Where to learn Forex trading is a beginners question, I realize that. But most of these Forex Q&A blogs and podcast episodes will tackle questions a bit more advanced. I did think this would be the best place for today’s question.
Read the whole blog post though, the answer isn’t as simple as it looks.
And if you have already forgotten what the title was, today’s question is…….
“I want to learn how to trade FX, but there are a lot of places to do that. Do you have one you recommend?”
– Gene — Victoria, Canada
I can answer this one pretty confidently, but it comes with BIG warnings attached that you’ll want to know before diving in.
And while we’re at it, don’t pay money to learn how to trade Forex. The best place is free.
The Best Place to Learn Forex Trading is………
In terms of structure, information, easy-to-digest content, the best place to learn in my opinion is where I learned to trade 9 years ago, which is the BabyPips School Of Pipsology.
And no, I’m not affiliated with them in any way. I’m not currently affiliated with anything you see on this post.
The school has been updated, has a really great format, and written by people who don’t take themselves too seriously, so there’s just enough humor there to keep it fresh.
BabyPips School — Now 100X more useful than regular school!!
When I took the course, I was so jacked up on learning, I couldn’t believe it. This is coming from a man who was never a great student, and had the tendency to quit on things he didn’t already love learning about.
I think I knocked it out in three days, and that includes me taking detailed notes. I’m even pretty sure I went to work two of those days, so it may take you even less time, if that’s a concern (and it shouldn’t be, you’ll have this skill the rest of your life, so make sure you absorb it).
Now that you know where to go, I have three things you really need to know before starting. This will help you tremendously down the road.
1) Regardless of your current skill level or past experience trading, don’t jump around the curriculum.
Start at the beginning, and go straight through it. I think former stock/bond/CFD traders can really run into problems when they think they can just skip over parts they already know.
Forex trading has nuances to it that make it very different from trading anything else out there. You owe it to yourself to be meticulous here, and even if you think you already know it, re-learn it anyway.
2) All of this being said, you don’t really need all of it.
You’re probably going to have such a fun time learning it, you’re going to want to go through the entire course. And that’s actually really great — but in my opinion, you don’t have to.
If you want my advice on this part, I would say to do the following. Take the entire course all the way through the “Undergraduate – Sophomore” section. Skip that part. But just that part.
Since I first printed this blog post, they must have been listening because they’ve gotten rid of a lot of the more irrelevant parts. I used to tell you to skip a lot more of it.
But remember, you probably aren’t familiar with me or my style all that well just yet. And you may end up not wanting to do things my way, and that’s perfectly fine. So those sections I told you to skip may benefit you in the end, who knows? But if I had to learn Forex all over again, I would skip those sections.
And the last point I want to make, and certainly not the least………
3) I’m going to tell you most of it is crap anyway.
Hold on, what?
This may not make sense to you when I first say this but please know this — Even though I’m going to tell you most of it is counter-productive to making real, consistent money in Forex trading, I really think it’s important to at least know what these concepts are, and what they are supposed to do.
And I’ll repeat what I said before, you may not like my blunt approach or think they way I trade is garbage. Everyone is different. So do yourself a favor and learn most of it. Have notes on hand in case you choose a different approach yourself.
This is one of the great parts about Forex trading — it’s completely customizable.
And babypips is still the best place in my opinion to learn Forex trading.
But I really do have a problem in general with Forex education and how almost every website, video, and twitter handle reinforces these bad tools and concepts.
To me, it’s one of the two main reasons over 99% of traders can’t make it to a pro level, and most of them go broke. The other reason is bad money management, but we will tackle that on the site as well.
Bonus) If you just want to learn the crucial parts, and trade like I do…
I really don’t recommend this, however, these would be the steps you would take:
- Learn Preschool, Kindergarten, Undergraduate – Senior
- Find a platform and a broker
- Demo trade and get it to where you understand everything you’re doing
- Then come here, and learn how to dominate.
There are lots of places you can go to learn and check out a bunch of tools. You can find a lot of them right here.
But I would advise you stay here, and stay the course when it comes to education. And you can do it slowly and for free, or there is a paid option (not from me) that speeds up the process.
Paid Version
There is also a paid course out there which give you a condensed version of what you will see on my YouTube channel and blog. It’s the only course that’s allowed to teach my material for a fee. Everything else is a scam, be careful out there.
You can go HERE to check it out.
Conclusion
Babypips is still the king, and if this is really what you want to do for a living, you should know all the ins and outs, regardless of what you end up using in your trading, because it can always change over time.
But don’t get attached to a lot of it. Seriously, you will lose money. Come here and learn what to avoid and why.
And you may be thinking, “VP, why don’t you start a Forex Educational Series that shows exactly how YOU would do it.
I have. It’s called “No Nonsense Forex”.
Welcome.
– VP