I first had forex trading when I was in my teens, when I heard from others and read on my own that the Japanese Yen would rise up against the Singapore Dollar. I remembered changing out 5000 Singapore Dollars and going to the money changer to convert them into Japanese Yen, after which I tried to open a foreign currency account with a particular bank to deposit my foreign currency in. But unfortunately I was rejected as I was too young at that time and there was no proof about my source of income. Basically the bank representative was just being difficult. There was nothing strange about a 16 year old student having 5000 SGD worth of currency. I never banked with that particular bank again though.
Either way, slightly over a year later I changed out everything with the local money changer and earned a profit of about 100 to 500 bucks? I cannot remember what exactly was the number, but it was also my first win at the forex. For a 16 year old, I supposed that was some achievement.
Years later, I opened an account to trade in forex, starting in copytrading. Basically you find a ‘master trader’ to follow, and whatever his trade, you copy. I lost 20k USD in that adventure and thought to myself I would try again, this time by myself. I learnt that I have to depend on myself for success. Once again I was reminded there was no easy money. I had very little success when I traded forex. I did not lose money this time, but the effort and risk put in was simply not worth it for me.
I decided to give up.
In my previous articles I mentioned a few times that there are different ways to earn money, and even among the financial markets there are also different paths available. From the crypto market to the stock market, the forex market to the commodities market, the whole range of trading and investment instruments may not be viable for everyone. Just because the forex market is not available for me does not mean the crypto and stock market is not suitable for me.
I am now still in the crypto and stock spot market. Throughout all these trials and errors, it is very clear to me that I am not skilled enough to do leverage or margin trading, nor am I suitable to do short term trades. My style is still to buy off the spot market, then hodl (note this is not a spelling error, but a term use in the crypto circle to mean holding for the long term). If what I bought rise in value, I will continue to hodl until it is at a price I deem suitable to sell. If what I bought drop in value, I will buy more and average it down. Of course, the pre-requisite for this is that I need to be very confident in the stock / coin I bought and know that even if there is a crisis, it will be able to tank it. That being said, do remember that dollar cost averaging does have its limitations and risks.
Putting some money, time and effort to determine if a path is suitable for you is a good thing to do. Of course, if right off the bat you know what is not suitable for you, that is good. If unsure, test it a bit, ask yourself the hard questions and be willing to face your limitations. Closing off a path may not be a bad thing if it helps you identify your style and alternative path. As I had mentioned, there are so many paths to success and one will never be able to utilise all of them. Walking down a suitable road will be more helpful than you know it.
We only need to walk one road well, in order to succeed.
