How I Learned about FOREX

When I started reading finance blogs last year, I was already seeing ads about forex. Those are the catchy advertisements which you’d see almost anywhere on the internet that boast about high potential profit. I checked my email while writing this post and look what I found on the right side. This ad is exactly what I’m talking about.

It may sound like a cliche but when something seems too good to be true, then it probably is, a scam… And I admit it was so judgmental of me to consider those ads a scam right away without checking the validity of my judgment. Furthermore, I also didn’t bother to click those ads because I was afraid that my computer will get a virus. My misconception was that an ad on the webpage is always related to either a scam or a malware.

But actually, before I noticed these forex ads, my only idea about forex was about money changers. I thought that forex is only for those who have relatives abroad who send money here in the Philippines and the recipient will have to exchange it to Philippine peso before they could use it here in the country.

The second time I heard about forex was, when my husband and his friends were talking, I heard that one of them has been trading forex for 5 years now. It is his primary source of income and he is doing pretty well on it. I also heard from another friend that he’s already a millionaire because of forex. My reaction was “Weh, di nga? Totoo ba talaga ang forex?”. But that was only on my mind because I pretended to be asleep while they were conversing. 🙂

The third time was when I attended the Money Summit and Wealth Expo last month. I got the chance to have a one on one talk with Ready to be Rich founder and author, Mr. Fitz Villafuerte. I have been following and reading his blogs since last year and meeting him personally was a great honor.

My main purpose of attending the summit was to learn forex. In fact I didn’t register for the money summit conference (with fee) because forex was to be discussed at the co-located wealth expo. It was an advantage for me because the expo was free.

While talking to Mr. Fitz, he told me that he will be conducting a talk about forex on the second day of the expo. I knew that forex was one of the highlights at the expo but I didn’t know that he was one of the speakers. I felt excited because one of my favorite finance bloggers will talk about a topic that I was most interested in during the expo. I was even more surprised when he started telling me what forex is, how it works, and why he likes trading in forex more than the stock market.

He also told me a bit about leverage and risk management but since I knew nothing about forex yet, I found it confusing. Nevertheless, I felt privileged to have spoken with him. Thank you so much, Sir Fitz! I hope you get the chance to read this post. 🙂

I returned to the expo the next day and after listening to all the talks about forex, I somehow got an idea on how it works. It’s almost the same as the stock market but forex market is more volatile, hence, it’s riskier. And because of that, I need to study it further before I decide to enter this type of investment.

There were three forex brokers (brokerage firms or dealers) present during the Money Summit and Wealth Expo. They were MTrading, FBS, and MetisEtrade. I went to their booths and got the chance to try their online platforms. I don’t know if I remember it correctly, but I think Mr. Fitz mentioned during our conversation that he is with two other brokers, Iron FX and FXCM.

After knowing that there are actually forex brokers in the Philippines, I realized that ForEx is absolutely NOT a scam, contrary to what I initially thought of. Forex is legitimate and in fact the most liquid type of investment because it primarily involves currency or money.

I can’t speak much about Forex because I only have very limited idea about it. It is by far the most complex type of investment that I’ve encountered and I know I still have a lot to learn about it. I haven’t even learned the basics yet.

I will continue to educate myself by reading more resources about forex and I will be attending forex seminars for more advanced learning. I’ll take one step at a time, while I’m still working on finding where to get my forex funds from. 🙂

So please keep checking Pinay Investor back because I will share my learnings with you and we will continue learning together.

Good luck to all of us!