My name is Jim Brown and I am a full-time Forex Trader. I first became interested in the Forex markets back in early 2002 when I attended a stock trading meeting at a private residence. One guy announced that he had made a killing by trading the Japanese Yen against the US dollar over a period of about 18 months. He had proof to back his claims, so obviously I was interested. Who knew that the individual on the street could even trade currencies? Up until then, it was only the banks or very wealthy individuals that had access to this type of trading. So now a whole new industry was born. It wasn't easy at first as there weren't many reputable brokers around and their platforms were unreliable at best. The spreads were huge and the internet was still predominately dial up. The forums began popping up and the 'trading gurus' appeared. A lot of stock, futures and options trading systems were converted to suit the FX market, which was an entirely different beast due to there being no actual central exchange, and a market that ran 24 hours a day for 5 days a week. There was money to be made by those who were were smart at the time, either by straddling the news releases or exploiting the carry trade. But brokers also got smarter and either shut these advantages down or created trading conditions that made it difficult to profit from them. My problem was, I listened to too many so called 'gurus' and got caught up in all the hype. Always thinking they were smarter than me as their systems were very complex, and therefore must be better than anything I could come up with. So for a few years, I bounced around different systems, blowing accounts and generally giving back any profits I had managed to obtain. There were both good times and bad times. But I never gave up. I soon realized that some of the 'gurus' were actually the real deal, so I started to pay attention to them and see what they had to offer. In the meantime, I became smarter with my money management, got out of the day trading habit and generally simplified my trading methods so they were easy to implement and explain. I have also dabbled with building my own trading robots with mixed success and use them at times to assist me with my trading. I generally prefer to manually manage a trade once I am in as I find the human brain can perform a lot better than a robot that works on certain inputs. After constantly looking at Forex charts for the last 13 years or so, I have a pretty good idea of patterns etc, and generally have a fair idea of what may happen next on a chart. A trading robot just can't do this. These days, I make a living from trading Forex, trading mainly off the 4hr or Daily charts. I can live anywhere in the world I choose, as long as I have internet access. My systems are simple but they are profitable overall, which at the end of the day, is all that matters. I love trading Forex and I see it as having a huge potential to make some serious income. It is not as easy as some would make you believe, but if you keep it simple, control your money management, and be consistent, then there is no reason that you too shouldn't succeed in the world of Forex trading. Patience, courage and discipline.....