Quora Question: “How long does it take for a newbie to learn Forex trading from scratch if he can dedicate 15-16 hours a day?”
I recently answered the above question on Quora.
” I won’t know how long it will take you. It took me 2 years for forex. Maybe I am slower. There are many elements to learn in trading in order to be consistently profitable – understanding market structure and determining the edges are just two of many. Money management, trading psychology, trading plans are also part of a plethora of learning required. Your personality, your emotional, financial support, and how you devise your learning also affect your ability to become a profitable trader.
Allow me to share my personal experience – hopefully it will provide an alternative angle.
Trading 15 to 16 hours a day, even in training mode, really screws up one’s life, so I don’t recommend it. (I did 7 days a week, averaging 15 hours to 20 hours days – over the weekends, I was catching up on reading, preparing charts, reviewing notes and strategies, reflecting – I was learning to trade 24 hour timezones, and 2 other markets beside forex. All these took me slightly more than 3 years from the day I started. )
It was a really wild ride, and draining – mentally, emotionally and physically. But every time I climbed back up, I grew stronger in every way. (But physical recovery took longer – that’s why I don’t recommend it.) I had the support of my family which helped me weather the ups and downs. I was also a different beast, and I had planned to learn trading years before. So I prepared financially, discussed with my wife, achieved much of my job goals, and when the time came, left my job and started to learn trading. (I had tried to learn trading whilst working – but work responsibilities were my priority so my trading did not progress significantly). Even so, my original plan – stupidly – was to achieve trading success in 1 year – ha ha ….
All that started in 2012. I now trade a few times a week, or once every 2 weeks – whenever the markets present opportunities. Trading in any timeframe can be profitable if you know what you are doing – short and longer timeframes offer different challenges and risk reward scenarios. Yes I benefited from trading, and will always be able to do so. But it has never been my long term plan to trade forever, so I spent the last 2 years learning to code, design and am automating my trading processes so I can move on to other challenges.
Learning to trade is a heavy commitment – be sure you know what you want.”