Forex
Day Trading Strategy -
A Major Flaw Identified
It
can be said that successful trading is the sum of two parts:
1. A solid
and reliable Forex day trading strategy
2. A strict,
disciplined mental attitude
Often the
first part is undone by a failure in the second area. You may have
a great Forex day trading strategy but time and again it can be neutralized
by one major flaw in part two. What is it?
COMPULSION
TO TRADE
Any trader
who is enveloped with a compulsion to trade will soon undo any profits
a reliable Forex day trading strategy can produce.
Exactly
what does it mean?
Here is
a typical scenario:
The day
trader approaches the trading session with enthusiasm and optimism
and goes through habitual preparation steps which may include:
- Consulting
the daily calendar for upcoming economic reports
- Reviewing
major news items from the financial markets
- Preparing
charts by inserting pivot points, drawing trendlines, marking key
support and resistance levels, using the Fibonacci tool
- Doing
a multiple time frame analysis starting with the daily chart, then
moving down to the 4 hour, 1 hour, and perhaps 15 minute charts
Now, as
the new session opens and progresses market conditions are flat. Price
is for the most part in consolidation.
A Typical
Scenario
The trader
starts getting bored, or a little frustrated. Hours pass, nothing happens.
The desire to trade starts getting stronger and stronger until it reaches
compulsion level.
Now the
trader starts looking at the charts through different eyes. His reliable
Forex day trading strategy now takes a secondary position in his mind
and number one is the need to find a trade!
Result?
The trader
enters a low probability trade, the market then picks up steam and
goes in a direction the trader did not expect and takes out the stop.
The first trade of the day has been a loser.
What happens
next can have more serious repercussions. Unless the trader employs
strict mental discipline, there is now an even greater feeling of compulsion
to trade in order to get back what was just lost.
As the mind
is now in free fall, the stable, reliable Forex day trading strategy
that works well when employed in a calm, analytical manner, now is
cast aside and the trader is in the grip of powerful emotions.
What has
just been described is a major flaw in many aspiring traders.
The question
is: Do you have the honesty to recognize it in yourself? Or are
you in a state of denial reasoning that this doesn't happen to you.
You may
be an exception! On the other hand, many traders will relate to the
scenario just described.
What
is the solution?
During the
trading session there is a need to constantly monitor not only candlestick
movements on the computer screen in front of you, but also your own
mental state and emotional level.
Discipline
yourself to recognize when COMPULSION TO TRADE is
beginning to build up. Stop. Walk away from the computer. Read a good
motivational article on Forex trading disciplines, and return with
a fresh viewpoint to the trading station.
Employing
this mental/emotional self-check whenever COMPULSION
TO TRADE rears its ugly head will help ensure your stable,
reliable Forex day trading strategy has chance to succeed!
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