with updates of my progress (or lack there of, if it happens!).