Thursday, April 12, 2007

The Power of the Process

Here is a little advice for those just starting their Forex Journey.

To learn to trade Forex (or any liquid market for that matter) requires no great skill. It only requires perseverance and desire. There is, however, a learning curve that all traders must ascend. There are, in my opinion, 3 areas that traders must gain supreme confidence with in order to succeed.

1. Strategy

You must learn the language of trading, the tools and when to use the tools. If you where training to be a carpenter you would have to learn the language other carpenters use such as 2X4, chalk line and plum. We have our own jargon such as pairs, dealing platforms and spreads.

You have to know the tools. A carpenter has a hammer and we have our moving averages. And you have to know when to use these tools. A carpenter would not grab a hammer to paint, and we have tools designed for specific market condition such as MACD and Stochastic.

Oh, and another piece of advice around strategies taught to me by Raghee Horner. In a training awhile back she asked the class to use her strategies exactly as she presented it. She had tested her strategies backwards and forwards.

I’ve seen so many traders take a strategy and immediately add or subtract something and blame the strategy for not working. Personally responsibility is a cornerstone of trading. This really goes to my point number 3.

I have another way of looking at it:

Dance the dance you are shown until you learn a dance of your own.

2. Money Management and Risk Control

I have personally proven that having a so-so strategy with solid money management skills is profitable and the inverse is not! The clear fact is, and I am going to use a baseball analogy, it is more profitable to lead the league in batting average than home runs.

It is the accumulation of the little winners that will get the new trader of and running. It is a process!


3. Personal Self-Mastery

In my opinion, this is the single most under served area of knowledge to the individual currency trader. It is the truly holy grail of trading. Knowing your personal strengths and weakness brings a level of awareness like no other.

Once we are made aware of the factors that influence our trading, we can bring to bear strategies to neutralize our weaknesses and leverage our strengths.

There is no single skill trading more important than self-mastery! It is your own personal mastery that will determine your ability to deploy time tested strategies and risk control methods.

The truth is little winners lead to bigger and bigger winners. Mastering the process of trading is mastering to repeatable little winner.

The biggest mistake I see new traders make is that the focus is placed square on making money. Master the process of trading described and not focusing on the money is the surest way to make money is this risky area. This is why in my training on Forex Journey Live Market Training, the process is super-emphasized and the word “money” is strictly forbidden!

Happy Trading!!