Forex Discipline

When it comes down to it, all successful traders have learned to mastery one important skill … discipline! As I progress as a trader, whether it is on my home court (the forex market) or on a road trip (trading options), discipline has been the skill that has made me more profits and lack of it has been the major contributor of all of my losses!

Living in the western portion of the United States requires local forex traders to either stay up late to trade the London session or wake up early to trade with the east coast. I am a morning person, so it is no brainer that I do the majority of my FX trading during the London-New York overlap period. A good nights sleep and a fresh morning coffee and I am ready to go hunting PIPS! Well I broke my rule last night and after tackling receipts going into tax season and looking at some option positions I had on, I took a look at my forex charts for a swing trade opportunity. I saw a nice opportunity for the euro to move up over the next several days. A long story short, I was yawning and could hear my bed calling. I shut down the computer and patted myself on the back for not placing any trades while I was so tired. I was disciplined in recognizing that I just do not trade well during the late evenings.

What happened today?

The euro was strong all day, and as of the writing of this post, had moved up 123 pips!!! Not the ending you were expecting!

My point is, discipline made me aware I was at my low point mentally and should not be placing forex trades in my current state of mind. I bring this up because this will happen to all traders a one point or another. 99 times out of 100 this would have been a losing trade!

Know yourself, establish your style and stay true to your plan. If you follow this simple formula success will just be a matter of time. Forex education is the key to developing a solid discipline trading approach.