How To Start Trading
If I Were a Beginner Trader Starting from Zero, Here’s Exactly What I’d Do to Become Profitable
Starting from zero in trading is overwhelming. I’ve been there. If I had to do it all over again, here’s the exact path I’d follow — to save time, avoid confusion, and actually become a consistently profitable trader.
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- Start Where Everyone Starts: YouTube
Let’s be real — YouTube is the easiest way to get a first look into trading. It gives you access to thousands of videos that teach everything from beginner to advanced. But here’s the trap:
It’s like walking into a massive supermarket where everyone is screaming to sell you something.
Most of these people aren’t even profitable traders — they just want views. And as a beginner, you have no filter. You’re like a lost kid trying to find truth in a sea of noise.
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- What You Should Actually Learn First
I wasted 6 months drowning in junk info. Don’t do the same.
Start with:
• TradingView: Learn the platform and tools.
• Candlestick Basics: How candles form and what they mean.
• Market Structure: Higher highs, lower lows, breaks of structure.
• Key Levels: Support, resistance, and areas where price reacts.
Once you have the foundation, it’s time to go deeper.
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- Deeper Learning: Find What Resonates With You
I explored everything — supply & demand, Elliott waves, indicators like MACD, EMA, trend lines. But I never felt aligned with them.
I wanted to understand why the market moves, not just draw lines.
That’s when I discovered ICT concepts (Inner Circle Trader). The content was free on YouTube — and I had zero dollars to invest anyway. But I paid with something more valuable: time and effort.
I studied 3+ hours a day, watching, testing, journaling, trying to understand the behavior behind price moves. No mentor. Just me and the charts. The more I watched, the more I learned to see the clues the market always leaves behind.
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- After a Year of Studying… I Still Failed
After a full year of learning and mastering chart analysis, I thought I had superpowers.
I could predict price with accuracy.
But I was dead wrong.
Knowing how to read charts is just 10% of trading.
I took trades without a real strategy. I blew my first account in weeks. I thought trading was a scam. I quit for 3 months.
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- Strategy Is Everything (And It Must Match You)
When I came back, I knew I needed a system — a clear method I could follow with discipline.
I watched dozens of strategies online and backtested endlessly. Most looked good in hindsight, but failed in real-time. I was done copying others. I decided to build my own, based on the ICT concepts I had mastered.
Here’s how I did it — and how you can too:
• Step 1: Use your knowledge to analyze trends and structure.
• Step 2: Go back through market data, split it by days and weeks.
• Step 3: Look for repeating patterns. Time of day, price behavior, reaction zones.
• Step 4: Study every detail — when it appears, when it doesn’t, entry/exit, stop loss size, average move.
• Step 5: Once the model is clear, start trading it live — and track everything.
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- The Cost of Impatience
Here’s a big mistake I made:
I’d stick to my model for a week or two. I’d win some trades… then lose a few… get frustrated… and change everything.
I was caught in a deadly loop: build – test – doubt – destroy – repeat.
You need a way to break that cycle. Here’s the exercise that changed my trading:
Commit to taking 50 trades based on one single strategy, without changing anything.
No matter what happens — win or lose — take the trades. Only after 50 full executions can you judge the system. 9 times out of 10, the strategy works. It’s your mind that doesn’t.
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- The Final Boss Isn’t the Market — It’s You
Once you learn the basics, develop a system, and apply good risk management, you’ll face the real enemy:
Your emotions, your fears, your greed — your human nature.
This is where most traders get stuck. They look for more tools, more indicators, more courses… but the answer is already inside them.
The real market is you.
Your growth as a trader mirrors your growth as a person. To win in trading, you need to:
• Understand your strengths and weaknesses.
• Know your purpose.
• Be present.
• Build emotional discipline.
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- Recommended Books on Trading Psychology
To master yourself, here are the books that helped me:
• Market Wizards – Jack D. Schwager
• Unknown Market Wizards – Jack D. Schwager
• The Best Loser Wins – Tom Hougaard
• The Daily Trading Coach – Brett Steenbarger
• Bulletproof Trader – Steve Ward
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Final Words
If you’re starting from zero:
Focus. Study smart. Build your own system. Master your mind.
It’s a hard path, but it’s real.
And if you stay consistent — the reward is freedom.
