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…
Real (Successful) Trading Should be 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.
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.
- 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.
- Paying for a course allows you to eliminate the junk from questionable sources. You get down to business right away.
- 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…
