If you go online and search for ‘forex forums’, you will find quite a few that discuss various different aspects of forex trading.
Experienced traders will be familiar with some of the most popular ones, such as Forex Factory, for example, which is arguably the best of the lot.
However for people new to forex trading, I want to discuss why you should consider joining and reading these forex forums, whilst also discussing some of the drawbacks of these forums as well.
So here are some of the main pros and cons:
Pros
Learn Profitable Strategies
One of the main reasons why you should consider joining one of these discussion forums is because you may well learn some profitable strategies that you can use yourself because some people are glad to share their strategies with other people.
It can be immensely difficult coming up with your own winning strategies, and so by learning the trading methods that other traders are using, you can start making some decent returns yourself.
Learn More About Forex Trading
Another obvious benefit is that you will learn a great deal about various different aspects of the forex industry just by reading these forums on a regular basis.
These forums are full of experienced and knowledgable traders who are happy to educate the newer less experienced forum members, and offer a few useful tips and guidelines that will help them get started.
So bearing in mind that these forums are generally free to join, this is a great way to learn the basics.
Social Interaction
Trading the markets from your bedroom or living room can be a lonely profession because you obviously have no social interaction at all during the day.
So by becoming an active member of one of these online communities, you can at least get some form of social interaction by chatting with the other members every day, even if it’s only online.
Negatives
Superstar Traders
As with any online forum, you will always find lots of people with big egos hanging around on these forex forums. These people may well have had some initial success trading the markets, and are now happy to broadcast their positions because they want others to view them as being some kind of hotshot trader.
You should be very cautious about following these traders and copying their trades yourself because they will often come unstuck at some stage, which could end up costing you lots of money as a result.
Misleading Information
Following on from the last point, many people will post information to these forums that seems sensible enough, but sometimes it can be very costly to blindly take this advice at face value without doing your own research.
Many of the very best traders don’t tend to hang around on these forums a great deal, so you should be careful about taking the advice of a so-called expert, even if they sound really knowledgeable.
Potentially Distracting
Reading these forums can be a great way to alleviate some of the boredom of day-to-day trading, but they also be potentially distracting as well.
By spending too much time on these forums, you can miss some really good trading set-ups that occur throughout the day. Therefore it is best to visit these forums during the evening, for example, or during quiet periods of the day when there are no decent trading opportunities.
Closing Comments
Overall I would say that the benefits of joining one or more of these forex forums definitely outweigh the potential drawbacks.
However you should only use these forums as an educational resource and a means of improving your trading results because it is generally a bad idea to start copying the success, and following the trades of other members.
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