TMM journal

[tmmbabs]

The Biggest Mistakes in Forex Trading

What is it about forex trading that causes such a high percentage of traders to fail?

If the failure rate is so high, why does anybody bother trading forex in the first place?

What is it about forex trading that causes so many people to fail? People who have been successful in every other aspect of their life start trading forex and quickly watch the account balance in their trading accounts to disappear.

So Why is this?

There are several factors that set forex trading apart from other forms of investment. To begin with, unlike the stock market, where rising prices can make any number of people richer, forex trading is a “zero sum” game. This means that for every dollar you make trading, somebody else is
Losing a dollar. If it is true that 90% of traders lose money, then we must conclude that a small minority of traders are making all the money at the expense of the other traders.
Secondly, the futures markets involve a great deal more Leverage than most other types of investments.
There are many books have been written that focus on successful traders and how they became successful in this market. People think that by reading these books they can be just as successful. But is this true? Just because you know how someone else succeeded in a particular field does not necessarily mean that you can copy his or her success. Just because you read couple of books from Warren buffet doesn’t mean you can become as rich as he is. But unfortunately this is how a lot of people approach investing. They read a book or look at an ad that tells them “how easy it is to make money in forex market”, “we show you how to make money in less than 5 minutes a day” and later
on they are that much more surprised when they find out that it is not so easy at all.

Mistake Number 1
Lack of trading plan

Consider the following scenario. You hear your friend and other people are talking about a new business which some people are getting rich beyond your imagination. So you think about it and you decide to engage in that business yourself. It is very common that you will begin to do some planning before engaging in that business. So during the planning process you may learn things that you were not aware it could affect your business, and you will build in contingency plans to account for these factors as well. If you are like most people, and if you truly desire to
succeed, you may find yourself becoming consumed by the depth of your planning. Finally, after much hard work and countless hours of planning and preparation, you take the plunge and attempt to succeed in your new business. There is nothing surprising in any of this. It happens all the time and is simply the way that people go about making their fortune. Except when it comes to forex trading. In forex market, a high percentage of traders enter the markets without the having an idea as to how they plan to succeed in the long run. very few people actually take time to learn the forex market and then start risking their trading capital.
So you may ask yourself why traders makes these mistakes?

One could be the idea of easy money. they like to start and get rich right away. remember not every one like larry Williams can turn a $10,000 into $1 million dollar in less than a year
Lets face it when you hear a story like larry Williams not so many traders start thinking of making a trading plan to achieve the same goal but instead most people would start drawing up a mental image of what they could have done with that money. Remember every one makes mistakes but the successful trader make mistakes, they paid for their mistakes and they learn from their mistake. So if they don’t make mistake they won’t become successful.
· In 1973 Larry Williams wrote a book on “how I made a million dollars last year “then the next year he lost the million.
· Michael Marcus started with $30,000, borrowed another $20,000 from his mother and then proceeded to lose 84% of their combined capital (imagine trying explain that to your Mom) before becoming a successful trader.
· In 1987 several commodity funds managed by Richard Dennis lost 50% of their capital and were forced to stop trading.
So bottom line is everyone lose from time to time and you will lose too no matter what ,but it’s how you respond is the question.

Are you really ready to trade in the forex market?

Do exactly as I say and then e-mail mean I will tell you if you really ready to trade in the forex market with the sharks.

1. Go to your bank
2. Get $1000 cash
3. Walk outside and with both hands throw your money up in the air.
4. After your money is blown away go home and relax and say “Gosh that was stupid idea wish I hadn’t done that.”
5. Get on with your life.
The first time I heard this story which was couple of month ago I actually did the same thing on the test and when I said to myself I have done something foolish and then I relaxed, I realized 30 minute later I wasn’t even sad or not even I was thinking about the money. So if you can do the same I would tell you that you are ready to become a very successful forex trader ,both emotionally and financially. So the more capital you can afford to lose without changing your life style the more chance of becoming successful.

Emotional attachment to money is very deadly.the worst thing is you look at the money in your trading account and you don’t think how much you can afford to lose on each trade instead you think how much stuff you can buy with that money, so my friend if you think like that I would beg you to stop trading.

If you want to be successful in forex market I would recommend a starting trading capital of $10,000 this is an honest answer if you ask how much trading capital do I need in order to become successful in this market. You also should limit your risk to 5% of your trading capital on any given trader. That means no matter what you won’t lose more than $500 in any one trade.

Forget about all these advertising saying you can start trading forex with as little as $500 you won’t get anywhere with $500 but to give your money to the broker over and over and over again.

Just try to come up with $10,000 that if you lose it wont affect your life style. Its only in this case that you might be able to make one million in less than a year like Lary Williams.

· So remember planning your trading day is a key to success or failure.
· The more prepared you are the more chance of long-term success.
· Adapting to unforeseen problems and always keep your head above the water.
· Plan your trade and trade your plan
· Remember a good trading plan is like a road map it will get you to your destination fast rather than stop along the way and ask people for direction.
· Trust your system and follow the rules. The same as when you are flying a bad weather and your inner ear with tell you that your wings are level even they are not level. So you should just trust the aircraft instrument completely.

MISTAKE #2:
Using Too Much Leverage

Leverage is a double-edge sword that helps a few trades rich. in forex market you have 500 to 1 leverage. And not many professional traders have the stomach to trade with leverage of 30 to 1.most people are in a great danger that the read on ads “how to make lots of money for just $500, or how can you control $100,000 worth of currency with just $250. And most people also unaware that forex trading involves unlimited risk. So let’s say you have an account of $1000 dollars and you place one standard lot so each pip is worth $10 and if you lose 20 pips you have just lost $200 of your account which would be 20% of your trading capital.

I leave this up to you to do some research as of why people make this mistake of using too much leverage? And what do you have to do not to fall for all these high leverage brokers ads? And lastly how to avoid this high leverage even if your broker gives your 400 to 1 leverage.

MISTAKE #3:
Failure to Control Risk

If you are going to engage in a risky activity in your life you most likely to do some planning of how to avoid most of the risks involved in that activity. For example you want to take your car to a race track, it is probably a safe bet that you check your tires to see if they are fit for the track. you wont just drive your car there with a tire that is 5 years old. you will make sure that your car is fit for racing and driving at high speed. Another example is when you get your own private pilot license before you get your license you have to pass the flight test, and on the flight test they will test you on all the emergencies and safety precautions. such as you walk around the aircraft before you even sit inside it to make sure everything is according to the check list. you will make sure when you a visual inspection of the body of the aircraft that no bolts is missing the wings of the aircraft is free of objects and moving freely. you make sure the propeller of your aircraft is not damaged, you check the oil and gas to make sure is enough for your flight plus 45 minutes of reserved fuel. so when you want to do an activity like flying you is risky not to follow the check list so you make sure you follow the rules. Or when you want to go sky diving would you even go in the plane without a parachute?

These traders that they fail to control risk are like a person who goes sky diving without parachute, and the result is that person will hit the ground and die. the only reason someone would jump out of the aircraft without a parachute is he want to commute suicide nothing else.

Usually these kind of people or traders fall into a category of new traders who are hoping for easy money. However some times experienced trader who knows better of controlling risks forgets to keep their guards up and they do pay the price. So if you make a mistake , and leave yourself without guard the market could reach out to you and knock you out of the ring.




MISTAKE #4:
Lack of Discipline

so lets say you have traded forex in the past but without much success or you are new in forex market. And you have followed all the steps below:
· You sit and thought how much money you can risk
· Opened a new account
· Have a system that you have a complete confidence
· You know your entry and exit
· You have tested your system already and you know you got good results
· You have forward tested you system and again with good results
· And you know your maximum draw down.
· And you have a risk management too

You’re as ready to trade With high hopes .you place your first trade. if you are like many traders
the first three trades you make will be losers. After the first loss, you’ll say no big deal it’s part of trading. After the second loss you’ll say I might be doing something wrong. After the third loss you’ll tell yourself something’s wrong, and I need to check everything again. You have no clue
why your system has suddenly fallen apart. So you decide to skip the next signal, a buy signal. Two days later the market that you should be long explodes to the upside. You tell yourself it’s too late to jump on board now, so I’ll just wait for the next trade, relieved at least that your confidence in your system has been restored. So you wait for the next signal from your system. And you wait and
you wait and you wait. And in the meantime that market continues to go up every day. Your system
is doing great, but you on the other hand are not doing good. You start mentally adding the money that you should have made on this trade to your account and say “I should have had this much in my account by now.oh well I start from tomorrow and just follow my system no matter what. But every day your account balance remains the same, while that market just keeps rising higher and higher. By the time you enter the next trade you have a missed a $10,000 winner. And the next trade is another loser. If you are one of the lucky ones, at this point your loss is relatively small, and you decide that enough is enough. You close your account and walk away. For
the rest of your life whenever the topic of futures trading comes up you step forward like a veteran with a purple heart and tell your war story and you say yeah, I traded forex.
Let me tell you how to…….”

So how about another person who was completely prepared both financially and emotionally
to do what was necessary to succeed and still he failed one after another.

Have you ever wondered why does this happen to every trader how from their bottom of their heart want to start trading as a business but they fail.
In most cases it is because although they were very well prepared when they began their new trading plan, somewhere along the way they went wrong and they forgot to do what was needed. They failed to have the discipline to pull the trigger or to not pull the trigger, and they either took a loss or missed a huge profit. With many traders this can cause an emotional problem where the trader’s primary focus is no longer on following his plan but his primary goal is to get back at the market causing him to lose more money . Or maybe his want to get back to break even before walking away. lack of discipline ,There is probably not a trader alive, successful or otherwise, who has never suffered because of his or her own lack of discipline at some time of their life .
So What separates those who make money in the long and those who lose big time very fast?
The answer is in discipline.

• To learn from mistakes and to never repeat a mistake already been made.

A lack of discipline in forex trading is always a mistake.
doubling up on a losing trade or holding on after your trading method tells you to exit.

Why traders make this mistake?

Usually is one of these reasons that is in front of you like a wall of china

Fear, Greed, and ego.

We all love to make money (we are greedy) and we hate to lose money (because we fear). Cutting a loss is very hard on the ego since we still think that another pip market is going to come back and we hate to admit we are wrong.

emotions are very powerful and they can make you to do all kinds things:

You bail out on a trade soon with a small loss ,because you don’t want to risk more .

You stop trading altogether during a drawdown just right before market is turning around.

You take a profit prematurely because you don’t want to give it back, thereby missing a big profit.

You double up or increase your position size in an effort to get back to break-even or in an effort to make a killing.

So how are we going to avoid this?

Just telling yourself to put fear and greed and ego aside won’t solve the problem.

You just have to learn how not to think at this point and just react when you trading system gives you a green light.

For example you are scalping in the market and your trading system gives you a long signal and you go long and couple of minutes later you see that whole bunch of sellers are hitting the market and price is falling rapidly. You have 2 options either stay aside and try to figure out why this is happening, could it be news?? What could it be?
Or your second option is to just hit the sell button and get out of the trade.
You do the right thing if you pick the second option since every minute you waste to figure out why this is happening you are losing big time.

So you have to learn not to think and just react when you want to enter or Exit the market.
If your system has a set take profit or stop just set it and forget it.

[tmmbabs]

Same Same Like a bricklayer, sometimes you are just bored with same setup....... thats forex lifestyle, if somebody tells you to do samething over and over again to make money will you.. thats what AIMS do... am bored.....but i love the money.....

[Nitin]

Good to hear from you after a long time. Wish you success keep in touch.

Thanks Imran, I know i am a success, since i found AIMS i have every reason to thank God, there is a new plan which is even more stress free for me, everybody has to find there way of trading, I only trade the DOT in the direction of purple line on 5min Time frame, too many DOT for me to handle on 1min But 5min has produce a great pips for me, am starting a new account from february or sooner when all my paper work has been in place with my new broker, I have a good money management plan at hand, I will update my trade as time goes on... :-bd

Hi dear its felt nice to hear from you, as I also trading 5 min tf, but trading just eu doesn't produce enough setups. so can I know wht others pairs u r trading?

[immy]

Good to hear from you after a long time. Wish you success keep in touch.

Thanks Imran, I know i am a success, since i found AIMS i have every reason to thank God, there is a new plan which is even more stress free for me, everybody has to find there way of trading, I only trade the DOT in the direction of purple line on 5min Time frame, too many DOT for me to handle on 1min But 5min has produce a great pips for me, am starting a new account from february or sooner when all my paper work has been in place with my new broker, I have a good money management plan at hand, I will update my trade as time goes on... :-bd

Hi dear its felt nice to hear from you, as I also trading 5 min tf, but trading just eu doesn't produce enough setups. so can I know wht others pairs u r trading?

Nitin

The Ones Mentioned in the Book are the best. I repeat here
Dollar Based Pairs Pick 1 or 2
EUR/USD
GBP/USD
AUD/USD

Yen Pairs pick 1 or 2
USD/JPY
EUR/JPY

Dont touch the ones with spread higher than 3pips. All those are good for H1 and above.

[tmmbabs]

I do trade mostly the majors... EU,AU,UJ and GU sometimes i add EJ but i notice that trading only EU might be limiting the ability of AIM cos we are trend followers, one pair do not trend everyday on so that makes me choose what i called high probability pairs to trade per given sesion, i look at the majors and only trade pairs that has been trending nicely, i dont post my trade that often cos is the same things and most people in the forum only trade EU so no point... but if you see a nice trend on other pair, go for it my friend, AIMS work on anything ,so far is on MT4 Chart platform.... \m/ again depend on ur risk appetite with spread... the lower the better

[Nitin]

thanks u both for ur replies.

Immy I noticed that AO doesn't show close to 0 bars(orange bars) when I added template to E/J, it remains red or green.

whts the reason behind that?

regards

Nitin

[Bettina]

Hi Nitin,

just a guess : Multiply the Max and MinZL values by 100 ! Yen currencies have only 2 digits.
Bettina

[snorm]

thanks u both for ur replies.

Immy I noticed that AO doesn't show close to 0 bars(orange bars) when I added template to E/J, it remains red or green.

whts the reason behind that?

regards

Nitin

Hi Nitin

you need to change the settings - the value of AO on the Yen pairs is quite different to others. I can't recommend an ideal setting, as I haven't traded them for a while, but have a play and see what looks good. Or ... perhaps some of our esteemed forum contributors might have a good suggestion.

cheers
Steve

edit - and Bettina comes up with something just as I was typing the response

[insc59]

Hi TMM,

Interesting to see you are having success on 5 min just trading the dots - Would you mind sharing your method please.

Thanks
Ian

[Topher]

I have added UJ to my lower timeframe trading arsenal and have been doing okay with it for the past two weeks, currently +3.7%.
I simply did what Bettina says and multiply the values by 100 to give 0.06 and 0.02 for the two values.

Richard