Almost a year ago, a fellow Forex trader and I got into a debate.

My friend said that someone couldn’t make any money in the Forex market without using a huge amount of leverage. In other words, you couldn’t make money trading foreign currencies without risking a lot of your cash.

Confession: I always love to read about the central bank gatherings.

Whether it’s an all-out European Central Bank meeting or just an informal grouping of Fed-Heads, there is ALWAYS interesting currency information you can learn from these meetings.

Remember the “day trader mania” when the Internet and Tech bubbles hit back in the late 90s? Remember the Chinese stock market bubble back in 2007 when daytraders couldn’t get their hands on enough China shares?

Well there’s a new “day trader playground” in town in 2009. Only this time it’s in Russia…

Years ago, before I was a Forex trader, I did the usual trader stint in the stock market. I watched P/E ratios, tracked company performance and tried to analyze which company might rise next.

Of course, it was my job at the time and I did alright with my trades. But the truth is my portfolio would have performed so much better had I known what I know now. I’ll get to that in a second.