Most traders are unsuccessful at trading Forex profitably. Even though this can be discouraging for most people, learning how to trade can bring important skills to your everyday life.
You will unconsciously work on your character at the same time as you are working on bettering yourself as a trader.
1-Take Responsibility
Experienced traders will take responsibility for any action they make in the markets. They control every aspect of their trading regiment, so whose fault is it if something bad happens?
The first argument that may come to mind is that the price action can randomly breakout against you and take you out of a position; how was that your fault? I would agree that certain scenarios are unlikely and unlucky. Yet, you are the person at fault for losing money.
The only way you could possibly lose money is by opening a trade. If you are the person opening trades on your account, then losing money is always your fault.
This will teach you to automatically take responsibility when something, in which you had a decision power, goes wrong. This will make you stronger mentally and will prepare you for bigger challenges.
2-If You Do Something, Do It Well
Trading or investing will require you to be focused at all times. Small mistakes can be very costly. There is nobody to supervise you or to hold your hand. You have to be alert and follow your game plan at all times; you cannot afford to underperform.
Once you get used to giving your all in trading, you will realize how much more effective you are when concentrating all your efforts on a single task. It will come naturally to feel the need to be above average at what you are doing.
Nobody has ever done great things while keeping their efforts to a minimum.
3-Tough Times Are Normal
Losing cannot be avoided in Forex, as it cannot be avoided in real life. You will come across long strings of losing trades, which is totally normal and statistically sound. If you think rationally, you will keep going until you start winning again.
It is a very logical metaphor for hard times in real life. Trading will teach you that there cannot only be sunny days, and that every hardship you go through will make you appreciate the good times even more.
Being a daytrader will immunize you to small problems that other people would otherwise consider to be the end of the world.
4-Managing Your Emotions
This is probably where trading will have the biggest impact in your life. Getting angry at an outcome will almost never change it, so why should you do it?
You will learn that your decision making process changes drastically when you involve emotions into the mix. This is one of the biggest pitfalls of Forex.
Revenge trading, oversizing your position, and moving your stop-loss. Three things that will anger you so much that you will remain calm when faced with trivial problems.
You will understand that anger is not a sustainable emotion.
5-Learn From Your Mistakes
Everytime you make a costly mistake while trading, you should tell yourself that this was the price for a learning experience. The money you lost cannot be returned. The only control you have on this situation is to make sure that it is never reproduced.
Your point of view towards mistakes will change once you realize that making a mistake once is not a big deal. Making the same mistake over and over again is where the real problem is.
