Interview with Fergunoid: “you only get real experience by trading with real money”
Fergunoid, Two times in the top 10 of eToro’s trading challenges, shares his trading tips with eToro’s community.
Q: Why are you trading with eToro?
A: I found the eToro platform to be simple, the bonus was great, and I liked the idea of participating in trading competitions.
Q: How did you hear about eToro?
A: I saw it advertized on the internet.
Q: What is the most important lesson you learned about trading so far?
A: I would have to say money management. I try not to risk more than 5% of my account on a trade. Anything up to about 20% total loss is fairly easy to recover – after that you need to relook at your trading strategy, because it’s harder to come back with less trading capital.
Q: What is the most important tip you can give to novice trader?
A: Have enough capital available – at least $2500 to start. Don’t paper trade (trading with virtual money) and think that you can win – emotions play a huge part in trading and make it very difficult to follow a trading strategy consistently. Paper trading doesn’t help you prepare for the mental side of trading. It’s good if you want to learn about how the market and the platform work, but you only get real experience by trading with real money.
Q: Please give me a general description of your trading technique/strategy?
A: I try to enter with a small trade once the short term trend has reversed, using MACD, Bollinger bands and other technical indicators to time the entry. Then I try to move to positive stops as soon as possible. I always get out at the end of a big short term spike and try to jump back in when it reverses.
Q: Did your account manager help you to improve your trading?
A: Yes, very much so. He was very quick to point out the flaws in my trading strategy, especially the money management part of it, and made me realize that I was risking too much on every trade. Since then I’ve tried to lower my risk and it’s really improved my results.
Q: Please recommend a possible trade to our readers.
A: Ha ha…never recommend a trade to anybody else unless you don’t mind them blaming you for their loss! On the other hand, the EUR is so oversold, a big reversal is on the cards soon, but I think a new low will still happen before that, probably in the next few days.
Q: How long did it take you before you started making profits?
A: On eToro: one day. Overall, it took about 6 months of trading to start getting consistent profits. It takes time to build up a strategy and to see if it really works.
Q: How much money do you currently trade with?
A: $40,000 ($18K at eToro).
Q: What is your number one trading rule?
A: Try not to keep trades open over the weekend and don’t open trades before FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee). Even when the market isn’t volatile, the FOMC always precedes big moves.
Q: What is the part you love the most about eToro?
A: The trading platform is simple and easy to use. It’s really different from other platforms I’ve seen, it makes it easier to get to the information I need and to manage trades.
Q: How much money you withdraw from eToro so far?
A: $1,000.
Q: How did you learn to trade (alone/books/course/eToro/AM/magazine/over the net)?
A: I learned by myself, I used books on trading and took an online course. I just tried to learn as much about it as I could, but nothing beats actual experience, when your money is on the line.
Q: Your message to the eToro’s community?
A: Don’t gamble – Forex can be like a casino if you bet too much without carefully considering your choices. If you do that, you might as well go to an actual casino.
Q: How much profit you made so far with eToro?
A: $8,000.
Profile: 
Age: 40
Country: South Africa
Family status: Married, 2 boys (12 and 6)
Occupation: IT Specialist
Experience: occupational (18 years), trading Forex (2 years) futures (7 years)
Initial deposit in eToro: $10,000
Preferred currency pair: EUR/USD
Hobbies: hiking, outdoor activities, cycling
