Do you have what it takes to become a successful Forex Trader?

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Forex trading, or any trading for that matter, is an occupation that requires experience and the accumulation of proficiency not unlike any other highly skilled profession. Whether you are a leading executive at a major publically traded company, a professional golfer or trading from your kitchen table, there are 5 key ingredients that one must possess in order to become successful.1. You must be Passionate about what you do.As Forex traders we all face one unique set of circumstances that does not exist in any other profession. We get rewarded for when we succeed and equally punished when we don’t! Could you image a corporate worker one quarter receiving a significant accomplishment bonus and the next quarter actually getting money taken from their paycheck for missing performance targets? Not on your life!
We do as Forex traders and that is why passion for what you do will carry you through the tough times that are part of your trading business. Asked yourself why you trade currencies and would you still do it if Forex were not potentially lucrative? Your answers will be quite revealing. You’ve got to feel your passion for trading!2. You have to Apply Yourself and work hard at it.I talk to so many people that enter into Forex trading with the aspiration of getting rich quick. Without putting the time and energy into really getting good at trading I see them jump from strategy to strategy looking for the goose that will lay the golden egg and eventually quitting while blaming everything else, except the true cause.I got news for you – you are the goose and your Forex education is the golden egg. The magic has always resided with the magician and not some strategy. Work hard at trading and the rewards will eventually come your way. Remember what Tiger Woods said, “Funny, the harder I work the luckier I get.” Apply yourself as a trader and it will be no accident when your account begins to blossom.

3. You must Focus to really get good at what you do.Now here is the hurdle most Forex traders struggle to get over. You have the passion and you are applying yourself to your trade, now focus and really get good at just at what you are doing. Be the expert to the experts at just that one thing. Become the master of a strategy or risk management methodologies. Really focus on getting good at it.Stop jumping around or getting pulled from the last “latest and greatest” into the next “latest and greatest” and focus on one aspect of Forex trading and know it inside out. Know it strengths and weakness. Set your sights on becoming expert on just one aspect of trading and watch it spill over in all other aspects for your currency trading. This is the time to fail forward fast, use every setback as a learning opportunity that will propel you 3-steps ahead!

4. You must Push Yourself beyond the point everyone else might have quite. In Forex Trading this is simple. Assume there is someone on the other side of your trade that is pushing themselves and sharpening their edge. To be successful you must you must do the same thing. Now is the time to examine your mental edge. Do you know the single most critical factor in any currency trade? It is you, the trader! Sharpening you mental edge is the most difficult aspect of trading, but also the most rewarding.Start with your Forex education and gain the self-awareness necessary to maximize your strengths and suppress your weaknesses. Any expert will tell you that trading is 80% mental. It’s time to sharpen your trading to the razor’s edge and you do this through Forex education. A constant and never ending process that will become the cornerstone of your Forex experience.

5. You must, without wavering, be Determined and Persist to your objective.You will fail. I can state that emphatically. However, you will not be defeated unless you allow your failures to control your trading. It is the old adage; failure is not falling of your horse, failure is refusing to get back on. Your success depends on your ability to dismiss the criticism, rejection, self-doubt and pressures associated with Forex trading.Defining what is a winning trade, losing trade and bad trade will go a long way into developing you as a successful trader. Without the determination and persistence in all aspects of your trading life, obstacle will definitely appear closer and larger than they actually are.Take a moment and assess yourself and your trading. Do you have the key elements to succeed? Which areas are presents development opportunities? When conducting a self-evaluation it is critical to be totally upfront and honest with yourself. After all, you will only be dishonest with yourself. One of the most interesting observations you can make is that all key success factors are interwoven. One factor supports the other. This is why your Forex education isa continuous journey of forex strategy, money management and self-mastery. Set these factors as your Forex education goals and take your currency trading to new heights.

USDCAD: TOO MUCH, TOO FAST IN FOREX

Last nite usdcad fall too much and too fast. Is is unexpected. As usual when a pair move too much and too fast, it will lose it balance. As a result, usdcad maybe entering swinging mode for a few days. It doesnt really has direction. It will just goes up and down waiting for it to balance out before a new trend continue.I am still holding usdcad short for now but in the long run it is not profitable. I will exit soon and wait for the equilibrium of the pair.

STOP LOSS THE MARKET IS CRUEL ?

Sometimes it happen but this is one rare ocassion and I am really stunned. I was holding a long position on GJ. I am in profit of about 100 pip with a stop loss of 50 pip from my entry point. Guess what. The market turned down 150 pip in one move, hit my stop loss and now its flying. This has nothing to do with the broker, it is just the market is cruel. No matter who, you will get hit sooner or later. In order to hit me, the market has to move 150 pip againts the trend. What an honour I must say. 150 pip is much more than most people TP.Enough said, all pairs should have a steady climb from now on. If you are holding long at the moment, make it long term.

CRAPPY CONNECTION!!!

Sorry for the long period of no update on this blog. It seems that internet connection is really bad. At the office I am using Streamyx. Connection is crappy as usual. At home I am using Celcom 3G. Its better but its slow. Maybe my home is not well covered by the 3G network.As for forex, EurUsd, GbpUsd, AudUsd, EurJpy and GbpJpy is heading up now but not to worry, there is still time. On the long term only EurUsd looks good for a long trade. I am currently holding long EurUsd @ 1.2640 with a stop loss of 50 pip. This is a long term trade, hopefully the move upwards will take a long time and lots of pips on the way. As for the other pairs, it is heading up but its not an uptrend yet. They will be entering the ranging period now. So there will be plenty of chances for entry. If all these pairs maintained their direction we will see a change in trend in the longer term trades.I will list key levels for guidelines. These key levels are good for both sell and buy position. Treat them as guidelines for entry in either direction. EurUsd : 1.2670GbpUsd : 1.5050AudUsd : 1.6450EurJpy : 119.20GbpJpy : 141.50These key levels are always changing. Since most of these pairs are entering the ranging zone so you can use these key level for this whole week. As for me I will be looking for a long trade from these levels that is if the current direction stays.Good things are simple things. If you have a system, make sure it is simple. With simple indication you can make clear decision

FOREX SIGNAL - NOT REALLY !!!!!

When people say free forex signal, it refer to an instruction to trade specific currency pair at a certain price. Normally this signal is based on the trader study and experience. It is more of a personal view of things to come.In certain cases the signal does work. In a different situation, it fails. This is because the person giving that signal is also a small trader. His study is based on either technical or fundamental with no real money to back it up. If that person is good, he will have enough followers and the total money traded towards his signal will back him up and make the currency move. If that person have very few followers, then he is swimming alone in a sea full of sharks.That is what most of us do. We do not coordinate and we work alone in forex. Thats why the sharks are taking their time and making easy picking of us, swallowing one at a time. It doesnt sounds good but its the truth. Now you dont have to wonder why most people fails and why banks keep on making huge profit. If you want to take forex signal, take it from someone who you can trust from inside the banks. They have a lot more info and study on forex. The amount of info, knowlegde, manpower and money is impossible for any of us to compete. For some people who manage to find a method to be profitable in forex, its a good thing. You have found a way to take advantage of the system. The system after all is developed by human and human by itself is full of weaknesses. For those of you who is losing, its time to think about swimming alone is a sea of sharks. Time to find friends and help each other out in terms of knowledge and money power. Dont get me wrong, I am in profit today. I have found a way to take advantage of the system though its like a mouse, stealing food one little bit at a time. Better to profit a little than losing all the time but for how long are you willing to be the small fish. Always jumping in and out of trade. Hoping for the trend to hold long enough for you to gain a little profit.In order for me to grow in forex, I need to team up. It has long been in my mind, just looking for the right opportunity and people. Anyone here think the same? ???

A DIFFICULT MARKET CONDITION IN FOREX !

It is not looking particularly well for GBPUSD. In the other hand, EURUSD and AUDUSD is looking good for a long term trade. I am taking the long position. It may take a very long time to profit but looking at the chart from a technical view, EURUSD and AUDUSD is in a good position for a long term trading.I dont exactly know the entry point but I do know the direction. It is time to monitor the shorter time frame in order to find the best possible entry and to minimize stop loss. It may take sometime but I dont care. I have been waiting for this moment almost 2 months. Look at the charts and see the formation of daily, 4 hour, 30 minute and 5 minute. You may see something that took me over 2 years to see. Only time can tell if my calculation is correct. At the moment I am still waiting for the 5 minute chart to give and entry signal

TRADING WITH MOVING AVERAGE %

At the moment I am rather busy. Moving to a new place and house. The house still needs a lot of work. As a result, I do not have time to update this blog. Trading is still going on but on a shorter timeframe. Result is consistent now. AudUsd is very kind at the moment with no sudden movement.In the next few weeks I will show you how to trade using only MA. As usual what works for me may not work for you. This is because some of you may not be able to follow the rules of the game.RULES OF THE GAME1. Trade based on your capital and the time that you have. The bigger your capital the longer the TF. The more time you have the longer the TF. Vice versa.2. Only trade at the direction pointed by the MA pairs. If the MA pairs is showing mixed direction, do not trade. The MA pairs must be pointing at the same direction.3. If a trade suddenly change direction, do not hesitate to close it at a loss and turn the trade. This is the hardest part where most of you failed. Free your mind or become a loser all your life.4. Keep in mind, there is no such thing as winning all the time. Just make sure you win a lot more than you lose. In the end your profit will grow along with your confident.Simple system with simple rules. I like to keep it simple. No point of having the most complex system when simple system can have the same result. With this system you will be out of the market most of the time. This is because you will only be taking the big move and avoiding the small move and market noise. Last advise. Do not anticipate. Forex is not a game of inteligence eventhough this system at full swing will show you possible turning point. I am having a possible turning point for audusd at 0.7200 but I will not take it coz there will be market swing before the actual turn. Why wast time waiting for the big move when you can actually see when its going to move.In the mean time, good luck for all of you. I will be back once my pc is online again. At the moment I am posting this on a laptop. I dont like laptop, too small keypad, makes it hard to do speed typing.

BIG PLAYERS SEE ONLY BIG NUMBERS

I am typing this from my pc. It a bit of a mess now, the new house still needs a little work and I am not feeling well lately. Maybe its the change in climate. This week I am going to talk about numbers only. Forex is after all based on numbers. Example, I have a long position on GBPUSD @ 1.4700 with a profit of 320 pips at the moment and still holding. What I am going to say is big players only see big number. The do not see the last 2 digit. The last 2 digit is for scalpers. Big players only see the 1st 3 or 4 digit only. So if a bank wants to buy or hedge a currency they will give an instruction to buy at 1.47. Thats it. Simple yet people fails to see it.So what happens at 1.47? The price will bounce of or hover around it but things arent always what they appear to be. What happen is price will have a range between 1.46 - 1.48. That is almost 200 pips wide range. Imagine what happen to your 50 or 100 pip SL?? Now you know why people lose money even though they have the right direction. These big players have big money they dont mind to stand few hundreds negative pips coz in the end they will profit big time. What they do is they will have a standing order to trade at certain level. Because the total amount of order, the market cannot fill the order in 1 transaction and so price will hover or bounce of a certain level. This is where double top or bottom appear. Behind it is the action of filling orders by these big players. Example EJ currently have a top of 1.34 and a bottom of 1.30. Big players are playing the game here. At the moment EJ is climbing and there is a big possibility that it will reach 1.34 again. I have a standing order to buy EJ at 1.30. If it hits there is a very big chance for 400 pips gain. Only time will tell.