Read through Chovy's thread about the economy, and it made me think how most people approach the market(markets) as investors rather than as traders.

A while back I got into trading currency pairs on the internet. Euro against the dollar, Dollar against the Swiss Franc(chf). Everything you read about tells you its so risky. But if you follow some basic rules, like using stop losses and only risking 2 percent of your funds for any given trade, not really so risky. Another big rule about Forex is to follow the herd. Do what everybody else is doing. But my point is it changes your perspective on the economy, its really liberating. Because if you are an "investor" you are subjected to anxiety through long term trends that go against your position.

In Forex trading, your time frames are daily trends and you work from a 15 minute chart. So you are watching waves of price action, and buying on dips and rallies. So you are not a slave to the long term trends of the US economy, rather the dollar is one arrow in your quiver. Anybody else trade? any Forex traders with an on-line platform?

Great, well...If you have any questions in the meantime fire away, I'll try to simplify it, to make it more understandable. When I first started to learn about it the learning curve was ridiculous. The guy that was informally coaching me kept advising me, you have to tolerate feeling stupid for a long time. I had no idea at the time how true that advise was. Even the basics can seem very alien to you at first. I always tell new traders don't try to learn everything, just develop questions. Try to make your questions as practical as possible. Ill give you an example: How do I make a trade? What currency pair do I trade? How much money should I start with? When do I know it's the right moment to enter a trade?. Questions like this, very basic, very practical lead you to get answers. And then you keep doing that for a long time. And keep doing that. Always tolerating feeling like you don't really know.