Top 10 Ways New Forex Traders Lose Money For the subject of this week’s article, I thought that I would take the time to explore the thought process behind most trading decisions we make during our FX speculating. As you may already know if you have read previous articles written by myself or my colleagues, we all drive home the importance of formulating and then following a detailed and actionable written trade plan, so as to remove any underlying emotions from the decision making process and thus enforce ongoing discipline in our trading activities. The less the trade becomes about us and more about our rules and plan, the more we have steered ourselves towards achieving success in the markets on a consistent basis. The plan tells us what to do, as opposed to us looking at a chart and guessing what we should do. Controlling our emotions during our trading is perhaps the toughest obstacle we face in making our goals a reality. Every single time a candle on the charts moves up or down, we can be easily tempted to click the buy or sell button on a whim, without any real reason to be entering at all! In the early stages of my trading education, I remember reading that candlesticks and trend on a price chart are nothing more than simply a representation of people’s emotions when they buy and sell. Rising prices are an illustration of greed in the markets and when prices are falling, we are seeing the picture of fear taking over. Greed causes prices to rally and fear causes them to fall…or so they say. After teaching students worldwide with Online Trading Academy both in the classroom and during the ongoing virtual environment of our online graduate Extended Learning Track program and obviously through my own experiences as a trader for pushing eight years, I have started to look at the emotions of fear and greed in a slightly different light. Let me explain. One of the most powerful aspects of Online Trading Academy’s Core Strategy, is that helps our students to change their mindset of the how markets work and gets them thinking like the groups who know how make the most money in the markets, mainly the Institutions. The difference between the way most retail traders think and act when they place trades and how some of the biggest banks and funds act when they trade, is hugely different. Think about this for a second: when a fund manager places an order to enter the market to take a position, do you think that they are worried about losing the trade and how it will make them feel? Or do you think that they find it easy to pull the trigger because firstly their superior has already given them their risk parameters and secondly because the money at risk is not actually theirs? To the fund manager, taking the trade is nothing more than their job and like any other job, they need to get on with it on a daily basis. On the other hand, let’s think about the retail trader sitting at home and taking the same trade but with a much smaller size. Even if they were taking the trade at the same time and in the same direction as the fund manager, do you think that there is a possibility that their thoughts may be a little different than the fund manager’s? For most retail traders I would say absolutely, and why might you ask? Well for a start the retail trader is trading with their own money, not somebody else’s money, which will automatically have a different dynamic in itself, meaning that whatever the outcome of the trade, it will directly impact the retail trader. Secondly, the retail trader is doing a job also but they have no guarantee of an income at the end of the month, unlike the fund manager or trader who works for an institution. This person will no doubt still earn at the end of the month as long as they follow their instructions and trade plan as outlined to them by their superiors. I have come to understand that the completely different environments in which retail and institutional traders work in, dictate clearly the challenges that can be faced for most retail speculators out there. I do not believe that the emotions of fear and greed work the same way for the small trader, as they do with the larger trader. In fact, I would go as far as to suggest that greed does not even become a factor in the potential success of the retail trader because if you ask most people who want to trade for themselves what they want more than anything else in their trading, they will normally say, consistency. They just want to be able achieve their goals with low risk trades and slowly build upon this. It does not become about greed at all. It is the fear which tends to be the biggest challenge of all. It is fear which stops us from taking a solid setup in the markets because we have been on a losing streak, only to see it work out well and the opportunity missed. It is fear which causes us to not follow the trading plan to the hilt and make irrational changes all the time because the odd trade fails to work. It is fear which causes us to get out of a trade far too early with a small profit because we are scared to hold on in case it becomes another loser and it is fear which makes us search over and over again for the perfect strategy which does not exist, simply because we think there is always something out there we are missing out on or don’t know about. Fear my friends, is the biggest hurdle any retail trader has to face and will hold you back more than anything else ever will. Recognize that fear needs to be controlled with a plan and discipline. Once the consistency comes, then the fears will subside over time. Oh, and for those of you who were wondering what I feel about greed’s place in the market, well that is an easy one. Just ask yourself a quick question: Why do people become greedy? Because they are fearful there will never be enough… See you in two weeks, Statistics show that the initial success for new forex traders is disturbingly low. Over time, this trend tends to improve, but for many, it is too late. After posting a series of losses, many new traders will give-up, believing that forex trading is simply not for them. It does not have to be this way. 1. Lack of Experience Forex trading - like any new initiative - has a learning curve. However, unlike learning a new skill such as learning to play guitar for instance, you are not risking your entire savings while discovering the difference between a major and minor chord. Learning about the currency markets and basic trading principles solely on a trial and error basis is not a recommended approach for gaining the skills necessary to be a successful forex trader. Most online forex brokers offer a practice version of their trading platform that offers the very same experience as a live trading application. Typically, once you create a practice account, you are free to trade and deal as you wish risking only the "play" money used to seed your account. With a forex demo account, you can see how the market reacts to economic forces including news events without actually risking your investment capital. However, you must treat this account seriously if you expect to learn from the experience. If you simply shrug off a loss without understanding why the loss occurred, then you are wasting your time and setting yourself up for disappointment. Take advantage of this unique forex market training tool before committing your money to a real forex trading account. 2. Unreasonable Expectations First off, stop believing all the “get-rich quick” hype still perpetrated by some forex dealers. Yes, there are those that do get rich trading forex but some people also get rich selling houses. In either case, it does not happen overnight and it might take years to gain the experience and insight to turn forex trading into a full-time, successful occupation. As a new forex trader, if you manage to stay in the game without losing all your money in the first few months as is all-too-common – then you may be able to learn what is required to be profitable. In other words, don’t quit your day job just yet. 3. Absence of a Sound Trading Plan Next to having unreasonable expectations with regards to the risks associated with forex trading and the amount of time required to be successful, a common mistake made by new traders is the lack of a forex trading plan. In reality, there are two aspects to this plan; an overall objective for your trading activities and a plan for each trade you make. Your overall objective should include the currencies that you intend to deal in, the amount of leverage you will use, and the amount of time you intend to devote to your trading activities. Your plan must also include a realistic rate of return you expect to achieve. In addition to your overall objectives plan, you also need an exit strategy plan for each trade you make that includes the upper and lower boundaries of the trade. In other words, you must identify the level at which you will close positions and take your profits (take-profit order) or in the case of a losing trade, the level at which you are prepared to go before you get out of the trade thus limiting your losses (limit order). We’ll talk more about stop-loss and take-profit instructions later. 4. Lack of Discipline A plan is only of value if you actually have the patience and the discipline to follow it. While this can be difficult, it is necessary if you expect to be successful, and it is this very reason why developing a plan prior to the trade is so fundamental. As rates fluctuate, you can easily get caught up in the market and it is only human nature that you will begin to second-guess your actions. If, for instance, the rate moves up surpassing your original take profit point, you may be tempted to hold out for an even higher return; alternatively, if the price drops below your limit level but you believe there is a big rebound just around the corner, you may be tempted to keep the order open on the hopes of a reversal. But does either scenario really make sense? If before you entered the trade you had a sound reason for establishing both your take profit and your loss limit levels, how likely is it that conditions have changed so much that now you are prepared to throw your previous assessments out the window in the heat of the battle? Can you be sure that you are not acting on emotion rather than sound analysis? This is why a plan is so important – it allows you to avoid the emotion that is bound to arise during times of volatility. Now this is not to say that a trading plan can never be revised – in fact, your overall objectives should be re-examined every few months or even more frequently if required. As well, it may be necessary sometimes to abandon a plan mid-trade if market conditions warrant but this should be the exception and not the norm. And yes, sometimes the market can be so volatile that no amount of planning will produce positive results. In this case, maybe the best option is simply not to trade until you can get a better handle on things. Never allow yourself to fall into the “I have to do something” trap – sometimes the best plan is to do nothing. 5. Failure to Include Stop-Loss and Take Profit Instructions When you place a market order and leave it open – that is, enter a trade at the market price without instructions to close the order – you are in effect, gambling with the total value of your account. For this reason, you should consider adding stop-loss instructions to all open positions. For instance, if you are holding a long GBP/USD position, you can include a stop-loss instruction that automatically sells your long position if the rate falls to a certain level. In this way, you can limit the amount that you could lose on any given trade – even if you are unable to constantly monitor your account. Take-profit orders are similar in that they allow you to establish the rate at which you want open positions closed in order to lock-in profits. Again, you simply need to identify the rate at which to take the profits, and the trading system closes the position without further intervention on your part. 6. Excessive Leverage Depending on your experience level, trade leverage can be a powerful tool to help you maximize returns, or it can be the cause of your downfall. It is not something to be taken lightly and if you do not understand how it works, don’t trade until you do understand. 7. Holding Too Many Open Trades Fighter pilots call it “helmet fire” and it happens when too much is happening around you too quickly for you to react. In the cockpit of a jet fighter, it can get you killed – as a forex trader, you may not end up dead but you will probably end up broke. 8. Holding Losing Positions Too Long One of the things that really separates seasoned forex traders from those just starting out is their ability to determine when a losing trade is not going to reverse the trend. Rather than “hold and hope”, disciplined traders will take the loss and get out much more quickly. This is another reason to set protective stops on all your trades; if you include effective stops when you submit a new trade, you can at least limit your losses without having to spend too much time “babysitting” the order. If the trade hits the stop, you will lose the amount committed but you also protect the bulk of your capital, leaving you with funds to move into something else that, hopefully, will be more profitable. Sometimes, you just have to treat these things as life lessons – learn and move on. 9. Ignoring Rate Spread Fluctuations and the Impact Spreads Have on Profitability Exchange rate spreads – the difference between the bid and the ask price – are of utmost importance and directly affect the profitability of each trade. You need to be aware that spread differentials can fluctuate wildly during the day – sometimes to the point of turning a profitable trade into a losing one. You also need to understand that forex spreads will widen during off-market hours when volumes and liquidity are lower. In addition, spreads tend to widen ahead of important news such as an impending interest rate decision or the latest employment results. 10. Thinking About the “Big Win” More Than Effective Cash Management (AKA Greed) This one is pretty straight-forward – greed; or more correctly, how greed can cause you to enter into ridiculous trades. This must be the same gene that causes some people to keep “doubling-down” even when the odds are so against them that it make no sense at all. If you want to gamble, go to Vegas.
Posted on: Tue, 18 Jun 2013 03:41:12 +0000
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