5 Proven Tips to Cultivate a Successful Forex Trading Mindset
July 27, 2017
Many traders focus on the technical aspect. They start from a conviction: knowledge and competence are everything. They are wrong: one of the fundamental ingredients for success in Forex trading is mindset. Exactly, to become professional traders it is necessary to possess extraordinary personal qualities. It may seem strange, since speculative investment activities are essentially technical, but all traders with some experience are aware that mindset is a very important factor.
The reason? Simple: trading subjects the individual to strong stress, to emotional pressures at the limit of sustainability. After all, money is at stake. Resisting emotions is difficult, and it is equally difficult to remain disciplined and focused on one's strategy when the market enters a chaotic phase.
The good news is that the trader's mindset is not necessarily a natural talent, but can be refined and built over time. Here are some tips.
Have self-confidence
It is not at all easy to have self-confidence, to develop a certain self-esteem.... And this applies in trading as in life. The conviction of being able to do it, however, is a very powerful tool that cannot be renounced. It's complicated, but it's necessary to repeat to yourself that trading, despite the thousand obstacles it poses every day, is within your reach. For some, it is enough to say it to themselves, for others it is necessary to undertake a real psychological journey. A simple truth helps everyone: defeat is part of the game, and a bad trade is not necessarily followed by another trade of the same sign. Many success stories have started with a defeat, even a resounding one.
Give yourself time
The trader with a winning mindset knows that trading is an activity whose results are seen over the long term. They know the true face of trading, which has nothing to do with gambling. Nothing is built in a night, not even a millionaire account. The incredibly distant time horizon is one of the first elements that the novice trader must learn not only to accept but also to appreciate. Only in this way will he be able to bring unpleasant events - such as defeat - to the right dimension. Only in this way will he be able to implement strategies useful for achieving the objectives.
Learn from mistakes
This aspect is controversial. Obviously, learning from mistakes is a piece of advice full of common sense, which concerns all aspects of life, not least speculative investment. It is thanks to the acceptance of errors that it is possible to analyze them rationally, and it is precisely through their analysis that it is possible to change course (change for the better). Concretely, the trader to learn from his mistakes is called to take note of everything he does, in order to have a valid support to think about it.
Yet, the analysis of errors can be a double-edged sword. It is when the analysis becomes obsessive thinking, when it is loaded with negative feelings, when it flees from the riverbed of rationality and encroaches on emotionality. In this case, rethinking mistakes means undermining self-confidence, hurting oneself.
Be patient
The concept of patience takes on particular aspects when it comes to Forex trading. Patience has nothing to do with endurance, it is not a characteristic that goes hand in hand with passivity or that somehow feeds it. A patient trader is an active trader. How do you reconcile patience with the spirit of initiative? The answer lies in the reason why a trader must be patient: to avoid entering the market at every signal. The patience of the trader is comparable to the patience of the sniper. The latter, when he does not pull the trigger, remains in "active" waiting, which is distinguished by a careful study of the opponent and the search for the right moment.
In the same way, the "patient" trader, when he does not enter the market, spends his time analyzing it, drawing signals, developing an entry and exit strategy in order to optimize the investment.
Be brave
Obviously, courage is not synonymous with recklessness. On the contrary, quite the opposite. The courage of the trader is the quality that allows him to stay on track, to continue on the path that he himself has traced. Very often, traders change course when they see that the game is getting tough. If the strategic evidence confirms the validity of his choices, the brave trader endures the risks and does not let himself be taken by fear. The discourse is always the same: the successful trader is the one who does not give in to emotional pressures.