How Long Does It Take to Learn Forex?
Stock, Forex, or crypto trading (basically any kind of trading) typically doesn’t involve fast money. For some it does, but it is mostly pure luck, and you don’t want to rely on this factor too much. If you want to start trading and become a successful trader, you have no other choice but to learn to trade.
There’s no right or wrong or definite response to how long it takes to learn Forex. One thing is for sure – you have complete control over how long this is going to take. Down below, we’ll try to provide an as close answer to your question as possible so you can at least have an idea of when you are going to make your first money in this market.
How Long Does It Take to Learn Forex?
It takes time to learn (and still, not to master) Forex trading. And, it could take up to several years to master Forex while learning the basics takes several months to one year.
This is not a get-rich-quick scheme and definitely not a play if you are just looking for shortcuts to overnight success. If you aspire to be a Forex trader, you should educate yourself about price actions, trading pairs, and a lot more things first.
Yes, you can get lucky with a couple of trades without learning anything but that’ll just make you overconfident and, highly likely, you’ll end up losing all of your money before you say knife.
Forex trading is not only about buying and selling but trading platforms will try to convince you it is. They’ll try to lure you in with demo accounts set up to guide you towards making profitable trades only and, once you put in some real cash, you won’t be able to earn a thing. You get the point… You’ll never be a successful trader if you don’t put time and effort into learning this complex skill.
What Does It Take to Learn Forex?
Set Realistic Expectations
No successful Forex trader thinks trading is easy. In fact, most newbie traders have an extremely high failure rate. That is why you should do a reality check first, before putting in a single dollar in the market. You have two options – to start entering random trades and see how it goes or educate yourself first and start trading and investing only then.
Set a Realistic Time Frame
No matter how passionate you are about something, there may come a moment when you’re going to lose heart. Not because you don’t want to learn trading but because you haven’t set realistic timelines for your goals.
And, not only will you have to learn trading but keep an eye on the latest political and economic news, which will eat up some of your time as well. Unless you are a genius, the entire learning process will probably take a couple of months at least so don’t even try to force yourself to speed it up.
Investing In Education
Now that we’ve mentioned speeding up the process, there’s actually a way… The only way to gain a deeper understanding of Forex is to invest in the right education. Free content will do if you just want to learn the basics but, if you want to go a step or two further, invest your money in a course or get a mentor. Still, be careful, as there are a bunch of people selling courses that don’t go into much detail.
What Exactly Do You Have to Learn?
To become a successful Forex trader, you’ll have to get to know the proven trading strategies, how to do analysis, and how to master your emotions first.
Scalping, day trading, swing trading, and position trading are different types of trading strategies. The 1-hour trading strategy, 4-hour trading strategy, and weekly trading strategy are the basic ones, yet, super important strategies you’ll need to get a hang of. You can pretend to enter trades and make predictions based on what you’ve learned so far just for practice. It takes 3 to 6 months approximately to acquire some decent skills.
Next, it is equally important to understand why you would or wouldn’t make certain moves. Maybe you are being too hesitant, or you can’t determine the right levels to take profits, or you fail to cut losses. Emotions can severely mess up your trading game, which is why you should try to dig deeper and learn how to contain them and overcome both greed and fear.
Last but not least, you should keep a record of your potential trades so you can be able to improve yourself. Writing down potential trades in a journal can significantly shorten your learning.
After 6 months or so, you’ll be having a clear idea of what trades you should enter, when, and why. You can also start investing at this point (however, don’t overinvest yourself) and keep on writing daily, weekly, and monthly reports and analysis. Most beginners start making mistakes they haven’t made before, while still practicing, since live trading offers a completely different kind of experience. However, you’ll be good to go and more comfortable with larger trades after another 6 months.
Summary
So, how long does it take to learn Forex? It can be two years or two months – it’s totally up to you. Also, we highly recommend you actually devote some time to learning about trading patterns, strategies, and psychological factors first before entering any trades.
Joshua Bejerano is a top-level crypto journalist who has been in the business for years. He got his start in the early days of Bitcoin, and has never looked back since. He is a highly respected member of the community, and is known for his incisive analysis and insightful writing.
When he's not busy reporting on the latest news in the crypto world, Joshua enjoys spending time with his family and friends. He is also an avid mountain biker, and can often be found out on the trails near his home.
