Do You Think at Winning Forex Is a Magic Trick?

You Shouldn’t………

Before we go any further, make sure the kids aren’t reading this because I may have to resort to killing Santa Claus before the article is over if it comes to that 🙂 !

Now that I have shattered some of your dreams out there, let me make it all better.  I know there are MANY, MANY frustrations and failures in the road to forex.  Our desire to be the best and go for the gold gets us to the door, but when we open it, it is a much tougher mission than we though.  In fact, sometimes the thought of consistent profitable trading seems mystical or magic.

You see, all too often, challenges, especially big ones mystify us. They take on a life of their own and become a Mt. Everest where we are sitting at the bottom, leg broken, no supplies, sherpa broke his toe, bad hair day on top of it. We decided the top of the world was where we wanted to be, so why not just start out by heading for the biggest mountain? Upon arriving though, the challenge seems not only insurmountable, but inhuman. Only a miracle, something supernatural, or magic could tackle it. There is just no way to do it. How is it possible? “Obviously if I can’t even comprehend it, there can’t be anyone who can climb it”.

Then you meet another traveler. She meets you at the base of the same mountain (Everest for those not paying attention, albeit a “figurative” Everest) and you wearily gaze in her direction. Her eyes are filled with confidence, energy and thought. In tow, are a team of fellow adventurers clad in plenty of supplies and determination. This traveler you think, does not share your doubt. She must be crazy. And as you sit an lament about the reasons it’s impossible to tackle, this traveler and her party scale this mountain in front of you. Sure, they lost a member or two to frostbite and weather…….(it’s Everest after all, didn’t want to choose a wimpy mountain), but they completed the “impossible” journey. To her, it was merely the next step in a long road she had worked very hard to travel on.

Trading is very much the same. Although we all start with a similar desire to start our ascent to the top of the financial mountain, we tend to take different paths to get there and many of us never make it half way up. We attempt a monumental challenge ill-prepared, unequipped, without the necessary skills and experience to make it up the mountain. Instead of honing our skills on little hills, we set out for the biggest challenge.

Trust me, I completely understand the rush that comes with thinking about financial independence and all the money you can make doing it. But the first time I actually sat down and really looked at the market, it seemed that it would take an inhuman, magical effort to make sense of it, much less make money from it. And although I recognized that almost immediately, I still pressed forward with a LIVE account, radically leveraging an EA that I had read about in a few reviews. I figured I could just take a shortcut and save myself the hassle of really having to prepare for the challenge I was facing. I “fell off the cliff” and destroyed 80% of that account in 6 hours on one fateful night…….OUCH!!

After that experience, it only hardened a voice in my head (and those in my family), that to accomplish what I was setting out to do was not only impossible, but took some sort of superhero skill or magic to really succeed. We were all wrong.

I sit here today with a very different perspective. I’m still working up to Everest-caliber trading, but I can see the path clearly now. And it doesn’t have anything special about it. Yup, no magic at all. Nothing mystical about it at all. All it takes is a few things to get you there:

• Preparation: Look at your trading like commanding an army in enemy territory. You need to know everything going on, and exactly what your plan will be. And don’t forget a Plan B, C and D if things get ugly. We need to approach trading like NFL players approach every game…….PREPARED. The only difference between winning and losing teams is exactly that, because they are ALL amazing athletes. You must hone your craft, and every time you trade, you must know what’s going on in the market. You must come prepared with not only a plan, but the correct tools and support. You must be in “trading shape” mentally.
• Education: Never stop learning. Of course this is part of preparation, but before you set out on the journey. It’s like pre-trip planning. You want to know everything about where you will be traveling. That means learn nuances about different pairs, candlestick formations, fibonacci, etc….. The more you know, the more you will grow.
• Psychology: That’s right, if you aren’t prepared upstairs, you will fail regardless of how good your system is or how easy the market is to trade. Learn your flaws, and work on improving them. Don’t trade emotionally, under the influence or if you have bitterness or anger. Don’t gamble, there are better ways to do it than in the market. Proper trading takes clarity and focus like any other high-level challenging activity. Be centered within yourself and you will find the path easier to navigate, especially during tough times. You won’t beat yourself up as much, and you won’t take credit for what wasn’t your fault. Your decisions start from psychology and you want to give yourself the best mind to make good ones.
• Tools of the Trade: Yup, kind of hard to get up Everest in sneakers and a sweater and nothing else. Impossible one might say. Approaching trading with a strong set of tools is crucial to making your life easier and your trading more productive. Just remember that the tools depend on the craftsman, no matter how great they are. And that a system is really just a collection of tools that work together as a dynamic way to trade better. It is better to have a cohesive unit, rather than scattered tools that don’t work well together.
• Slow Down: There is no rush, or at least there shouldn’t be. Being able to really achieve a lofty goal like making a ton of money from trading takes time, exposure to lots of different situations and markets, and experience. It’s better to take more time and do it right, than try to rush and lose your money, patience and love of trading.
• Know the Difference Between Efficiency and Shortcuts: An ice axe makes climbing ice and snow much faster and in many cases possible in the first place. Tying yourself to someone using the axe and having them drag you along isn’t very smart though. If they fall, what will stop you from going with them?? Better to do it yourself and understand than depend on someone else to do it for you. They might not be around always, and they might not be who you want to follow anyway. Don’t look for the shortcuts. Look for a way to climb yourself, but don’t avoid anything that will help YOU be better at trading.

This list could go on further, but I think we have discussed enough for the purposes of dispelling any ideas that succeeding at trading, although difficult, requires something beyond what a “normal” human is capable of. You can do it!! You can make the climb!! Just go the right path and you will be the traveler instead of the one languishing with a bad hair day!!

Author: Omar Eltoukhy