Reasonable Expectations

There is a lot of money to be made in trading.

But to make this money you must have and set reasonable expectations, and shelve any great expectations you may have.

Trading for many years, I know that the market always swings back, you can ride the storm and hold a big loss for a long time, or you can be practical and set stop losses which allow you exit at pre set levels and chance for re-entry.

The market often times moves illogically and many a time going against news, so that is why stop losses are necessary.

It is impossible to know the right time to enter a trade. If times were set in stone we'd all just wait and synchronize our watches.
If you do your research/analysis correctly, you can enter at your own time, but you need to know how much stop loss to set and your take profit target.

The many losses I have incurred have been due to greed, setting excessive stop losses, trading against the news and trend, very bad timing, and forgetting the most important thing of all PRESERVATION OF CAPITAL.

It is very important to have withdrawal targets, and withdraw when you reach targets.
Always make it a habit to withdraw.

A dollar in the hand is worth more than the dollar you'll be chasing in the market.

I agree. Sitting down with the idea that you will make money right here, right now regardless of the situation on the market generally only leads to losses and disappointment.

And besides, this requires much learning and practices. A newbie must forget an idea to enter FX and get rich in an hour. This also systematically leads to troubles.

Xiantero posted:
And besides, this requires much learning and practices. A newbie must forget an idea to enter FX and get rich in an hour. This also systematically leads to troubles.

I agree, that is an absolute fantasy. If someone tries to trade like that their account would be gone in a few hours, rather than double in an hour, as they expect. Forex is like any other intellectual job - it requires a lot of knowledge and experience to do it well.

is it wrong for a new comer forex trader to have a more senior-thinking expectation?

haiqalmrk posted:
is it wrong for a new comer forex trader to have a more senior-thinking expectation?

Mostly, yes. Trying to achieve more than you are capable of achieving at the moment, due to lack of knowledge and experience, can only lead to losses.

yeah, high expectations can only fail you. As I always repeat, don't concern about the money, concern about your development as a trader. When you become a good one, the money will come.

idimitrov posted:
yeah, high expectations can only fail you. As I always repeat, don't concern about the money, concern about your development as a trader. When you become a good one, the money will come.

Isn't that true! Well said, idimitrov!

To sum up all this, let's just say that trading should be studied as a science. One can't learn nuclear physics in a couple of hours.