You are lucky to start trading now! I truly believe, the financial markets have never been more accessible, cost-effective, or innovative as they are today. What you have at your fingertips (for practically FREE), I used to pay anything from R7,500 to R25,000 a year for some charting and trading platforms.

However, as excited as you are to build your trading fortunes – you still NEED to take some essential steps to kick start your trading journey on the right and profitable path.

Here is your six-step checklist to start trading with success.

1. Open an account with a broker with a GREAT trading platform

First, you’ll need a reliable and regulated trustworthy broker.

You’ll open an account and send them your details and FICA your account.

Then they’ll send you the steps to get started.

Just a tip. A good broker will give you a trading platform which will serve as your gateway to the financial markets.

A trading platform is an online software that will allow you to:

1. Have a trading account and deposit money into that account.
2. Gain access to a wide range of financial instruments (CFDs, Spread, Futures)
3. Have an amazing selection of different markets to choose from (Stocks, Forex, indices etc)
4. Execute (buy, sell and adjust) trades – to build up your portfolio.
5. Monitor and analyse your results (with a historical records of past trades)

Make sure you choose award-winning brokers where the platform you select is
regulated by the appropriate financial authorities (FSCA in South Africa).

And one that you know will provide you with top security measures to safeguard your funds and sensitive information.

2. Use and operate a great charting platform

Your trading platform will give you the tools and resources to execute your trades.

But a charting platform, is paramount to help you spot your high probability trades.

In fact, a charting platform is the MAIN tool you’ll use to visualise market data, and line up your trades accordingly.

Also, make sure your charting platform has a great variety of technical analysis indicators like moving averages, RSI, MACD, and Fibonacci retracement.

These will help you to analyse market trends and make well-informed trading decisions.

If you don’t know what broker to choose that match the above requirements, you can click here to read through our recommended brokers.

3. Fund your account

Once you have opened an account with a broker and have reviewed your trading and charting platform, you’ll need to fund your account before you can start trading.

Some brokers require an initial portfolio size and others allow you to start with less than R1,000.

If you’re not ready to deposit money and you want to test the waters, phone them and ask for a demo account.

Nevertheless, it’s crucial to take that leap and deposit funds into your account.

Familiarise yourself with the costs, position and margin sizes and how trading works with real funds.

4. Own and hone a profitable trading strategy

Once you’ve opened an account with a broker, familiarised yourself with the charting and trading platform. And you have funded your account – you’re almost ready to start building your account.

To do this, you’ll need a trading strategy.

Your trading strategy is your roadmap, your holy grail, your game plan, and your future in the financial markets.

It tells you what, how and when to trade – with high probabilities of success.

Basically, it outlines:

• How to identify trade setups on your chart.
• When to enter trades based on specific criteria.
• When to exit a trade according to predefined criteria.
• When to make adjustments to your trade (locking in profits, cutting losses, maximizing gains).
• Which markets to trade.
• How much to risk on each trade.

Your strategy can be rooted in technical analysis, fundamental analysis, or a blend of both.

If you don’t have time to go through the struggle of finding and testing trading strategies, you can simply follow Global Macro Trader or Pattern Profit Alerts.

5. Keep track of your trading Journal

Next you need to jot down your trades and monitor your performance.

You’ll do this using a trading journal.

A trading journal is a detailed record of all your trades, including entry and exit points. You can plot your trades on Excel or even in a manual book (as many traders still do).

It also gives you the reasoning behind each trade, the strategy applied, and the outcomes achieved.

You can even write down other elements like mistakes, emotions, drawdowns (downside), and risk-to-reward ratios.

It’s crucial to have this valuable tool for self-reflection.

It allows you to review your trades, learn from your errors and refine and better your strategy over time.

6. Keep going!

This is like developing your career path. Keep going, learning and building. Either you can do it on your own. Or you can join one of FSPInvest’s trading services.

Pattern Profit Alerts uses charts and indicators to identify CFD trades. Whereas Global Macro Trader uses global news, events and fundamental analysis to identify local and offshore CFD trading oportunities.

This is the way to fast-track your success in live trading.

You have the starting steps—now, take action