How Much Time Do You Have?

Time is an important factor when learning how to trade Forex or any other financial market.  So how much time do you have to dedicate to:

• The ‘Learning to Trade’ process (each day/week/month)?
• Analysing your chosen financial market(s) when seeking potential trades?
• Managing your open trades?

What other distractions and responsibilities do you have in your life?  You may have to do a bit of rebalancing to fit everything in and even give something up or let go of negative people.

The more focussed you are and given sufficient time, the more successful you should be as a trader.

Conversely, if you have too much time, it is easy to waste it staring at your charts all day long, like watching paint dry!

It’s all about getting the balance right and worth some thought.  We’ll take a look at getting organised as a trader in a future article and what things we can use to help us be more time efficient.

Top Trading Tip:  Dedicate sufficient time to the ‘Learning to Trade’ process each week if you want to progress up the Learning Curve, however, if you find yourself just flicking through the charts and time frames, looking at the same things over and over again in a day because nothing is happening in the markets, then STOP and go find something else to do, be it seeking out new trading knowledge or a job that needs doing or go see some friends or spend some time with family.

Will You Survive?

Have you got what it takes to SURVIVE in the markets whilst learning to trade Forex?

Will you survive to trade another day?

Whilst learning to trade Forex or any other financial market there are certain things that you must do and that need to be in place, if you are to stand a chance of surviving to trade another day.  What are they?

• Don’t trade live until you have learnt your strategy inside out in a Demo account and preferably to have back tested it hundreds if not thousands of times to prove that it is, and you can be, profitable.
• When you do start trading in the Live markets make sure you start off in a Micro-account and trade cents per pip. 
• Make sure you employ strict Risk and Money Management. 
• Make sure that you do not take unplanned impulsive trades!
• Make sure that your account is sufficiently capitalised so that you only risk 1-2% Max of your account balance on any one trade and no more than 5 trades open at any one time, but preferably less.

Most people when they start to trade live will lose money and you have to persist until it all clicks and comes together and then you will start to make gains and recover the account.  Even when profitable there will be periods when nothing seems to go right, your account needs to be able to absorb these periods as well.  As well as the above, the key things which will get you through this learning process are:

• Practice, Practice, Practice!
• Determination (stick ability) and Drive (motivation) to see you through this period of initial loss making until you get to that tipping point of profitability.
• Experience counts – if you stick with it and learn from your mistakes you will get there, provided you have sufficient funds to carry on trading live.
• Vision – if you have a clear vision of what you are trying to achieve and why then this will keep you focussed through the ups and downs.
• Having a Forex Mentor should shorten this painful initial loss making period.

Top Trading Tip: Make sure you have everything in place as above and the expectancy to lose money in the first instance rather that make millions overnight and have a clear vision of why you are trying to learn to trade Forex and you may stand a good chance of succeeding as the odds against you will have been lessened significantly.  So make sure you will survive and if you need help then we can do that.