How To Start Trading The No BS Guide PDF

CRITICAL
TRADING
How To Start Trading
The No-BS Guide

HOW TO START TRADING: THE NO BS GUIDE
© David Fiacan, Critical-Trading.com | Second edition - March 2019
This ebook may be freely distributed, however only in its original form as prepared by
its author and without any amendments and/or edits.
All information obtained within this book is for educational purposes only and do not act as an
actual investment or trading advice. The author of the ebook is not a Chartered Financial Advisor.
When there is a reference to a certain investment vehicle made, such as futures, forex, stocks
or options, this is for educational purposes only. Financial speculation carries a high degree of
uncertainty and risk. An individual who makes a decision to speculate on movements of financial
markets is fully responsible for this decision and its outcome.
CRITICAL How To Start Trading: The No-BS Guide - page 2

TRADING
Reality Check
Trading.
The dream job of making a lot of money and being your own boss.
No need to be glued to your desk every single day, no colleagues

that you are forced to get on with, no customers and no pay check
that hardly covers your bills.
Sports cars, Rolex, yacht and a penthouse in prime location.
Trading promises to give you all of this, just by clicking buy or

sell. What’s more, absolutely anyone can start doing this business,
and only needs a few thousand dollars to begin with.
This is why you are totally amazed by an idea of trading the mar-
kets - Forex, Futures or stocks.
Trading has been massively ‘hyped’ over last few years, with thou-
sands of websites dedicated to it appearing out of nowhere.
You have most likely discovered this business by visiting one of

such sites. After this, you spent some time reading articles about
technical analysis, watching videos on YouTube and looking at
some charts.
I assume that you are either a complete beginner, or you already

have some experience with indicators, strategies and concepts.

TRADING
Either way, I am very glad that you are reading my book and I truly
believe that it will give you a significant advantage over other
aspiring traders who will, unfortunately, never make it.
I hope that you are not expecting to become a trader overnight.
Trading, like business, sport or art, requires a consistent effort

over a period of time. Like with any other activity, if you start with
realistic goals, good education and quality practice, you eventualy
gain an advantage over others and get ahead of the game.
This book is not about a trading strategy which promises wildly

unrealistic profits.
This book is also not about portraying trading as the business in

which everybody can succeed (because that’s just a marketing,
clickbait statement).
I understand that you don’t necessarily want to hear opinions

which contradict the ones you have been given so far – that one
can make money in trading in one week or so.
I get it because I was there, too. In retrospect, however, I wish

I would have come across a book like this in my beginnings. It
would have saved around 2 years of my time.
The purpose of this book is to provide non-biased, realistic and

valuable guide on how to start to those who are truly serious
about it.

TRADING
Capital
Why do you not want to start undercapitalised
So-called trading educators and mentors intentionally claim that

trading requires very small capital to start with.
Why do they do it?
The answer is very simple. They do it because such claim is great

selling point.
For example:
“A strategy which requires initial capital of $1000

and makes 1000% per month!”
Such statement is very appealing, indeed. But totally unrealistic.
Certainly, trading requires relatively small capital, especially when

compared to traditional businesses.
This is because trading does not require various overhead expens-

es – premises to rent, vast array of liabilities associated with em-
ployees, and so on.
However, in order to start trading seriously, the capital needed is

higher than $1,000

TRADING
HOW 90% OF TRADERS START
The 90% of beginners start significantly undercapitalised, which
instantly puts them into a very vulnerable position.
And that’s surely not a position you want to start in.
The decision of these beginners to start undercapitalised may be

due to the following reasons:
- They do not have enough capital and believe in making money

quickly - waiting to save a proper capital is simply not an option
- They approach trading as casino, not serious business. They only

want to ‘try’ starting out with a few hundred $ to see if it works
- Or, they are just totally ignorant and truly believe it’s possible to
start with few hundred $ and retire next year (or even month)
To make sure you have odds on your side, you have to come from
a position of strength - meaning having a sufficient capital to
allow for errors (losses).
It’s absolutely inevitable that you are going to be making mistakes

(losses) and your performance is not going to be similiar to the
simulated/projected one.
That’s completely normal in this business.

TRADING
Example – during the simulated tests on historical data, your
strategy’s performance indicates that 60% of trades are profitable.
This percentage, however, is likely going to be around 45-50%

when you actually start trading real-time.
This is caused by psychological effect of trading which comes

into play when you start risking real money, resulting in your live
executions not being as good as the ones in perfect environment
– historical data.
So, if you start with little capital and your performance is going to
be worse that you expected, what do you think is going to happen?
You start panicking and making even more mistakes, which results
in you losing your initial capital. Based on my experience, beginner
usually starts making mistakes and stops following his strategy
when he loses around 20% of the starting capital.
With capital of $3000, beginner only has to lose around $600 to

get to a point at which he starts panicking, and stops following his
strategy.
In the real world of trading, loss of $600 can be generated just by

couple of losing trades and a few errors.
The point here is that sufficient starting capital is totally critical,

as it provides you with a psychological advantage.
This advantage gives you a peace of mind, by knowing you have

enough room to make mistakes.

TRADING
The vast number of amateurs simply do not capitalise enough in
order to survive these difficult beginnings - and end up blowing
their tiny accounts.
Below is a typical equity curve of an undercapitalised beginner

trader. As an example, let’s assume he starts with $3000, risking
$100 per trade doing day-trading.
$600
20% drawdown - psychological effect kicks in
The red line shows a 20% initial capital drawdown zone.
As I have just explained, this is the point at which majority of

beginners completely forget all rules they are meant to follow and
start trading literally anything, in order to make their losses back.
As visible on the illustration above, the equity curve past this point
is decreasing very rapidly.

TRADING
Bear in mind that 20% of $3k represents only $600. $100 risk per
trade which this trader employs means that he is only 6 losing
trades away from this critical drawdown point, right at the start.
Let’s have a look at different scenario.
This is far more serious beginner, equipped with capital of $10k,

risking $200 per trade and swing-trading on daily time-frames.
Again, the red line shows the 20% initial capital drawdown zone.
As this trader starts with enough capital, he provides himself with

sufficient room to make errors, while experiencing drawdown
that’s psychologically bearable.
$2000
20% drawdown - psychological effect kicks in

TRADING
What’s clearly visible on these two scenarios is the fact that the
second trader starts in a very different position than the first one.
He starts with more capital, giving himself more room to make

mistakes, and hence having a psychological advantage right at the
start.
Undercapitalised traders, after facing practical difficulties and

losing significant amounts of their capital, get very frustrated and
even start to believe that it’s impossible to be profitable in this
business.
This is, of course, not true.
The problem is that these beginners fail to recognise that one of

the key reasons why they didn’t make it is the fact that they simply
lost their capital during the initial trial-and-error phase.
A phase that’s completely natural and can’t be avoided.

TRADING
Education
Choose who do you learn from wisely
Good quality education is key in any activity. Trading included.
Even though there are hundreds of trading websites and YouTube

channels, it is not easy to find good, valuable information.
This is because the majority of sites you visit and adverts you see
are there to sell you something.
Is there anything wrong with trying to sell something?
Absolutely not. If it is a good quality product that truly delivers

value, then selling it at a premium is totally fine (and logical).
But as you can imagine, this is now very rarely the case, as the
internet has become totally over-saturated with various trading
websites and channels.
The vast majority of them provide no value whatsoever. They are

just trying to sell a bunch of worthless information that’s widely
available for free, but they package it into a ‘masterclass’ online
course.
In order to convince you to buy the course, its author will show
you a wide range of charts with huge moves, claiming that the
strategy would get you to enter all of them.
He’s going to show you a 15-year bottom on major Forex pair,

while saying that his strategy would get you to buy it just before it
took place, of course.

TRADING
He’s going to say that his strategy makes a profit of 1000% per
month.
Guess what he’s going to say next? That you too can make such
profits if you buy his strategy.
Still not convinced?! Then here’s a special 90% discount!
Sell
This is a typical signal that I get every single day!
Huge returns guaranteed, with capital of $500.
Today only, get this strategy for $500 (usual price
$2500)!
Buy
My point here is the fact that true traders do not tend to use such
an aggressive marketing.
They are not going to offer 90% discount, because if what they are
selling is a real deal, they value it much more than that.

TRADING
I am definitely not saying that all trading courses are worthless.
There are indeed some great traders to learn from, however the
majority of online sources is just selling strategies which don’t
work, and are otherwise available on the internet for free.
Let’s do a simple test to prove this. Go on YouTube and search for

‘simple forex trading strategy’.
There will be literally thousands of videos returned for this search

phrase. But, when you go through several of them, you will quickly
notice that all these videos have some things in common.
They all show a chart, with the author essentially cherry-picking

major turning points and saying that his strategy (available to buy
on his website) would get you to trade them.
What all of these videos lack is the following:
- Proper guidance on how to manage risk.
- Explanation as to why the market is reacting in a certain way
- No analysis of market context.
- No sound framework of entries/exits boasting high probabilities
Why is this information (and much more) missing? Because the

author himself doesn’t understand those concepts.
Now, take a look at how many views these videos have on average
and note this number.

TRADING
Go back and type ‘market auction theory’ in the search box. Have
a look at how many views these videos get on average.
What did you notice?
Videos returned on the first page for a phrase ‘simple forex trad-
ing strategy’ all have tens of thousands views on average, with
some of them having even hundreds of thousands views.
On the other hand, videos returned for ‘market auction theory’

have significantly less views - few thousand on average, with
many of them viewed only a few hundred times.
What does it mean?
It means that ‘hyped’ videos selling a simple strategy which makes

money instantly are far more popular than those providing real
insight into the underlying fundamentals of markets.
Reason for this is rather elementary - majority of people are

simply too comfortable to learn the proper stuff.
Why is that? Because it requires an effort, which is nowhere as

appealing as looking for shortcuts by watching worthless videos.
If a simple indicator Forex strategy that can be found on YouTube

really worked, then literally everybody would trade it and become
millionaire instantly, right?
If it would have been the case, then why would be people bothered
to work anymore if they could simply start trading?

TRADING
The reality is that trading is more complex than how it’s usually
portrayed on YouTube, and becoming consistently profitable is
difficult (but not by any means impossible).
This is because trading requires more than just a simple strategy.
HOW 90% OF TRADERS START
A typical beginner starts by looking at ‘hot’ strategies on YouTube.
Then, he visits a few websites that all sell some kind of a hyped,
magic strategy.
This beginner learns nothing whatsoever about how markets

actually work, but rather keeps consuming worthless stuff.
Eventually, he buys one of these strategies (usually when he’s

offered 90% discount) and starts trading with real money.
He loses, just to find out that this could have been avoided, had he
spent more time learning the proper stuff.

TRADING
TIP: DO NOT EXPECT TO GET PROPER EDUCATION
FOR FREE OR WITH A HUGE DISCOUNT
I cannot understand why there are so many people who think they
will actually get know-how on how to make money trading
completely for free.
There is free information out there, and some of it even exceeds

various paid ‘masterclass’ courses in value – my YouTube videos
are a prime example of this.
However, you simply cannot expect that you will be served

absolutely everything for free or with a discount.
The reason why so many people are literally hooked on free stuff
is because this freebie marketing is now everywhere and became
a part of our contemporary culture.
Despite this, investment in proper education in trading comes at

its price and you cannot be afraid to pay it if you are truly serious.
What is the alternative?
The alternative is spending years in clickbait trap, buying one

strategy after another (with 90% discounts, of course), learning
pretty much nothing, giving it up and later finding out that it has
in fact costed more that investing in serious education in the first
place.
For a genuine trader who wants to sell his know-how (which is

totally fine), it has taken years of trial-and-error to hone it, and he
is therefore quite logically asking a premium for it.

TRADING
Expectations
Do not expect to quit your job and retire the next month
If beginner who discovered trading a week ago is questioned why

does he want to do this business, his response would be similar to
the following:
‘Because I want to make a lot of money without having a day job

and a boss.’
There is nothing wrong with having such ambitions - it’s great to

have them. The problem, however, lies in the definition of ‘a lot
money’.
Is it a return of 100%, 200% or 1000% per year?
Usually, the rule of ‘as much as possible’ applies to virtually all

beginners - their expectations range from thousand per cent
returns to quitting their day jobs the following month and buying
2019 Mercedes S65 AMG.
This is a typical beginner with unrealistic expectations:
I’ve got $2,000 to trade with.

According to the back-test on 3
months of data, I should get a return
of 200% per month!

TRADING
Not only the capital that this amateur has is insufficient, but also
a target which he sets is far from being realistic.
By doing this, he instantly decreases his chances to succeed.
He opens an account with broker, runs the trading platform and

waits for his signals:
BUY SELL
Market behaves a little different to what this trader is expecting

based on his backtests.
Almost a quarter of the intraday main session is gone and there

has been no signal yet. He becomes anxious.
According to the backtests, his strategy should average 5 trades

per session.

TRADING
‘Why are there no signals? There has been a nice move up but I did
not catch it - I really need to start making some trades as I have to
meet my target.’
A very visible reversal takes place in market, and the price goes
down rapidly. Again, no signal is provided by his strategy.
‘I knew the market will reverse there. I knew the price will go down
because there has been a reversal price-action pattern!’
At this moment, he forgets all rules and starts clicking buy and
sell, biased by the need to trade in order to meet his unrealistic
target:
Buy
Buy
Buy
Sell
Sell Sell
He just made 5 or more trades within a period of few minutes just

because he felt like he must be active and trade.
This behavioural pattern was triggered by psychological pressure

this trader imposed on himself when coming up with a ridiculously
naïve financial target.

TRADING
Sadly, all trades he made had nothing to do with his strategy and
were losses. He had a blackout and started clicking buy and sell
based on his gut feelings rather than tested rules.
When he realises what he has just done, his reaction is following:
What the f*ck have I just done?!
The scenario above is very common among beginners whose

targets are far too big.
Setting unrealistically big targets is closely connected with the

fact that novice trader is undercapitalised.
If his starting capital is $2000, then he logically wants to make at

least 100% per month, as otherwise the whole thing would not be
financially viable.

TRADING
If questioned whether he wants to swing-trade for 80% per year,
for example, then his reaction would be similar to the following:
‘Are you joking?! That’s nothing!’
And he is right - it is nothing. It is nothing, because he starts with

$2000, which is far below what’s required for serious trading.
The point here is that beginners tend to start with small capital
(which is the key problem), and are trying to compensate for this
by aiming for huge profits in absolute terms.
It is the combination of these two factors that causes blackouts

similar to the one above, during which novice traders blow a
significant amount of their accounts.
Sadly, this is usually not an end of the story.
Many people do not actually understand the true cause of why

they have had a blackout and therefore start again with different
strategy, but with a similar capital and similar target.
And guess what? They lose again, as they continue over-trading

due to their unrealistic expectations.
What about beginner with realistic, conservative target? How is

his starting point different to the one of the trader above?
It’s significantly different - he does not feel the pressure to trade

every single movement in the market in order to meet his target.

TRADING
He can therefore focus on the actual trial-and-error process and
learn, provided that he starts with proper capital.
The difference between these two traders looks as follows:
2nd account, similar capital, different strategy
1st account blown 2nd account blown
Green equity curve belongs to trader with conservative target,

whereas dark blue equity belongs to beginner with an aspiration to
make a return of 100% per month.
Both of them are going to be making errors - that’s inevitable.
However, trader with blue equity is going to be making a lot more

of them, due to the fact he is heavily biased by his target.
As you can see, it is the trader with conservative target who

makes progress at the end of the day.

TRADING
Type of Trading
This can determine whether you make it or not
Majority of amateurs significantly underestimate the importance

of choosing the right way to trade in the beginning.
Instead, they focus on things which are less important - choosing

a broker, trading platform and of course - hunting for ‘hot’ trading
strategies.
The reality is that choosing the right type of trading to start with
makes a difference. It can even determine whether you will survive
in your beginnings or not.
I believe that one of the biggest advantages of trading is that it

can be done in many different ways.
All of these different ways to trade have their pros and cons, and
affect various factors such as capital requirements and time
investment needed.
You can trade various instruments, markets, time-frames and

strategies - so you might as well spend some time researching
this.
Let’s start by looking at the time-frame.
Generally, you can either trade on intraday time-frames or you can

swing-trade, which means operating on anything from 30-minute
to daily time-frames.

TRADING
Intraday time-frames are more popular as they offer higher signals
frequency which is indeed very appealing to beginners, but even
more to get-rich-quick scheme marketers.
These beginners are biased by a very naïve belief that the more
trades they make, the more profit they generate. Altought this
makes sense theoretically, reality may be very, very different.
I always advocate that beginners should start by swing-trading on

daily time-frames in combination with proper capital. Advantage
of this is that the psychological effect when swing-trading is much
more bearable when compared to day-trading on 1-minute chart
Trader who operates on daily time-frames can plan his strategy in

advance, which means he can fully focus on his executions when
needed. Trader watchng 3 indicators that show 5 contradicting
signals within 10 minutes can’t do this.
Swing Trading Day Trading

Low time requirements Higher returns (potentially)
Less experience needed Lower capital requirements
Not as demanding as day
trading
High time requirements
More room for diversification
Significant experience needed
Psychologically demanding
Higher capital requirements
Less room for diversification
Lower returns

TRADING
Another area which I recommend researching are markets.
By default, beginners tend to start trading either Forex (because

it’s heavily promoted) or stocks. They do, however, seem to lack
the rationale to back this decision. Almost everyone in YouTube
community ‘trades’ Forex or stocks, and so they do the same.
Similarly to time-frame, markets you choose to trade also affect

your odds significantly.
I have recently seen an advert trying to sell Forex trading strategy.
One of the selling points was that Forex is the biggest exchange
in the world (as if this would have been important at all) and even
giving a number of trades made on Forex per year (who the f*ck
cares?).
The vast majority of beginners simply consume such statement

without thinking, and start trading Forex.
There are many different markets with different specifications.
For example, Futures markets offer much stronger government

regulation than Forex, while being much less affected by wide
range of fundamentals.
Stocks are the second group of markets which is very popular.
In my experience, the biggest downside of stocks is the fact that

they are heavily affected by company’s fundamentals and a range
of unpredictable political/economical events.

TRADING
Below is a brief breakdown of differences between Futures and
stocks:
Futures Stocks
High margin = lower capital Many different stocks to
needed to hold positions choose from
Not significantly affected by More flexibility with regards to

fundamentals (unlike stocks) the size of stop-loss
Less markets to choose from Low margin = more capital

needed to hold positions
Markets vary in volatility and
may require big stop-loss (in Affected by fundamentals,
monetary terms) such as earnings etc.
TIP: DO NOT START WITH DAY-TRADING

There is no doubt that day-trading is by far the most popular way
to trade for beginners. This is due to combination of the following:
- Day-trading is heavily marketed by people selling trading courses

and strategies. This provides them with some great selling points,
e.g. make $1,000 in two hours a day on Forex
- This is appealing to beginners, as they believe in high returns in

short time, in combination with small capital required

TRADING
- Day-trading is also promoted by brokers, whose interest is to
have their clients making as many trades as possible. Their profits
are the commissions generated on each trade
- Doing day-trading is ‘sexy’ – 2 screens with moving, real-time

markets and making hundreds of dollars in minutes is much more
appealing than swing-trading, for example
There’s one major catch associated with day-trading. It is the

most difficult type of trading one can possibly choose, both from
technical and psychological point of view.
Its major technical challenge is the predatory environment that is

created by high frequency trading algorithms (HFTs) operating on
low time-frames.
These blazing-fast algorithms are manipulating the orderflow in

markets, and are essentially hunting for unprepared amateurs.
This became very apparent in recent years, when the vast majority
of short-term trading opportunities on minute time-frames literally
disappeared from markets.
The typical intraday session of major US indices has now got a

form of volatile trading range, with healthy trends being almost
non-existent.
It has never been as difficult to trade on these time-frames as it is

today. What’s more, it becomes almost impossible if time-lagging
indicator is used as a primary trigger to enter the market.
In other words - beginners aspiring to trade 1-minute time-frame

with a combination of 3 indicators are almost guaranteed to lose.

TRADING
Another huge challenge of day-trading that no one seems to talk
about is its psychological difficulty. This is caused by enormous
pressure arising from ticking charts.
The problem lies in the way intraday charts tick. They are
designed (by HFTs manipulating the orderflow) to attract retail
traders to enter the market in certain situations, at certain times.
Therefore, it really is not a coincidence that the market creates

massive bullish candlestick with buyers jumping in, but breaks
below price support 3 minutes later, while absorbing sellers.
Such situation can be seen on the illustration below:
High of day broken - start of an uptrend?
Minor high broken. Maybe it really is an uptrend.
Low broken, looks like downtrend now.
Now low of day made, that’s definitely a downtrend!
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
Above is a typical intraday session shown on 2-minute time-frame

that’s full of false breakouts

TRADING
These breakouts are created artificially by HFTs which manipulate
the order book and cause the market to move in certain direction
for short time.
This is done in order to attract unskilled amateurs to enter the

market so that HFTs can manipulate the orderflow again and move
the market to where the stop-losses of these traders are located.
What’s the big deal?
The big deal is the fact that such manipulations are taking place
on low time-frames essentially all the time. Such a volatile and
fast-paced environment gives rise to psychological pressure that
beginner cannot handle, and as a result of that, ends up clicking
buy and sell while completely forgetting his rules.
Illustration on the following page shows what happens when a

novice trader with very little emotional stability attempts to trade
main intraday session.
The horizontal axis shows time in minutes, while vertical axis

plots a level stress.
Coloured vertical lines represent trades. The green and red lines
represent profitable and losing trades, while blue lines show
missed trade opportunities.

TRADING
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Stress
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Trading session starts with base level of stress, which gets to a

higher level after the first profit is generated.
Why does the stress increase after having a profitable trade?
This is because the trader has to carry on trading in order to reach

his daily profit target. As there is a real danger that the next trade
is loss that eliminates some, or even all of the first profit, stress
level rises.
At the same time, trader feels the euphoria arising from the gain,
and he is biased by it.
Second trade is a loss. This causes his stress level to shoot up, as
the profit made on first trade is now diminished.

TRADING
In few minutes, there is a nice signal generated.
Trader does not react fast enough and misses this opportunity –
stress is now high and recovers slowly.
A lack of signals that follows causes the stress to rise, as the

trader is getting impatient due to inactivity. He is anxious to
recover the profit made on first trade.
This is followed by another missed opportunity.
This acts as a point of no return at which the stress is so high

that it now cannot be recovered back to acceptable level within
this particular session.
A loss is generated afterwards, followed by trader experiencing a

blackout.
In reality, only first two trades were executed at an acceptable

level of stress, making them the only ones that were in-line with
his strategy.
Conclusion? Fast-paced environment of intraday charts generating

a barrage of distractions in a very short time does not allow for
stress to recover after it has hit a certain level.
Let’s look at an alternative – swing-trading. Same visual layout as

on previous illustration applies.

TRADING
1 2 3 4 5 6
Stress
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
As well as on previous illustration, every trade produces a spike in

stress. This is simply part of the game.
In this case, however, the horizontal axis shows number of days

rather than minutes.
Swing-trading on time-frames such as 60-minute and higher does

not require looking on detailed market activity on which the
manipulation by HFTs is taking place.
The result is that beginner is less distracted and hence better

focused on his strategy.
It’s quite clear on the example above that beginner who picks
swing-trading to start with provides himself with considerably
more time to recover from stress caused by an outcome of any
given trade.

TRADING
How To Start
Start different than 90% of traders
So how do you actually start?
By now, you know that there is no super-secret and super-fast

formula that’s going to make you money almost instantly.
Being consistently profitable in trading does not come down to the

strategy only.
Consistent profitability is achieved when several requirements are

satisfied. Some of these have been discussed in this book:
- Capital
- Education
- Expectations
- Way of trading
Let’s now go through each of these to give you a guide on how to

start.

TRADING
CAPITAL
Relatively low capital required is one of the key reasons why are
so many people fascinated by this business.
Yes, trading indeed requires less capital conventional business.

No liabilities such as employees, premises to rent and inventory to
be bought. Despite this, the need for a serious capital still applies.
The exact monetary amount required depends on a range of

factors, such as time-frames and markets traded as well as risk
profile of a given strategy.
Detailed analysis of all of these factors is outside of the scope of

this book, however the guidelines provided below are universally
applicable.
HOW TO START
- Capital should be sufficient enough to allow for a maximum of
3% risk per trade (2% ideally)
- The maximum recorded drawdown produced by a strategy should

be less than 20% of an initial capital
- $2,000 is not a proper capital
- For swing-trading the least volatile Futures markets on daily

time-frames, $10,000 is recommended. This can be lowered by
trading ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds) or mini-sized Futures

TRADING
EDUCATION
The first thing you need to do is stop looking for shortcuts and
discounts. Instead, learn how markets work as a mechanism in
the first place.
I am pretty sure that 90% of traders are not able to answer the
following question: ‘What makes the price to move?’
If you do not know how markets actually work as a mechanism,

how can you expect to be profitable? When I started, I did not
spend enough time learning these basics and regretted it later.
Only after I got back to basics was I able to start making profits
because I truly understood markets and price movements.
Don’t be afraid to pay premium for good quality education (you

definitely won’t find it in $10 courses on big online course sites).
HOW TO START
- Learn fundamental basics of market auction first
- Stop looking for easy strategies promising huge profits and stop
following people who claim they possess such strategy
- Watch videos with low number of views as many of these are

likely to provide some value
- Be prepared to invest in proper education, which is a requirement

in any business or activity

TRADING
EXPECTATIONS
Start with very small targets.
I know - you want to trade in order to make ‘a lot of money’. That’s

fine, however you firstly need to learn the basics.
By basics, I mean understanding the logic of your trades, being

able to execute your trades well, getting the timing and exit right
and much more.
Basically, you need take your strategy to a level at which you know
exactly what you trade, why you trade it and how you execute it.
Only after you have reached this point should you start increasing
your financial targets, period.
HOW TO START
- Set no financial target in the beginning – the only objective is to
remain around break even
- Your target should be getting proficient with your strategy – this

includes everything from timing of trades, managing trades and
exiting trades
- Only after you have mastered the execution of your strategy well
enough should you start setting financial targets

TRADING
TYPE OF TRADING
I have previously mentioned that I do not recommend to start with
day-trading.
Throughout this book, I have stated the key reasons as to why

beginners should avoid starting with this type of trading at all
cost.
Contrary to virtually all ‘traders’ on YouTube, I recommend starting

swing-trading on daily time-frames.
Not only this approach requires a relatively small time investment,

it also provides considerably higher odds of survival for beginners.
HOW TO START
- Conduct a proper research on different markets available for
trading, in relation to the initial capital available
- Choose 10-15 markets across different asset classes for your

watch-list
- Trade on daily time-frames only and focus on execution of your

strategy rather than analysis of every single market reversal on
3-minute time-frame

TRADING
WHAT NEXT?
I hope you found this eBook as a helpful guide on how to start.
Trading is really not a rocket science, and nothing like a secret

formula which makes millions exists.
As you noticed, I did not give any guidance on a particular trading

strategy. I did this on purpose, as I wanted to demonstrate that
beginners tend to do make wrong decisions right at the start.
The actual strategy is extremely important (and the vast majority

of people make huge mistakes in this area, of course), however if
one does not provide himself with a good starting point, then they
will not survive, regardless of the strategy.
Make sure that you are subscribed to my YouTube channel and

that you are in my newsletter, to receive regular content that truly
helps your trading.
Best of luck,
David

TRADING

How To Start Trading The No BS Guide PDF

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CRITICAL

How To Start Trading

The No-BS Guide

CRITICAL How To Start Trading: The No-BS Guide - page 2

No need to be glued to your desk every single day, no colleagues

Sports cars, Rolex, yacht and a penthouse in prime location.

Trading promises to give you all of this, just by clicking buy or

You have most likely discovered this business by visiting one of

I assume that you are either a complete beginner, or you already

CRITICAL How To Start Trading: The No-BS Guide - page 1

I hope that you are not expecting to become a trader overnight.

Trading, like business, sport or art, requires a consistent effort

This book is not about a trading strategy which promises wildly

This book is also not about portraying trading as the business in

I understand that you don’t necessarily want to hear opinions

I get it because I was there, too. In retrospect, however, I wish

The purpose of this book is to provide non-biased, realistic and

CRITICAL How To Start Trading: The No-BS Guide - page 2

So-called trading educators and mentors intentionally claim that

Why do they do it?

The answer is very simple. They do it because such claim is great

“A strategy which requires initial capital of $1000

Such statement is very appealing, indeed. But totally unrealistic.

Certainly, trading requires relatively small capital, especially when

This is because trading does not require various overhead expens-

However, in order to start trading seriously, the capital needed is

CRITICAL How To Start Trading: The No-BS Guide - page 3

And that’s surely not a position you want to start in.

The decision of these beginners to start undercapitalised may be

- They do not have enough capital and believe in making money

- They approach trading as casino, not serious business. They only

It’s absolutely inevitable that you are going to be making mistakes

That’s completely normal in this business.

CRITICAL How To Start Trading: The No-BS Guide - page 4

This percentage, however, is likely going to be around 45-50%

This is caused by psychological effect of trading which comes

With capital of $3000, beginner only has to lose around $600 to

In the real world of trading, loss of $600 can be generated just by

The point here is that sufficient starting capital is totally critical,

This advantage gives you a peace of mind, by knowing you have

CRITICAL How To Start Trading: The No-BS Guide - page 5

Below is a typical equity curve of an undercapitalised beginner

20% drawdown - psychological effect kicks in

The red line shows a 20% initial capital drawdown zone.

As I have just explained, this is the point at which majority of

CRITICAL How To Start Trading: The No-BS Guide - page 6

Let’s have a look at different scenario.

This is far more serious beginner, equipped with capital of $10k,

As this trader starts with enough capital, he provides himself with

20% drawdown - psychological effect kicks in

CRITICAL How To Start Trading: The No-BS Guide - page 7

He starts with more capital, giving himself more room to make

Undercapitalised traders, after facing practical difficulties and

This is, of course, not true.

The problem is that these beginners fail to recognise that one of

A phase that’s completely natural and can’t be avoided.

CRITICAL How To Start Trading: The No-BS Guide - page 8

Good quality education is key in any activity. Trading included.

Even though there are hundreds of trading websites and YouTube

Is there anything wrong with trying to sell something?

Absolutely not. If it is a good quality product that truly delivers

The vast majority of them provide no value whatsoever. They are

He’s going to show you a 15-year bottom on major Forex pair,