In our last lesson we finished up our module on the basics of forex trading with a look at the differing characteristics of the world’s main currencies. Now that we have this out of the way the rest of this course will be lessons on how to go about trading these currencies starting with an overview of the forex trading platform.
One of the great things about the forex market for individual traders and one of the reasons we are starting with the forex market as our first market specific course is the availability of real time forex demo accounts. Unlike the equities and futures markets where one must pay the exchanges to get access to real time data, most forex brokers not only provide free real time quotes and charts but they also give you access to the same platform that their live traders trade on and the ability to trade there with virtual cash. This is a nice perk especially for beginner traders, as it allows them to get to know the market and the logistics of placing trades in a real time environment but without risking any real money.
For the purposes of our lessons we will be using the FXCM demo platform and I have included a link to the free registration link where you can register to receive this demo as well if you would like to follow along for the rest of this course.
If you are watching this video on InformedTrades.com then simply click the link above the video to get to the registration page and if you are watching on Youtube then simply click the link in the description section of this video which will also take you to the registration page.
Once at the registration page fill out your information which will take you to a page where you get your username and password as well as download the software.
After filling out your information and clicking submit the next page that comes up should have your demo username and password which you will want to make note of. Also on this page you should see the software download link where you want to click to download the installation file.
This should take a minute to download and then once completed you can click the installation file on your desktop to begin the installation process.
After doing this you should see an icon on your desktop that says “FXCM Trading Station II”. Click that icon which will launch the login box, enter the login information that you received when you downloaded the software and click login.
After logging in you will see the exact same platform with the exact same real time quotes and charts as if you were trading live complete with $50,000 in virtual dollars to trade with.
As we are now getting into the nitty gritty of things I am going to start giving out short homework assignments, the first of which is to play around with the platform for a few minutes to see if you can get a feel for how currencies are quoted and how you would go about buying or selling, which will be the topic of our next lesson so we hope to see you then.
