Right now, I’m seeing more and more people who want to get into the trading industry—especially when the market is highly active. That’s a good opportunity for anyone who isn’t afraid of risk. But the biggest problem is that most people don’t know where to start. Today, I’d like to share my understanding of trading for beginners who want to give it a try.

A real trader is someone who makes money from buying and selling financial products: buying when prices are low and selling when prices are high—or sometimes selling first and then buying back when it drops. It’s the same idea as reselling goods, except instead of clothes or daily necessities, you trade in gold, currencies, stocks, or crypto. It all happens through a mobile app—you don’t have to stand in front of a shop.

So how is this different from regular investing? Ordinary investors usually buy and hold for a long time, waiting for their assets to grow over time. Traders, on the other hand, buy and sell much more frequently. Sometimes they only hold for a few hours or a few days, then take the profit. The difference is that an Investor is like someone who plants a mango tree and waits to harvest the fruit—while a Trader is like someone who buys mangoes from an orchard to sell at the market every day.

What’s important to know is that, according to statistics from U.S. financial market regulators, about 72% of day traders end the year with losses. I’m not saying this to scare you, but so you’ll know you really need to prepare well.

Traders can make money in several ways. The first is buying low and selling high. For example: gold is $4,600. Buy it. When it rises to $4,650, sell it and you make a $50 profit. The second way is to sell first and buy later (Short Selling). It sounds strange, doesn’t it? But it’s actually simple—like borrowing something to sell. If the price drops after a week, you buy it back and keep the difference. The third way is using Leverage. With a trading capital of 1,000 baht, using Leverage 1:100 lets you control 100,000 baht. Your profits can increase 100 times—but your losses can also increase by 100 times. You need to be very careful.

There are many types of traders. Scalpers enter and exit quickly, holding only seconds to minutes. It’s very stressful, and I don’t recommend it for beginners. Day traders trade within the same day and don’t hold overnight—they have to be free all day. Swing traders hold positions for 2–3 days up to 2–3 weeks. This is highly recommended for people who work, since you just need to check in the morning and evening. Position traders hold for weeks to several months and don’t care about daily price fluctuations.

If you’re a beginner, the most important step is to learn the basics first: know what markets you can trade, how to read charts, what Stop Loss is (very important), and why you use Leverage. After that, you should practice with a Demo account first—fake money that doesn’t involve real risk. The prices are real market prices, and everything feels real, except you don’t lose real money. You should practice for at least 2–4 weeks before trading with real funds.

When choosing a trading platform, you need to check whether it has a real license, is easy to use, offers a Demo account, has low fees, and has good analysis tools. When you start trading for real, you must have a clear plan. Answer these 4 questions: what to trade, where to enter, how much you’re willing to lose if you’re wrong (set Stop Loss!), and where to exit if you’re right. The golden rule is: don’t risk more than 1–2% of your total capital on each trade.

Start with a small amount of money that you can afford to lose without it affecting you. Then gradually increase your capital when you start seeing good results from your trades. Don’t rush to get rich quickly—because getting rich fast is a shortcut to going broke.

Being a trader has advantages: you’re your own boss, your income has no ceiling, and you can make money whether the market is going up or down. You can start with a small amount of money. But the downsides are high risk of losses, stress, no regular salary, and the need to keep learning all the time.

What great traders do isn’t that they never have losing trades—but that they keep drawdowns small and generate bigger profits over the long term. They have a plan, set Stop Loss every time, accept losses as a cost of doing business, practice with fake money first, and record every trade.

To sum up: becoming a trader isn’t difficult, but you need 3 things—knowledge, practice, and discipline. There’s no shortcut and no get-rich-quick formula. The best first step is to open a free Demo account and practice trading. Don’t put in real money yet—just try it out to see if you like it. If you do, keep learning. If you don’t, you haven’t lost anything.