Categories
Forex Forex Education

10 Quick Tips for Trading Forex With Success

When it comes to success in trading, there isn’t a simple solution, Forex is such a vast beast that you will never know everything and you will never be right 100% of the time, that does not mean however that there aren’t a number of different things that you can do that will help you to move the odds a little in your favour, little things that you can do to help yourself to become a little more successful. We are going to be looking at 10 things that you can do that will ultimately help you to become or remain a profitable and successful trader.

Set Your Goals:

Setting goals is vital if you want to be successful, when it comes to pretty much anything in life, those who have goals to strive towards often do a lot better than those that are doing something blind, the exact same thing applies to forex trading. Set your goals, but make them realistic and achievable, do not just say to be a millionaire, that is a long way off, instead look to create a series of smaller ones that you can achieve within the year, this will keep you motivated to keep going when each one is achieved.

Get A Good Broker:

The broker that you chose is going to be an important decision, there are a lot of them out there, in fact, there are thousands of them, so with so much to choose from it can be quite daunting. Look for the bigger names, they are often the most reliable, look for independent reviews, look for low costs, good support, and quick withdrawals, all of these things can make a broker worthwhile. It is of course your decision which broker you go for, just be sure that you are on the lookout for the scam brokers that pop up every now and then, just looking for your money.

Choose A Trading Platform:

The trading platform that you use is also important, if you are planning on using an EA, then there is no point in getting a cTrader account, as you won’t be able to use it. Each trading platform has different features so ensure that the one that you use has what you need. The most popular platform is currently MetaTrader 4, so that would be a good one to go for if you are not sure, simply because of its huge user base and the amount of help that is available out there.

Choose the Right Strategy:

There are a lot of strategies out there, too many to try and think about, but you will need to find the one or at least the style that best suits you. If you don’t have much time, the longer-term style may be better as it requires less time at the computer, if you have a lot of free time and not a lot of patience, then something like scalping may be best for you as it brings quick trades and allows you to be at the computer for longer Try a few different ones until you find the one that is right for you.

Use Stop Losses:

Stop losses are your protection, they are there to protect your account from large market movements and can be the difference between a small loss and a completely blown account. When you create your risk management plans you should be working out how far your stop losses should be, to only lose a potential percentage of your account with each trade, many go for one or two percent per trade which is fine, just ensure that your stop losses are in place with every single trade that you make.

Risk to Reward Ratio:

You need to have a risk to reward ratio in place, this will help you to work out things like your trade sizes, as well as take profit and stop-loss levels. The risk to reward ratio details how much you will risk with each trade and also how much you will make. If you have a good risk to ward ratio, it can mean that you technically only need to win 25% of your trades in order to be profitable, which makes being profitable so much easier, so ensure that you have this in place and that you stick to it.

Keep A Log:

A trading journal is invaluable when it comes to trading, it allows you to look at what trades you have made, what went well, and what went wrong, it also allows you to ensure that you are keeping to your trading plan and risk management plans. Being able to see what you have done wrong allows for invaluable learning opportunities, something that every single trade should be trying to do. Keep this log, it can take time and can be boring, but if you want to be successful, it is vital to have.

Speak to Others:

Trading can be lonely, but it can also be very hard if you try to do it all by yourself. Join a trading community if you can, not only will this enable you to speak to other like-minded people, giving you an outlet and making you feel more included, but it also offers a great opportunity to share your own ideas in order to get feedback, but also to find new ideas that other people are posting, they may be doing some analysis that you have not thought about, giving you additional insight and trading opportunities.

Demo Accounts:

Demo accounts allow you to trade without the risk of losing any of your money, in fact, it allows you to test out pretty much anything you want with no risk at all. If you are thinking of changing your strategy then trying the changes on a demo account will enable you to see whether it works and to get through any teething issues with it without losing any of your actual capital. Take every chance you get to use a demo account and protect your main account from being a test subject.

Take a Break:

The forex markets will be around for years to come, if you are feeling stressed, tired or emotional, then there is no harm in taking a step back, take a break, go out for a bit, clear your head and mind and then come back, the markets will still be there and you will be looking at them in a much clearer way. The last thing that you want is to allow your emotions to take over and to influence your trading.

Those are 10 tips that we have for being a successful trader, there are many other things that you can do too, but the 10 that we have listed are some of the most important things that you can do as a trader and will allow you to get a jump start on being a successful and profitable trader.

Categories
Forex Basics

Why It’s Easier to Succeed with Forex Than You Might Think

Those that decide to pursue forex trading fall into two categories: those that go on to make a profit and continue trading, and those that lose money and quit. While everyone hopes to become one of the traders that finds themselves on the path to success, many people simply don’t realize the simple factors that can make you or break you when it comes to trading in the forex market. First, you need to start by understanding the basics of forex trading. 

An Introduction to Forex Trading

The term forex refers to the foreign exchange market, which is an online global exchange market where people buy and sell different currencies. This includes regular people and professional traders, along with bigger entities like banks, hedge funds, brokers, specific companies, and other high-stakes investors. The value of the currency that people are buying and selling changes based on several different factors, including but not limited to:

  • Interest rates and inflation rates
  • The country’s current debt
  • Unemployment data
  • The housing market
  • Politics
  • Supply & demand
  • Economic factors 

As you can see, the value of each country’s currency is primarily affected by factors that are associated with money, government, and economic data. In order to make informed trading decisions, traders keep up with news events and look at economic calendars for updates that tell them a currency’s value may change. Other methods that are used to decide what currencies to trade include technical and fundamental analysis. 

What Is a Currency Pair?

A currency pair includes two different currencies that are paired against one another. For example, EUR/USD. This means that the (base currency) Euro is being traded against the (counter currency) United States Dollar. This is the most used pair in the world, but there are also several other major, minor, and exotic pairs that can be traded. 

  • Major currency pairs include EUR/USD, USD/JPY, GBP/USD, USD/CHF, AUD/USD, USD/CAD, GBP/EUR, EUR/CHF, EUR/JPY, and the NZD/USD. 
  • Minor currency pairs don’t include the United States Dollar. The most common examples are the British Pound (GBP), the Euro (EUR), and the Yen (JPY). 
  • Exotic currency pairs are made up of one major currency, traded against a currency from a developing country. The Turkish Lira (TRY) is one example of an exotic currency

Traders choose which currency pairs to buy or sell based on the change in price with the goal of making a profit. It’s generally considered the safest to trade major currency pairs, while exotic currency pairs can be more volatile and riskier to traders, so be sure to choose wisely. 

Must-Follow Tips for Success

Now that we’ve covered the basics of forex trading, it’s time to dish out some of the most helpful tips that can help you reach long-term success. Simply being aware of this information can help to ensure that you get started on the right foot without falling victim to common trading mistakes. 

  • Choose the Right Broker: There are a lot of choices out there, but you’ll need to do some research to make sure you’re working with a reputable broker. It’s also important to compare account types, fees, funding methods, and other important aspects before you open a trading account. Know that choosing a broker with fewer fees means that more of your profits will wind up in your pocket. 
  • Develop a good trading strategy: There are a lot of different strategies out there that appeal to all kinds of different traders. You’ll need to choose one that fits with your schedule and determine the reasons why you will enter trades, how much money you’re willing to risk, etc.
  • Don’t open an account until you’re ready: You shouldn’t rush to open a trading account until you understand the market and you’ve developed a solid trading plan. Some brokers will even charge you for inactivity if you deposit funds but choose to hold off on trading until you feel ready. Instead, open a demo account for practice. 
  • Try to limit distractions in the place where you plan to trade. Background noise, music, television, conversation, and other noises can cause you to lose your focus. Also, try turning off your phone or at least put it on silent if social media keeps pulling you away from your work.
  • Never risk more than you can afford to lose: Don’t get caught up using extremely high leverage options or risking large amounts on your trades in an effort to make a large profit quickly. It’s better to be safe than sorry when it comes to forex, especially if you’re a beginner. 
  • Don’t enter a trade if there isn’t a good reason to do so: Even if you haven’t entered any trades for the entire day, don’t enter one for the sake of doing it just because you’re bored or feeling unproductive. It’s better to choose not to trade at all with no money lost than it is to enter a trade and lose money you could have spared with patience. 
  • Never stop learning: Even once you have a good understanding of the forex market and strategies, there’s always more to know. Be sure to spend time reading about psychology-related trading material, checking out tips and tricks from other traders, watching educational videos, or anything else that helps to expand on your knowledge as a forex trader.  
  • Keep a trading journal: Trust us, you’re going to refer back to your trading journal more than once, so don’t take the lazy way out on this one. Be sure to log specific details about the trades you take and check on your progress from time to time. 
  • Don’t give up: If you start to lose money, don’t panic and start risking more to make up for it. The best way to handle this is to take a step back and look at your trading journal to see if you can figure out what’s going wrong. If you think your strategy is to blame, try making changes and testing on a demo account before you go back to your live account. Staying calm and figuring out the problem is what separates successful traders from the large percentage of those that give up.
Categories
Beginners Forex Education Forex Basics

How Can I Ensure Long-Term Success in Trading?

As a Forex trader, you will need to pay attention to important points in charts, adjust specific settings, manage your risk, and maximize your returns as a result. The intention here is to show how you can practice long-term sustainable and profitable trading regardless of your market of choice. We truly want you to have the best opportunity no matter how and when you started to trade for the first time, which is why we are delighted to close this topic with special tips that you can apply today. You will probably want to prepare your notebook and take notes so as not to forget any suggestions or ideas you may have.

What is the worst attitude for long-term success?

I need that money now, many people say. Unfortunately, with this degree of dependency on the result of your trading (i.e. the need to succeed now), you are limiting your vision quite a bit. With this point of view, you do not give yourself the chance to learn steadily and the learning curve is unrealistically steep. Since there is a need to debunk this myth of instant wealth, what you can do instead is set the grounds for trading in the way you will be thankful for in the future.

What is the right mindset for sustainable growth? 

You should find a way to always preserve a portion of your return and reinvest it so that this system starts running on its own. We call this buy and hold strategy that helps traders take steps that will always put the money back into their accounts. This is the one way you can feel secure about your finances down the line.

What if I don’t feel like allocating part of my earnings?

Changing perceptions and creating a new routine is a tough thing to do. Most people are afraid of changes, but the control you may think you have over your life and your finances now is false. If you just trade, you do not have a plan B. Even if you have a regular job and do trading on the side, don’t you feel like you can do more? We want you to do more and to succeed in an easy way, but this will require you to change your views about how money should be managed.

How do I reduce anxiety about making changes in how I perceive trading?

First of all, start playing offense and defense at the same time by not spending all the money you earn. What you never want to do is work hard for a few months and spend it in a matter of a few days or weeks. Reinvesting your money will help you relieve yourself and alleviate that sense of anxiety. If your worries come from the place of wanting to secure your finances in the long term, this is the way to go. The thing is, with this approach, you will never need to worry about individual trades because, even if something falls through, you will always have security. Whenever you enter the market, it is absolutely never too late if you have a buy and hold mentality.

What if I need the money now?

Well, first ask yourself the question of what is the sum that would make you happy. When you will take this money off your account is yours to decide, but you do need to have a clear idea of how much you need to make. If you generally just want to be rich, you are much better off applying the buy and hold strategy.

What are the essential trading rules?

Perfect your system first and then do everything to stop yourself from sabotaging it. This may sound easy, but it is actually one of the greatest hurdles in trading.

How do I start buying and holding?

You first need to have a plan that you will write down. Whatever situation you find yourself in, do not make any changes to it regardless of what is going on in the market. This means that you will not tweak the settings or change the take-profit point as you please even if it gets tough. The best part about this approach is that you will always have more opportunities to earn money trading and any losses will be opportunities for you to improve your system.

What is the best strategy for buying and holding?

In one of the previous articles, we talked about scaling out if you use a swing trading strategy. This is your best money management solution and a secure way to amass a fortune over time. As long as you don’t react impulsively, get suddenly triggered by some external factor, or make decisions based on your emotions, the money you take off the table and reinvest using the scaling out strategies will provide you with the things you need.

How do I differ from the rest?

You will be different if you design a thorough plan first. Then you will choose if you will be in the buyer’s or seller’s market and whether you will go long or short. Shorting may be more difficult in the stock market than with trading ETFs, gold, or commodities for example. You will strive to pick things that can have a limited downside and can hardly go down to zero, such as gold and oil or healthcare and energy stocks and ETFs. Forex traders should test their algorithms to perfection (backtesting, forward testing, and real money application as well) because this will help you outperform most investors and financial advisors. Opt for the monthly or the weekly chart for a more aggressive approach, rather than the daily one. While these are easy to apply, understand that just by scaling out and buying and holding, you are already way ahead of the majority

What are the two biggest pieces of advice you can give me?

Firstly, never let yourself be susceptible to the fear of missing out (FOMO) because there is an abundance of opportunities in every market, be it stocks or gold. You can push yourself sporadically in the investment scene, but must never let your emotions guide you while trading. Secondly, always and with whatever amount of money you have, start trading and investing as soon as possible. Make your plan and you will have that bright future of which you keep dreaming.

What is the best order of actions I could use to succeed as a trader?

Since this is the last article on the best position you have, we would like to share a form of a checklist you can return to any time you like.

Thank you for sharing this journey with us. Ensuring the best trading position is a really broad topic, but we strived to be as clear and to the point as possible. Consider reading additional articles on the topics that may be of interest to you because the more you know, the sooner you can apply and test. Finally, please also remember that the sooner you start buying and holding long-term, the better. And, once the shorter-term machine starts running, the world is yours

Good luck!

 

Categories
Beginners Forex Education Forex Basics

What Does a FX Trader Really Need to Focus On to Trade Successfully?

What factors do you assume to be the most impactful in the world of forex trading? Should traders focus on the technical tools more intensely than on their traits? Does one’s personality have a determining role in the development of a trading account? How do we measure our growth and what attitude is necessary to facilitate progress in the forex market? Along with these questions, today we will be discussing all areas traders need to focus on to be able to trade successfully.

The Right Approach

The right approach to trading does not necessarily imply a fixed set of actions that each trader must take but a direction in which one needs to move so as to grow and reap the rewards from trading in any market. Whether you are a beginner or a more advanced trader, you probably already know how maintaining a proper attitude is a necessary continent of successful trading. If you truly want to be good in this field, you must learn how to maintain a degree of curiosity in each developmental stage and in every possible sense.

At the very beginning, curiosity is required in looking for credible sources where you can learn about the key terminology and tools to use later on. Education, however, also entails the aspiration towards understanding different currencies, their respective countries, and central banks along with related events that may affect the market at some point. You will need to polish up your research skills and practice discernment to know exactly which item of knowledge is best suited for your vision. In order to create a purposeful course of movement, naturally, you will need to minimize any reliance on luck and set short-term and long-term objectives through thorough planning.

Ask yourself some vital questions and look for answers in selected sources and in your own attempt to apply theory in practice. Strive to understand what your reasons for entering this market are and how your expectation might affect your trading. Set realistic goals and use analytical and critical thinking so as not to stain facts with your personal projections (e.g. I will get a 20% return in the first go). Finally, prepare yourself to continually show commitment and dedication without expecting to see immediate results. Learning about forex and growing as a trader is a process, which requires both patience and persistence.

Key concepts: curiosity, commitment, dedication, dedication, persistence

Example questions: How do I build an algorithm? Why is this currency pair considered to be risky?

Functional System

The basis of every trader’s experience with forex is the system that is comprised of various tools, strategies, and techniques specifically selected to produce the best possible result and protect one’s trading account. To be able to set up an algorithm that will function to your advantage, you will not only need to set a good foundation in terms of knowledge but also invest a considerable amount of time in testing. Opening a demo account and applying the theoretical knowledge acquired up to this point will allow you to assess how prepared you are from both the technical and psychological perspective. You will keep looking for areas where your approach lags and track your progress through journaling. Reflecting on one’s wins, losses, and important numerical data allows traders to measure trading in terms of quality and quantity in every respect and have an active role in its further development. Having an efficient algorithm also obliges traders to consider the risk-reward ratio and consciously understand when and why they wish to enter or exit trades.

Remain open to making changes in your system by using different strategies for example and allow to be molded by your experience. If you happen to come up with two viable options, always turn to your records and compare how the two systems compare to one another, picking your top-performing algorithm as a consequence. Lastly, at this stage, you should aim to nurture independence and sense what it feels like to be dependent only on your system and your logical thinking. Your system will only need to reflect your personality and goals regardless of how similar it may seem to what you have read about before, which is why you need to play an active part in every step of its creation.  

Key concepts: demo account, testing, journal, improvement

Example questions: What leverage is acceptable to me? Where do I put my stop-losses?

Personal Growth

Forex trading is known to be able to test each individual’s boundaries, awakening people’s greatest fears, and bringing to light their deepest desires and urges. To facilitate your learning and development as a trader, you will have to invest in personal growth. Investing wisely necessitates that every forex market participant understands their triggers and compulsive behaviors or those situations and conditions that provoke emotional responses and reactions we may not be able to keep under control. Experts always advise traders to take a personality test where they can learn about their personality type and how it can potentially impact their trading.

People generally try to erase traces of whatever they deem negative, but if you learn how to trust your system and you make a habit of communicating with parts of your personality that seem to need more attention, you will soon be on top of your weaknesses. Personal development also includes the skills of balancing trading and other life responsibilities, whether you are learning how to allocate time to obtaining education or how to let go of the stress you face on a daily basis. Working with your personality additionally entails deliberate action to improve whatever you discover you may be lacking, be it diligence, discipline, or any other skill or ability. The best part about the effort that you will be investing in this area, no matter how scary it may seem, is the fact that your overall living conditions will change for the better and you will see benefits in different areas of life.

Last but not least, personal growth also involves thinking about future progress, which is why you are advised to think about how you can use the skills and knowledge you have acquired so far down the line. Will you expand to other markets we trade or possibly decide to present your trading achievements to a prop firm and sign a contract for bigger yearly returns? Wherever your path takes you, remember that your personality traits will always have a varying impact on your trading but that the effort to improve your personality will impact your entire life positively.

Key concepts: personality test, triggers, emotions, control, discipline, balance, benefit

Example questions: How does my personality affect trading negatively? How can I improve myself?

We can now say that your position sizing is equally important as your reactions to failure. Your skills in managing high risk may be exceptional, but if you fear to invest more when you can, your account will not grow as much as it can. The examples of these correlations and contrasts are many, but at the same time, traders must focus on the process rather than on their desired profit. Goals are amazing because they make us create plans, but if we are unwilling to adapt and adjust to changing circumstances, our objectives will only be farther and farther away. Generated layer by layer, excellence is a product of hard work and continual faith in oneself. Trading is a multi-faceted skill and, as such, it encompasses several key areas where your focus is mandatory. Like a singer who needs to overcome stage fright, practice singing techniques, and considers different styles of singing, a trader also needs to adopt and test specific knowledge and skills while ensuring the right mindset to secure success.

Categories
Beginners Forex Education Forex Basics

The Top 3 Richest Traders in the World and What We Can Learn from Them

Whether it be forex trading or virtually any other topic, we often turn to the experts when learning how to do something with success. Those who have come before us and become masters of their craft have a lot to share with the world. We need only know who to mimic when working to become masters ourselves. The following three individuals are, at present, the richest traders in the world. Let’s see what we can learn from them.

#1: Ray Dalio

Ray Dalio wasn’t always the richest trader in the world, but he has recently surpassed billionaire traders Carl Icahn and George Soros with a net worth of $18 billion as of 2020. Dalio is the founder of investment firm Bridgewater Associates, was ranked #4 on the 2017 hedge fund managers list in Institutional Investor Magazine, and was ranked as the 67th richest person in the world in Forbes a few years ago. Dalio became interested in trading at the age of 12 as the people that he worked for often spoke about stock trading. He credited meditation and an early success buying $300 worth of stock in an airline for helping to get him off to a good start.

Dalio took an interest in trading commodities in the 1970s before it was considered to be a lucrative investment. He then created his own investment firm Bridgewater Associates after being fired as a director at another firm. By 2011, his firm was the largest hedge fund in the world. Dalio also became famous after he predicted the global financial crisis in 2007.

Ray Dalio is obviously a genius investor that really understands how the stock market works. Young traders should take note of how young he got started and consider looking into a career at an investment firm or similar business. The investor has actually released a 15-minute YouTube video that explains “How the Economic Machine Works” and published a book titled Principles, which tells his life story and covers his money-management principles. If you want to learn more about how he did it, you should consider reading his book.

#2: Carl Icahn

With a net worth of $14.3 billion, Carl Icahn has currently traded his position as the richest trader in the world for second place. Before becoming a broker, he acquired a philosophy degree at Princeton and went through three years of medical school. The wealthy investor then decided to become a broker and options manager for two separate companies.

Carl Icahn amassed his fortune as a corporate raider by purchasing large stakes and either manipulating his targeted company’s decisions to increase their shareholder value or forcing them to buy back their stock at premium prices. This tactic was very popular in the 1980s and it helped many traders to become rich. He also used the green mailing tactic, where he would threaten to overtake certain companies so that they would buy their shares at premium prices to remove that threat.

Corporate raiders have to acquire a massive portion of their targeted company shares, which would obviously require a large amount of capital to invest. While this puts the strategy out of many trader’s reach, one could consider looking for investors to help get things off the ground. You would then look at taking over companies that are run poorly and that don’t share enough of their profits with their investors. When the time is right, you can then sell those shares at a huge profit if you follow the strategy. Of course, the need for a large investment might serve as a roadblock for many traders.

#3: George Soros

In his 40+ years of trading, George Soros has amassed a net worth of $8.3 billion, is the hedge manager of the flagship Quantum Fund, was named the “world’s greatest money manager” by Institutional Investor Magazine back in 1981, and has been nicknamed “the man who broke the bank of England.”

Soros is known for making massive, highly leveraged bets on the way the market will move. He takes macroeconomic analysis into account when making trading decisions. Macroeconomics studies the economy as a whole while focusing on national output, unemployment, and inflation rates. Soros does not believe in traditional ideas about an equilibrium-based marketplace and instead believes that traders cause booms and busts which are directly influenced by their irrational behavior. This presents opportunities to invest, according to Soros’ belief.

So, what can traders learn from this trading legend? In order to mimic his strategy, you’d need to have millions in your trading account to copy his massive bets and you’d also need a lot of knowledge about leverage, otherwise, you’d probably lose everything when making highly-leveraged trades due to how risky it can be. Those that don’t have the means to do this can still take a lesson from the way that Soros believes the market is influenced and should really look into macroeconomics and take that into account when making decisions.

Categories
Forex Psychology

Tapping Into Mind Power for Ultimate Forex Success

Becoming a successful forex trader can be attributed to many different things, from higher education to dedication, money and time invested, available resources, and so on, but one thing remains the same – success starts with you.

From the very beginning, you have the choice to enter the market with a positive mindset and reachable goals, or you could speed into trading with little experience and negative thoughts. Even with everything else that trading entails, your attitude can make or break your trading career, so it’s important to ask yourself whether you’re on the path to success, or if you’ll soon be packing your bags along with the countless others that have failed. 

The buying and selling of foreign currency online is often considered to be a recreational activity that is driven by the trader’s performance. In many ways, traders can be compared to athletes because of the determination that trading involves. Athletes also spend a lot of time training, often with coaches or trainers, because it increases their chances of success, even though it doesn’t guarantee victory. Forex traders can improve their chances of success in the same ways by spending time researching, chatting with forex trainers and coaches, attending webinars or seminars, practicing on demo accounts, and so on. 

The following suggestions can help you master your trading thoughts and channel success in the forex trading actions that you choose to make:

Believe in Yourself and Become a Beacon of Positivity

If you want to become an expert trader, you need to believe that it’s actually a reachable goal without doubting yourself. If you say negative things about yourself out loud, you’re putting that negative energy into the universe, while positive thoughts do the opposite. Your perception of yourself is important when it comes to managing complicated emotions that can spring up when you’re trading – after all, trading often brings out feelings of regret and self-doubt, along with happier emotions like excitement. If you have a positive outlook on trading, you will have more control over your emotions and you’ll be less likely to beat yourself up over mistakes. The great news is that everyone has the chance to become a successful trader if they will just take advantage of available resources and work hard.

Here’s a tip: try writing down 5 or 6 positive statements about yourself each morning to get yourself thinking in a positive direction. 

Act Like a Professional Trader

If you want to acquire the same results as a professional forex trader, you have to learn to think and act like one. This means you can’t only focus on making money. Instead, you need to set short-term and long-term goals that focus on improving yourself as a trader. If you think this way and take steps to become a smarter, more savvy trader, profits will follow. You’ll also want to make sure that your goals are realistic, so don’t tell yourself that you’re going to make a million dollars by a certain date, as this is highly unlikely. Professionals don’t sit around feeling regretful over losses, they look back at past results and figure out what went wrong to try to keep it from happening again. 

Whenever you are about to make a trading decision, simply stop and ask yourself “what would an expert trader do in this situation?” If you keep this mindset, set realistic goals, and keep track of your results in a trading journal, you’ll be behaving like a serious forex investor

Don’t Consider Failure to be an Option

Once you make the decision to become a trader, it’s important to promise yourself that you won’t give up in spite of possible losing streaks or bad days. Losses are inevitable, but creating and sticking to a solid trading plan will help you to bring in as much profit as possible while limiting the losses you do take, so be sure to invest an ample amount of time into this plan. Even a blown trading account isn’t a suitable reason to give up because you can always invest more money and start from scratch. You live and you learn, so don’t let yourself give up over something that can be corrected. 

To get the best perception of your trading results, you should keep a detailed log of every trade you take in your trading journal. Be sure to log information about emotions you were feeling, the reasons why you decided to enter and exit trades at the time you did, how much money you made or lost on each trade, and so on. Later on, you can look back and find patterns or notice details that you just wouldn’t catch without having written it down. Your trading journal will help you achieve success because it can point out things that you should or shouldn’t change about your plan while helping to shed light on some of the hidden issues you may be overlooking.

Keep in mind that you have to become conscious of problems in order to take the proper steps to change. Everyone has the keys needed to become a successful forex trader, but what makes or breaks us is whether we believe in ourselves, make informed decisions that mimic those of an expert, and become aware of our mistakes so that they can be fixed. If you learn to think and act the right way, you’ll find yourself on the true path to trading success.

Categories
Forex Basics

Things That Successful Forex Traders Would NEVER Say

We see all sorts of advice printed all over the internet about what successful traders do and what new traders do. With there being so many different sources of information it is very easy for some of it to get muddled up and confused with each other, this is just a natural thing to happen. We have seen quotes thrown about from so-called successful and profitable traders that make us think twice, they seem a little out of place. So we have come up with a list of things that you simply won’t hear a successful person saying, if they do, then we would question how successful they are and also their honesty and integrity in what they are saying. So let’s just in and look at some of the things that successful traders simply would not say…

“I never lose!”

If anyone tells you that they never lose, then I would question them as a person. Either they have the perfect strategy, they are incredibly lucky or they are simply outright lying. Losing is a major part of trading, the majority of profitable traders may even lose more taxes than they win, but due to their strategies and plans in place, they are still profitable. There is no holy grail strategy, there is no way to simply win every trade, a good trader will be able to admit that as they are happy with their strategy, they are not there to try and impress others. The markets move up and down, they jump about and they are unpredictable, no one can predict it 100% of the time, if they could they would be the richest person in the world right now. People like to try and exaggerate their success stories, but if you see someone stating that they never lose, they are most likely not that successful, a successful trader will admit their losses and even embrace them.

“You should be trading every day.”

Something that a lot of newer traders are told, you need to practice and trade every day if you want to become successful, at the very beginning this may be the case, there is so much to learn that you simply need to in order to take it all in. As you progress and become more used to the markets and get a better understanding of them, you will soon begin to realise that you do not need to trade quite as much. In fact, you will find yourself taking entire days or even a week away from trading. Certain aspects of your life such as your mental wellbeing need to take priority at times, if you are beginning to get stressed, take a break, you do not need to be there every day. One way that successful traders remain consistent is knowing when to take breaks and knowing that they do not need to take every opportunity that comes up. Patience is another virtue that successful traders use, knowing when to take a trade and knowing when to simply sit back and watch. Not doing anything can sometimes be the better option and a successful trader will not shy away from admitting that.

“I taught myself everything I know.”

The simple response to this is, no you did not, this term basically means that he did not receive any help from anyone else or from any other sauces. This is simply not going to be the case, even the best traders in the world speak to others about their trading in order to ensure they are doing the right things and to get feedback on how they are performing, if someone states that they are not then this is most likely not the case. Many traders go on training courses, join trading communities, or simply speak to others face to face. It is a valuable source of information and feedback and it is something that all successful traders will do. It is near impossible to learn the different strategies and risk management without having some sort of input from the outside world.

“I know everything about trading.”

No, you do not, simple as that. The world of forex and trading is huge, so huge that there are probably things about it that have never actually been written or discovered yet. It is simply not humanly possible to know everything and a successful trader will know this, they will know that you need to be constantly learning. Part of learning to trade is having the understanding that you will be continuing to learn throughout your entire trading career. If someone was to simply state that they know everything, then they are most likely in a position where they do not truly understand how vast the idea of forex and trading is, which in our eyes would make them not quite as much of an expert as they may believe that they are.

“My strategy always works!”

When you first start it you probably created a trading strategy yourself or took an idea from someone else. For many when beginning this is the only strategy that you have. You would have then experienced a market change and this made it so that your strategy was no longer effective within the markets. A successful trader knows that this is the case. Due to this, they understand that the strategy that they are currently using or even their favorite strategy will not work in all market conditions. Instead, a successful trader will have multiple different strategies that they can use depending on the current market conditions. If someone states that their strategy works in all conditions, then they simply have not yet had the markets go against them and their strategy.

“Don’t worry about money management.”

One of the biggest things in trading is your money management, how you will protect your account and your capital. If anyone states that it is not that important then we would discount pretty much everyone else that they say. Money management and risk management is 10% important, it is one of the most important things that you can do, it is there to protect you and can prevent you from losing your account. Any and all successful traders are most likely successful because they have a good plan in place to protect them from their losses.

“Doubling down is good.”

When a trade is going the right way, a lot of traders would add to that trade which is fine as this increases profits, however, when a trade is going the wrong way, why would you want to add to the losing position? The sad thing is that there are actually a lot of different strategies that use this method, most popular is the grid or martingale strategies, both of which can very easily blow your account. A successful trader will not be using these strategies and they certainly won’t be adding to their losing positions, so if you see someone doing this, they are actually playing a very risky game, not something a consistently successful trader would do.

So those are a few of the things that you just won’t hear a successful trader say. Normally those saying them are people who are trying to exaggerate their success or their abilities, a successful trader won’t need to do this as their results will speak for themselves, so if you see people making comments like this, do not take their word for granted, they may be trying to pull your leg.

Categories
Beginners Forex Education Forex Basics

How to Become a Successful Forex Trader

Becoming a successful Forex trader is a great goal to have, although the intimidation of learning the ropes and investing real money into a trading account keeps many from even attempting to try. A good start is a key to later success when it comes to trading, but many traders don’t even know where to begin.

First, you need to understand that you aren’t going to become a successful trader overnight. It can take months and even years for traders to figure out which strategies work best for them and to tweak their routine to perfection. Once you’ve accepted that this will take time, you can get started with the following steps:

Educate yourself: Many beginners are eager to start trading from a real account, which leads them to make the mistake of opening an account before they’re ready. Within a week or two, those accounts are usually wiped clean and the person walks away from trading for good, thanks to their bad experience. This is why educating yourself beforehand is crucial. Start with basics, like terminology. Then you can move on to more difficult concepts like trading strategies, trading psychology, etc. Some brokers offer helpful educational resources directly on their websites for free, but the internet is also filled with articles that teach these subjects. If you have trouble with a specific subject, try looking for a YouTube video on the subject, or read an article that was written by a different writer. You can also trade from a demo account to get a feel of the live environment and to get a sense of how prepared you are. 

Choose a good broker: There are tons of brokers to choose from. Some offer low spreads, fee-free funding, bonuses, and other perks. However, there are far more scammers out there than there are good brokers. Don’t let this scare you – you’ll simply need to put some effort into conducting research to find the best, most legitimate broker possible. 

Only invest what you can afford to lose: Beginners shouldn’t feel pressured to deposit $300, $400, or more just because a broker doesn’t accept a lower deposit. Many brokers will allow you to open an account with just $5. Ideally, you’d want to invest more than that, but it’s a good idea to start out small. You don’t want to risk your life’s savings on a trading account, especially in the beginning. Figure out your maximum deposit limit and find a broker that can work with that. 

Develop your trading strategy with risk-management in mind: The internet can also be of great help with this step. A quick web search will pull up several different detailed trading plans, like the Breakout Strategy, Swing Trading, Scalping, and so on. Once you find a strategy you like, be sure to account for risk-management. Stop-loss limits and trailing stops are important when it comes to limiting losses. 

Keep a trading journal: Once you get started, it is a good idea to journal every trade that you make. Write down the reasons why you made the trade, the entry price, stop loss level, and so on. Be sure to note whether the trade was a winner or a loser as well. Having everything logged can help you to see how you’re performing overall and where changes might need to be made. 

Becoming a successful Forex trader is an achievable goal with time and dedication. Educating oneself thoroughly and researching risk-management methods and trading strategies are some of the most important steps that a beginner should take. Making smart investment choices is equally as important – it’s better to start out small when you’re just getting started. Once you’re ready, choosing a good broker, and keeping a trading journal will help on the road to success. If you’re reading this article, then you’re obviously considering becoming a Forex trader. Free educational resources are available all over the web, so there’s no reason not to get started right now!  

Categories
Beginners Forex Education Forex Basics

Important Lessons from Four Successful Day Traders

When it comes to trading forex, making mistakes can cost you your own hard-earned money. This is why it can be helpful to learn from traders that have already tested out different things in the market, so that you may avoid making some of the same mistakes on your own dime. The experts can also provide insightful tips that can help those that are struggling to perfect their trading plan. Take a look at some of the best lessons we can learn from 4 successful day traders below:

Ross Cameron

Ross Cameron is the founder of a day trading chat room named Warrior Trading that was designed for day traders to meet and learn from each other. He has more than 500,000 followers online and more than 415,000 people have subscribed to his YouTube channel. In 2016, he reportedly made $222,244, although he doesn’t boast about his earnings. Instead, it seems that this successful trader spends a lot of time helping others.

Cameron uses a strategy that focuses on trading momentum in the market on stocks that are priced below $20. If you asked him for advice, he’d tell you that day traders need to learn their limitations, which includes taking a break from trading if you’re becoming overwhelmed. He also suggests figuring out what time of the day that you work most productively. For him, the time slot between 9:30 and 11:30 am seems to be the best time to trade. Next, he recommends that day traders work out how much they are willing to lose on each trade and use a tight stop loss to prevent further losses. Another pointer from this successful trader is to keep your strategy simple, as he believes that day trading is an exercise in repetition. 

Sasha Evdakov

Sasha Evdakov is the founder of the website Tradersfly, which offers courses, articles, and educational resources for traders. He is also a published author who has written more than 10 books since 2013. If you prefer to watch videos, you can join the 123,000+ subscribers on his YouTube channel.

Evdakov believes that the ‘real money’ can be found in the trading style of swing trading, although he does spend time day trading when he feels that the market calls for it. Sometimes, he will spend months day trading before reverting back to swing trading. This successful trader’s advice is to figure out which type of trading the market calls for and to switch up your strategy accordingly. 

Brett N. Steenbarger 

With a bachelor’s and Ph.D. in clinical psychology, Brett N. Steenbarger has published a number of books that focus on the subject of trading psychology. In addition to writing, Steenbarger is also an associate professor at SUNY Upstate Medical University, has a trading blog named TraderFeed that offers tips, and mentors traders that work for hedge funds and investment banks. 

As you might have guessed, Steenbarger’s advice relates to the psychology of trading and he has written his own trading rules. He focuses on breaking bad trading habits, teaches traders to become their own coach/psychologist, and covers several other topics in his books. If you haven’t spent much time learning about trading psychology before, we would strongly recommend picking up a few of his books.

Rayner Teo

Rayner Teo is very active online, with more than 500K views and nearly 200K subscribers on his YouTube channel, and more than 30,000 traders have joined the online community he built named TradingwithRayner. The website was created to provide trading secrets to help traders succeed.

Teo places a large focus on preventing traders from losing money by pointing out mistakes and teaching ways to overcome them. He also spends time on the basics, along with teaching traders about more technical elements related to trading. Price action trading, where to put a stop-loss, and focusing on setups with a higher percentage of return are some of the other important topics he discusses with traders. 

Categories
Beginners Forex Education Forex Basics

Is There a Shortcut to Trading Success?

Many people have wondered if there is some sort of shortcut to becoming a successful trader. The short answer is no. In fact, many times trading shortcuts can backfire and hurt us rather than help. But as a forex trader, it is important to understand why shortcuts do not work. 

First, getting a good trading education is key to making good trading decisions. While there is a never-ending stream of information online, you must make yourself put in the time to learn. Even if you plan on using an automated robot, it is important to understand the market and how it works. You need to know how trading psychology affects our trades and you should understand risk-management precautions. It will take you weeks, months, and possibly even years to take in all this information, and you should never stop pursuing knowledge about trading even once you consider yourself to be an expert. Remember, if trading were easy, everyone would be doing it. Most people don’t want to put in the extra time to learn the things they need to make good trading decisions, which causes them to lose everything. 

Many beginners make the mistake of thinking that forex trading is a fast way to get rich. On the contrary, it is very much like a job, requiring time, dedication, and experience to profit. If you’re looking to make a few thousand dollars a month, it even requires a large investment of somewhere around $30,000 and full-time day trading hours. The mind-frame that trading is easy is what leads many beginners down the path to failure. Scammers take advantage of this idea with flashy promises and guarantees that they will help you become rich. It is important to remember that nothing is guaranteed when trading, and no company can promise to help you profit.

Forex isn’t a scam, but there are scammers out there. Always research any company you plan on dealing with and be wary of things that sound too good to be true. Forex brokers are looking to make money themselves – and while they may dangle real incentives like bonuses or promotions in front of you to get you to open an account with them, they still must make a profit.  These brokers should give you a realistic idea of your earning potential and encourage you to seek education if you’re just a beginner. Many trustworthy brokers offer free educational resources on their websites and offer demo accounts for practice. 

Another scam that often takes advantage of those seeking a get rich quick scheme is false trading signals. To clarify, a trading signal is a notification of when you should open or close a trade. Trading signals can be helpful, but you still need to check behind them yourself to be sure that they are based on strong information. Another similar scam involves trading robots, otherwise labeled as Expert Advisors (EA). These robots automatically trade for you, but many of them don’t work successfully. Remember, robots cannot make judgments the way we do. They can only think the way they are programmed to think without seeing the bigger picture or taking other factors into account.

Trading signals and EAs can be helpful tools, but you shouldn’t use them unless you understand the market and have ensured that the company or individual providing them is legitimate. Once again, promises or guarantees of profits are signs of scammers. Beginners often make the mistake of thinking that using these tools can help them become successful overnight. Many even leave forex robots running for long periods of time, only to find their account has been wiped out quickly afterward. There is no magic answer when it comes to trading robots or trading signals – these are all just interpretations of the market. 

There are a few other mistakes that beginners make under the assumption that they will profit quickly. Overleveraging your trades is one of the most common mistakes that will disrupt your trading career. Using high leverage should be reserved for experienced traders, so don’t think that using the highest leverage will ensure a great deal of profit. In fact, it will do the opposite. Others might use too many indicators, which results in information overload. Some may fail to keep a trading journal because they are being sloppy.

If there were a shortcut to becoming rich, we would all do it. Unfortunately, forex trading may look like the answer, but becoming a successful trader takes a lot of time and dedication that many people aren’t looking to invest. It can also cause traders to lose out on a significant amount of funds if it isn’t done correctly. Scammers are always looking to take advantage of people that want a quick solution, so you should always be on guard when dealing with brokerages, trading signals, or EA providers.

The good news is that becoming a successful trader is possible and it can be quite profitable with a lot of hard work. Many traders have even managed to quit their day jobs and take up full-time day trading. Of course, it takes time to work up to this. You can get started on the road to success today by educating yourself, and always remember to keep an eye out for scams and opportunities that seem too good to be true. There are no guarantees or promises of profits in the world of forex trading.

Categories
Forex Psychology

Winning…and Winning Badly

By now, you started trading actively, did some research regarding trading tactics, and watched numerous helpful and educative videos which helped you sharpen your senses and taught you how to profit. All of this led you, step by step, to success. The winning percentage just started rising month after month now. When you hit the numbers in a row, your adrenalin starts working and you get high on success. After such a winning row one reaches these heights and starts thinking of oneself as of pro which has a power of knowledge and cannot be stopped. This is where you get blind and slightly stupid in your arrogance and inevitably, fall happens – you hit the wall hard – it is just a matter of time.

Every decision and step you take right after this fall could easily determine your trading future from this point on. This will sound crazy, however, there is a right and wrong way of winning. You may take this preaching as rubbish especially if you are in winning swing at the moment of speaking. However, as I can easily foresee it right now, eventually at some point you will, for sure, come back to this article in the future. We will discuss this theme in two different aspects: on the macro level – kind of the zoomed-out point of view, and micro-level – where you need to understand when you are winning.

We propose to have look at these The Big three rules in terms of Forex trading:

Money Management

As we already spoke about it, money management is the most important thing in forex trading. At the end of the day, this is the thing that increases assets on your account or ruins you completely. Put together your plan: how much percentage to risk from your account, how many pips to risk, manage your trade, and pick wisely indicators that you will involve in trade.

Trade Psychology

The most important thing in trading psychology is patience. The long game is far superior to the short game. It is necessary to take initiative and develop the discipline to get to success. And last but not least the Technical Analysis.

Macro-Level

One needs to understand that trading psychology is a very important part of trading. Once you learn everything you are out there getting amazing trade entries, great money management, you are on the run, controlling your emotions, winning trades, and achieving what you dreamed of…

You think the world is yours, now you are untouchable, however, as we already explained, the moments of failure are inevitable at a certain point. To be completely honest, the moments of prolonged failure. The way you deal with failure will determine a lot in the future. One of the things that are quite important is not to give up and leave everything. It is just one fall, get your grip, and start again. All you have to do to get back on track is keep trading your system, do not try to jump in – do not think that you know more or better than the system, and keep repeating this recipe until you get back on winning tracks. If you could do only these three things you would win every time, especially long term. It is not that easy, right?

Trouble is, we are all emotional beings and we cannot change this fact. In trading Forex, we just need to eliminate and subdue our feelings as best as we can and keep doing this all the time. We can be emotional persons, but it is not recommendable to be an emotional trader. Mistakes that we all do when we are winning like you are trading overall and you are unstoppable and your winnings are just landing one on top of the other. While you are in such a run, your emotions are at the highest level, especially if this is your first time, and you never been here before. You cannot stop it. It is just beyond you, especially if this is the first-time experience. The biggest problem with this is that majority of new traders do not understand or see that they are only temporarily winning.

Huge misleading thoughts are ‘this is how it is going to be from now on’, and ‘all I got to do is keep doing what I’m doing and I’m in profit every month till the end of the days’, right? Everyone who reaches these levels is risking to drop off real fast. Professional trader’s opinion is – do not consider this like failure. Consider it as coming back to the true aim you had when you started trading. Let’s say you made 9% per month and now you are making 1,5%. This now is not a bad result – actually it is a great average percentage. The previous average result was the product of too many entries or very high leverage you used. The one incredible mistake that anyone can make is ‘if I’m getting this high win percentage and doing so well, why am I risking only 2% of my assets, when I should be risking way more than that’. It is truly foolish to act like this. Returns that you got are not real and not sustainable on a long term basis and the solution is not to increase your risk.

What you need to do is understand that fall was inevitable, it was supposed to happen. Be completely honest with yourself and analyze, were you following the rules or you were going higher, overtrading and overleveraging, and so on. When you finish the analysis, dust yourself off and get back in the game. Just because you hit this crash doesn’t mean that you are not up to this. It just means that you need to come back taking all experiences into consideration and following the rules this time.

Micro-Level

Here is how it looks on the micro-level: when you are actually in trade and winning, or you just closed winning trade, haven’t you felt regret of doing so? Just a little bit? Do not worry, every trader has been there. Everyone closed at least one winning trade with a speck of doubt ‘why have I did this just now’.
It may happen that you did not exit your winning trade when you thought you should. For example, you were in a winning trade that you saw it can bring 500 pips and suddenly, that price came back the other way, and tripped out to your Stop/Loss or your exit indicator, whatever the case it was, and you ended up closing this trade with only 275 pips. Of course, 500 pips are better than 275 pips, but a win is a win, and you shouldn’t be regretting over it.

The next thing that can be born out of this regret is the idea that you shouldn’t let it happen again, and thought that you should meddle in and stop the trade on 500 pips before it gets lower – this is something that should be avoided completely. The moment you do this, there is a possibility that price is going to come back a little bit, and then give you one really big 1500 pips move, and you are not going to take part in it. You will be watching with regret, what you have missed and professional traders will be getting this move. Why? Because they do not let their emotions to overpower them and get in a way of their trading systems. This is what you should do in the future as well.

There is another possible scenario. By now, you know how to calculate your risk and where to take profit, right? Sometimes, it can happen, that you may get really close to that ‘take profit’ point, and the price is going to come back and it will actually be closed as a loss. It is very true that you were so close. At this point, another form of regret floods you and you think if you just lowered a bit your first ‘take profit’ point you would have closed it with a win. The problem is that this causes you to start deviating from your system. As soon as you do this, slowly you are going to start leaving your pips behind. Again, this is the situation where you are trying to outsmart your system. The system that you made – if you did everything right – has been proven to work, and outsmarting it is not recommendable for profit.

According to many successful traders, regret is a wasted emotion. What these guys do is, keep up the plan, leave emotions out of the trade, and patiently win their trades. The whole point in trading is to get to profit not run from it. Our advice is to keep it smart and simple, follow the system, follow the rules, master your emotions, and stick to the plan. As you may guess by now, everything is up to you and how you control your emotions when they are at the highest level, i.e. when you are winning. We will do the best we can to support you on your way to success but this is something that you need to deal with yourself.