Please help to keep this blog going. If you need to open a live account kindly register with one of the recommended FSB regulated brokers using the links provided HERE. For further assistance you can WhatsApp me on: +27 76 966 9392 Or +27 64 510 4132. Below is our weekly economic calendar.
Tentative=No specific time
q/q = Released quarterly
m/m=Released monthly
As I publish this, the French people have just hit the polls to cast their votes for presidential elections. This is the first round and will be followed by the second round on the 7th of May. The year 2016 was full of drama in the markets. Firstly it was UK referendum (Brexit), then Donald Trump campaigning for the presidency and finally elected as the 45th President of the United States. The markets have never been the same since then, it has been breaking the news after breaking news. The markets are very interesting in 2017.
How will the French elections affect EUR?
France is one of the biggest economies in the European Unions ( E.U). It has a strong influence in the economic decisions. The French economy forms approximately 15% of the European GDP and France remains an important decision maker in Europe. I will be watching EUR closely this week. Please help to keep this blog going. If you need to open a live account kindly register with one of the recommended FSB regulated brokers using the links provided HERE. For further assistance you can WhatsApp me on: +27 76 966 9392 Or +27 64 510 4132. Below is our weekly economic calendar.
BOJ: Bank Of Japan
BOE: Bank Of England
GDT: Global Dairy Trade
Tentative: No specific time
CPI : Consumer Price Index (learn more about CPI HERE) and get all your 2017 CPI’s dates for New Zealand, Canada, U.S.A, Australia and UK HERE.
The markets remain open right throughout the year except on Christmas day. The following banks will be closed on the 17th of April in observance of Easter Monday.
During bank holidays, a currency involved may experience low liquidity and irregular volatility. Learn more about trading on bank holidays HERE. A few things to know about New Zealand Dollar, it is a commodity currency, along side with other currencies like Canadian Dollar and more. They do their GDT Price Index weekly which measures the change in the average price of dairy products sold at auction.
Please help to keep this blog going. If you need to open a live account kindly register with one of the recommended FSB regulated brokers using the links provided HERE. For further assistance you can WhatsApp me on: +27 76 966 9392 Or +27 64 510 4132. Below is our weekly economic news.
Hi, welcome back again. I want to keep this post as short as possible. I might sound a bit controversial (I’ll probably go hide after this, smiles) but that is not my intention. My intention is to create a platform where all traders feel free to speak about real issues that affect us. The net is full of Forex blogs and sites.They are mostly focusing on issues that are not applicable to us in South Africa. Sometimes the information is just so unrealistic to what we face on daily basis. Now let’s talk about these issues here. Over the years that I have been trading, I have noticed that everytime I read Forex related books or articles, they always refer to traders as “him/he”. I always complain in silence and say but I am right here (ahem! hoping that an author out there will finally recognize us and start using words like she/her). Ok, enough about my whining. Shout out to all female traders out there. If you are here reading, Hi.
Ego is mostly associated with men. This is not a total truth though because I am sure we all know that one lady who has an inflated ego. We always say to those women that they have men like-egos (now I am really not sure why we say that when the ego is not only a men issue). Ego has no place in the markets. Let’s take a closer look at how traders get affected by their ego. Below are some of the ego related issues.
I know how this is going to turn out, I have never been wrong about it
Now, this is definitely an ego talking. A person who has an inflated ego is likely to repeat his/her mistakes simply because this person wants to be correct all the time. When he/she gets caught in a bad trade, it is so difficult for this person to take a loss and move on. This person just wants to be right (do not be that person). Unfortunately, as a trader, you are going to be wrong sometimes and when it does happen, your ego shouldn’t stand in the way.
I have been self-teaching for a year now and I do not need much from a mentor, I just need to brush up my skills and up my game
Just so you know, I took a deep sigh after writing this sub-heading. This is what I hear almost every day. My observation got me thinking that it is mostly men who have this issue (women as well, but not as much as men). Most people who are followers of this blog stumbled upon it while searching for Forex related information (maybe you also stumbled upon here today from Google search). The fact that you are on Google searching for information means that there is something that you need to know or “crack” even after so many YouTube videos and downloading manuals trying to self-teach. When you finally found this blog, the information that you were looking for should be enough to brush up your skills. If after reading here, you still need to talk to me, just throw your ego out of the window and admit that you need help. But it does not always happen like that. Ego always takes over. Get rid of the internal Ego so you can learn.
Ask yourself this question, how many times have you missed out on opportunities to be mentored simply because you allowed your ego to stand in the way? Accepting help does not mean you are a failure. We all need mentors or help from time to time to take us through. Whether it is a paid mentor or someone that you just follow (like you follow on this blog), we all need it. I am actually about to pay a mentor to teach me a few tricks about blogging. In case you are reading here and you actually do need a mentor, this is now your cue to pick up your phone and call or Whatsapp me on +27 64 510 4132 or +27 76 966 9392.
Sitting in a losing trade that will never come back to positive is somehow linked to an inflated ego because all you want is to be right
Think about that day when you made only winning trades from morning till evening. Think about what that did to your confidence, it skyrocketed to another level right? But if you have mastered the art of keeping your trades to yourself, often you have no bruised ego or confidence to worry about.
Very few traders have mastered the art of keeping their trades to themselves (get yourself to that list or stay there if you already have, I intend to stay). When you make a habit of trading and posting your immediate results on social media, you are likely to develop an ego as you get fans who will constantly like and praise your winning trades. When you get it wrong even when you know very well that your fans cannot see what’s going on, you kind of feel like you are letting your fans down (because you have made it part of your daily routine to trade and publish your immediate results). You are also likely to feel pressure and that might lead you to leave a losing trade for longer. Ego (sometimes, you are not even aware that you have developed it) is now talking “you are always right, leave this trade a little bit longer”, at the back of your mind you are already thinking about your fans and your next screenshot ( I know someone out there is going through this, take this unnecessary pressure off your shoulder). Please do not get me wrong here, I am not saying everyone who trades and publishes their immediate results has an ego issue. This is just something I experienced and I hear about it from time to time from my followers. I did mention on my previous post that I treat my Forex account as a business, I stopped doing the publishing thing as soon as I started to see my account as a business. That on its own contributed a lot in my overall outlook of Forex and my consistency (I still make a bad trade from time to time, we all do). Every time I close a trade (good or bad), I use the time to revisit it, check how it went, check if there is anything that I should have done to get better results (even on profited trades), check what I can improve to do better than I did. And all that information goes straight to my trading journal. Now see why I never find time to publish my immediate results anymore? I try to get rid of all destructions. I am not saying be like Ntombi (I was just sharing).
On my previous post, I mentioned that I treat my Forex account as a business. I stopped doing this publishing thing as soon as I started to see my account as a business. That on its own contributed a lot in my overall outlook of Forex and my consistency (I still make a bad trade from time to time, we all do). Every time I close a trade (good or bad), I use the time to revisit it, check how it went, check if there is anything that I should have done to get better results (even on profited trades), check what I can improve to do better than I did. And all that information goes straight to my trading journal. Now see why I never find time to publish my immediate results anymore? I try to get rid of all distractions. I am not saying be like Ntombi (I was just sharing).
Thank you for reading. I enjoyed writing this post. It actually felt like I was standing in front of you having a conversation about real issues that we face as traders. I know I said I will keep it short. I always say that even to my mentees, but look at this post now…
Hello readers, welcome back and thank you for paying a visit. If you are here for the first time, welcome to my blog and I hope you do come back again or subscribe for future blog posts. If this is your first post you’ve ever read here, you might like to read more articles that will tell you more about me and what I am all about. If you wish to read about some of my bad trading experiences, you can read HERE.
If you wanna know more about my misfortunes and how I got scammed, you can read HERE. To know more about my preferred method of trading, read HERE. That should give you an idea of what I am all about. Today I am here to give you tips that I personally use to keep checks on my trading progress.
I personally do not trade for fun. One day I came across a blog post where they were talking about how Forex trading shouldn’t be called a business. I love reading but every time I read something I usually swallow what I can apply in my personal life and also considering my circumstances and spit out what I cannot use.
I had to give that a name right? So I call it “smart reading”. There are lots of things that I might say on my blog posts that you do not necessarily agree with or are not in line with your own trading method. Smart reading is when you are able to read my posts, take what will work with your own method and spit out what you think you cannot apply in your own trading.
Back to the blog that I came across. I liked everything that I read there, but I did not agree with the fact that I should not see my trading as a business (this was now for my personal reasons).
As much as many people may disagree, my Forex account is a business to me. For me to be able to respect it, I had to first take it as any other business. For me to take it more seriously, I had to adopt most of my business skills to use in my trading.
When you run a business, you make sure that you calculate every cent that goes in and out of your business right?I use that in my Forex account as well to make sure that I do not over trade. Before I can indulge in multiple trades, I always make sure that I check if I can afford it.
As a trader, there are pairs that you have to stay away from especially when you trade a very small account. Unfortunately, mentors out there do not guide their mentees on this. I always advise my mentees according to their specific amount.
I personally pre-plan all my trading sessions every Sunday for the upcoming week ( I do that with my mentees as well). This might not work with your own strategy, but it works well with fundamental analysis, which is what I use). Just like I pre-plan my entire week (for everything that I will do) every Sunday, I do the same with my trading sessions (I hate randomness)
When you run a business, you do keep records right? I do the same with my trading account. I keep a trading journal with my weekly expectations and also note down everything as I do the actual trades. Firstly, I have my monthly target of which I scale it down to weekly and break it down to daily targets. This does not only help me to be more organized, but it is also a great way that I taught myself self-discipline and control (this is one of the two traits a trader needs to make it in trading). Imagine driving around with a map but no destination, a journey is more fun if you know your destination. For me, this was a trick that I used to teach myself all this discipline that I now have.
As much I set my daily targets, I do not necessarily measure my progress by what I can achieve on a daily basis to avoid being discouraged. Sometimes daily targets aren’t met (which is OK, there are better days at which daily targets are exceeded).
If you measure your progress by what you can achieve on a daily basis, you feel so discouraged when you do not reach it. You will feel like you’ve lost money even if you didn’t. For that reason, I check my progress on a weekly basis while minding my daily targets.
If you are not sure how to set targets, you can use the tips HERE and alter it to suit your own needs. I am a simple girl and I simplify everything. Some brokers do send a daily confirmation of trades and also send a monthly statement. But you can do your own statement from your MT4 on a weekly basis.
Do that and thank me later. Adopting these tips will also help you to stop doing a “Yo-Yo” type of trading whereby you make a lot of money on Monday and by Thursday you donate everything back to the markets and you are left with nothing, simply because you do not know when to stop trading.
I always thank myself for adopting these good habits and for being so professional about my trading. I am sure now you can see why I am not really a big fan of screenshots. While you are at it, also adopt my other good habit which is focusing more on a percentage at which my account grows weekly instead of counting pips.
Thank you for stopping by. I hope you found this post informative. If you do, kindly share with your peers using the share buttons of your choice below.
If it is not too much to ask. Please help to keep this blog going. If you need to open a live account kindly register with one of the recommended FSB regulated brokers using the links provided HERE. For further assistance you can WhatsApp me on: +27 76 966 9392 Or +27 64 510 4132. For private mentorship, read HERE.
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