Forex mistakes and sins.

[guruvhai]

Top 10 forex Trading Mistake's

1. Trading with indicators and fancy tools

2. Not fully understanding and implementing risk / reward

3. Not understanding position sizing

4. Not having a Forex trading plan

5. Gambling instead of trading

6. Allowing emotions to cloud judgment / giving into emotions

7. Not having patience

8. Not trading higher time frames

9. Over-trading / being too involved

10. Not taking profits

Top 06 forex Trading Deathly Sin's

1. Reliance on the Experts.
2. Setting the wrong goal and trading target.
3. ot paying proper attention to drawdown.
4. Forgetting to practice, practice, and practice.
5. Falling in love with a trade.
6. ot checking your emotion.

[youngfx]

How To Trade Key Chart Levels in Forex

Today’s Forex trading lesson contains trading strategies that you can put to use immediately in the markets. We are going to discuss how to trade price action from key levels in the Forex market. Key levels occur in a variety of market scenarios, and we can combine these key market levels with simple price action strategies to obtain a high-probability trading strategy.

Key market levels are the core foundation of all technical analysis and price action trading. By focusing on the raw price dynamics and key levels in a market, we can remove the clutter and confusion that so many trading systems and strategies are full of, and instead trade from a clear and objective mindset. I cover all the concepts discussed in today’s article in greater detail in my trading course, as well as a plethora of other simple yet highly effective trading strategies.

Note: All charts in this lesson reflect the daily time frame.

Trading from support and resistance in trending markets

Trading with the dominant daily trend is the primary technique I use to trade the markets. Much of my course is dedicated to trend analysis and teaching traders to trade simple price action strategies in the context of a trending market. We can look for price action signals forming near levels of support and resistance that develop as a result of the natural ebb and flow of a trending market.

In the example chart below we have the daily GBPUSD showing about the last 4 months of data. What I have done here is simply drawn in the obvious key support and resistance levels and then highlighted the valid price action trade setups that formed near these levels. No magic or “robots” here, just simple common-sense trading using the natural dynamics and levels in the market:



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A Beginner’s Guide to Forex Price Action Trading

Today’s lesson is an excellent price action introduction tutorial for all you beginning and aspiring price action traders as well as a good refresher for the more experienced price action trader. Price action trading is the best way to trade in my opinion and there really is no arguing with its relevance and importance. I hope you all enjoy this lesson and that it clears up any confusion or concerns you may have about what price action trading is all about. Don’t forget to leave a comment , tweet it & share it on facebook when you’re done reading.

What is price action?

To put it succinctly, price action is the “footprint” of money. Financial markets are where money is exchanged between market participants, and this exchange of money leaves a trail, this trail is a market’s price movement or price action and it can be observed on a price chart. As Forex traders, we can learn to identify and trade off of the “clues” left behind from price action as it makes its trail across the charts. These clues are called price action trading strategies or price action setups, and when you learn to trade them and harness their power you are a “price action trader”.

These price action trading strategies form as a result of the fact that price movement in markets tends to be somewhat repetitive. Human beings are ultimately behind the price movement of the Forex market as well as other markets, and because human emotions are relatively predictable when it comes to matters of money, their actions in the market often result in price action formations that repeat periodically and that can be very accurate predictive tools of future price direction.

Price action trading involves trading price action strategies from key levels in the market. I am a firm believer that all anyone needs to develop a solid Forex trading strategy is a plain vanilla price chart and some common sense. By combining price action setups with “hot points” in the market, such as core support and resistance levels and dynamic support and resistance levels, we can learn to pick extremely accurate entries that give us the best chance of getting into a profitable trade.

Price action strategies can be traded in any financial market and on any time frame. However, I advise traders to focus their efforts on trading higher time frames first, with the main time frame being the daily chart. I also primarily teach and trade the Forex market because it is the easiest market for retail traders to access, seems to have more periods of trending than other markets, and generally just lends itself well to price action trading.

Why price action?

Answering the question “why trade with price action?” is really pretty simple; because price is the heart of any financial market. It’s like learning to read a book; if you don’t know how to read you will not be able to understand the words in the book or the story they convey. If you don’t know how to read the price action of a market you will not know how to make sense of a price chart or the “story” it is telling you.

Any trader or other source who tries to tell you that you it’s easier to trade off indicators or trading software than price action, is simply in denial of or unaware of the reality of the markets. The reality of the markets is that price movement is the end result of all variables connected to the markets, so why would you want to concern yourself with analyzing anything but this price movement? Traders tend to fall into the traps of forex indicators and forex robots mainly because the people selling these things make bold claims and make them sound like the key to instant riches.

The truth of the matter is that there is no easy way to make money in this world, at least legally. Any short cuts that you think you have found in the markets are only temporary, I can promise you that. You have to learn to read price action if you want to be a trader, there is just no arguing with that, and the longer you put off or deny this fact, the longer you delay your own forex trading success.

The best way to learn price action…

The best way to learn price action can basically be boiled down into three main points:

1) Learn to master one price action strategy at a time. By mastering one price action setup at a time you learn it inside and out, you make it your own, so to speak. Many traders jump from one strategy to the next without really giving each its due time. Specialists in any field are typically the people making the most money; not people who know a little bit about a lot of things. Think of yourself as a “price action specialist” and try to truly master one setup before moving on to the next.

2) Learn to trade higher time frames first. The main reason I teach traders to focus on higher time frames first is because it is the best “natural” defense we have against over-trading. Over-trading is what kills most traders’ accounts, and it will kill yours a lot faster than you think. By focusing on the higher time frames we can benefit from their natural ability to filter price movement “noise” on the lower time frames and thus improve our overall winning percentage, all while trading in a relaxed and stress-free manner.

3) Learn from a successful price action trader. In point one I discussed that becoming a specialist in something is the best way to master it and make money at it. Well, the most effective and efficient way to become a specialist in the field of forex price action trading is to learn from a successful price action trader. You can greatly reduce your learning curve and avoid a lot of trial and error by learning from a skilled and proven trader.

The best way to trade price action…

In my opinion, the best way to trade price action is by trading like a sniper, not a machine gunner. What I mean by this is waiting for the best price action setups rather than trading anything that you think “might” be a setup. After you master all my price action trading strategies and concepts you should have no doubt of what you are looking for in the market. At that point trading is simply a game of patience; a game of waiting for the perfect price action setup to come into view, and then “shooting it” or trading it flawlessly. There is definitely a positive correlation between the amount of patience one has and their trading account value.

[youngfx]

thanks you all, i promised to post more about it

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Know When to Hold em – Know When to Fold em

One of the most challenging decisions that Forex traders are faced with on a day to day basis is…knowing when to hold on to a trade and when to close it.

This decision is usually the one that gives traders the most difficulty and frustration, and it is something that you must learn to effectively deal with if you want to make consistent money in the forex market. Trade management is often the area that gives forex traders the most trouble; it is relatively easy to get into a profitable trade but it is much harder to manage that profitable trade in such a way that it produces an outcome you are satisfied with.

This article will only focus on one area of the process of trade management; knowing when to hold on to a winning trade in order to let your profits run, and knowing when to close a winning trade and take your money. Pardon the clich�, but as the Kenny Rogers song goes, “You’ve got to know when to hold em’, and know when to fold em”…(If you never heard the song click here: Kenny Rogers)

How to manage a trade with a big open profit…

While there are certainly worse problems to have in the world, trying to figure out what you should do with a trade that is deep in profit can actually be quite puzzling for many forex traders. The problem that traders in this situation face is whether they should hold their trade for an even larger gain that may or may not materialize, or close the trade out and walk away with a very nice profit.

What this decision really comes down to is one of logic vs. emotion. Take a look at the technical picture of the chart that you are trading while completely disregarding how much money you are up or how you feel. When you look at the chart from this perspective think about how big the recent move has been that you have traded, how much has price moved compared to the ATR (average true range)? Do you really believe there is a logical technical reason that such a large move will continue on in your direction before reversing, or are you just being greedy? Remember that just because a trade is heavily in your favor does not mean you should necessarily keep it open. If you are in a trade that is up more than 3 or 4 times your risk, you should really stop to ask yourself, “Do I really believe this trade will keep going up or down in a straight line or is it more likely to experience a correction?” It usually makes more sense to lock in most of your profit or close a trade out that is deep in profit, because if there is one thing we can all agree on about the forex market it’s that it ebbs and flows and doesn’t travel in a straight line for very long except on rare times of economic volatility.

How to manage a winning trade in trending markets…

Trending markets can increase the odds of a trade moving in your favor and as a result the chances of being able to let your profits run into bigger gains. One good way to tell whether or not you should try and let your profits run when a market is trending is whether or not new highs (in an uptrend) or new lows (in a downtrend) are being made on near daily basis. If this is happening you can simply trail your stop loss along the 8 day ema or slightly above / below the previous day’s high or low and let the trade run in your favor until it reverses and hits your stop.

How to manage a winning trade in the midst of opposing price action or support / resistance level…

Another factor you want to look for when trying to decide if you should hold your winning trade or fold it is whether or not there is an opposing price action signal or a nearby support or resistance level. A nearby opposing price action reversal signal or strong support or resistance level can be a good reason to close out a winning trade. Also, if there is a previous support or resistance level that has held strong in the past, you might want to use this level for a profit target, usually putting your target just in front of the level works better than trying to squeeze every last pip out by putting your target right at the level or slightly beyond it.

Just as we can use price action signals to enter into high probability trades, we can also use the opposite signal to exit a trade. How many times have you been in a pin bar trade and then after a day or two an opposing pin bar forms? In this case you might want to trail up your stop to just above the high or below the low of the opposing pin bar, depending on which direction you are trading. Opposing price action signals can be used to exit a profitable trade if they occur in the natural course of that trade, however, you should not wait or depend on such an opposing signal to exit a profitable trade, it is just something to be on the lookout for in case you are in a profitable trade.

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How to manage a winning trade when reaffirming price action occurs…

One of the best signs that a particular trade is a good candidate to be held instead of folded is reaffirming price action. For example, if you are long the market and you get a bullish pin bar or consecutive bullish pin bars that form in the context of the uptrend you are trading you can be reassured by this price action because it “agrees” with the direction you are trading. This is essentially the opposite of the “opposing price action” rule that we discussed in the point above. This reaffirming price action can be a very good indicator that you should hold a winning trade instead of folding it. Learning to “read” a price chart in this discretionary manner is really what distinguishes the pros from the amateurs.

How to manage a winning trade in different market conditions…

Another factor to take into consideration when deciding whether to hold or fold your winning trade is the current state of the market. Is the market trending or consolidating, quiet or volatile? In a strong trend you will likely have a better chance to hold a trade for bigger gains, in a consolidating market you are probably better off using support and resistance levels and / or opposing price action signals to exit your trade. It is crucial that you consider what condition the market that you are trading is in before deciding whether or not to exit your trade.

Don’t count your money when you’re sitting at the table…

When deciding whether to hold or fold your trade it is important that you look at your trade in terms of risk to reward instead of the amount of pips you are up. This is analogous to not counting your money when you’re sitting at the table; don’t count your pips when you are in a trade but instead calculate your risk to reward scenario. Before entering any trade it is very important to figure out how much reward you can reasonably make relative to the amount you are risking. As the trade progresses it is important to remember your pre-defined risk / reward scenario, you really don’t want to take anything less than this pre-defined risk / reward amount unless there is a logical reason to do so like one of the points we discussed above.

If in doubt…

If you find yourself in a profitable forex trade and you are unsure whether or not you should hold or fold it, the first thing you need to make sure you do is NOT let your emotion influence your exit decision as this is one of the most common and detrimental mistakes that forex traders make. If all else fails you can always refer back to this article and the points discussed above, go through them and see if any of them apply to the current trade you are in, you can think of this article as a sort of “check list” for what to do when you are in a winning trade.

The most important and useful thing that you can do when in a profitable trade is to stop and ask yourself, “should I stay in this trade or should I close it?” Have a logical think about it for more than a few minutes and remind yourself that you need to avoid an emotional exit at all costs. Refer back to the points above and ask yourself if any of them apply to you, make yourself a pros and cons list if you need to weigh the advantages of staying in the trade vs. the disadvantages. If after all of this you still cannot control yourself than you might need to seek additional help by reading some of our other forex articles or watch some forex videos. Producing a satisfying outcome for profitable trades is one of the most difficult aspects of successful forex trading, use the information in this article and the logical-thinking part of your brain to decide how to exit your winning forex trades and you will be in a very good position to profit on a consistent basis in the markets.

[sarder]

Thank's for a lot information releated articale.

Top traders are always confident in any trade they take, because they know what their edge is, and they don’t trade unless it’s present.

it's 100% right thinking. and i want to make that's type trader one day.

[sharabela]

Wow! What an article. You really have written it so nicely and easily that anyone can understand what you are trying to say. This is one of the best articles that I have read in last couple of weeks in this forum.

[youngfx]

the remaining of the nine

4) DON’T LISTEN TO ANYTHING BUT THE CHART, because the chart reflects everything! That’s right, the price movement on a raw, indicator-free price chart, reflects all variables that affect a market. So, don’t get bogged down analyzing economic news and watching CNBC, just learn to read the price chart and then let the price action dictate your trading decisions, not what some talking head on TV thinks. Also, NEVER trade what you think is going to happen, only trade what you actually see happening in the charts. What I mean is this, just because you “think” the EURUSD is going higher doesn’t mean it actually is, and your thoughts have no bearing on the EURUSD or any other market. The only thing that matters is what the price chart is telling you, so learn to read and trade from that instead of outside sources.

5) DON’T GET GREEDY or you will never make a profit. Greed is perhaps the most prevalent reason why most traders fail. The late Rene Rivkin, a famous Australian stock broker and trader, had a classic line about greed: “Leave some for the next guy”. Here are some tips on how to avoid letting greed get the best of you:

• Aim for a target before you place the trade – Yes, that’s correct; you should already have a target in mind before you enter a trade, and it’s best to pre-define your exit before you enter. Exiting is not an exact science, and there are times when deviating from your initial exit plan makes sense, but you should always decide before you enter a trade what your ideal exit strategy is and then try to stick to that plan as much as possible. Don’t change your exit strategy once your trade is live just because you “think” the trade is going to charge on in your favor forever, only change it if you have a very obvious price action-based reason to do so.

• Never move your stop loss further from entry – What I mean by this is entering a trade and then the market starts to move against you immediately, do you move your stop further away from the market price, or do you hold it in place? Obviously, the only logical course of action is to accept your loss and hold your stop where you pre-defined it, yet many traders email me saying they have moved their stop away and now have a very big open loss they don’t know what to do with. The answer is you have to take the bigger loss because you did not take the smaller loss…always take the smaller loss by not EVER moving your stop further from entry.

• Be happy to take a logical profit – If you have a nice 1:2 risk reward profit and there is no obvious reason to try and trail your stop, then by all means take the profit! Don’t just leave a trade open because you are mesmerized by the potential for the market to move further in your favor. Come back down to reality and realize the market ebbs and flows and it’s more likely going to move back against you soon then move in your favor if it’s already given you 2 times your risk.

• Only trail stops once your trade is well into profit – I only attempt trailing my stop if my trade is up about 1.5 times my risk and I am in a runaway trend or a strong breakout move that clearly has potential to keep going. Don’t start moving your stop up just because the trade pops in your favor the first 10 minutes you enter. Give the trade some room to grow and breath. Trading is like a garden, you have to give it time to grow to taste its fruit.

• Don’t live in hope – I like to think of hope as the catalyst for greed. Traders often hope that their trades will go on forever in their favor, or they hope that if they move their stop loss just a little further away, the trade will come back for them. While hope is generally a good thing in every other area of life, in Forex trading it can cause you to do irrational things that destroy your trading account.

6) GET SOME BALLZ, because trading is not for the emotionally weak or for wussies. That’s right, if losing 5 trades in a row makes you cry and whinge, then forget about becoming a trader. Don’t trade if you don’t have the money to lose, it’s really that simple. You can lose money in trading, many beginners seem to forget or ignore this fact. So, you should not be trading with money that causes you to treat every trade like it’s life or death, you really should almost not care at all if you lose on one trade, because ONE trade DOES NOT define you as a trader. Your success as a trader is the result of many months of trading results, not just one or two. Don’t get all excited if you win a trade either, or a series of trades. Instead, stay neutral and act like a strong minded professional with skill, rather than a little school boy who just won $100. You need to be strong to be a successful forex trader; you to focus and believe in yourself, and it’s OK to bet a little harder on a trade if you are confident, but keep in mind this is only advisable if you are 100% sure you have mastered your trading strategy already.

7) DON’T CHANGE YOUR METHOD> STICK TO IT< BELIEVE IN IT, because all trading methods will have losses and losing periods. So, don’t run away and freak out in the face of some losing trades. Instead, you need to hang in there and tough it out, just make sure you are consistent with your strategy and that you are using something like price action that is simple, logical, and has proven itself over time.

A random entry method based on flipping a coin would probably make more money than a trader following 3 different trading methods and running around looking for the Holy Grail every day. The Holy Grail to long term success is in fact…sticking with something, believing in it… and not hesitating when the opportunities present themselves.

8) MAKE SURE YOU CAN SLEEP AT NIGHT, because if you are having trouble sleeping due to your trading, it means you’ve risked too much. Don’t take a position size that you know is too big, because then you almost certainly will be too emotionally involved with the trade which will result you in not sleeping and becoming even more emotional. Not to mention, your frazzled and obnoxious existence from risking too much will probably make your wife or roommates want to kill you or send you to the loony bin.

You need to learn to RELAX…the market is not going anywhere, you need to trade a position size that you can handle emotionally, not one that causes you to have a near melt-down every time the market moves against you by a pip or two. If you find you are waking up over and over to check the latest quote on your laptop or iPhone, you know you are IN OVER YOUR HEAD. Some people risk too much money for the “rush”, some do it out of stupidity or greed, whatever the case, make sure you are risking a decent amount, but not an amount that makes your heart pound, and not an amount that causes you to fall asleep at your computer desk!

9) ALWAYS PAY YOURSELF, because if you don’t, who will? When you make money in the markets you need to pay yourself, don’t re-invest all your profits in some vain attempt to grow your account to infinity. Let’s be honest here, you are in the markets to make money so that you can buy things, whether it’s a house, a car, or trying to buy freedom from your job, you aren’t going to buy anything if you keep all your money in your account. Pay yourself and reward yourself, it will help to motivate you and will reinforce positive trading habits.

[youngfx]

Overcome trading self-sabotage with patience and logic

I wish there was a ‘magic-bullet’ that would fix all the inherent flaws in our wiring that cause us to make decisions that sabotage our own trading, but there is not. The only way to succeed in the markets is to circumnavigate the primitive parts of our brains that tend to dominant our trading decisions by using our more advanced and more highly evolved brain areas. We must use logic, objectivity, and delayed gratification if we want to succeed in the markets.

The reason we tend to do things like risking more than we normally do after a few winning trades or dial-down our risk too much after a few losers, is mainly because it ‘feels’ good. Most traders trade based far more on how they feel (emotion) than they do on logic and rationality. This is the reason why most traders lose money. The only way to avoid this self-sabotage in our trading is to have a thorough forex trading plan and follow our plan and trading strategy with discipline and patience.

In order for you to stop sabotaging yourself in the markets, you must learn to be patient. One thing that I can personally share with you is that if you DO learn to trade patiently and ONLY enter the market when your trading edge is present, you will be unlikely to have large strings of losing trades. Trading like a sniper will naturally eliminate the potential to lose a lot of trades in a row, which will in-turn eliminate a lot of the potential for you to become too risk averse as most traders do when they lose a lot of trades in a row. Traders who lose a lot of consecutive trades typically do so because they are not following their trading plan and they are jumping in and out of the market without waiting for their edge to appear. That’s not to say that you can’t have large strings of losers as long as you are following your trading edge with discipline, because you can, but it’s far less likely to occur than if you aren’t following your plan and are trading off emotion.

You see, trading is a profession that you succeed at by putting the odds in your favor, in all aspects of your trading. Once you fall off the wagon and start ‘running and gunning’ rather than trading like a sniper, you immediately turn the odds against you…even if trading in this manner feels good. Good trading is not necessarily exciting or filled with emotional highs and lows…if you are calculating and calm in your trading, you will not be surprised by much, you won’t have huge unexpected losers or winners, but all of your trades will end within the realm of what you expected, winner or loser. Traders become emotional when their trades don’t end how they expected…huge account-destroying losers or account doubling winners…both of these things are the end result of emotional trading and self-sabotage of one’s trading account.

Here are some quick-tips that you can use to help you stop sabotaging your own trading efforts:

• Admit and accept that you’ve been trading emotionally, and decide to do something about it.

• Understand that your previous trade has zero affect on your next trade; do not trade based off the emotion you feel from your previous trade. Separate yourself form the market after your previous trade for 24hrs or however long you need to ‘cool down’

• Stop entering trades just because your previous trade was a winner and you feel confident. Also, stop risking more than you are comfortable with just because you won on a few trades.

• Stop avoiding trades only because you’ve hit a few losers recently, and don’t drastically dial-down your normal risk amount just because you think your losing streak is going to continue.

• Understand that if you are following a high-probability trading edge like price action, and sticking to it, you have to trust your edge. Don’t sabotage it by cranking up your risk after a winner, or avoid valid setups after a loser. Have a trading plan based off your edge and stick to it.

• Record all your trades in a forex trading journal. Doing this will give you something to stay accountable to and will reflect back to you your efforts to remain disciplined or the lack thereof. It will show you in definitive terms how damaging the self-sabotage mistakes that we’ve discussed today can be.

Conclusion:

Sabotaging your own Forex trading efforts is perhaps the most frustrating part of trading, and most traders are guilty of it at some point in their career. If you find that ‘second-guessing’ your trading decisions is one of the main ways you sabotage your own trading efforts, then it’s most likely because you lack confidence in your trading strategy and don’t believe in yourself. I personally trade using price action strategies because of the simplicity involved when making each trading decision. Over the years, I have become extremely confident in pulling the trigger on trades I believe are good opportunities. I attribute this confidence to adopting a ‘simplified’ trading strategy and by repeating the same trading routine day in day out for over a decade. Most successful traders I know keep things simple, they follow a trading routine religiously and always have a plan of action. If you can follow these important points, I believe your trading results will improve dramatically.

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The Secrets to Profitable Forex Trading

Today I am officially letting the “cat out of the bag”; I am going to give you my 9 BIG secrets to profitable trading…OK OK, they aren’t really “secrets”, but they are 9 very important things I personally do or have done that have helped me become a better trader. Unfortunately, there are no “secrets” to making money in the markets, but there are things that you need to do that you most likely aren’t doing, which will greatly increase your odds of becoming a profitable trader. So, without further ado, here are my 9 not-so-secret secrets to successful Forex trading:

1) PICK ONE trading method and keep it clean and simple. Don’t go wasting time trying to make sense of 15 indicators plastered all over your charts like a piece of abstract art. The truth about trading strategies is that finding one that gives you a high-probability edge in the market is not that difficult. But if you over-complicate it and confuse yourself in the process, you are going to do a great deal of harm to your trading account. Look, your trading strategy should make sense and it should be effective, but it should also be so simple that you could explain to a 5 year old, I’m serious.

The trading method that I have used for years is price action (duh); it’s simple, effective, and flexible, and it doesn’t take rocket science to understand or implement. If you want to master trading you can pick one price action strategy and learn how to trade it in every market condition; make it your bi$#!….REALLY master it before moving on.

For example, say you choose to learn the pin bar setup first, the best way to learn this setup is to trade it from key levels within the structure of a trending market, do that first, and make sure you are consistently profitable for 3 months or more trading only that strategy before moving on.

2) ANTICIPATE your trades and follow some kind of written plan. What I mean by “anticipate” your trades is to make sure you never jump in the market on a whim or without any pre-defined reason. You want to always make sure you are basing your trades on logic and objectivity, not irrationality and emotion (like most traders). So, you should have all the key levels drawn on your charts, and assuming you have mastered price action trading, you can simply sit back and wait for a setup to form at a key level in the market. This is called “pre-empting” your trades…instead of randomly jumping in and out of the market, you are watching pre-defined areas in the market and waiting for price action setups to form near them. Once your trade setup forms, you plan your entry, enter the stop and target, and then let the market do the “hard work”. Seriously, go play golf or something, don’t sit there and think about your trade after you enter it, stop thinking for a while and you might just make some money in the markets.

3) MAKE A DIARY OF YOUR TRADES to keep a written on-going track record of your progress. I cannot tell you guys with enough emphasis how important your trading journal track-record is, except to say that if you don’t keep a trading journal or at least regularly analyze your trading history and equity curve, you are extremely unlikely to ever make consistent money in the markets.

The actual process of updating your forex trading journal will help you stay disciplined and organized. This is part of developing the positive trading habits that are so crucial to becoming a long-term profitable trader. I don’t care if you think updating your journal is boring right now, stop complaining and start doing the things that YOU KNOW you need to do to become successful. I can promise you that if you keep screwing around by being unorganized and half-assing it, you are never going to pull the sort of money from the market that you want. You NEED to look at your track record on a regular basis to see something tangible that reflects back to you your ability or inability to trade. This will work to keep you on top of your game.

[youngfx]

Stop Sabotaging Your Forex Trading

Forex Traders have a tendency to sabotage their own efforts in the market, and most of them don�t even know they are doing it. The inherent paradox of trading is that the harder you try to make money or avoid losses, the more these things tend to elude you. This is something that you probably have noticed or felt via your own frustration in making money in the markets.

Do you ever enter another trade immediately after a winner closes out, and then later realize you sort of just jumped into the market without your edge or strategy being present?

Do you ever consciously risk more than you know you should on a trade, and then regret it as the trade immediately goes against you?

Do you ever stop trading for a while after hitting a few losing trades just because you think if you �wait it out� your bad streak will end?

As humans, our biology tends to interfere with our trading much more than we think. It has been proven that people become less risk averse after a winning trade or a series of winning trades, and more risk averse after a losing trade or series of losing trades, even if they are following an effective trading strategy to the T. This is a BIG mistake; there is no logical reason to become less risk averse after a winning trade or more risk averse after a losing trade, because your previous trade does not determine the outcome of your next trade. Traders tend to ratchet up their risk amount after winning trades because they feel euphoric and over-confident and it�s these emotions that will soon lead them to give back all of their recent gains, and probably more.
Stop giving back all your winnings

I�m sure you�ve experienced a nice winning streak in the market, and you were getting excited that your account was growing. Then, probably faster than you made that money, it was gone, and maybe even more. You were left feeling confused, angry, and frustrated. Then the self-doubt sneaks in, the self-criticism, and you might feel like you are just not cut out to be a trader. Does this sound familiar??

I can assure you this is actually �normal�, most traders go through a similar situation at some point in their careers. The reason it�s �normal� to give back your winnings to the market, is because we are actually biologically wired to do so.

� It�s a fact of human biology that we become less risk averse after a series of winning trades.*

� It�s a fact of human biology that we become more risk averse after a series of losing trades.*

� In reality, you aren�t any more likely to win after a winning trade or lose after a losing trade, assuming you are strictly following your trading edge / trading plan.

� If you are strictly following your trading edge and trading like a sniper, you are only going to decrease your profit factor by reducing risk after a losing trade, and you are only going to open yourself up to larger losses if you increase risk after a winner. Because you are NOT more likely to hit another winning trade just because your previous trade was a winner, nor are you more likely to hit a losing trade just because your previous trade was a loser. This is due to the random distribution of winners and losers that exists for any given trading method.

So, the reason you�ve given back a lot or all of your winnings in the market, is that it�s natural for us to feel more euphoric and over-confident after we make some money in the markets. We then tend to forget a little more about the risk on any given trade and focus more on trying to turn our recent winnings into even more; essentially this is greed getting the best of you. Similarly, when we hit a string of losers we tend to cut down our risk more than we should, or we become afraid to enter valid trade setups all together. This is also emotion getting the best of you; it has nothing to do with logic or reality, because in reality you are not more likely to lose on your next trade just because your last one was a loser.

I can�t even tell you how many emails I get from traders saying something like they �built their trading account up a decent amount and now are below their initial starting value�; almost every trader goes through this at some point. You have to decide if you are going to recognize that you are doing something wrong and try to fix it, or stop trading all together. We are all inherently flawed as traders, just because we are human, but we have the gift of a very powerful and highly-evolved brain that can overcome these flaws if we make a conscious effort to do so.
Stop second-guessing your trades

Top traders are always confident in any trade they take, because they know what their edge is, and they don�t trade unless it�s present.

Thus, top traders don�t second guess their trades, whether a trade results in a winner or loser, they fully accept the outcome before it happens and they don�t enter unless they�re confident that it�s a valid instance of their edge.

You never know �for sure� what is going to happen even though at times it can seem like you do. This fact alone accounts for most problems that traders face. It has been said that money management and trading psychology are the most important aspects of successful trading. This is true, but it�s also true that one�s trading method heavily influences their trading psychology, so you need to be sure you aren�t also sabotaging yourself by using confusing and overly-complicated trading systems. These trading methods can certainly cause you to second guess yourself, since you aren�t really sure how to enter or you have to line up 10 different indicators to find an entry signal.

Having a clear and clean trading strategy like price action will go a long to help you remain clear-headed and objective, and this will help to prevent you from committing the trading mistakes we discussed previously. We have to do everything within our power to avoid sabotaging our own trading efforts by giving into the emotion-laced temptations that we face in the markets. Trading with an uncomplicated yet highly effective trading strategy like price action will help us to put the odds in our favor.