Trading: Is It All A Mind Game?
You must switch your mental attitude first from a normal person to that of a speculator. Almost all traders I have met, except a few successful ones who really made millions and billions trading in the market, simply waste all their time trying to learn the easiest part in perfection, like about how to read data and charts, and trying to perfect entry and exit skills, etc. Trading is a mind game and without having the right frame of mind, it is a losing game even before it starts.
Now there’s a little help from “a friend” – i.e. a piece of software that’s able to look a few hours into the future in any market conditions – it’s called an eerie name -just check it here.
Conditioning a change in mindset is the first step for any successful trading academy (mostly inhouse in big institutions) but almost all new (selfmade) traders neglect that part and that explains why more than 95% of traders are a failure in the long run.
Understandingthe market is not difficult for anyone with average brains and keen study. But it is neither the level of intelligence nor the knowledge that decides the outcome of the market operations of a trader. It is the decision making process that is so hard for most traders to overcome and that is the main reason for rise or fall for all those traders out there. Some find it easy to make decisions and stick to them and most, I mean really most, simply buckle.
Through studies and research, a trader faces the task of making decisions to put this knowledge and system into practice. Then, how many traders can honestly say they can commit their ranch when the trade is suggested by their own system (given that trading is just a chance game) and let the system run for weeks and months when their system tells them, and how many can manage to cut the loss as a routine process when the situation arises?
It all sounds so easy when saying it but so difficult when doing it – and affecting real money in the market. I still do not sleep well when I am running position because even if the profits are running into a few hundred dollars and the system is telling you to carry on? There is no guarantee that the profit will turn into a yard or two in a month time, and it may even turn into a loss in a day or two when something unexpected happens.
Outch – have I lost? What’s going on?. Finally, assuming one has decent trading system and market knowledge and high quality info-input, it is ultimately how disciplined and how well that trader can take the pain of making right choices at the right time that decides the outcome of the trades.
{Hence} I call trading a mind game. When I interview prospective young traders, I always look for disciplined and strong-willed persons as my first priority as long as one has decent education, but strangely in many cases, it is some kind of genius or half-genius with lots of brains with no discipline who turn up for an interview thinking only bright to brilliant people can make good traders.
In fact, I always try to pyramid while position trading medium-term once I am convinced of a new medium-term trend emerging. Like in USD/JPY position trading 135-132 as an initial position, adding in 132 and 129 areas. Same for AUD/USD and EUR/USD with similar strategies. But sitting on positions and watching the counter-rallies costing truck loads of money is not an easy job to do and causes lots of pain all the time. Most traders even among experienced ones cannot bear that pain and give up too early. There’s simply no other way and we have to bite the bullet and “sit and accumulate” as long as the medium-term trend is intact. That is why I always believe the psychological aspects of trading are far more important than anything else for success. A mind game like those bluffing a game of poker? Something similar- but I’m not the gambling type – really.
Entries and exits can never be “irrelevant” for any trader for any purpose. But indeed exits are more important than entries because any perfect or near-perfect entries are – I’m sure you agree on this- possible only in hindsight.
Did I mention this forex robot with artificial intelligence – being able to look several hours into the future – in ANY market condition? It sure takes some of that pain away for the selfmade forex trader !
Margin Is Key To The Popularity Of Foreign Exchange Trading
Margin is one of the key features that makes foreign exchange trading so exciting a prospect. Without a factor like margin, trading in this area would be completely out of reach for the ordinary man in the street who wants to invest in this area. However, what exactly does “Margin” mean?
Margin is a factor which allows foreign exchange traders to control large sums of currency while making relatively small deposits. This works by establishing a “margin Account”. This has to be conducted through a forex broker and it will enable the new trader to control what they call currency lots. A currency lot is generally worth in the region of $100 000.
Through leverage the broker or trader is able to make a small deposit of say $1000, which will allow him a leverage ratio of 100:1. Essentially this means the broker is able to have access to a 1% margin which in the case of a $1000 deposit is $100 000. One hundred times their initial deposit!
The trader is able to access large profits when trading on a margin, but this also means that losses can also be incurred. Money likes speed so although the risk of losses exists, safeguards are generally put in place to limit these losses. A broker will generally terminate any transaction before it goes above the deposit margin, but in some instance more than the initial deposit may be lost.
Forex is actually traded in smaller units than cash is. For example the US dollar trades down to four decimal points. For instance instead of $1.42, it will ready as $1.4238. The smallest unit is known as a “pip”. When trading US dollars in a value of a $100 000 lot, your pip is valued at $10. If the price of the dollar were to change from $1.4238 to 1.5238, it is a 100 pip difference and while this loss or profit of $10 may be meaningful to a tourist, it means very little to an investor. This example indicates how margin is able to increase potential profit or loss.
Forex Investing Tips That Will Help You Make Money
The forex investing market sure has changed. In the old days, it was different and there are tons more people using it. Forex investing has become very easy to do, all thanks to the Internet. In the older days, not many people were able to turn to forex trading to make money. Is it because today’s world holds more risk takers?
What currency is being traded on the forex market today? There are many different currencies that are being traded, but some of the most popular are: Swiss franc, pound, Canadian dollar, Yen, Aussi and he Euro. When it comes to each one of the currency pairs, the first one is referred to as being the base currency, while the second one of the quote currency or the counter currency.
Never before have we seen so many benefits in forex. There are so many people out there that have become millionaires all thanks to the tricks of the trade. Speaking in money, there is one thing we believe you should know. If you are the type that generally does not have extra money in your pocket, then the trading system may not be the best for you.
When you are dealing with the forex market, you will hear pip more than once. What exactly is a pip? It is the minimum move that a currency pair is able to make. Pip stands for Price Interest Point. What is the main purpose of trading? It would be to buy low and sell high, of course.
You should also take the following forex investing tip in mind: trade only during those peak hours, because that is when most of the brokers are trading and the currency fluctuations will be more predictable. When you trade during the off hours, then things could be very volatile and unpredictable.
Margin Makes Foreign Exchange Trading Exciting
Margin is one of the key features that makes foreign exchange trading so exciting a prospect. Without a factor like margin, trading in this area would be completely out of reach for the ordinary man in the street who wants to invest in this area. However, what exactly does “Margin” mean?
Foreign exchange traders are able to control large lots of currency by means of margin. They are able to do this while investing relatively small amounts of money. The trader will open an account with a forex broker in order to gain access to leverage. In this way they can control lots of up to $100 000 in foreign currency, this is the generally accepted size of these lots.
The leverage the trader gains from the margin account is expressed as a ratio. For instance a leverage ratio of 100:1 means the trader is able to have access to control over 100 x their deposit amount of forex assets. So essentially in a $100 000 standard forex lot with a 1% margin will require a deposit of $1000.
It has to be borne in mind however that trading on margin can increase losses as well as profits. The potential is there, and is very real for any trader, to lose as much as if not more than their original deposit. It is possible to put safeguards in place to prevent this from happening. In order to limit any losses a broker generally terminates a transaction which goes beyond the deposit in the margin. However losses do occur when even a small change in a currency occurs, as do profits.
Cash is traded in far larger units than foreign exchange. A good example of this is the USD, this currency trades down to 4 decimal places. In other words, what might be $1.35 in normal currency; in forex would be $1.3576. The smallest currency exchange unit is the pip. In a $100 000 lot the pip equals $10. and while $10 might have some meaning to a tourist from the US going on holiday, it has little meaning to an investor. So if the currency of exchange increases say to $1.457, it would either mean a loss or profit of $10.