Are Your Forex Trading Challenges Unique?
|Hello traders! This week’s newsletter is coming to you from Sacramento, California. While this is my first time to this center and meeting these students, the questions and experiences of this group of sixteen is basically similar to every other forex trading class that I have ever taught. This class has the typical diversity of students in it, from a couple of people in their mid-twenties to a couple that are about seventy years old. Some are married, some single. There are a few wealthy and a few middle class. A few are already retired while most have regular jobs. A couple are even transplants from other countries.
Each of the students has their own set of challenges in the forex marketplace. A few are brand new to forex trading, not even sure what a spread is (difference between bid and ask). A few have been trading for a while, but have been on the losing side of the profit and loss equation. A couple are making a little bit of money, but like many traders end up giving back too much in profits after a series of wins. So, what is the point of all this?
Many new traders, and even new students to Online Trading Academy, think that their own issues/experiences in the forex trading world are unique. Nothing could be further from the truth! After teaching for ten years now, with several thousand students coming through my classes, I think I have heard just about every issue that exists in the world of trading. If not all of them, then a good 90%+ of the issues out there. In fact, I have actually experienced first-hand in my own forex trading history many of the challenges that exist! Here are just a couple of these issues: taking myself out of a profitable trade too early, then watching it go to my original profit target (micromanagement of trades); moving my stop loss the wrong direction when the trading price approaches the stop (breaking the rule of following the original plan on a trade). Either of those issues sound familiar to you?
There are two main points I’d like to make with this article. The first is the fact that the vast majority of issues that any trader faces HAS BEEN FACED BEFORE AND CONQUERED, often, by tens of thousands of traders before you. If they can fix their issue who says that you can’t fix it too?
The second main point I’d like to make is that identifying these issues, and their easy fixes, is often something you can’t do on your own. Just like listening to your own voice sounds odd to most people, trying to self-diagnose your trading problems can be difficult. My recommendation for anyone facing trading challenges is to hang out with successful traders, either in person or online. If you are a golfer and have a problem with your swing, is it easy for you to identify and then fix a terrible slice? Usually, no. Same rings true with trading. Anyone facing challenges should find mentors, teachers or at least someone who has faced the challenge and conquered it before, for aid. Don’t be stubborn or proud! Trading can be extremely profitable, but only if you can get past the (not) unique challenges that every trader faces. Once the “lightbulb” goes off and you get that “aha” moment, put your ego in a drawer and get help.
I often say in class that I learn something new every week in trading even though I’ve been doing it since 1997. It doesn’t matter to me if someone has been trading for a year or a hundred years, we don’t know it all and can learn from just about anyone. Swallow that pride, accept the help, and make a lot of pips!
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