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. Marina and her family live in Melbourne, Victoria.

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. All rights reserved. © Copyright 2012, Your Media Edge Pty Ltd.
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