One of the best things about joining forex trading forums is that you get to interact with fellow currency trading enthusiasts. And, if you’ve been in the trading scene a while, you start to notice common questions and concerns across different discussion threads.
Today, I’m dedicating a post to the most common trading woes that I see in trading forums. I’ve also included some of my notes in case forex newbies drop by for a lesson and trading enthusiasts are in the mood for a throwback.
Take a look at five of them and see any of them sound familiar to you!
“The market is against me.”
Losing a trade is tough especially if you’ve spent considerable time analyzing the markets, identifying a good setup, and drafting a solid trading plan and then executing it to a tee. The loss particularly stings when price action immediately moves against your trade as soon as you’ve entered a position.
But there are no forex gods just waiting to troll you and your account. It’s more likely that you’ve missed a catalyst or you got caught in an environment change that invalidates your earlier biases.
Since there are tons of reasons why currency prices move, the best you can do is to prepare for as many scenarios as you can and make sure you enter a trade with the odds in your favor.
“My broker is a scammer.”
This statement doesn’t come as a surprise since there ARE hoards of shady brokers out there. However, there’s also no lack of tips and tricks from your trusted websites and forex trading forums against scammers.
Do you due diligence before giving your hard-earned moolah to a broker. Check with your regulators if the broker is legit. Ask around in forums. Open a demo account to test if the broker’s platform agrees with your trading personality. Last but not the least, READ THE FINE PRINT before you sign the dotted line.
“You can’t really live off of trading profits.”
Check your privileges. Or at least your expectations. One of the more common misconceptions about forex trading is that it can make you a gazillionnaire in 21 days or less. But, like in any high-performance endeavor, it takes a lot of time, effort, and discipline to become consistently profitable.
An athlete, for example, wouldn’t expect to win trophies just because he bought a racket and plays tennis once a week. He has to learn the ropes of the game, condition his body, and polish his skills and strategies before he can turn his passion into a living.
As traders, you need to learn the basic economic correlations and chart patterns, go through several trading systems, and execute trading plans flawlessly and consistently before you can think about upping your risk exposure (and potential gains) per trade.
“You won’t have a life outside of trading.”
This is true. Next!
I’m kidding. Evaluate your forex trading goals and determine how much you’re willing to sacrifice for it. If you’re more comfortable scalping or making day trades, then toning down your Netflix binges shouldn’t be a hardship.
If swing or long-term trading is more your style, then you might want to explore strategies and schedules that will allow you to do most of your work early on and just check on your trades once in a while throughout the week.
At the end of the day, we accept the trading lifestyle we think we deserve.
“Forex trading is too complicated.”
Two words: Trading Tips. Okay, maybe three words.
That’s it for my list today, folks. Let me know if you think of any other trading grumbles that might have perfectly reasonable explanations behind them!
