Do you know what differentiates a process from a project? Put simply, a project has a start and end date. A process on the other hand is ongoing with no definiteend date.Becoming a successful Forex trader is the latter.
I talk to a lot of traders during the course of a week. Between the member’s area and the emails I receive from this site I hear from hundreds of traders each week.
Below are two of the most common questions I receive.
- How much money can I make trading Forex?
- What size accountdo I need to make “x” amount of money each month?
While there isn’t anything inherently wrong with the curiosity that prompts these questions, I fear that those asking themare putting the cart before the horse so to speak.
In today’s article we are going to discuss why successful Forex trading should be thought of as a process rather than something with an end result.You will learn why breaking down larger milestones into manageablegoals is so important as well as how to begin focusing on the process and not the profits.
Crawl, Walk, Run
For those who aren’t familiar with thesesayings, they refer to the process of becomingincrementally better at something before you can achieveproficiency. For you, that “something” is Forex trading.
Every single traderbegins their journey at a similar starting point.They hear about the idea from a friend, read a periodicalor perhaps they see it in a movie. Regardless of how or where theyheard about trading, they allstarted from the ground floor.
In other words, everyone begins their trading journey at the crawl stage.
Sure, some of you may have started with a degree in economics or finance,but I don’t think anyone will argue with me when I say that a degree won’t help you to determine key support and resistance levels. Nor will it give you the upper hand when analyzing a trend or identifying bullish or bearish price action.
My point here is that regardless of your background, you have just as much potential to become a great Forex trader as anyone else reading this. Theonly limiting factor is your current experience in the market.In other words, you have to learn how to crawl before you canlearn how to walk and you have to learn how to walk before you can learn how to run.
First, You Must Believe You Can Trade Successfully
Have you visited any popular Forex-related forums lately? If so I’m sure you have seen at least one post from someone who is claiming proficiency as a Forex trader. They either state that they are consistently profitable or even that they trade Forex full-time.
Invariably these posts get a huge amount of attention. But instead of a, “congratulations, how did you do it?”, we typically see a, “ha, yea right” kind of response. Even for those who don’t comment, a negative thought such as this isn’t unusual.
Why is that? Why is so hard to believe that someone who doesn’t come from a privileged background could make it as a Forex trader?
One word, fear.
These thoughts of disbelief areyour mind’sway of protecting youfrom pain. In most cases it’s the pain of trying and failing.
So instead of believing it’s possible and complimenting this person, most willtell themselves that it isn’t likelyso therefore how could this random individual have accomplished something that has a 90% rate of failure?
This presents a contradiction. If those commenting in disbelief aren’t willing to believe that someone can become a successful Forex trader, why are they commenting in a Forex-related forum in the first place? In other words, why try at all?
The answers to those questions go far beyond the topic of this article. But I think you get where I’m going with this.
It’s imperative that you cast out any disbelief about the possibilities of achieving consistent profits as a Forex trader. If you truly want to become a successful you have to believe without a shadow of a doubt that you can and will do it.
Focus on the Trading Process
Doesn’t that involve monetary goals, you ask?
Not in the slightest. Any milestone you reach of monetary valueissimply a byproduct of the process you went through to reach it. In other words, you reached that milestone because of the many things you did right along the way, not because you focused on the milestone itself.
When interviewed before a game, a professional athlete never says,“we hopeto score more points than the other team”. Of course that’s howa game is won but it isn’t whya game is won.
Instead the professional athlete will saysomething like, “we need to go out and execute our game plan anddo what we do best – limit mistakes and capitalize on opportunities”.
Notice how the athlete makes no reference to beating the other team by scoring more points. Instead he/she is focused on the process that will lead their team to victory.
The same goes for your journey as a Forex trader – you have to begin focusing on the process that will lead you to consistent profits rather than focusing on the profits alone.
Don’t make the mistake of aiming for a $1 million trading account each and every day. If that’s your ultimate goal, great, but don’t make that your daily focus. Instead focus on each piece of the process that will lead you to consistent profits.
By focusing on the process you will not only reduce your levels of stress but you will also begin to foster a growth mindset.
The stress a trader faces is due to expectations, usually in the form of an expected outcome for a given trade setup. A process-oriented approach relieves this stress because you are no longer putting pressure on yourself to win every time. Instead you are focused on executing each part of the process as effectively as possible.
Begin putting the focus on each partof your trading to include things such aseffectivemoney management, identifying key levels and only taking the most favorable price action setups.Master each part of the process and the profits are sure to find you.
Quick Wins in Trading
Make no mistake about it, that’s a massive goal and one that will take no small amount of experienceto achieve. Of course the differentiating factors between someone who reaches it in five years versus someone who reaches it in one year are extremely broad.
But I don’t want this to turn into a post about the characteristics of successful traders.Instead I want to focus on the idea that in order to view success in the Forex marketas a process and not a project, you first need to adjust your thinking.
Having a goal to trade for a prop firm or manage a fund is great and it’s something I would encourage everyone to have. But if that’s the only goal you focus on each and every day, you stand a greater chance of getting burnt out than someone who breaks that large goal into bite-size pieces.
Instead of waking up in the morning and saying, “I will trade for a prop firm one day”, try something more manageable such as, “I’m going to learn the 50% entry strategy today”. You have a much greater chance of accomplishing the latterin a single day.This is what we call a “quick win”.
Start giving yourselfone or two of these quick winseach day. It could be something as simple as getting your chart configured in a way that works best for you. It doesn’t have to be momentous.
These “quick wins” will create momentum and as that momentum builds you will find yourself accomplishing larger goals without even knowing it.
An Unwavering Passion and Continuous Effort
I want to start bringing this postto a close with something that is absolutely, without a doubt, 100% essential if you wish to succeed as a trader. That thing is passion.
You musthave a passion for trading if you want to succeed. There is no other way to say it and there is certainly no substitute. An unwavering passion is what will drive the continuous effort necessary to realize consistent profits in this business. Anything less will never yield the results you desire.
Of all the things I can teach toan aspiring Forextrader, passion isn’t one of them. You either have itor you don’t.
What I can tellyou is this – if you have a true passion for trading and a burning desire to become successful, you will make it. Because you can’t fail if you never give up.
Final Words
The journey to become a successful Forex trader never ends.You will face struggles and enjoy lessons-learned after 10years of trading just as you did after 10 months of trading.
The frequency and magnitude of these struggles and lessons-learnedwill of course change over time, but the process of learning and refining your trading edge in the market never ends.
Just remember to always break larger goals into smaller ones. Make these quick wins a part of your daily routine and before you know it you will reach your ultimate goal of becoming a consistently profitable Forex trader.
Above all else, be sure to keep thefocus on the process and never the profits. Learn to enjoy the obstacles as much as the successes, knowing that every obstacle you conquerputs you one step closer to your ultimate goal.
Your Turn
What are your goals as a Forex trader? Do you see yourself approaching those goals differently having read this article?
Share your experience or simply leave a comment below.
