Learning to master Forex day trading online for someone who has no background in the financial markets can be intimidating. Generally, much patience and time are needed. However, by looking at the most common mistakes we can at least shorten the learning curve and get past the first few hurdles as quickly and painlessly as possible. The financial rewards once the skills are learned are certainly worth it!
1. Thinking they can generate huge amounts of money in a short time. This is not a get-rich-quick scheme. An individual approaching day trading online with that mindset best look somewhere else.
2. Going by gut feeling instead of calmly assessing market conditions using technical indicators and selecting high probability trades.
3. Chasing the market. A typical scenario: The new trader feels certain price is going up so puts in a long position. Unexpectedly price pulls back. The new trader gets nervous and doesn’t want to lose too heavily so comes out with a 15 pip loss. Shortly after that price resumes the uptrend. The new trader thinks, “I was right in the first place” and puts in a second long position to try and make up for the 15 pip loss and make a profit on top. Low and behold, price doesn’t go where the new trader was expecting, pulls back, and takes out the position at a 25 pip loss.
Score for the day: -40 pips.
Chasing the market is one of the surest ways to blow your account.
4. Lack of thorough preparation before the start of a new trading session. It is crucial a trader examines the charts from a higher time frame down to a small time frame (e.g. weekly, daily, 4 hour, 1 hour) to pick up significant candle or chart patterns and understand the direction of the overall trend. Additionally, consulting the daily calendar for Fundamental Announcements will ensure the trader is not caught off-guard by sudden market moves at news time.
5. Poor or non-existent equity management. New traders often fail to educate themselves on how much they can risk on any one trade according to how much capital they have in their account. Many are tempted to trade multiple lots far too early only to get wiped out. Multiple lots can result in big profits. They can also eat you alive when a trade goes against you. Only strict, almost paranoid,
Tight equity management will ensure the account survives and grows.
6. Floating from one system to the next, trying indicator after indicator, becoming a ‘jack of all trades, but master of none.’ Find a proven system that fits with your trading personality and style and stick with it until you make it work for you.
7. Thinking they can learn by themselves, find the secret code and ‘crack the system.’ Most successful traders learned from someone who is already a professional successful trader, preferably with years of experience. It is so important to have a mentor or tutoring program to get up to speed more quickly.
Psychology of Trading
Trade with a DISCIPLINED
Plan The problem with many traders is that they take shopping more seriously than trading. The average shopper would not spend $400 without serious research and examination of the product he is about to purchase, yet the average trader would make a trade that could easily cost him $400 based on little more than a “feeling” or “hunch.” Be sure that you have a plan in place BEFORE you start to trade. The plan must include stop and limit levels for the trade, as your analysis should encompass the expected downside as well as the expected upside.
Cut Your Losses Early and Let Your Profits Run
This simple concept is one of the most difficult to implement and is the cause of most traders demise. Most traders violate their predetermined plan and take their profits before reaching their profit target because they feel uncomfortable sitting on a profitable position. These same people will easily sit on losing positions, allowing the market to move against them for hundreds of points in hopes that the market will come back. In addition, traders who have had their stops hit a few times only to see the market go back in their favor once they are out, are quick to remove stops from their trading on the belief that this will always be the case. Stops are there to be hit, and to stop you from losing more then a predetermined amount! The mistaken belief is that every trade should be profitable. If you can get 3 out of 6
trades to be profitable then you are doing well. How then do you make money with only half of your trades being winners? You simply allow your profits on the winners to run and make sure that your losses are minimal.
Do Not Marry Your Trades
The reason trading with a plan is the #1 tip is because most objective analysis is done before the trade is executed. Once a trader is in a position he/she tends to analyze the market differently in the “hopes” that the market will move in a favorable direction rather than objectively looking at the changing factors that may have turned against your original analysis. This is especially true of losses. Traders with a losing position tend to marry their position, which causes them to disregard
the fact that all signs point towards continued losses.
Do Not Bet The Farm
Do not over trade. One of the most common mistakes that traders make is leveraging their account too high by trading much larger sizes than their account should prudently trade. Leverage is a double-edged sword. Just because one lot (100,000 units) of currency only requires $1000 as a minimum margin deposit, it does not mean that a trader with $5000 in his account should be able to trade 5 lots. One lot is $100,000 and should be treated as a$100,000 investment and not the $1000 put up as margin. Most traders analyze the charts correctly and place sensible trades, yet they tend to over leverage themselves. As a consequence of this, they are often forced to exit a position at the wrong time. A good rule of thumb is to never use more than 10% of your account at any given time.
Plan The problem with many traders is that they take shopping more seriously than trading. The average shopper would not spend $400 without serious research and examination of the product he is about to purchase, yet the average trader would make a trade that could easily cost him $400 based on little more than a “feeling” or “hunch.” Be sure that you have a plan in place BEFORE you start to trade. The plan must include stop and limit levels for the trade, as your analysis should encompass the expected downside as well as the expected upside.
Cut Your Losses Early and Let Your Profits Run
This simple concept is one of the most difficult to implement and is the cause of most traders demise. Most traders violate their predetermined plan and take their profits before reaching their profit target because they feel uncomfortable sitting on a profitable position. These same people will easily sit on losing positions, allowing the market to move against them for hundreds of points in hopes that the market will come back. In addition, traders who have had their stops hit a few times only to see the market go back in their favor once they are out, are quick to remove stops from their trading on the belief that this will always be the case. Stops are there to be hit, and to stop you from losing more then a predetermined amount! The mistaken belief is that every trade should be profitable. If you can get 3 out of 6
trades to be profitable then you are doing well. How then do you make money with only half of your trades being winners? You simply allow your profits on the winners to run and make sure that your losses are minimal.
Do Not Marry Your Trades
The reason trading with a plan is the #1 tip is because most objective analysis is done before the trade is executed. Once a trader is in a position he/she tends to analyze the market differently in the “hopes” that the market will move in a favorable direction rather than objectively looking at the changing factors that may have turned against your original analysis. This is especially true of losses. Traders with a losing position tend to marry their position, which causes them to disregard
the fact that all signs point towards continued losses.
Do Not Bet The Farm
Do not over trade. One of the most common mistakes that traders make is leveraging their account too high by trading much larger sizes than their account should prudently trade. Leverage is a double-edged sword. Just because one lot (100,000 units) of currency only requires $1000 as a minimum margin deposit, it does not mean that a trader with $5000 in his account should be able to trade 5 lots. One lot is $100,000 and should be treated as a$100,000 investment and not the $1000 put up as margin. Most traders analyze the charts correctly and place sensible trades, yet they tend to over leverage themselves. As a consequence of this, they are often forced to exit a position at the wrong time. A good rule of thumb is to never use more than 10% of your account at any given time.
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