How do you handle yourself?

[Meindert]

Maybe a strange topic, but I consider it relevant.

I like to hear more opinions, ideas from other people about this topic.

First of all, I'm a very greedy bastard. So that's out, the only thing remains, I still can take a deep breath and know there are more important things in life then gathering money and moral laws are vital for self respect. So the logic conclusion I arrive at is that money can only be made by honest hard work. I think Forex trading is no different in that aspect.

Now I've been on couple of fora and I've seen many people loose a lot of money on Forex and binary options, to the extend that I cannot understand they didn't walk away.

On the other hand, somewhere I can understand it...

An important part I recognise is psychological. I have learned now just to stop whenever I start feeling emotional about (especially loosing) trades.

I invested only 150 euros, I do not look at numbers, but at percentages profit. To be honest, I'm now busy for a couple of months, quite some times interrupted, the netto end result is 1% profit. But I think there is another profit, experience learning...

I have a dream that one day I can make a living out of it, but that won't come quick, I think it will take years. Learning, but especially I think for a big deal get a mindset of a trader.

I read some books about emotional parts of trading, and to my surprise, it sounds so logic, until you find yourself actually making these mistakes, and more by emotion loosing money.

I must admit that after a successful day, I start getting stupid ideas of making big money, with "rational" calculations", but then you get beaten up the next days. Rationally I still made some profit and what did you expect as a beginner, emotionally you think something different. So, a successful day as well as a bad day leads you of the rational track.

I think many people struggled with that, so what I'm looking for are advices, ideas, to learn adapting the mindset of a traders. I think beside trading, technical analysis, etc. etc. this is one of the most critical factors of in the end becoming successful....

 

[Enivid]

Spot on, my friend! Trader's attitude and the whole approach to Forex usually matter much more than the analytical skills or ability to find good entries.

Understanding this is the very important part of becoming a successful trader:

I have a dream that one day I can make a living out of it, but that won't come quick, I think it will take years. Learning, but especially I think for a big deal get a mindset of a trader.

 

[Michelle Yeoh]

Well, I have a fixed trading plan that I follow so honestly! Here, I am not for quick success. And I know the result of greed! That’s way, I always follow money management and risk management policies! Besides, my long time trading experience also helps me.

 

[I-Forex]

Emotions are hard to control when dealing with money, I use a progressive risk management sheet, the adaptation was easier for me to increase my purchases in accordance to the increase in my bankroll, % always stays the same. experience also helped eliminate the emotional factor, not the passion though, I always find myself sneaking a peek.

 

[aureliorodrigues]

Enivid, you're absolutely right. It all starts with psychology and your attitude to the market. And only then you can think of trading technical aspects.

 

[Jhans W]

To be a successful trader, is to have a lot of mentality and have clear objectives, something key would be that emotions should not exist, or at least know how to control them

 

[smartforexguide]

You have to have algorithm (work rules) where you specify all possible issues and how you act according to them. Then you just follow your rules.

 

[JohnyIve]

It is very difficult to keep your mind clear and control your emotions when you are trading. Only way to stay cool is use progressive risk managment and step by step increase the amount of lots.

 

[Lesiro]

Meindert, your post belies your comment that you are a ‘greedy bastard’… You are absolutely right; An important reason why people don’t walk away is Psychological. It’s like good money chasing bad (lost) money. I also like your point that ‘learning’ is a bigger profit besides the 1% profit. Good luck to you!

 

[PolinaPolly]

Totaly agree, that control of emotions is one of the hardest parts. When they overwhelm you, you stop thinking and start doing stupid things sometimes. I try to make up my mind at first (by reading, for example). Motivating notes also help, I just put some stickers on my screen (with smth like "be strong", "remember the last time" on ) and read them when I need to calm down.

 

[Ary Barroso]

Frankly, it’s too challenging because most of the times; market’s behaviors are too complicated to understand; especially understanding the trend. By the way, in this case my trading plan & strategy help me a lot.

 

[J_C_Anderson]

Sometimes psychology much more important than anything else. It`s not enough to know a lot about the markets or to find perfect entry points. Trader should also:
- always enter position is there is such situation
- enter only using defined entry point
- hold the position long enough, etc.
As you can see, this is mostly about psychology, the ability to execute your trading plan. Even educated professionals can fail only by losing battle with themselves.

 

[AlexOZ]

Maybe a strange topic, but I consider it relevant.

I like to hear more opinions, ideas from other people about this topic.

First of all, I'm a very greedy bastard. So that's out, the only thing remains, I still can take a deep breath and know there are more important things in life then gathering money and moral laws are vital for self respect. So the logic conclusion I arrive at is that money can only be made by honest hard work. I think Forex trading is no different in that aspect.

Now I've been on couple of fora and I've seen many people loose a lot of money on Forex and binary options, to the extend that I cannot understand they didn't walk away.

On the other hand, somewhere I can understand it...

An important part I recognise is psychological. I have learned now just to stop whenever I start feeling emotional about (especially loosing) trades.

I invested only 150 euros, I do not look at numbers, but at percentages profit. To be honest, I'm now busy for a couple of months, quite some times interrupted, the netto end result is 1% profit. But I think there is another profit, experience learning...

I have a dream that one day I can make a living out of it, but that won't come quick, I think it will take years. Learning, but especially I think for a big deal get a mindset of a trader.

I read some books about emotional parts of trading, and to my surprise, it sounds so logic, until you find yourself actually making these mistakes, and more by emotion loosing money.

I must admit that after a successful day, I start getting stupid ideas of making big money, with "rational" calculations", but then you get beaten up the next days. Rationally I still made some profit and what did you expect as a beginner, emotionally you think something different. So, a successful day as well as a bad day leads you of the rational track.

I think many people struggled with that, so what I'm looking for are advices, ideas, to learn adapting the mindset of a traders. I think beside trading, technical analysis, etc. etc. this is one of the most critical factors of in the end becoming successful....

Any changes are more to do with your approach to most things rather than trading. Most of us have had a similar journey. Work on discipline and patience. Here are some ideas - Write down a detailed trading plan with rules for entering and exiting trades, stop losses and risk management. Test you plan with backtesting and demo until you consistently earn a net profit and then stick to it. Trade in a larger (e.g. daily) timeframe (with stop loss in place) and walk away to spend time with others or have a meal. Check your trade once a day at the same time. Ultimately you may go to more active form of trading but this is about developing discipline and patience and treating trading as a business activity where wins and losses are expected. Hope that helps.

 

[ankita_gokhale]

It's difficult sometimes. But when I calculate the ratio of profit and loss I need to become calm.