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Beginners Forex Education Forex Basics

Forex Pros Do These Things (And You Should Too!)

We forex traders like to look up to those that have come before us and been successful. We do this for a number of reasons. These individuals have been successful, so they clearly know what they are doing. This means that they are great people to learn from. They also have the experience to know what is a good thing to do and what is a not so good thing to do. They are the people that we wish to copy, to learn from, and to be just like. So we are going to be looking at some of the things that professional traders do in order to be successful, and why you should be doing the same things.

Sticking to the Plan

One of the things that any professional or even successful trader will tell you is that you need to stick to the plan. There is no point in having a trading plan in place if you are not going to be following it. Even breaking the plan in a tiny way is basically meaning that you are placing bad trades. They will tell you that you need to stick to it and you need to stay disciplined. That is one of the most important steps to becoming a successful trader.

Don’t Be Afraid to Take Risks

Contrary to the above, a lot of traders will tell you that if you want to be successful then you will need to take risks. This does not, however, mean that you should be placing more trades or placing larger trades. Those are bad risks and will put your account in danger each time you do it. Instead, the sort of risks that they are referring to are things like taking trades on an asset that you do not usually trade. So if you are an avid EURUSD trader but a great trade opportunity comes up on the GBPUSD pair, then there is no harm in trading that pair, as long as the entry requirements and all other aspects of your trading plan are still being met. Do not limit yourself to that one pair.

Remove Your Limits

We mentioned this briefly in the above point, but you need to be able to remove or at least expand your limits. Sticking to a single currency pair or asset will greatly limit your opportunities to trade and to be profitable. It is, of course, not a good idea to expand too much. Going from one pair to 100 will put your account in danger as you cannot monitor or fully understand all 100 currencies. Instead, expand slowly, moving from one to two, then two to three, and so forth. You are still expanding your limits, giving yourself more opportunities, but you are doing it in a controlled manner which is exactly what you need to be doing.

Get Into the Right Mindset

Being in the right mindset is vital. In fact, it can make or break a trader. If you believe that you can trade, if you are able to control your emotions, if you know when to take breaks then you can keep your mind in the right place and remain free from the distractions that are around you. If you have the right attitude towards your trading then things like sticking to your trading plan and staying disciplined will be a lot more straightforward and easier to maintain. Those that are not in it with the right attitude will soon find themselves making bad trades or making losses, so it is important that you get the right mindset and then try to remain there.

Know When to Take Breaks

A good trader will not spend all day everyday in front of the monitor. If they did, they would simply burn out and start to make losses. A good trader will know when they need to take breaks. This can be a break when your emotions are starting to build up, or you are simply getting a little tired. There is no wrong time to take a break. Getting out and clearing your mind is paramount to being a successful trader. If you don’t take breaks you will burnout and make losses. So learn when to take them, and even set designated times for breaks if you need to.

Risk Control

Risk control is the foundation of any forex trading strategy. If you do not have a risk management plan in place then you’re setting yourself up for failure. You need to create a risk management plan that has a number of different elements to it. These will include your risk to reward ratio, your stop loss size, take profit sizes, trade sizes and more. These are the foundation of your trading plan, you need to have them in place before you make a trade. Any professional trader will simply laugh at you if you are trading without a plan in place.

Not Always Trading

You do not always need to trade. You do not need to trade every minute or even every day. In fact, some professional traders will go a whole week without putting on a trade. This is often due to the fact that the markets are not in the right condition for the strategy that they wish to trade. They will only trade when the conditions are right and this is something that you should be doing. Do not trade just for the sake of trading. Trade when the setup is actually there. If you trade outside of your strategy it is considered a bad trade, so having patience is key to sticking to this rule. Have patience and wait for the right trade to come and certainly don’t try to force it.

Not Focusing on Wins and Losses

Advertised all over the internet are those strategies that are promising you a 99% win rate. These are just not realistic and are playing on the strings of those that are there to simply make money, yet do not fully understand how forex or the markets actually work. Professional traders do not care about how many they win or how many they lose. They are simply interested in the returns. With a proper risk to reward ratio in place, you can be profitable with a 25% win rate. This is what the professionals focus on, being profitable no matter whether they win or lose. Due to this, they do not focus on whether their last time won or lost, and neither should you. Trust your strategy, trust your risk management and you will have a far less stressful time.

Professional forex traders are people that we look up to, yet they do not do anything different to what we should be doing. If we want to be successful traders then we need to mimic some of the things that the professionals are doing. It is easy to do, as they aren’t doing anything magical. There really isn’t an excuse that we can use that will make it acceptable to avoid following them. Stick to some of the actions that we have mentioned above and you will be on your own path to becoming a professional trader at some point in your career.

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Forex Course

22. Perks Of Trading The Forex Market

Introduction

The foreign exchange market is, no doubt, the most popular market in the world. Though it is considered to be a very risky business, it can prove to be the best platform for trading and investing if things are done wisely. People often are in a dilemma to choose between the stock market, commodity market, and the forex market. Hence, it is important to know the benefits each market has to offer. So, in this lesson, we shall discuss some significant benefits the forex market has to offer.

Advantages of Trading Forex

Open 24/5

The forex market is traded throughout the day from Monday to Friday. And this got to be the biggest advantage for the part-time traders. Since there are quite a large number of people who are into 9-5 jobs, the forex market is an excellent option as one can trade anytime during the day. Hence, the forex market is the most flexible market when it comes to timings.

Great Liquidity

The forex market is the largest market in the world. It has a huge volume of orders coming in every single second. With high liquidity, trades are executed as soon as the order is placed. In fact, the forex market has the highest liquidity compared to any other market.

Margin Trading

In forex, the retail traders get the facility to trade with leverage. That is, with leverage trading, a trader can trade with quantities even if they do not possess the required amount. This is a great advantage as it paves the way for the small traders who are willing to participate in the market.

Nominal Commission and Transaction Costs

Another significant benefit to consider about the forex market is that the forex brokers don’t really charge any high fee, such as brokerage fees, exchange fees, or clearing fees. Having said that, they do charge commission, which is in the form of spreads. The bid/ask price, which is often referred to as the transaction cost, is typically around 1% when the market conditions are normal.

The Freedom on Lot Sizes

In forex, the brokers allow trading with as low as 0.001 lots. And traders can choose from 0.01 lots, 0.1 lots and 1 lot. Hence, there are variable lot sizes in this market. But, if you were to consider the futures market, the lot sizes are of one type and are determined by the exchanges.

Free Demo Trading

Demo trading is one of the best features the forex brokers have to offer. And the cherry to the cake is that demo trading accounts are free of cost. Demo trading can be very helpful to both novice and professional traders. Novice traders can use it to get the hang of placing orders and other features in the platform, while professional traders can use them to test the consistency of their strategies. Hence, we can consider demo trading to be a powerful risk-reducing tool.

Facility to Go long and Go Short

In the forex market, there is no directional bias. This is because currencies are traded in pairs. If a trader thinks the base currency would rise in value, they can go long, and if they think it will depreciate in value, they can go short. So, unlike the stock market, a trader need not borrow shares to sell short an instrument. Hence, traders can profit from both rising markets as well as falling markets without any complications.

Hence, these were some of the most significant features and advantages of the forex market. In the coming lesson, let us put up a comparison between different markets and see which market proves to be the best; for now, take the below quiz and see if you have understood this lesson correctly.

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