Hello readers, welcome back. I have been operating on a very tight schedule lately. I finally got a chance to share one more tip here. Today’s topic is about the importance of unlearning in order to learn.
About 10 years ago, I embarked on this journey of learning how to trade. At first, I did not really think that there’s so much that I would need to learn. For me, just like most people who are starting out, it was just all about learning how to place a trade, buying the latest robot and learning a gazillion strategies. All of that was really fruitless. I was just too busy but less productive and it all seemed normal at that time.
After loosing so much money trying to find the way that would work best for me, I was challenged by the fact that I needed to unlearn a lot, it wasn’t easy at all, but it had to be done and I am so glad that I finally managed. Below are the few things that I had to unlearn.
Following every Forex group
One of the biggest mistakes that most traders do is to follow every social media group in search for more knowledge, which makes it very difficult to focus especially when you have your own trading plan that you are trying to follow and stick to.
I used to be that person who was everywhere on social media groups as long as I would see the word “Forex” I would definitely follow or join the group. I did that a lot when I was trading without any trading plan, but I continued to do that even when I had just done my own trading plan which I never followed of course due to being all over social media groups.
I would be on the right track for the day but as soon as I logged in to those groups, I would follow all the gurus who were claiming to be the best. I would literally place all their trades from their posted screenshots. I continued to make losses until I had to put a stop to it by leaving all those groups. That was the first thing that I had to unlearn. Learning how to trade is not easy in this kind of a setup as it can bring so much confusion.
Being glued to my screen all day and night
This was the most difficult one. For some reason, I felt like I needed to struggle and to have sleepless nights because that made me look like I knew what I was doing and I was smart (I know I sound silly right now, but this is a true story). When I finally learned that I don’t really have to stay up all day & night babysitting trades, I stopped. It wasn’t easy though, but I managed with the help of a good mentor.
Most of my mentees are faced with this challenge. Just 2 weeks ago, I had a weekly coaching session with one of my mentees (I do those with live traders every Fridays) and we were trying to sort out such issues for her. “Even when I am driving, I would open charts to see what’s going on” ~ Mentee. This particular mentee is struggling to unlearn those habits of being glued to her screen. She is definitely working on it though and I am positive that she will overcome as long as she is willing to and put in the work that is needed.
Trading more brings more money
OK, on a daily basis I used to place a minimum of 30-40 trades because I actually believed that the more I traded, the more money I would make. It was the total opposite though. I had to unlearn that but what made it more difficult to unlearn was the fact that everyone I knew seemed to be doing the same thing and it seemed very normal to me.
The sooner I unlearned that, the sooner I started to relax more, became less grumpy and I was able to think straight (it’s not easy to think straight when you have so many open trades at once which are keeping you on your toes).
I believe that if we can manage ourselves better, we can definitely manage our finances better. It starts with us. One of the things that I focus more on, on my training and mentorship program , is trading psychology which is basically about how one can manage his/her emotions and so forth. Learning a certain trading strategy is the easiest part, but implementing it is a case of will and strength.
Thank you for stopping by. If you find this post valuable, kindly share with your peers using share buttons on the sidebar. Should you need any private assistance, don’t hesitate to contact me.
One of the key ingredients to successful trading is to have self Confidence
Hello readers, it’s been a while since I shared some practical tips which may help you in your own trading. The tips that I mostly share here are not strategy based, they are not only meant for a specific trading strategy. Experience has taught me that most failures in trading are as a result of not managing ourselves well.
The tips shared on this blog will help you to work on yourself because you are your biggest asset or resource. When you are in control of yourself, you can be in control of your trading account and you’ll manage your money better. After all, your Forextrading account needs you more than it needs strategies and capital. No matter how large your capital may be, if you are not working on yourself, you’ll soon lose it all.
What is Confidence?
Confidence has a common meaning of a certainty about handling something, such as work, family, social events, or relationships, source:Wikipedia. To have confidence means that you have a feeling of trust and a firm belief in yourself and your abilities. Now this makes so much more sense as to why you will have to build confidence in your Forex trading. Below are the 3 steps that can help you to build confidence in your trading.
1.Identify the areas where you are doing well
I agree, I also do have areas in my life where I am less confident (I guess we all do). As a results driven mentor, I recently invited The Voice of Confidence, a Confidence Coach to coach my mentees once a week over a period of 4 weeks on issues of confidence and how they can teleport (as she would say) confidence from the areas where they are doing excellent to the areas where they are not doing so well or less confident.
What made me to even speak to a Confidence Coach and invite her was the fact that I realized that most mentees were doing good but their lack of confidence was holding them back. I don’t regret the decision as it made a huge difference in their trading journey . I took lessons for myself from her coaching during that 4 weeks she was with us and I can proudly say that life has been great and I have since improved in the areas (not Forex related) where I was less confident. In short, nothing great can be accomplished without confidence, Forex trading inclusive.
Back to identifying the areas where you are more confident. If you have noticed that you are more confident in doing your analysis more than executing the actual trades, do that more and while you are at it, observe how you feel when you get all your analysis on point and note it in your trading journal
2. Celebrate your successes
Celebrate and acknowledge those moments where you’ve analysed the currency and you did see it moving towards the direction at which your analysis pointed at, even though you did not execute the trade. Repeat the step above (identifying the areas where you are more confident) and don’t forget to celebrate, it’s very important.
By celebrating, you are not only recognizing that you are not all bad and you just need to improve in some areas, you are actually putting yourself in a happy space. The more you think about the things that you are confident in, the more you are able to think about how you can improve on the things that you are not so confident in and working on them becomes easier.
3.Be intentional
This is when you are making a decision on how you are going to improve. Being intentional means that you are actively interacting and engaging with yourself because the answers that you are looking for are actually inside you. You wake up every day and ask yourself, “how can I improve to build my confidence” and you do that with intention. Soon, you will find a way. But finding a way will come as a result of paying attention to the things that you are more confident in and trying to copy those things that you are currently doing to improve your confidence in the things that you are less confident in.
Being a successful trader is more about who you are more than about which strategies you use. My mentorship program focuses more on trading psychology because I understand that winning starts in the mind. We fix the mind, we win. You can have all great strategies but if you are lacking self-confidence and self-control you are likely to mess up. Self-belief is crucial.
Thank you for stopping by. I hope you found some useful tips from this post. If you did , kindly share with your peers. If you feel that you may need a Confidence Coach in your life, you can contact the Confidence Coach and book yourself a coaching session . WhatsApp “Confidence” to +27 71 448 2332 to claim your 20% OFF all courses from the voice of confidence. If all you need is to find a way to trade successfully, contact me for Forex private coaching sessions.
Central banks are in focus this week. Federal Reserve bank (FED) is expected to cut their interest rates by 25 basis points on Wednesday. The rate decision will be followed by FOMCmonetary policy statement and a press conference which focus more on the future. To learn more about the importance of Interest rates in the markets and why do we (traders) care, read this post HERE. To learn how to trade the interest rates, monetary policy statement and press conferencescontact me for private coaching.
On Thursday, Bank of Japan (BOJ), Bank of England (BOE) and Swiss national bank (SNB) are also deciding on their rates . BOJ is expected to hold theirs at the current rate of -0.10% and SNB is also expected to hold at the current rate of -0.75%. Bank of England is also holding at the current rate of 0.75%.
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Hello subscribers and visitors, welcome to my blog and thank you for stopping by and reading this post. Today I want to address the issue of consistency in Forex trading. As usual, I am not about giving signals but rather practical tips on how to make our trading journey successful.
Most failures aren’t as a result of bad trading strategies, but as a result of lacking consistency. Before I start sharing, please remember that no one has ever gained great muscles from exercising just once. Keep that in mind.
Consistency comes by repeating and practicing what you’ve learned. Today I will share 3 steps on how to gain consistency in Forex trading. These are practical steps that have helped me and they continue to help my mentees. Maybe they can help you as well, just try. If you still can’t get it right on your own after reading, do contact me for coaching.
1. Fall in love with the process
In anything that we do, if we do it without love, we are likely to fail or give up. When it comes to Forex trading, most people are only in it for the money. Yes, the goal is to make money but it’s going to be a process. It becomes hard to make money if we are not in love with the process because we easily get discouraged when we are challenged.
If you decide to venture into Forex trading, consistency and success won’t happen overnight. There’s going to be a process and you’ll have to fall in love with it in order to be able to nurture it. So, do fall in love with it and it makes all the difference. I know it does, just try it.
2. Have a trading plan and stick to it
Creating a trading plan is easy, but sticking to it will require you to have some discipline. You must understand that having your own trading plan means you are not bothered by what other traders are doing out there and you are also not feeling like you are missing out on anything if your trading plan suggests that you are not trading on a particular day.
3. Learn one trading strategy and stick to it until you can’t get it wrong
There is power in practicing without ceasing, I always preach this to my mentees. There are a gazillion Forex trading strategies on the Internet but one cannot learn all of them. I’ve had my fair share of trying out every Forex trading strategy that I would find on the net and I know how overwhelming and confusing that can be. I can assure you that it was a very costly exercise.
There’s so much “noise” and when you rely on the information that you are trying to grab there and there from the internet, you become so confused and end up not knowing what to do. One site tells you how bad the other strategies are and the other site swears by the same strategies which may not even be suitable for your lifestyle and personality, it’s a lot. It also becomes too much when you don’t know what you don’t know.
If you feel exhausted already by all the information that you find online, do yourself a favour and find a mentor/coach who will help you to eliminate all the noise and teach you that one strategy that you can practice without ceasing until you can’t get it wrong. Also note that I have been trading the same way since 2012 after running around from 2009 trying to find what works for me.
Thank you for stopping by. If you find value in this post, kindly share with your peers and help more traders to gain consistency. Also subscribe for future publications by clicking “subscribe” on the sidebar, wait for a confirmation email (it could be on spam) and confirm your subscription. Thank you, happy trading.
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