Why Do I Trade The Way That I Do Now

by Ntombi Malatsi | Apr 7, 2016 | FOREX TRAINING

I used to spend almost the whole night watching YouTube videos trying to learn this and that and trading was not fun at all. It became this one thing that I so wanted to learn and master, but it was taking over my life in a very bad and overwhelming way. Most of the time I felt like I was suffering from some rare mental disorder *smiles, it wasn’t nice at all, not to mention emotionally draining and exhausting. I was also not a fun person to be around anymore.

I would make a lot and lose it all again. Funding my account month after month was normal to me. When I started, I did not really have clear goals of where I wanted to take this trading thing. I was just excited to be one of the female traders and learning a new skill.

Personality plays an important role in whatever we do

I believe that when choosing a career or business venture, one needs to consider his/her personality. I am naturally a very calm and a reserved woman. I love peace and quiet, I do not like noise and overcrowded places.

I really enjoy being on my own. There I was trying to get into Forex trading and it took over my whole life. I am a wife and I have a son. Trading took me away from everything that matters to me. Because of the amount of work and efforts that I was putting into it, the long hours and staying up all night, friends and family members assumed that I was making a lot of money, and that alone added some pressure and I just had to keep up.

The truth is, I was living a very stressful life hiding behind charts. Those charts are very attractive when you are still a newbie and the more lines I could draw on charts, the smarter I felt. where am I going with all this? I am trying to show you how important it is to consider our personalities in everything that we do because our personalities lead us to do things the way that we do them.

How was my  quality of life affected?

I struggled to balance life and everything else. I loved trading and I knew that I could make money but it was just too much. I would stay up all night studying charts, I would be glued to my laptop the whole day watching over charts, it was emotionally draining for real.

How do I trade now?

I am no longer consumed by charts and I sleep very well at night. If I happen to be up and trading at night, it is always by choice. I set up an alarm and wake up to trade then go back to sleep again, isn’t it lovely?

I can do my own trading, teach and coach 8-10 people every month, run this blog and still manage to take care of my other business, cook, sit with my family in the evenings and attend to social media and tons and tons of emails that I get daily. Life feels so normal

I trade the economic news and I only use technical analysis to confirm my entries and exits. I am not saying other methods are bad, but probably bad for me, my personality, my lifestyle and my needs. This method that I use works better for me and what matters the most is that I am now trading less, living a normal and simple life but I make more money than I used to.

I used to stay away from the markets during the high impact economic events until I learned how to trade them, (most traders still do, but the economic news are my bread and butter). I listen to what the market says and follow it where it goes. I strive to be on the right side of the markets by trading only after the daily speeches are released.

Try something new

We usually shut down any ideas that are not popular or that are not “in your face” or when we do not understand how it’s done. I am loving this form of trading and I have no regrets. The economic news makes sense to me, knowing what moves the currencies make sense to me. I can trade and still find time to do everything else that matters to me, if I can learn how to bake a cake, my life will be complete *smiles.

Benefits of how I trade 

1. My trading sessions are pre-planned, I do not do random trades, I wait for the market to decide, then follow.
2. Emotions are far less than when I was consumed by charts.
3. I do not worry about the quantity of trades, but the quality, therefore I do not trade 20 times a day.
4. I make more money than I used to do before, and I actually keep what I make and it does get into my bank account.
5. I have monthly targets which I break down into weekly and right down to daily, read more HERE.
6. I can do other things that I enjoy, like cooking,  and ooh well, I am about to learn how to bake a cake (sorry, I am too excited about that, I keep mentioning it).
7. I can also get to spend time with my family and I am not always irritated ( I used to stress a lot, my son would even say that I control the mood in the house, he was joking but it was the sad truth).
8. I do not miss my beauty sleep, not even by chance (unless I choose to)
9. I spend less hours trading.
10. In the beginning of the week, I always know the currencies that I would be trading the whole week. I check my weekly economic calendar and do my weekly trading schedule every Sunday and know my 3 W’s (what, why, when)
11. I get time to check up on my mentees on a daily basis and also plan our trading sessions and trade together during news release (1-2 times a day ) depending on our economic calendar. Our sessions take about an hour or so, making it possible for people who are at work to manage. Sometimes we don’t trade on a specific day and it’s still OK not to trade 5 days a week, remember it’s quality over quantity.

Remember it is all about your needs, your lifestyle and most importantly your personality. If you are trading already and it feels like you are not the same person that you were before you started trading, you are constantly worried and you do not have time to do anything else, your life is now all about charts and markets, it is about time you change how you do it.

Trading should not be a stressful event, if you feel that you are like me, maybe you need to explore this method, but learn first. Thank you  for stopping by and kindly share this post with your peers.