September 12, 2009 by FXChris & Wife
Here we are, trading every single day in front of our monitor array, longing, shorting, scalping, swinging, among other things, and time inevitably goes on. It is very easy to get so wrapped up in our trading that we find ourselves exhausted at the end of a trading session, and even more so at the end of a trading week. I know it happens to me all the time. However, there is still some very important work that needs to be done in order to actually have a chance to improve from day to day, week to week, month to month. Let’s dive into this head first shall we?
As a FOREX Trader it is of the utmost importance to never confuse what we will call ‘survival of the fittest’ with the concept of ‘only the strongest survive’; because, this concept is indeed a flawed one. You can be an extremely intelligent, agile, strong, and virile species; however, if you refuse to make the necessary adjustment as the situation and environment change around you, you will not survive. Failing to move to a more fruited plain when the food resources run dry will lead to starvation; likewise, failing to seek higher ground when the floods come will lead to drowning. It is not necessary to be the biggest, smartest, or strongest to be the fittest. To become the fittest survivor, you need the ability to analyze, acknowledge, accept and adapt. With these four basic traits you will not only be able to survive, but you will ultimately be able to thrive.
This article will look at seven questions which you can use to aid you in the process of adapting your FOREX trading practices. You should ask yourself these questions at the end of every trading week, and month, and actually write down, or document in some fashion detailed answers. Do NOT cheat yourself on this weekly/monthly trading ‘review’ or you will seriously regret it in the long run.
First, ask yourself “what was I most proud of this week?” It is wise to start with a question that will increase your self respect and confidence as a FOREX Trader, because as you move forward you will need this foundation of strength, as well as, a great deal of faith in yourself to support you through the remaining questions. Equally important, as you answer this question, is to have a clear understanding of the difference between pride and arrogance. According to Webster’s dictionary pride is, in part, the delight or elation arising from some act, possession, or relationship. On the other hand, arrogance is defined as an attitude of superiority manifested in an overbearing manner or in presumptuous claims or assumptions. Taking pride in what you do is your private motivator; it is you personal relationship with your achievements, there is never a reason to shout out how awesome you are for the entire world to hear. If you have pride in what you do and what you have accomplished, then this will be evident in the results that are available for those who really matter to see.
Notably, there should never be a week when your answer to this first question is nothing. You should always strive to find at least one thing that you can take pride in from the week that has just passed. Truly believing that you have absolutely no reason to feel proud about anything that occurred throughout the week will prove to be devastating to your forward progress as a trader, because it will plant the seed of self doubt and self loathing which will ultimately affect your ability to trade confidently in a negative way. So, always seek out some positive aspect of your week. As an example, suppose it has been a particularly bad trading week; nothing seemed to go your way, no matter what you did it never worked out the way you planned. All the same, you still got up each day and sat down in front of your computer and put the time in to analyze the market and perhaps even entered a trade or fifty. Well, the way I see it, you should take pride in the fact that you continued to show up, you stuck with it and went back another day to try again.
Part and parcel with the first question is the second, and that is “what was my biggest accomplishment this week?” This is not necessarily the same as what you are most proud of, although it could be. What is that one thing that has been giving you a devil of a time? Maybe, it is the inability to pull the trigger. Yet, this week you not only planned a profitable trade, overcame your fear and managed to enter in a timely fashion; but also, you accomplished completing this difficult task at least once each day of the week. Now, that is definitely an accomplishment worthy of recognition.
Now, let’s take a moment and talk about time. Time could be considered one of life’s most precious gifts, it always moves forward never backwards, you can not stop it, nor can you expect it to wait for you. Therefore, it is crucial that you not waste one moment of time, particularly when it comes to your trading, bringing us to our next weekly question, “what was my biggest waste of time this week?” This can be a difficult question to answer because we don’t always recognize or wish to acknowledge what may be a waste of time. What could be considered a waste of time when trading? Perhaps you spent your week waiting for someone to tell you when to enter or exit your trades. Yes, this is definitely a big waste of time because you personally did not grow as a trader. Your skills did not improve, you learned nothing of the how’s and why’s of trigger pulling. Another waste of time would be obstinately waiting on a trade opportunity with a pair that is experiencing absolutely no volatility. Crosby Stills and Nash put it perfectly when they said “If you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with.” Don’t get tunnel vision, be open minded and your time will be spent more productively.
The time must come when the questions you are asking yourself become harder to deal with, start by asking yourself “what was hard for me this week?” When answering this question you absolutely must include why it was hard for you. Recognizing why something was hard for you is significantly more important that merely saying to yourself ‘wow that was hard’ and moving on. If you don’t take the time to analyze why or how something was hard for you, you will never be able to improve or correct what you were doing to make the task in question less difficult if not downright easy for you. Honesty is crucial when answering your questions; no one is going to judge you, especially not yourself. So look in the mirror and find all the faults, weaknesses, and difficulties that you can. Call them out into the open freely so that you have nothing hiding in the closet that could hamper your ability to thrive as a FOREX trader. If all the cards are on the table then you will be able to improve and grow each and every day.
The next question could conceivable be the most difficult to answer, that is “what did I do this week that made me ashamed?” Being the polar opposite of pride, shame is perhaps the most difficult emotion to come face to face with, in an open and honest manner. Yet, if you don’t acknowledge what you are ashamed of you will never be able to accept it or adapt your trading practices to overcome it. Walter Anderson, the American painter and CEO of Parade Magazine once said, “our lives improve only when we take chances and the first and most difficult risk we can take is to be honest with ourselves.” Positively, you must risk being brutally honest with yourself for the journey, surviving and thriving, in the FOREX industry to be a successful one. Equally, you have to maintain the insight and strength to recognize that you are able to make the necessary changes in your practices to move past this action. Consequently, if you are unable to move past moments like these in a productive manner you will be condemned to a future of failed emotionally motivated trades for the remainder of your trading career, which will undoubtedly be a very short one.
The significant correlation between the questions that have been asked so far is that the results can considerably affect your answer to the next question, “What have I done to get closer to my life goals this week?” Everything you do, no matter if the results are positive or negative, affects your ability to reach your life goals. Understandably, for many, the idea of a life goal is overwhelming, to say the least, and if something is overwhelming the likelihood that it will be ignored is increased. When creating your life goals take the time to break them down into smaller more achievable goals. Take the life goal and create a ten year goal that will help you to achieve it. After that, create a five year goal, a one year goal, one month, one week, one day etc. By making the goals smaller they become easier to visualize and accomplish, and before you know it you are ticking off achievement after achievement, and you have reached your life goal. It is vital that you review and update your goals periodically so that you are continually learning and growing in the direction that you see yourself going.
Without fail the most important question you must ask yourself each and every week is “WHAT WILL I TRY TO IMPROVE ON NEXT WEEK?” To quote Henry Ford “Life is a series of experiences, each one of which makes us bigger, even though sometimes it is hard to realize this. For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that the setbacks and grieves which we endure help us in our marching onward.” Without the struggles or occasional faltering step there would be nothing to let us know when we are doing the right thing or heading in the right direction. You see, when we make errors we have the opportunity to learn something new, try something different. It is this ability to reason and react that sets us apart from so many other creatures on this planet. Therefore, you should embrace the chance to review your actions and make the needed changes so that you are always moving forward and improving on everything you do. It is important that you make your plans not only definable but also achievable, for heaven sakes don’t make plans that you will never have a chance to follow through with. There is nothing worse than an over inflated plan that is unobtainable to crush your motivation and determination. Furthermore, be steadfast in your communication with yourself. Be clear and concise about what you are going to work on and how you are going to work on it. The ambiguity crutch will not support you when you become injured it will only run interference for all the bad habits just waiting to wipe out your capital account.
The questions that we have discussed here are from a discussion given by an extremely respected and gifted FOREX Trader and Mentor, whom we are privileged to call friend, thank you for your contribution to the FOREX community.
These questions are an excellent starting point for you to use each week when you are going through and evaluating your performance. This is not meant to be an exercise in self abasement, it is meant to strengthen you as a trader. There is no better day than today to get started in a new direction, so long as that direction has a clear destination in view.
Safe Travels Fellow FOREX Trader’s, may your journey be both gratifying and profitable.
Let me repeat, do not trade with money you can not afford to lose! They say love is blind, but love has nothing on fear. If you are trading with money you are afraid to lose you might as well sit down with a blindfold on because you are not going to see the market clearly. You may not be seeing the market clearly, but what you will have a crystal clear view of are the friends that fear brings along to the party; for example, never far from fears side are apprehension, aggression, bitterness, anger, doubt and last but certainly not least there is self loathing bringing up the rear. It is simply not possible to be a productive, profitable trader if you are being ruled by any one of these emotions, yet that is where you will find yourself if you are trying to trade with money you can’t afford to lose.
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