We all have a different amount of time to dedicate to trading. Some of us might struggle to find the time because we’re juggling work, children, and other factors, and we might even feel guilty that we don’t spend more time online. Others might have the chance to trade full-time, which isn’t such a bad thing. If you eat, sleep, and breathe trading, you might find that some of these signs sound relatable.
You Stop Missing Out on Good Opportunities
Sooner or later, we all make bad decisions when we’re trading, with one of the most common regrets being missed trade setups that could have made a lot of money. It’s difficult to watch a trade you hesitated on become profitable, some might even say it’s worse than actually losing because it’s easy to obsess over the money you could have made. Those that spend more time trading look at this issue with a different mindset, as they learn to leap on opportunities, rather than hesitating. Ask yourself if you’re commonly missing out on opportunities, or if you never fail to enter the market when you’re the timing seems right.
You Look at Probabilities
Experienced traders know that it’s important to think in terms of probabilities when it comes to entering trades. Are you more likely to win or lose? Is the risk worth the reward? These traders also think ahead when planning out their next move and have a game-plan to follow, whether the trade behaves as they expected or vice versa. If the trade moves with you, you’ll know when to trail your stop, yet you’ll have stops in place to cut your losses in case the market moves against you. Being prepared by thinking of different outcomes and planning accordingly are signs that you’re a prepared trader.
You Don’t Beat Yourself Up
Nobody wants to lose money, yet we all deal with it in different ways. Some traders just roll with the punches, while others obsess over the money they’ve lost. Taking losses too seriously is a sign that you haven’t been trading for that long or that you haven’t quite figured out how to manage the rollercoaster of emotions that trading presents. On the other hand, a trader that can keep it together without stressing when they lose has probably spent a great deal of time trading and simply understands that bad trading days aren’t out of the ordinary.
You’re Better at Spotting Behavior Patterns
Traders are always looking at trends and patterns, as checking the market’s previous patterns helps us make more accurate predictions. We look at the way that price behaved in past events and become better at spotting patterns that will help us make decisions about the future price. Yet you might not realize that this instinct of spotting behavior can carry into your everyday life. Have you noticed that you pay more attention to other people’s behavior patterns? For example, you might adjust a restaurant recommendation that you’d make to a friend because you noticed that they aren’t too fond of Italian food, even though you love it. Or maybe you tell a friend that a party starts at 7 when it really starts at 8 because you’ve learned to expect them to be late for everything. This is one way that forex trading can help make you more observant, both when it comes to looking at the market and everyday life.
You Don’t Fight Your Instinct
You’ve probably had a gut feeling about something at several different points in your life. Maybe you’ve even heard the phrase “a woman’s intuition is always right”. The thing is, some of us trust that little voice in our head, while others ignore it. When you’re trading, you might get a gut feeling that tells you to enter a trade you’re unsure about. If you’ve been there, think about the outcome of your decision to either ignore or follow along with your instinct. In most cases, experienced traders will tell you that it’s better to trust these gut feelings than it is to fight them. If you’ve been around long enough to know that your trader’s instinct is usually right, you learn not to question that feeling whenever it strikes.
