Psychology

Much has been said about the importance of mastering your trading psychology. And though there are many different ways to accomplish this goal, perhaps the most practical and effective way of doing so is by keeping a psychological trade journal.

In learning how to trade, I think most, if not all, traders would agree that you need to involve yourself in various educational processes.

Whether you’re a seasoned trader or just a newbie, I’m sure that by now you’ve already come across a few generalizations about trading. Some may have some truth to them but most of them are nothing but myths. Here are three of them:

Recently, I’ve been browsing through the BabyPips.com forums, and I came across a thread discussing trading psychology and its significance to a trader’s success. Is trading psychology overrated? Here are my two cents on the matter.

Expectations can be a wonderful tool for traders as they help us distinguish between success and failure. However, we must be careful of setting them unrealistically. For all we know, we’re just setting ourselves up for disappointment.

So you blew up your account? Instead of crying in the corner, please realize that blown up accounts are a more common occurrence than you think. So before you curse the forex gods and ruin your karma forever, here are four easy steps to help you get back on the right track.

Uncertainty is the only constant in the markets. While you can’t control or know what’s around every corner, there are steps you can take to reduce whatever it may be from holding back your trading performance.

Much emphasis has been given to the importance of sticking to the plan to become profitable in the long run. Coming up with a trade plan is the easy part, sticking to it is easier said than done. Here are some reasons why most traders find it difficult to stick to their trading plan. Are you guilty of any of these?

Forex Gump mentioned in one of his articles this week that we’re trading in what seems to be one of the wildest market environments ever. Have you ever asked yourself if it is even possible to be a successful trader with market sentiment shifting in the blink of an eye? Just so you know–it is!

One great way to get to know yourself better and find your trading niche is by taking personality quizzes. These quizzes are created to match your personality with trading methods or risk management strategies that could work best for you.

One of the more useful skills for forex trading is knowing when to press your advantage. But how do you know when to press and when to hold back?

It’s not difficult to admit that people usually begin trading because they want to make money. But as many traders have realized, there are a lot of lessons that can be learned through trading. Here are a few examples.

In the middle of a winning trade, have you ever asked yourself, “Should I take profit now or should I let it run?” A lot has been said about the importance of stop losses but not much about letting winners run. Here’s my two cents on how you can mentally prepare yourself in maximizing your profits.

When you’re trading, it’s so easy to get lost in the price action frenzy and neglect your physical well-being at some point. But if you’re giving up eating or sleeping in exchange for a bunch of hours trying to catch pips, you could end up destroying your most important trading tool: your body.

Let’s face it – we are all worry warts to some extent. But for traders, worrying doesn’t have to be counter-productive. Let me tell you how you can use worrying to your advantage.

You think you’re ready to take your game up a notch and trade bigger positions? I’ve got three tips to guide you with increasing your risk.

Having biases can severely impair our ability to read the markets objectively and make good trading decisions. The first step to overcoming these biases is to become fully aware of them.

Elite performance goes beyond the tools given to you, the skills you’re taught, or the mentors who teach you. Achieving it comes from something that when the going gets tough, it keeps you going. What is that “holy grail” of elite performance?

Sure, keeping score of your stats is awesome. But numbers are just gonna be numbers; they don’t really tell the whole story. If you’ve already caught yourself thinking that you’re doing “something” wrong over and over again but you don’t know what it is, maybe it’s time you start a psychological journal too!

Losing streaks aren’t uncommon in the trading world. Every trader at one point or another hits a losing streak. Trust me, even the most consistently profitable pros have their slumps.