Someone posted on
here a few days ago asking about forex and forex trading in Kenya, I have gone through the responses and clearly, most people don’t have an idea. It is 3am in the morning and am in a good mood so let me make this post. This will be a comprehensive and lengthy post so grab a pen and paper and sit down. We’ll be here a while.
FIRST OF ALL, who am I..? I am a forex trader, in Nairobi, Kenya..i have been actively involved in forex since I found out about it in Feb 2016 when I somehow ended up in a wealth creation seminar (lol) in pride inn Westlands, the one close to Mpaka Rd. Luckily for me, it was not one of those AIM global meetings or I’d be on Facebook selling God knows what those guys sell. I did not take it seriously till August of the same year and I have been active ever since.
I don’t teach, mentor or sell a course or signals, I trade my own money. I am also posting from a throwaway account because I don’t want KRA on my ass.
What the fuck is forex and forex trading. In simple plain English, forex is like the stock market but for currencies. Stock Market = Shares, forex = currencies. If you want more in-depth explanation, google is your friend.
These currencies are pegged on specific countries, united states- dollar, UK- pound, euro zone- euro, Switzerland- Swiss franc, Kenya- Kenya shilling.. you get the point. Now, there are specific events and happenings between these economies that affect the movement and values of the currencies, driving their value (purchasing power up and down). Forex trading exploits these movements to make money. When the value is going up, we buy and vice versa (down –sell)
Is forex trading illegal in Kenya? Is it a scam? Illegal, no. scam, no. All the banks in the world do it (KCB made about 4 billion from trading forex in 2019)
Have there been scams involving forex in Kenya? Yes.
Here is one that happened recently. This one is
the most infamous one yet. Best believe that this is not the end of these type of scams because the stupidity, greed and gullibility of human beings is unfathomable.
However, by the end of this post, I hope you won’t fall for such silliness.
What next how do I make it work..? Am glad you asked. Generally, there are two ways to go about it. One, you teach yourself. This is the equivalent of stealing our dad’s car and hoping that the pedal you hit is the brake and not the accelerator. It is the route I took, it is the most rewarding and a huge ego boost when you finally make it on your own. Typically, this involves scouring the internet for hours upon hours going down rabbit holes, thinking you have made it telling all your friends how you will be a millionaire then losing all your money. Some people do not have the stomach for that.
The second route is more practical, structured and smarter.
First Learn the basics. There is a free online forex course at
www.babypips.com/learn/forex this is merely an introductory course. Basically it is learning the parts of a car before they let you inside the car.
Second, start building your strategy. By the time you are done with the babypips, you will have a feel of what the forex market is, what interests you, etc. Tip..Babypips has a lot of garbage. It is good for introductory purposes but not good for much else, pick whatever stick to you or jumps at you the first time. Nonsense like indicators should be ignored.
The next step is now the most important. Developing the skill and building your strategy. As a beginner, you want to exhaust your naivety before jumping into the more advanced stuff. Eg can you identify a trend, what is a pair, what is position sizing, what is metatrader 4 and how to operate it, what news is good for a currency, when can I trade, what are the different trading sessions, what is technical analysis, what is market sentiment, what are bullish conditions what is emotion management, how does my psychology affect my trading (more on this later) an I a swing, scalper or day trader etc
Mentors and forex courses.. you have probably seen people advertising how they can teach and mentor you on how to trade forex and charging so much money for it. Somehow it seems that these people are focused on the teaching than the trading. Weird, right..? Truth is trading is hard, teaching not quite. A common saying in the industry is “Those who can’t trade, teach” you want to avoid all these gurus on Facebook and Instagram, some are legit but most are not. Sifting the wheat from the chaff is hard but I did that for you. The info is available online on YouTube, telegram channels etc. am not saying not to spend money on a course, if you find a mentor whose style resonates with you and the course is reasonably priced, please, go ahead and buy..it will cut your learning curve in half. People are different. What worked for me might not work for you.
Here are some nice YouTube channels to watch. These guys are legit..
- Sam sieden
- Cuebanks
- TheCoinFx
- The trading channel
- Astro
- Forex family
- Wicksdontlie
Advanced stuff
- ICT
After a short period of time, you will be able to sniff out bs teachers with relative ease. You will also discover some of your own and expand the list. Two tips, start with the oldest videos first and whichever of these resonates with you, stick with till the wheels fall off.
How long will it take until things start making sense Give yourself time to grow and learn. This is all new to you and you are allowed to make mistakes, to fail and discover yourself. Realistically, depending on the effort you put in, you will not start seeing results until after 6 months. Could take longeshorter so there is no guarantee.
Social media, Mentality, Psychology and Books Online, forex trading might not have the best reputation online because it takes hard work and scammers and gurus give it a bad name. However, try to not get sucked into the Instagram trader lifestyle as it is nowhere close to what the reality is. You will not make millions tomorrow or the day after, you might never even make it in this market. But that is the reality of life. Nothing is promised, nothing is guaranteed.
Your
mentality, beliefs and ego will be challenged in this market. You will learn things that will make you blood boil, you will ask yourself daily, how is this possible, why don’t they teach this in school..bla bla bla..it will be hard but growth is painful, if it wasn’t we’d all be billionaires. Take a break, take a walk, drink a glass of whatever you like or roll one..detox. Chill with your girl (or man) Gradually you will develop mental toughness that will set you up for life. Personally, I sorta ditched religion and picked up stoicism. Whatever works for you.
Psychology, this is unfortunately one of the most neglected aspects of your personal development in this journey. Do you believe in yourself? Can you stand by your convictions when everyone is against you? Can you get up every day uncertain of the future? There will be moments where you will question yourself, am I even doing the right thing? the right way? It is normal and essential for your growth. People who played competitive sports have a natural advantage here. Remember the game is first won in your head then on the pitch.
Books: ironically, books that helped me the most were the mindset books, Think and grow rich, trading for a living, 4 hour work week, the monk who sold his Ferrari..just google mindset and psychology books, most trading books are garbage. Watch and listen to people who have made it in the investing business. Ray Dalio, warren, Bill Ackman and Carl Icahn.
This is turning out to be lengthier than I anticipated so I’ll try to be brief for the remaining parts.
Brokers You will need to open up an account with a broker. Get a broker who is regulated. Australian ones (IC Market and Pepperstone) are both legit, reliable and regulated. Do your research. I’d avoid local ones because I’ve heard stories of wide spreads and liquidity problems. International brokers have never failed me. There are plenty brokers, there is no one size fits all recommendation. If it ain’t broke..don’t fix it.
Money transfer. All brokers accept wire transfers, you might need to call your bank to authorize that, avoid Equity bank. Stanchart and Stanbic are alright. Large withdrawals $10k+ you will have to call them prior. Get Skrill and Neteller if you don’t like banks like me, set up a Bitcoin wallet for faster withdrawals, (Payoneer and Paypal are accepted by some brokers, just check with them.)
How much money can I make..? I hate this question because people have perceived ceilings of income in their minds, eg 1 million ksh is too much to make per month or 10,000ksh is too little. Instead, work backwards. What % return did I make this month/ on this trade. Safaricom made 19.5% last year, if you make 20% you have outperformed them. If you reach of consistency where you can make x% per month on whatever money you have, then there are no limits to how much you can make.
How much money do I need to start with..? Zero. You have all the resources above, go forth. There are brokers who provide free bonuses and withdraw-able profits. However, to make a fulltime income you will need some serious cash. Generally, 50,000 kes. You can start lower or higher but if you need say 20k to live comfortably and that is a 10% return per month, then you can do the math on how big your account should be. Of course things like compound interest come into play but that is dependent on your skill level. I have seen people do spectacular things with very little funds.
Taxes..? Talk to a lawyer or an accountant. I am neither.
Family? Friends? Unfortunately, people will not understand why you spend hundreds of hours watching strangers on the internet so it is best to keep it from them. Eventually you will make it work and they will come to your corner talking about how they always knew you’d make it.
The journey will be lonely, make some trading buddies along the way. You’d be surprised at how easy it is when people are united by their circumstances (and stupidity) I have guys who are my bros from South Africa and Lebanon who I have never met but we came up together and are now homies. Join forums, ask questions and grow. That is the only way to learn. Ideally, a group of 5-10 friends committed to learning and growth is the best model. Pushing each other to grow and discovering together.
Forex is real and you can do amazing things with it. It is not a get rich quick scheme. If you want a quick guaranteed income, get a job.
And now it is 5am, fuck.
This is oversimplified and leaves out many many aspects.
Happy to answer any questions.
Happy December, Christmas mood is already in, I hope you all ready for 2015. Bitcoin is my thing, this what I do daily, right now am preparing a course for educating on Bitcoin next year. Am loving what the Bitcoins are doing, don’t you forget to support this education initiative. At least by now my friends and a few people have literally good knowledge on Bitcoin though they are demanding for Bitcoin jobs, am glad at least I can offer some education. Here home, the experience of M-pesa has really be useful and transformative in this country and region, so to I believe Crypto currency is joining the journey to transforming Africa more and in new ways especially touching and uplifting the unbanked and boosting the potential of the people. Having been online as early as of 2006 to date; it has been out of passion for computers and internet. I have earned more money online than in my local currency, unlike many around me who get paid with local currency only and it has not been easy. First Poor Internet and Power Blackouts makes one mad,(Source of power, Internet access and a Laptop) are my most powerful daily tools. Paypal never used to work in Kenya few years ago, No Visa cards, No MasterCard’s at least the savior was western union but very expensive, I remember at some point in 2010, I incurred a total cost of 35% to do a transaction through a friend from United states where I was transferring $500 from my paypal account to her account then to Western Union and after receiving the money I loaded it Into an M-pesa account so that I could send that money to a Hotel where I was doing my graduation party. The complete transfer process took me around 4days. However times and things have changed, nowdays the fastest way to receive money from Paypal to my M-pesa will cost me atleast between 9.5% to 12% depending on the amount and the transfer process takes between 30 Mins to 2 Hours, it’s a bit reliable and fast, but still expensive. There is a local bank that offers a paypal service at a better rate but to receive the money it will take 5days to 8days, it took me 12days to receive money from my paypal account through the bank and Finally to my M-pesa. Bitcoin now is the secret, seems more of a miracle, currently for me to receive my Bitcoin in My Mpesa today is about 3% and very fast indeed. I have over years diversified my online experience ranging from Ebay, Amazon, Paypal, Youtube, Google, Facebook, Skype, Forex trading, Websites, Blogging, Affiliate Programs, Advertising, Social Media Marketing, SEO e.t.c. I have rich experience and knowledge in Computers, Smart Phones, Internet Connectivity and e-commerce. It is with these tools that the Bitcoin opportunity fully presented itself to me second time early this year when doing forex trading and I took it immediately and it lead me deep into crypto currency world. I have seen what M-pesa has done for me, my country and neighbouring countries, cryptocurrency is a whole transformative revolution of the computer generation. After deep reading and researching, few months’ a go I decided to started a Bitcoin education initiative, 3 Months down the line am speaking Bitcoin to an audience of 75 on my FB page and so many more interested in knowing more. Actually I have a joint work station where we meet with my team of marketer’s who are switching to Bitcoin and we discuss and talk everything about Bitcoin, I just realized it can turn to consultancy. On monthly basis no missing the Nairobi Bitcoin Meet-up at Nairobi (i-hub) and off course networking on Bitcoin on social media and also meeting one on one with guys around my home area who what to hear about Bitcoins. Many are the times when I meet new guys, I like asking them if they have heard of Bitcoin, most say no, some claim yes they have heard but don’t know anything about it. This is where I come in with my Bitcoin education Initiative, I love answering those questions and explaining on Blockchain and Bitcoin. The children and the youths can play a vital role as the drivers to the future, they need to be empowered and be equipped with relevant technological tools to transform and make an impact especially in My Continent Africa, and this can so easily been achieved through education. To me I see Blockchain and crypto currencies and particularly Bitcoin as the futuristic players in the digital world full of endless opportunities. My team and I are committed to taking this Bitcoin education initiative to another level higher. It is with support by Bitcoin Community that the dream of a physical Digital Training School of its kind “Crypto Tech Hub” will come to exist in Kenya. The school will offer Training and education to the young people of my country and Expand to other African nations targeting students of age group (14-24 years) from high schools, Colleges, Universities and Entrepreneurs. The goal is to equip them with necessary skills and Training in the following areas. 1. Internet Technology and Technological Revolution 2. Blockchain, Crypto currency and Bitcoin 3. 3D Printing/Addictive manufacturing 4. Globalization and E-commerce 5. Green Entrepreneurship The Digital Training School Start up support is highly welcomed; every raised Bitcoin will go towards: 1. Course work Development 2. Computers/Laptops and Internet 3. 3D Printer and 3D Scanner 4. Infrastructure Acquisition and Development (The School) 5. Logistics and Operations 6. Innovation and Development 7. Salary/Remuneration At the end of the training period which will take 6 Months, the students will graduate with a certificate indicating having fully satisfied that one has undergone training in Digital Technology and has acquired necessary skills ready to enter into the Technological Revolution of our time in various disciplines. Donate Bitcoin to support this initiative: 1NxNSD5R1JuWmPvQXgohcfyrqHVHvj3nZV
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