Get to know your fellow traders: YTE speaks with forex trader, trading coach and stay-at-home mum, Marina Katsouris.

Marina Katsouris has been trading the forex market for six years, having been a florist for thirteen years and a cleaning business owner for three years, before starting trading. The 41-year-old mother of two now trades forex and works part-time as a forex educator for LTG GoldRock, running online classes for new traders, to help them understand some trading basics.

How and when did you first become interested in the markets?
I first became interested in trading in 2005 when, after we sold our cleaning business, a friend suggested I look at trading. At the time I had no knowledge of or experience in trading – the only thing I knew about trading was that people traded the stock market. I had no idea you could trade things like indices or currencies.

Initially everything to do with trading was a foreign language to me, but on further investigation I discovered that trading could offer me exactly what I had been looking for, a way to provide an income whilst still having time to be a full-time mum. My family will always be my first priority.

And then what happened?
I began my trading career on the S&P 500. That was my very first trading experience and there was a lot to learn. I quickly figured out that trading was not a get-rich-quick scheme, but rather needed discipline, time and passion to master. The amount of capital needed to trade the S&P 500 was more than I could afford at the time, plus I had to pay for mentoring and real-time data, so I quit after about a year. But I still wanted to trade. I was hooked, and I loved it! I had the patience and the passion, but not the money to continue trading the futures market. A few weeks later, I was introduced to the forex market. I could download free data, trade with very small amounts, take all the time I needed to learn and feel confident in my newfound skills. I have not looked back since then and I still trade the forex market today...

Excerpted from an article originally published in the Jan/Feb 2012 issue of YourTradingEdge magazine UK. All rights reserved. © Copyright 2012, Your Media Edge Pty Ltd.
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