• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Trading Heroes

Trading Heroes

Forex Trading Education

  • Blog
  • Shop
  • About
  • Login

5 Ways to Make Forex Trading Boring – The Trading Psychology of Success

If you are over trading or trying to double your account overnight, you are gambling, not trading. Successful trading should be boring. Yes, that might not sound like a lot of fun, but it is much, much more profitable. Learn how to make your trading more boring.

Home / Trading Psychology / 5 Ways to Make Forex Trading Boring – The Trading Psychology of Success

By Hugh Kimura

winning trader

Anyone who has ever traded, at one point or another, has experienced the “thrill of trading.” You know, the rush that comes with not knowing what will happen next.

Will you double the account, or will you blow it out? Are you going to be able to buy that new Rolex with your winnings?

This can be a lot of fun…for a little while.

Until you realize that you are not really trading, you are gambling.

Then reality sets in. You might actually have to become a real trader…and your trading might have to get less exciting. 

This post will show you the trading psychology you need to make your trading…

Discount for TH Readers: Get your Forex Tester 5 coupon here

Real (Successful) Trading Should be Boring

The right trading psychology...boring

I recently talked to Walter Peters about this. Successful trading means only trading when there are opportunities and knowing what to expect on each trade. 

Of course, you will never know the exact outcome, but you need to have a plan for all of the scenarios that could unfold. That is when you will probably start to make money.

It's not very sexy or exciting. But do you know what is sexy?

Making consistent income from trading. If that is your ultimate goal, read on…

How to Make Forex Trading Boring

Here are the 5 ways that I have seen successful traders make trading much less exciting and a whole lot more profitable. Also be sure to read the 7 unconventional rules of successful FX traders.

1. Discover Your True Personality

This one can take time and a lot of effort. We would think that since we have to live with ourselves every day, that we would know ourselves better.

But unfortunately, we can also get used to ourselves and become oblivious to what we are doing.

One of the best books I have read to figure out what is going on between your ears is called Trading, Sex and Dying. The book was originally called: Poker, Sex and Dying.

The odd title comes from the author's life experiences as a professional poker player, a dating service operator and working in a mortuary.

These seemingly unrelated careers do have something in common. They exposed him to the extremes of the human emotion.

When people are under stress, their true self comes out. From this, he was able to put people into a few basic categories.

Reading about these personalities can help you understand what is going on inside your head. Once you understand that, it can help you choose a trading system, figure out which time frame is ideal for you and decide if you need incremental automation.

…and that is half the battle.

2. Get Educated

Some people take this as: collect as much free stuff from the internet as possible. Sure, you can get some great education, by doing this.

SEE ALSO: The Trading Books That Changed My Life

But you also have to sort through a ton of crap, to get to the good stuff. 

From my experience, I would recommend paying for your trading education. This does more than you might think.

  1. You are much more likely to use something that you paid for than something you got free. We are funny like that. Think about how you value things you got free, compared to things you paid for…even just a few dollars.
  2. Paying for a course allows you to eliminate the junk from questionable sources. You get down to business right away.
  3. When you do some research on a trading educator, you can get a good idea of if their trading style will fit with your personality.

3. Practice a Strategy and Understand it Really Well

Yes, you need to practice your trading strategy. This means backtesting and forward testing.

In backtesting, you test your strategy on historical data. As you know, past performance does not guarantee future results.

But it can give you a great idea if your trading system has a good chance of working.

If your backtesting works out, then forward testing allows you to see if the strategy will actually work in live market conditions.

These two testing methods aren't fun sometimes. But they are essential to your success.

4.  Focus on Your Trading Psychology

Finally you have to focus…

Focus when you are trading, focus when you are testing and focus when you are journaling your trades. 

It sounds simple, but it's not easy. There are so many distractions.

Doing things like meditation and setting aside time for your trading can help you improve your focus.

5. Review Your Trading

This is one that I have struggled with and many other traders do to. But reviewing your trading is the only way to get better.

After all, how can you improve, if you don't know what you are doing wrong?

The best way to learn to improve your trading is to keep a trading journal.

Here are a few options that you might want to try out.

  • How To Journal Your Forex Trades With Evernote
  • How To Individually Track Multiple Trading Systems In The Same Account
  • How To Video Journal Your Forex Trades
  • A video tour of MyFxBook

Some of these solutions will record most of the details of each trade, so you have no excuse for not filling in the blanks. Give them a try and see what works for you. 

Conclusion

So that's how you can make trading boring. If you are looking for excitement in your trading, then you are still probably too new to the trading game.

Come back when you understand that Forex trading should be boring. 

If you understand that making money consistently and excitement usually do not go together, I hope that the strategies above will help you become consistently profitable.

Did I miss anything? Let me know what you think in the comments below… 

Related Articles

Are You Trading Poorly Because Of Internet Porn? (and what to do about it)
3 Types of Chart Patterns: Which One Fits You?
A 90 Day Experiment In Reprogramming Wealth Awareness

Category: Trading Psychology Tag: Forex Trading for Beginners, Overtrading

About Hugh Kimura

Hi, I'm Hugh. I'm an independent trader, educator and researcher. I help traders develop their trading psychology and trading strategies. Learn more about me here.

Top

 

Share This Article


First posted: October 1, 2015
Last updated: February 21, 2020

Primary Sidebar

Trading Guides

How to Figure Out Your Trader Personality Profile

The Best Trading Books Ever

The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Forex Backtesting

How to Create a Precise Trading Plan (with PDF worksheet)

Footer

Company

  • Support
  • About Trading Heroes
  • Trading Courses and Education
  • T-Shirts & Trading Gear

Tutorials & Guides

  • Recommended Trading Resources
  • Free Forex Trading Course for Beginners
  • The Trading Blog
  • Best Trading Books
  • Forex Trading Strategies
  • The Trading Lifestyle Podcast

Community

  • YouTube
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Private Trading Community
  • Contact
Trading involves substantial risk and there is always the potential for loss. All content on this website is for educational and informational purposes only and is not trading, investment, or medical advice. You should be aware of the risks associated with trading and seek advice from an independent certified financial adviser if you have any doubts. Some links on this page might be affiliate links, where we get a small commission if you purchase through the link. It doesn't cost you anything extra and we only recommend products that we absolutely love. This site uses cookies and using this site means that you agree to the use of cookies.

 

CFTC Rules 4.41 - Hypothetical or Simulated performance results have certain limitations. Unlike an actual performance record, simulated results do not represent actual trading. Also, because the trades have not actually been executed, the results may have under-or-over compensated for the impact, if any, of certain market factors, such as lack of liquidity. Simulated trading programs, in general, are also subject to the fact that they are designed with the benefit of hindsight. No representation is being made that any account will or is likely to achieve profit or losses similar to those shown. Testimonials appearing may not be representative of other clients or customers and is not a guarantee of future performance or success.

 

 

 

 

 

Copyright © 2007–2022 TrueLiving Media LLC | Terms | Privacy | Risk