Do you still leave trades on hoping they will come back.  You know the “blowout trades”
that take all of the money you just made, and put you back to where you started or just
plain wipe out your whole account.

“Are You Set To Make The Wrong Decision On Your Next Trade?”

If you are not set to make the trade that your tested trading plan dictates you should make,
then your are set to make an emotional trade.

Do you keep making the wrong trades all the time?  If so most likely you are the problem.
It is not the trading system you are using, or the market, or the limited time you have to trade,
it is YOU.  You are the common denominator.

Solution:

Know your trading system
Follow the trade tracker
Keep a trading journal

Then

Make a trading plan
Follow the trading plan

These simple steps will help you develop the discipline to become a successful trader.
It is simple but it is not easy if you want to take short cuts and play the get rich quick game.
It takes time to develop the skill; patience, discipline, and persistence to become a successful trader.
But it is worth it when you get there.

This means you have 25% losses and 75% wins.  So if your wins are larger and the loses are smaller,
you will have a successful trading account.  This means you will lose 1 out of 4 trades.  If you
execute all the trades exactly the same then you can pin point the problem areas in your trading.

By doing the same thing each time you place a trade, you are developing a mechanical trading style.
You just see the trade and pull the trigger.

When you have a loss you need to still reduce the pain and emotions.  You need to make the money you
lose not so valuable.  Also set a limit of how much you will lose before you go back to demo trading.
All of your testing should be done in a demo account to get the skills you need to trade well.
It doesn’t hurt to go back to demo trading if you have a losing streak.  Do another 20 trades, get
your rhythm back then return to live trading again.

This is the way we like to take the higher probability trades.  When we get a signal on
the 15 min or 30 min time frame then we look at every thing up to the 4 hour and see if
the signal is going in the direction of the trend on each of the larger time frames.
If they all give confirmation then you have a better chance of getting a high probability trade.
If you do not have confirmation of the trend on all time frames the strength of that trade is weakened.

You need to learn to use all of the indicators in our courses so you can determine what to look for.
If you have patience, and follow your trading plan then you can become successful at trading.
Once you have a solid understanding of how to trade manually and can read all the signals then
you can use the alerts to bring the trades to you rather than having to spend time looking for
the trades.

The Alerts are based on the entry signals in our courses.  They save you time looking for trades.
You can watch many currency pairs at one time and only take the best trades.  You will always know
which pairs are moving on any given day because the alerts will give you heads up.

Many of us never get over the subtle emotional effects of learning from mistakes.  Making mistakes are
just opportunities to learn. If not understood in a mature way, mistakes can be felt as a personal failing.
We all handle loss in different ways.  The way we handle loss comes from our experiences as a child.
Hopefully we learn from our weakness so we are able to make the right decision the next time something
similar comes up.  So if we learn from our losses and or mistakes then we will be able to survive trading.

If you use a set of indicators that work on all time frames then you can wait for the best trades and
time your entries.  By only taking the best trades you will have fewer losses.  Know that you will win
so many trades and you will lose so many trades.  Study both your losses and your wins.  Once you know
what you did wrong and what you did right along with how you felt with each kind of trade you will be
able to overcome the frustrations of losing.  When a trade goes against you cut it shortcutting the
emotions as well.  When you have a good trade remember what you did what you saw and how you felt.
Review how you managed the winners and the losers; managing the trade is a big part of overcoming the
emotion, fear of loss, and loss of your account.  Make sure you learn these lessons on a demo account.

Once you know why you want to trade then you can set weekly and monthly goals.
This will automatically set you annual goals. It is easy to get caught up in making
winning trades that you forget why you started to trade. This will also help you
chose your trading style.

Maybe your goals include having some free time. Then you might say I will only
trade between two set times and only trade 3-4 days a week. Maybe you want to have
an extra $100,000 when it comes time to retire. Then you need to figure out how many
years you have until retirement then how much you need each year then month then day.
This will keep you focused on what you are trying to accomplish by trading the currency
market.

If you want to make a lot of money, then you need to figure out what a lot of money is.
Your target needs to be specific and measurable. Otherwise you are just spending time
on an expensive hobby. It needs to be broken down into bite size chunks and reviewed
on a regular basis.

If you do not have enough starting capital to reach your goal then you need to change
your goal or earn some more investment capital.

This is just an idea on how to stay focused on the right thing, and that is to
make money.

A day traders comments: He is a consistent trader his accuracy was good but would have
a blow up one day a month and lose a lot of what he had made. When he realized that
being right is not the key to making profitable trades. Sticking to your pre determined
plan and making high probability trades and not being emotionally attached to being right.
Stick to stop losses religiously. When he corrected his thinking he has quadrupled his
profits in just a few weeks.

Another trader makes a few comments. Traders look for the Holy Grail. The Holy Grail
could be within you. Get rid of the bad habits you have. Harnessing your emotions gets
rid of bad habits that keep you from being a winning trader. People over look their i
nner trader. Traders need to get rid of the bad habits and reinforce the good skills
they have by being disciplined.

This trader felt that there was an advantage of strong mentor ship. Trading is 85% mental
and 15% know how. If you are a disciplined trader you are following the rules of your
trading strategy. Step back look at the trading strategy, document the rules and make
sure that you are truly following the rules. Successful traders document their trading
activities they learn over time where they have improved. You need to be a disciplined
and focused trader. Being more patient and waiting for the high probability trades you
will notice the percentage of your winning trades will go up. Being disciplined will
help you to have more confidence and be calmer in your trading.

When you learn the basics of trading you do not have to learn about your emotions.
BUT when you start trading live you quickly learn about your emotions. Control the
emotions of fear and greed. You will not be able to eliminate it but you have to
control them. Writing the journal helps you know where you need to improve you do
not have to tweak your trading system. How you feel when you lost and when you won.
Take less trade avoiding the bad trades so the account grows. People will spend a
lot of time learning the technical side of trading but never do the record keeping
or checking their emotions.

See if any of this information could help you become a more disciplined trader.

You might say I am looking at charts, the indicators, price movement… what else should
I be observing? Let’s make a list of the things you need to look at.

How am I feeling?
What is my emotional state?
What is my self-talk before, and after the trade?
What is my thinking?
What patterns did I observe?
Did I follow my rules?
Did I hesitate or just take the trade when I saw the signals.

Once you get use to different things you need to keep track it will come automatic
and you will not have to think about it. Your goal is to become a mechanical trader
see the signals enter the trade, manage the trade, and exit the trade. Look for the
next trade and repeat the process.

Be aware of your environment and what is going on inside and out side of you.

Trade Good,

(excerpts in this series were taken from the book “The 4-Hour Work Week”  By Timothy Ferris)

“Uncovering Fear Disguised as Optimism”

“There’s no difference between a pessimist who says, ‘Oh, it’s hopeless, so don’t bother doing anything,’ and an optimist who says, ‘Don’t bother doing anything, it’s going to
turn out fine anyway.’  Either way, nothing happens.”

“Fear comes in many forms, and we usually don’t call it by its four-letter name.  Fear itself is quite fear-inducing.  Most intelligent people in the world dress it up as something else:
optimistic denial.

Most who avoid quitting their jobs entertain the thought that their course will improve with time or increase in income.  This seems valid and is a tempting hallucination when a job is boring or
uninspiring instead of pure hell.  Pure Hell forces action, but anything less can be endured with enough clever rationalization.  Do you really think it will improve or is it wishful
thinking and an excuse for inaction?  If you were confident in improvement, would you really be questioning things so?  Generally not.  This is fear of the unknown disguised as optimism.

*Note we are not implying that you should quit your job without a sound exit strategy.  In fact, keeping a job while growing your trading career is the best move in our minds. You can use the
J.O.B. as a tool to accelerate your situation.  So quitting does not need to happen until you are financially sound and capable to transition to a full time trader.  Remember we are not talking
about taking backwards steps here.

So, work into your plan of attack how you will use the job to meet your obligations.  Work towards paying off debts to increase your freedom,  Focus on the entire financial picture.  It is
all connected.  Seriously, you can trade part time and make really good money.  But it is a riskier investment than your 9-5 job.  So take care and caution to preserve your stability.

GOOD TRADING

(excerpts in this series were taken from the book “The 4-Hour Work Week”  By Timothy Ferris)

“Conquering Fear=Defining Fear”

In the last post 2-4 “The Power of Pessimism”  I talked about facing your fears by using a plan of attack and addressing what those fears are that are keeping you in place.
I would like to define this process in greater depth.

Define the nightmare.  Create in your mind what that trading experience would be: whether it is a first loss, a streak of losses, or a serious drawdown causing a set back in
your trading account.  Create that scenario in your mind and then live as if you are there in that moment. (possibly you have already experienced it or are living inside that
nightmare right now?)  Either way put yourself there and record the emotions that you feel.  Once you have defined the emotions you are feeling, refer back to your plan of attack.
Make sure that you have defined the fear as it really is, then make any adjustments to how you will cope with the emotions that you are having and define a plan to extinguish them.

GOOD TRADING