What Is Forex Trading Psychology?

Forex trading psychology  refers to a trader’s emotions and  their mental state. It is one of the most important deciding factors of whether a trader will make it or not . It is also about a trader’s character which plays a big role in influencing their trading decisions. Most failures in Forex trading are more about how traders manage themselves.

Manage Yourself, Manage Your Money

I always say that if you can manage yourself, you can definitely manage your money. Most traders think that the most important thing for successful trading, is finding amazing tools and trading strategies. I also understand that we cannot control what happens in the markets, but we can always control ourselves. Now that we know what Forex trading psychology refers to, let’s look at the few specific behaviours and emotions that can be associated with it.

Self Discipline/Control

In whatever that we do, we mostly need a certain level of discipline, without it, chances of being successful are limited. I will make an example with trying to keep fit and getting healthier, we need a lot of self discipline/control in terms of what we eat and also making sure that we get moving and exercise. If we lack self control, we will feel tempted to eat junk food and justify it by saying that everyone around us was eating junk. I love using these as examples because I know how difficult it is for most people to discipline themselves in terms of what they should eat and not eat. Healthy eating is one of the important things that I am passionate about because health is wealth. Let me go back to the business of today before I go on and on about food and health.

How Important Is Self Discipline?

When it comes to Forex trading, discipline should be your strongest weapon. If you cannot discipline yourself in the markets, the markets will sure discipline you through a margin call and that is not a nice thing to experience as a trader. Disciplining yourself involves you saying NO to that urge to trade all the time/over trading, using a bigger lot size when your account is small and risking more that what your account could handle.

What Happens When You Lack Discipline?

When you lack discipline, Forex trading feels like a very bad addiction. When you lack discipline, you are unable to stick to your own plan. The good thing is that discipline is something that can be learned, as long as there’s a will to learn and enough support from a Forex trading mentor/coach. I have learned that it is easier to win when you have a support system to help you up when you stumble (that’s basically what I do with my mentees). A mentor/coach clears a way ahead for you. I never do anything without a mentor/coach until I can stand on my own. Normalise doing the same, it really helps.

Fear

When fear strikes, you are likely to miss out on great trading opportunities for the fear of making mistakes and losing money (especially if you’ve made some mistakes that lead to you losing money). The fear of missing out is also another form of fear that is associated with Forex trading psychology. When this type of fear strikes, a trader feels like if a day goes by without placing any trades, they are definitely missing out. But the truth is, a missed trade is never a loss. There’s another type of fear that I won’t indulge in that much on this post, and that is the fear of success. You can read all about it in the post that I published a year ago, HERE.

Greed

According to its definition, greed is a selfish want for something beyond one’s need. A greedy trader is a trader who is never satisfied no matter how great their trading session can be, it always ends very bad. No matter how much they make in a day, it always ends in great losses at the end of the day. A greedy trader never takes money home, it only goes as far as trading history. The good thing again is that, this is something that can be unlearned, as long as you’ve identified and acknowledged it, you can learn NOT to be greedy. Unlearning forms a big part of learning, read more about that HERE. A while ago, I published a post about overcoming GREED, you may want to check it out. 

Forex trading psychology is also that one area that I focus the most on. I recently started posting weekly tips here that are mainly focusing on Forex trading psychology. The main aim is to help you shape your mindset and gear it up for better trading experiences. You can view the weekly tips on the “weekly tips” tab. Make sure that your device allows push notifications to be notified whenever a new weekly tip on Forex trading psychology to improve your trading is posted. Thank you so much for stopping by.

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