Posts Tagged ‘forex investing’

Trading: Is It All A Mind Game?

 

You must switch your mental attitude first from a normal person to that of a speculator. Almost all traders I have met, except the ones who really made millions and billions trading in the market, simply waste all their time trying to learn the easiest part in perfection, like about how to read data and charts, and trying to perfect entry and exit skills, etc. .

Now there’s a little help from “artificial intelligence” – i.e. a piece of software that’s able to look a few hours into the future in any market conditions – it’s called an eerie name -just check it here.

Switching a traders mind-set is the first step for any successful trading academy (mostly inhouse in big institutions) but almost all new (selfmade) traders neglect that part and that explains why more than 95% of traders are a failure in the long run.

Learning all about the market is not difficult for anyone with average brains and keen study. But it is neither the level of intelligence nor the knowledge that decides the outcome of the market operations of a trader. It is the decision making process that is so hard for most traders to overcome and that is the main reason for rise or fall for all those traders out there. Some find it easy to make decisions  and stick to them and most, I mean really most,  simply get down on their knees.

Once research is done, a trader faces the task of making decisions to put this knowledge and system into practice. Then, how many traders can honestly say they can commit their ranch when the trade is suggested by their own system (given that trading is just a chance game) and let the system run for weeks and months when their system tells them, and how many can manage to cut the loss as a routine process when the situation arises?

It all sounds so easy when saying it but so difficult when doing it – and affecting real money in the market. I still do not sleep well when I am running position because even if the profits are running into a few hundred dollars and the system is telling you to carry on? There is no guarantee that the profit will turn into a yard or two in a month time, and it may even turn into a loss in a day or two when something unexpected happens.

Outch – have I lost? What’s going on?. Once the dices have fallen and, assuming one has decent trading system and market knowledge and high quality info-input, it is ultimately how disciplined and how well that trader can take the pain of making right choices at the right time that decides the outcome of the trades.

{Hence} I call trading a mind game. When I interview prospective young traders, I always look for disciplined and strong-willed persons as my first priority as long as one has decent education, but strangely in many cases, it is some kind of genius or half-genius with lots of brains with no discipline who turn up for an interview thinking only bright to brilliant people can make good traders.

In fact, I always try to pyramid while position trading medium-term once I am convinced of a new medium-term trend emerging. Like in USD/JPY position trading 135-132 as an initial position, adding in 132 and 129 areas. Same for AUD/USD and EUR/USD with similar strategies. But sitting on positions and watching the counter-rallies costing truck loads of money is not an easy job to do and causes lots of pain all the time. Most traders even among experienced ones cannot bear that pain and give up too early. How else could you hit it really big- and we have to bite the bullet and “sit and accumulate” as long as the medium-term trend is intact. Therefore the psychological aspects of trading are far more important than anything else for success. A mind game like those bluffing a game of poker? Something similar- but I’m not the gambling type – really.
Entries and exits can never be “irrelevant” for any trader for any purpose. But indeed exits are more important than entries because any perfect or near-perfect entries are – I’m sure you agree on this-  possible only in hindsight.

Did I mention this forex robot with artificial intelligence – being able to look several hours into the future – in ANY market condition? It sure takes some of that pain away for the selfmade forex trader !

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Why Any Forex Trading Software Should Have Real Live Price Feeds

Any investor involved in Forex will no doubt tell you the importance of making informed investment decisions from real time price feeds. This used to be quite a complicated procedure, especially for brokers who had a multi system set up that handles the price feeds, market calculations as well as interfacing with his various investors in real time. The Forex market’s pit has often been a chaotic place to be with people reacting to live price fluctuations and determined their own trading fates right there and then. Enter the online Forex options and its beginnings were tenuous to say the least. It wasn’t smooth sailing from the get-go, that was for sure.

But the magic of the internet prevailed and after months of bed testing amongst thousands of Forex traders plugged into the digital super highway – Forex systems have come a long way since Forex went online. If you do decide to dabble in Forex online trading – one of the key components that will nudge you along to success is the quality of the Forex trading software that you purchase. Now the internet has its good and bad points and of course one of the worst points of the internet is its indiscriminate allowance of anything and everything to be sold on the internet.

Steer clear of products that are clearly pirated and those that are out to scam you. Also be wary of software that doesn’t display any of its features and all it has is a colourful, motivational box art design and one bold word with an exclamation mark on it. Having a Forex software with real price feeds is a boon to anyone who wants a tight control of his or her investment decisions. This means that the Forex software will do the complicated computations on the spot and deliver them in bite sized and informative pieces of information that you can use to influence your decisions.

Investment is a risky business and with today’s technology there’s no excuse for basing decisions on guesswork and gut feelings. This isn’t the movies and it takes more than just screaming “Show me the money!” for the greenbacks to start showering down on you. The colour of money is green and that is the attitude you should take when you are investing. The market is so volatile that sometimes we must admit to ourselves we know very little of where it might or might not go in the next few moments. Having technology that gives you the extra, accurate and detailed advantage that you need means a better leverage on resources to propel you skyward – or at least until the 42nd floor.

With so many players – including massive bank conglomerates in the mix, you need processor power to just about even out the ground. Always insist on the best and with something so mathematical in nature, it is good to get maths to back you up. Remember when your teacher said that algebra might save your life, well in this case it has the potential to make you a tidy amount of money that can go towards an early retirement for you and financial independence.

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