eToro – Forex Trading Forum

[Tropezienne]

What do you think is the most important asset that you can invest into your forex business ? The obvious answer is 'trading capital' – but no asset is worth investing unless you have discipline. Therefore I would argue that discipline is the most important asset. Without it your capital will be lost – with it you have a great chance of success.

As a personal attribute discipline can be nurtured and strengthened – even if you don't have much of it to start off with ! If you want to trade safely, if you want never to risk your capital – get discipline.

Discipline will help you to conquer those rash thoughts that may be lurking deep in your subconscious whispering to you about great riches to be earned each day …. Only discipline will protect you from dangerous trading and help you to protect the profits that you have already made.

[Tropezienne]

A lack of discipline in your nature will lead you into a cycle of trying and failing and trying again and failing again as a forex trader. You will seek yet another trading system in the hope that the next one will be the one. It won't be. There isn't one magical forex system which will make you rich. Only with the discipline to trade the forex in a consistent, safe and business-like manner will you earn a very nice and increasing income over time.

You need discipline to find a successful trading method because you will not find one for 50 dollars on the internet !

Your successful trading method is within you and with the discipline to experiment, to observe the charts, to invest time in your forex knowledge base you will find your trading method.

[Tropezienne]

You need emotional discipline or your trading will become erratic. The worst thing that can happen to a trader is that they experience a dose of 'beginner's luck'. An enhanced sense of confidence as the result of a few good trades (probably flukes) is a huge threat to your working capital. If you make a good trade – don't let the adrenaline rush send you headlong into another attempt. Instead, analyse your trade – do you really understand why is went well for you ? If you do – great ! Use this knowledge towards the development of a controlled trading method. If you don't understand why this trade was a good trade -heave a sigh of relief at your good luck – and recognise it as such.

You need discipline to develope your trading method, to stick to your trading method, to follow the rules of that method and to close down your trading platform if you cannot see a trade.

It bears repeating - if you cannot see a trade close down the trading platform and don't open it again until the next day's session.

[josapo]

I like your coments about forex, go on!

[Tropezienne]

Hi there josapo and thanks for your comment.

I have written a lot of posts here - all aimed at new forex traders. You can find a list of them by clicking on my name next to one of my posts. I hope that taken altogether they will create a good introduction to learning about the orex and to using the eToro platform.

Discipline is something that I talk about a lot because I believe that it is important for all aspects of trading. To start with be disciplined about the following :

1.only trade on your practice account until you are ready to risk real money
2.pick just two or three currency pairs and watch their charts carefully – I suggest GBP/USD, EUR/USD and CHF/USD – watch carefully and you will see that the first two move more or less in the same direction and the third in opposition to the other two. This is called correlation and is very useful.

and ...

[Tropezienne]

3.watch the charts daily and at least 3 days a week – best days for beginners are Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday (Monday and Friday are subject to greater volatility being at the beginning and end of the week).
4.Try to watch the charts at the same time each day. I think the very best time is to start at the London opening (7.00 GMT) and watch the charts for up to 90 minutes. The second best time is to start with the New York open (13.OO GMT) and watch again for about 90 minutes if possible.
5.Experiment with points 1 – 4 above on your practice account for as long at it takes (3 weeks, 3 months) – observe, observe, experiment. Eventually experiment less and trade only when sure that you will gain a few pips. You will learn a lot this way.

Let me know how you get on.