Learn trading
The world of trading offers a lot of opportunity for personal growth and learning. Unfortunately, it can also be very damaging to the pockets of the ill prepared. In this section, we discuss everything from trading psychology to techniques. Remember, we offer free seminars to help you learn and improve as a trader. Find out more about our events here.
If you already know the basics, and want to up your trading game, go to Improve trading
Ready to start your journey to become a trader? The IG Boot Camp series will help you develop your own trading strategy and style. Following on from this series, is the Trading Master Class . In this series Simon Brown discusses trading strategies for CFDs, Index trading, Binary options and FX. more about trading derivative products like contracts for difference (CFDs).
When you’re ready for more, move on to the CFD Conversations series which considers the Why’s and How’s of CFD trading in more detail.
And of course delve into our trading archives to find out how experienced traders ensure a successful trade.
It’s a mistake to think that the tools make the trader. Below is a list of tools that every trader needs, but it’s important to learn as much as you can about trading and develop your own trading style.
Here’s what you need to get started as a trader:
- Cash: How much cash you need is a long debate. Ideally you’ll need two or three times your deposit per trade. You don’t need that much to do multiple trades at once. Having twice or three times as much as your deposit per trade will ensure that you don’t bust out when you have a losing streak.
- A brokerage account: Shop around to find a brokerage that is affordable, offers the tools you need and offers a support service to help you familiarise yourself with the account.
- Charting software: You don’t need anything fancy here. Most brokers offer free charting on their platforms or mobile applications.
- A computer: Again, don’t worry about buying the very best. Any computer that’s not too old will be enough.
- Internet connection: A reliable connection that won’t leave you in the lurch as you’re about to execute a stop loss will make your life easier.
Trading is about discipline, about having a plan and sticking to it. In other words, concentrate on doing The Perfect Trade, rather than the outcome of the individual trade.
The idea is to start with your strategy and from here, compile a checklist of things you want to adhere to on every trade. If you stuck to your strategy by checking every item on the list, you have executed a perfect trade. You can only test your system if you always follow your system.
It’s important to remember that the list only includes things you can control. Whether you made a profit or a loss, for example, is not included in the list. Profit is important, but we can’t always control whether we make a profit on a trade. That’s why our checklist only includes choices that we can control.
Below is an example of a perfect trade checklist. It’s important to develop a checklist that reflects your personal trading strategy, but you can use this one to get started.
Your challenge is to do one perfect trade. When you manage that, celebrate your success, regardless of whether you made a profit. Try to do the same on your next trade, then the one after that, and the one after that. When you do a perfect trade, Tweet us using #PerfectTrade. We’ll celebrate with you!
- Did you get a signal?
- Did you enter on confirmation?
- Was your position size correct?
- Did you set a stop loss using your system?
- Was trade monitored correctly?
- Did you adjust stop loss correctly?
- Did you exit at your stop loss or target, using your system?