I'm currently enrolled as a student in university, while balancing both school and trying to retain as much information and data as I possibly can to improve my trading, it's been one of the most difficult things I have ever taken on. Difficult, but eye-opening and this is why I chose to keep going and never stopped.
I believe spending time studying the foreign exchange market to its very core include two objectives:
1. Pinpointing each variable on how to become a better trader. (Notice how 'pinpointing' is in bold). This sounds very broad, I know. But with any endeavor in life, don't you think you should understand the ropes before diving straight into it? Here's what I like to use as an example. If someone who has never touched a basketball before in his life asks you, "can you teach me everything there is to know about basketball before I go to tryouts TOMORROW?"... Do you think he will make the team? Of course not, not a chance. There are a ton of variables to consider... and you can only learn those variables through experience. People aren’t aware and appreciate that we live in the Information Age. If you want to know something, you have the world at your fingertips from just using a search engine and doing extensive reading on that particular subject. People wanna make money... but don’t wanna put in the work, it’s a baffling phenomenon. They hear the word “research” and get scared. Trading is a process of trial-and-error, as is with anything in life. People think they can just deposit a couple thousand dollars into an account, nail a couple trades and become a millionaire within a few days or something. It doesn't work like that man, you gotta fail over and over again. Post-trade, if you don't reflect on the loss and try to analyze what you did wrong... you're just going to repeat those same mistakes again and again until you wipe your account out. It is VERY difficult in the beginning because you are subconsciously making these errors without even realizing it... but it does get easier... depending on how self-aware you are.
Then again, hear me out: information is only good depending on the beholder. A person reading a piece of information may not have made "use" of it or see that it has any significant value at all, while another person could have read the exact same information, interpreted it in a different way, and found it to have immense and powerful value. Sometimes we forget that. People retain data and information in very different ways. Some folks can make sense of it earlier on, so they are able to catch on to their mistake and fix it before committing it again. Some people can't adapt quick enough and it takes them years and years. Maybe never at all.
... And If you can't adapt fast enough, then you're just bait. I apologize in advance for your bank account.
2. Understanding personal psychological attributes (the only way to combat this and to keep your emotions leveled is to have a trading PLAN). I know this sounds very cliche, trust me I've read so many different threads talking about "emotions" that it starts to sound a tad bit annoying and repetitive. The majority who start a thread like this and stress "emotions are important" just threw that fact in there because they know it's important, but can't seem to do anything about it. I've noticed that there are a lot of people like that here on this forum. Just folks that's all talk... but talk that they don't even seem to understand the significance of lol... honestly, how do you give advice but not understand it yourself?
But moving on, understanding how you feel at particular moments is crucial to the point where it can and will make you suffer if you don't keep your emotions in check. I know, that’s a very hard thing to do. You have to analyze data while keeping a calm head... Nobody can teach you that besides yourself. Greed and fear can make you do some awful things man, if you fail at finding the logic behind every information you take in, these two emotional traits will be exploited and it'll eat you alive. If you're making decisions with no prior analytical judgment... well best of luck.
What are some of the factors that hit you which turned you into a profitable trader? Keep in mind that of course, if you are not profiting something has to change.
I believe spending time studying the foreign exchange market to its very core include two objectives:
1. Pinpointing each variable on how to become a better trader. (Notice how 'pinpointing' is in bold). This sounds very broad, I know. But with any endeavor in life, don't you think you should understand the ropes before diving straight into it? Here's what I like to use as an example. If someone who has never touched a basketball before in his life asks you, "can you teach me everything there is to know about basketball before I go to tryouts TOMORROW?"... Do you think he will make the team? Of course not, not a chance. There are a ton of variables to consider... and you can only learn those variables through experience. People aren’t aware and appreciate that we live in the Information Age. If you want to know something, you have the world at your fingertips from just using a search engine and doing extensive reading on that particular subject. People wanna make money... but don’t wanna put in the work, it’s a baffling phenomenon. They hear the word “research” and get scared. Trading is a process of trial-and-error, as is with anything in life. People think they can just deposit a couple thousand dollars into an account, nail a couple trades and become a millionaire within a few days or something. It doesn't work like that man, you gotta fail over and over again. Post-trade, if you don't reflect on the loss and try to analyze what you did wrong... you're just going to repeat those same mistakes again and again until you wipe your account out. It is VERY difficult in the beginning because you are subconsciously making these errors without even realizing it... but it does get easier... depending on how self-aware you are.
Then again, hear me out: information is only good depending on the beholder. A person reading a piece of information may not have made "use" of it or see that it has any significant value at all, while another person could have read the exact same information, interpreted it in a different way, and found it to have immense and powerful value. Sometimes we forget that. People retain data and information in very different ways. Some folks can make sense of it earlier on, so they are able to catch on to their mistake and fix it before committing it again. Some people can't adapt quick enough and it takes them years and years. Maybe never at all.
... And If you can't adapt fast enough, then you're just bait. I apologize in advance for your bank account.
2. Understanding personal psychological attributes (the only way to combat this and to keep your emotions leveled is to have a trading PLAN). I know this sounds very cliche, trust me I've read so many different threads talking about "emotions" that it starts to sound a tad bit annoying and repetitive. The majority who start a thread like this and stress "emotions are important" just threw that fact in there because they know it's important, but can't seem to do anything about it. I've noticed that there are a lot of people like that here on this forum. Just folks that's all talk... but talk that they don't even seem to understand the significance of lol... honestly, how do you give advice but not understand it yourself?
But moving on, understanding how you feel at particular moments is crucial to the point where it can and will make you suffer if you don't keep your emotions in check. I know, that’s a very hard thing to do. You have to analyze data while keeping a calm head... Nobody can teach you that besides yourself. Greed and fear can make you do some awful things man, if you fail at finding the logic behind every information you take in, these two emotional traits will be exploited and it'll eat you alive. If you're making decisions with no prior analytical judgment... well best of luck.
What are some of the factors that hit you which turned you into a profitable trader? Keep in mind that of course, if you are not profiting something has to change.