It stands to reason that a great deal of useful knowledge about trading forex and other markets can be gleaned from the experience of other traders. Trading has occupied humans since the inception of commerce and many people have traded for a living long before most active traders were even born.

This valuable information, which is readily available through books and online sources, contains not only the methods employed by successful traders, but also the particular state of mind that generally makes up a key element to the success of the trader.

Learning From a Trader Versus Researching Yourself

If you are lucky enough to be able to talk to a highly successful trader in person, this would be the ideal situation in which to learn from them. Nevertheless, make sure the quality of the questions you ask reflects your humility and desire to learn since this will very likely directly affect the answers you will receive.

When interviewing a successful trader, keep in mind that questions relating directly to their trading methods may or may not be answered to your satisfaction. This generally occurs because many traders like to keep their trading methods to themselves. Nevertheless, many traders seem much more open to talking about their mindset and how they deal with the emotional aspect of trading.

While most of us may not have the benefit of having personal access to a successful trader, many books have been written about trading that provide ample material for a novice or seasoned trader to learn from. Most important to research are the technical aspects of a successful trader's analysis and the successful trader's mindset.

Great Books on Trading

Several books on the art of trading stand out and make an excellent start for anyone beginning to trade, a partial list of some of these books would include:

Reminiscences of a Stock Operator by Henri Lefevre - published in 1923, the book was dedicated to Jesse Lauriston Livermore, also known as the "Great Bear" and the "Boy Plunger" of Wall Street. Livermore was one of the biggest traders on Wall Street in the1920s. In relating his accounts of the early days of Wall Street, many timeless market ideas, as well as trading attitude and mindset concepts, are clearly illustrated.

The Market Wizards and The New Market Wizards by Jack Schwager - these two excellent books consist of interviews with the top traders in a variety of different markets. The two books are an invaluable resource offering insights into the trading habits of truly great traders.

The Complete Turtle Trader by Michael Covel - this book is about a trading experiment that resulted from an argument between two traders. A bet was made much like in the film "Trading Places", which was based on this real event. Anyway, the book relates how a select group of people were taught how to trade by a professional trader with some very interesting results.

Researching Online

Many valuable resources for learning from other trader's experience exist online, including this website. Besides the technical side of trading, a large number of websites specialize in information geared to the forex trading community, as do many discussion forums where traders can interact and learn from each other.

Doing some research using the technical indicators of your forex trading platform is another extremely useful way to learn about technical analysis and and technical indicators.

Basically, with the arrival of electronic trading and the Internet, a person no longer needs to work for a bank or a large commercial enterprise in order to learn about and trade the forex market effectively.

Furthermore, because of the availability of small retail forex brokers and online trading, you can now open a forex account with as little as $25 at some brokerages. The world of forex trading will never be the same!

Risk Statement: Trading Foreign Exchange on margin carries a high level of risk and may not be suitable for all investors. The possibility exists that you could lose more than your initial deposit. The high degree of leverage can work against you as well as for you.