Among all the different people who look into retail trading, there are many different motivations. Older people are looking to themselves control and protect their savings, younger people look to use it to make money on the side. Some people treat it as a hobby, a fun way to exercise the mind, others approach it as a career, intending to get all their income from trading and eventually starting their own corp, or joining a proprietary trading gig. All these different groups of people face the same hurdles, primarily the amount of time needed to get good enough at trading to pay off for the effort. Another hurdle is the self-discipline needed to follow through on a general trading plan, and behavior modification of any sort is a big, big job. Yet another hurdle is having enough spare money to blow away in the long learning process.

The worst group of all of them are those who slowly wade into trading just to figure out what it is all about. They've read a couple books, put some money in some primitive retail account, and lose it all very quickly. Those among them who are easily discouraged and quit are the lucky ones. The remainder who refill their accounts and blindly accept every gimmick they find are vulnerable to being taken advantage of.

Unfortunately, its not like they can google "how to trade" and find the trick to become profitable. There is so much information out there, some useful, most misleading, and they have no way of appraising the information they are looking at. Even accurate information can be misunderstood.

The best hope for beginners is to find a mature trader, or group of mature traders, to filter all that information, and answer their 1001 questions. Groups like FXStreet are very valuable in this respect. Or, they can enroll in some educational program, preferably something with multiple instructors, not one guy and his novel device. The most important way to appraise any instructor or trader is the "market test": are they profitable or not. And not profitable in the past, but right now, real time, are they making money or losing it. Passing the "market test" is the primary attribute defining any trader, not their style or strategy.

Many styles, many strategies, but only one test.