Showing posts with label Trading Psychology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Trading Psychology. Show all posts

What is the best Forex strategy and who is the best trader?

As I've been saying for years, all strategies have potential. You just have the patience to stick with it until you discover the real beauty of the strategy. If you keep jumping from one strategy to another to gain knowledge, you become a Jack-of-all-Trades but master of none. A "Walking Dead", the term I use for traders who know everything about Forex Trading except for being a consistently profitable. No matter what the reasons for gaining too much knowledge about Forex Trading are all negligible if you don't know how to profit. PERIOD. No excuses are required :).

It's all been said everywhere over and over, for a strategy to become a GOOD one, the trader should have a clear mind on doing it. A trader should have a clear idea of what he is doing on each step of the strategy. If you do a strategy BLINDLY by just following what you have read from books, internet, seminars or heard from other traders or mentors, everything becomes useless and pointless. That part can not be just learned from books or mentors. It's a behavior issue. You've got to dig deeper. As I've been saying for years, the Forex Market is not a two-dimensional thingy of ups and downs, or ranging and trending of the prices. It's a multi-dimensional world. Once you discover one dimension, finding others will become easy. You can scalp. You can do trend following. You can use fundamental analysis. You can also do with Technical Analysis. You can trade with Stop-Loss or without it. You can trade with small lotsizes or big lotsizes. You do risky tactics that most traders are against at, like Martingale.

For this reason, you also just have to respect other traders and most important is RESPECT their strategies. Your strategies may be working for you because you discover it yourself. Don't impose everyone to like your methods if they don't like it. They may have discovered something that you don't know and work well with them. If you are wasting your energy proving to everyone that your strategies are the best strategies in the world, then you may consider to re-assess about the way you think and your behavior. Don't grind your mind to come up with the best words to say toprove your point. COLLABORATION is the name of the game. No one is truly a self-sufficient on anything. Ego won't take you anywhere.

Live a happy life :)

So what is the best strategy in the world and who is the best trader of all? The answer is NONE.

What's Your Investment Horizon?

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Each one of us has an opinion about investment. As I've been telling everyone in the FXFledgling group before, the opinion of one person is limited to one's interest, perception, and/or experience. It is limited to one's horizon. The definition of "safe investment" is limited to one's decision on what to believe and do. There is actually no right or wrong on what to believe. It is just a decision.

If you talk to a Mutual Fund salesman, he would say that you should split your money to different funds, Equity, Bond, etc. That's their training. That's their definition of "safe investment". They do that to protect their clients. This approach is very much appropriate for people who are just starting and know nothing about investments. They can start safely. But some people, even if MF has a safety net like this, they can not take the ups and downs of the daily Net Asset Value (NAV) They ended up going back to bank time deposit.

If you talked to seasoned stock investors (those who buy & hold), he would say investing in Mutual Fund, especially non-equity funds is a waste of time. For them it is slow. They can take a bit higher risk compared to Mutual Fund investors just to speed up the performance of their portfolio. This is actually right if the investor knows what he is doing. But before you get to the level that "you know what you are doing", money and time are spent or even wasted just to get to that level. If you have the courage to pursue and never quit, you will reap the rewards sometime in the future. To some people, this approach is already stressful for them, so some of them go back to slower instruments like Mutual Fund. These are the people who would say that the stockmarket is very risky and advise you not to try it.

The next level is "stock trader". Do they earn bigger than stock investors? The answer is yes if they know what they are doing. The answer can be a yes or no if one is just learning the tricks of the trade. The same scenario is seen at this level. Those who try it will end up in two ways. Those who quit and those who never stop trying, failing, and learning until they get to the point of earning big. Endless money and time that one is willing to go are spent and sometimes wasted before they can reach the point of success.

Forex Trading!!!! TADA! My favorite :) This is the most controversial in the world about money making. Many investors even think this is a global scam :( But of course, we can not blame them. Most of those who have tried this ended up busted. As with other money making machines, if people try this they end up two ways, they quit or they would do everything and spend money and time or even waste money and time just to learn the secrets of those who became successful with it. Those who quit go back to stocks, Mutual Fund, etc. But those who never give up, they may experience unbelievably lucrative money making machine they never thought possible. I've been a Forex Trader for almost 17 years now, but I'm still learning every day. I've always had a jaw-dropping experience with some traders that used to be my students but now have made it very far higher level than me. With the advancement of technology, I witness traders that CONSISTENTLY earn 50%+ per month, 100%-300% per month, and most recently one of my students showed me how to earn 100% per day (There are actually 2 of them with different styles, the other one is into Binary Options thru Forex. He said he will also share to me his secrets soon). Decades ago, without technology, these successes are impossible. Of course, many people still believe that this is not possible. Their opinion is limited to what they are trained to believe with. If we are talking about this 30 years ago, yes they are correct. But we are talking about now. Thirty years ago, if we talk about cellphones, people would say "There's no such thing as a wireless telephone. It's impossible". If we talk about the internet, people would say "You are thinking about Science fiction at its best. Television is the greatest invention there is". Each industry has a technology attach to it. Technology upgrades every six months. There may be impossible ideas 6 months ago that is very much doable now. That's the truth.

So what's your investment horizon? Are you willing to expand that horizon? Or you just want to be contented to what you currently know? There's no right or wrong answer. It's just a matter of decision. Each decision is correct. Each one of us also should respect the decision of other people on how they handle their money. What you think is right may be wrong for them, so you just have to respect that.

If one wants his money to be just in the bank and willing to lose some of it to inflation rate because he has a peace of mind doing it, contented with it, so that is correct. If one wants to scatter it in different Mutual Funds, that is correct as well but better in terms of income. If he wants to try some of it in Stocks, that is also correct and way better in terms of income. If he wants a far more exciting method, he can try Forex Trading, which is also a correct investment of money and time, and far more rewarding in terms of income.

If you invest your money before you decide on what path to go to, be sure to double check your risk appetite. That is your guide on choosing what to try. Don't just think about how big profits will be. You have to check how much emotional investment you want to spend on it and how much money and time you are willing to lose before learning it.

In case you decided to try Forex Trading or have been trying it but still failing, the upcoming release of the book, Uncharted Stratagems: Unknown Depths of Forex Trading may help you shorten your learning curve. You will learn unconventional knowledge about Forex Trading that you won't find anywhere else. It is a compilation of 17 years of experience in the industry. The result of thousands of failures and lessons encountered along the way and how traders like you can avoid it, so you can try right away what is already tested.

If you wish to grab a copy of the book click this link to pre-order...
https://fxfinnercircle.blogspot.com/p/awaken-forex.html?m=0

Forex Trading Myth


Somebody asked me...

STRANGER: Can I actually replace my full-time job with income from Forex trading?

ME: Yes. How much is your job salary?

STRANGER: $50,000 a year. Can you show me how?

ME: Your freedom depends on how much you are willing to invest. How much you are planning to invest for your initial fund?

STRANGER: $200 only. It's too risky.

ME: Ok. But it will take you 11years or more to earn $50K per year with that kind of investment, if and only if you can consistently earn 5% a month. That's on compounded . (Boom)

The Myth 

Many traders have been dreaming that they can really achieve their dream life with just a $200 of investment. They think that it's a magical get-rich-quick scheme that will give them unlimited income with a few dollars.

The Reality 

This kind of mentality makes them trade with large lotsizes with a very small fund on a live account. They usually ended up disappointed. To achieve the freedom that you've been dreaming of, you have to plan for it. Learn Forex trading at least how to earn safely and conservatively if you have a job. It is possible to earn 50% a month or more (believe me, I have friends who earn this much trading Forex fulltime) but you have to invest a lot of time and money before you can come up with the best trading plan that you have longed for. Since you are having a 9-5 job, you have to be realistic on your plan. Aim for at least 5% a month safely (very doable).

If you want to replace your job income with trading income, do the math. If you earn 5% a month with Forex trading, you need to have at least $85K fund to earn $4,250 a month, or $51K a year.

If you are only willing to invest $200 for this, you need a good consistent system that can make you earn 5% a month to make $85K money in 11 years.

So how much you are willing to invest?

PS It will take you more than 11 years to earn the dream fund if you will withdraw some profit along the way.

More About Trading Psychology: Confidence


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What is confidence? How it can make or break you as a trader?

Trading confidence is the psychology of initial success. it is the feeling or belief with a firm trust that you can rely on a strategy or trading plan. It is the psychological tool that traders have and use to fight fear and all emotions related to it. How do we gain confidence? We get it once we achieve the first success with any strategy that we come accross with.

A trader must be aware that confidence, while it is one of the best emotional tools we have to fight fear on trading, confidence can also mislead us to do something stupid. Sometimes too much confidence makes us think that our strategy is the best strategy and it always has its magic. This can lead you to increase lotsize more than what is stated in your trading plan. Over confidence can also make you enter pre-mature trades. For example, if you have 5 conditions in your strategy then your current analysis meets only 4, because of your confidence in your strategy plus greed, you won't wait for the fifth condition to appear. You will open a trade right away.

Confidence can also make us tweak strategies irresponsively. Tweaking, exploring, and experimenting are important for you to discover good strategies, but you have to do it right. You can not expect success if you keep integrating all strategies you find into one analysis. You have to be careful in combining different analysis. This is common to old traders that have been using generic strategies in predicting price direction. When they see a new strategy, they do their analysis using it, then at the other part of the analysis they will check their old generic analytical tools to confirm. There are 2 things may happen, 1) you will fail. 2) you may experience success but it slows the profit. You are not sure if it's really working or you just got lucky. You can't really tell at an early stage. In order for you to confirm that it really works, you have to do the same analysis for a long period of time and no short cuts. Based on what I have observed with hundreds of students that I've had, on the next trade, they would tweak even more.

To be successful, keep it super simple. Just follow the trading plan exactly the way it is stated in the rules, no ifs no buts. If you think there's a better way of doing it, (good, you are thinking) do it in a separate account for at least 3 months. 

On Learning Forex Trading: Start It Right

Newbies can relate to this...

You are seeing many tips and lessons in the internet on how to trade from different veterans and mentors. You have tried many of them but failed. So most of the newbie traders have thought that the internet is full of pretenders, fraudsters, and charlatans. So they would hate every Forex mentors they have seen online because they think they are fakes. Hold your horses. It may not always true. I think many of these Forex mentors have no intention to trick you. I think they are only guilty of one thing... They made you drive a BIG TRUCK right away... What⁉️⁉️


Forex Trading Is Like Driving

Learning how to trade is like learning how to drive. If you don't know yet how to drive, you can not expect to learn driving with a big truck. You will feel overwhelmed and may not learn it. Even if you do, the whole learning process is very hard, a very terrible experience. To avoid this bad experience, start it right. Start with a small car. It's the most easy and convenient way to start. You have to feel first how driving is. The learning curve will be shorter. The same with Forex trading. You should start small. While learning how to trade, you have to have a good feel of the market price movement first. To achieve that you have to start trading with a demo account right away, not to profit right away, but to feel the movement of the price. Immerse yourself to grasp the feeling. Absorb the idea that it's not just ups and downs, not just ranging and trending, and it's random, very difficult to predict the future price. Baby steps. You don't have to learn everything all at once. Learn one at a time. Learn while you are doing it. Just know where to get any information in case you come across a situation that you need help to learn something. Start learning using any customized tools that you come across with. Remember you don't have to master how each tool works. You just need to feel the experience of the market. Having a real feeling about the market can make you use any tool and indicator at your advantage. Any strategy taught to you, you've got a big chance to achieve success.

Enjoy the weekend :)

First Lesson In Trading Psychology

When you decided to be a trader and be good with it in the future. You have to decide also to re-wire your brain on an unusual mindset.

 There is no Best Trader in the world. When you put yourself into this business, you have to believe that you can not be the best trader in the world and you can not beat the World Forex Market. You are only as good as your trading plan. You are only as good as your "Entry Plan". You are only as good as your Money Management plan. You are only as good as your 'Exit Plan". You are only as good as how you follow your trading plan. You are only as good as your last trade. Even if you hit the TP this morning and gain 20% in one trade, still you are not the best trader in the world or any group. Even if you hit 500% this month, still you are not the best trader in the world. Even if you hit 3,000% this year, still you are not the best trader in the World. Always think that the most important thing for you to do your next best is to plan for it. If you can not imagine how your next trade will end, good or bad, your past performance is all negligible. Keep this in mind.