We all hear about the people who are making millions off of trading forex, and if you are brand new to forex, the first thing you want to do is just jump right in and start trading, because you think it's that easy to become rich.  Well, it's not that simple.  You are going to have to learn the currency trading basics, before you could ever enter a trade.

When I say currency trading basics, I mean, for starters you have to know the two different sides to the markets:  The fundamental and the technical side.

Both are important in forex, and they work hand by hand. There aren't too many successful traders who don't look at both, technical and fundamental analysis. Obviously a trader has some preferential treatment in favor of one over the other, but they also know that they are mutually inclusive.

From a fundamental standpoint, you need to learn about economics.  Don't worry, it doesn't have to like school.  You just have to know some of the basics.  For instance, you should know about all the big economic news that comes out every month.  You should be aware of how the markets handle interest rate changes.

But even more importantly, you should know about how the markets react to when the actual economic numbers are far better or worse than the forecasted numbers.  Once you have an understanding of these factors, then you can have some idea of the underlying market indicators will correlate with an individual currency pair going up or down.

From a technical analysis standpoint, (the more popular of the two) you should really understand how to use a forex chart.  You should be able to feel comfortable explaining to someone why a price will go up or down, based on looking at a chart.

There is a lot of debate on whether you should use indicators or not when performing your technical analysis.  There really is no right or wrong answer.  It's just a matter of what works best.

If you are a fan of indicators, you better start learning what they do. You also have to accept the fact that they do not work some of the time.  It's all part of trading forex. 

For those that want to use technical analysis without indicators on their charts, then you might want to start learning how to trade using price action.  An excellent guide is Bird Watching in Lion Country.

Again, forex trading is not an overnight get rich scheme.  It does take some discipline and practice to learn the currency trading basics, but that is something that any serious forex trader should be prepared to learn.

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