Patience.
It’s a virtue…Especially with forex trading.
Arnold H. Glasgow, an American humorist, once said, “The key to everything is patience. You get the chicken by hatching the egg, not by smashing it.”
Developing your currency trading plan will take time. Developing skills will take time.
Waiting for the right trade opportunities requires patience. Entering and exiting a trade at the right moment requires patience.
Discipline.
Discipline is also a virtue, and it means doing the things you need to do to progress and get better….even if you don’t want do it.
This means preparing for each forex trading day or week with research and chart study.
If you’re a mechanical or automated trader, this means back testing systems and constantly trying different settings and strategies as the environment changes.
And of course, don’t forget about keeping a trade journal and reviewing every single day you trade.
Journaling is the one trading task that separates the wannabe traders from the real deal traders. Unfortunately, most newbies won’t do it.
Forex trading concepts and techniques are simple and easy to learn.
What’s hard to learn is how to be patient and disciplined to do the right things and make good trading decisions. Truthfully, it will be one of the most difficult endeavors you will ever take on.
To a newbie, sitting on the sidelines and watching the markets move while you wait for your best setups means you’re missing out on profits.
This way of thinking leads to a failure of patience and discipline and causes some of the most notorious trading mistakes in the book:
- Impulse trades
- Letting losers run too long
- Cutting winners too quickly
- Revenge trades
These actions will kill your account!
Remember that your job as a newbie is to learn how to make good trading decisions and SURVIVE!
The best thing you can do to stay patient and disciplined is to look at your career as a trader as a marathon and NOT a sprint.
Trading is not an overnight, get-rich-quick scheme.
This is a commitment to build skills that will allow you to profitably trade in any environment the market will throw at you at any time.
And essentially, free you from the chains of the “Man.” Fight the Power!!
If you stay patient, maintain discipline, and commit to constant improvement, then your results today as a forex noob will probably be nothing compared to the results of the trader you will become after years grinding it out in the markets.
Another thing….
Always remember that opportunities for good trades occur often.
No need to rush into bad currency trades. They will only set you back from reaching your goals.
Stick to your best ideas and trade setups.
If they don’t come that session, just wait for the next.
Unless the world stops trading currencies (knock on wood) then there will always be opportunities around the corner.
