Mental endurance is a measure of individual resilience and confidence that may predict success in sport, education and the workplace. SOURCE: Wikipedia.
Welcome back, it’s been a while since I published a blogpost here. Mental endurance is also the ability to exercise inner strength to be able to deal with life’s daily challenges. As a beginner trader, you are likely to face challenges as you work towards gaining that much needed trading experience. Being able to navigate through those challenges without giving up, will require mental endurance. For the sake of this post, I will assume that you have learned how to trade and you are at that stage where you feel like it is not happening as quick as you have anticipated.
Why Must We Develop Mental Endurance?
I have seen people who always start projects and give up along the way and never see them through. I have done it as well so many times in my life. In this case I can say that Forex trading is definitely not one of them. This year marks my 12th year in the markets. If it was, I wouldn’t be here today sharing with you. When we lack mental endurance, we give up easily.
Most traders are introduced to Forex trading as a quick and easy way to make money without putting in any work or effort, I was also sold that dream. When they finally unlearn that, they give up or even stop learning and instead choose to get involved in Forex pyramid schemes which always end badly. Since mental endurance is about exercising inner strength, below are the 2 things that you can do to activate that inner strength. I am only sharing these two because I know that if you can start there, you will know what else to work on.
Change Your Beliefs About Trading.
I know this may sound a bit weird, but most people who are trading do not believe that they can actually make money. Sometimes they do believe that there are opportunities to make money in the markets, but they don’t see themselves being among those people who can benefit from those opportunities. There is so much fear and doubts. This is caused by what most people have experienced, the scamming etc. They then come to the markets carrying all that baggage. To make money, you must believe that you can and it is possible.
I did a podcast episode on the importance of personal development in Forex trading because we trade better when we behave better. That is what trading psychology is all about, it is about how we behave in the markets. Since we cannot control the markets, we might as well control what we can, ourselves. You can listen to that episode HERE.
I also published a very practical booklet to help instill positive beliefs about money and Forex trading. When your beliefs are shifted to the positive side, your results will be positive. You can purchase your softcopy of “Shift your Mind, Shift your Money” booklet for only $8HERE. Scroll down towards the end on that page and click the “BUY THE BOOK” button. You can buy without having an existing Paypal account (just read through the instructions on the purchase page) Should you need any assistance, kindly WhatsApp me on +27 78 144 6851.
2. Understand That It Won’t Happen Overnight.
When you understand Forex for what it is and not as a cash slot machine, you will also understand that it is going to be a process just like any other business and you will have to fall in love with that process in order for you to see progress and growth in your trading. Falling in love with the process means you understand that you will make mistakes, you may struggle with self control and you will be fearful sometimes. All these are the common challenges that you can easily overcome. I also went through most of these challenges. I can tell you one thing though, it does get better with time and experience.
Thank you for stopping by. Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section and kindly share this post to help me reach as many people as I can who may benefit from this information. Please do take care and stay healthy and safe.
Why You Should Not Park Money In your Forex Account?
Hello subscribers and readers, welcome back and thank you for stopping by. By parking money, I don’t mean funding your trading account and not trading it. I mean when your account is funded and you are trading it and making profits, do not just leave it in your trading account. Below are the few tips on how you can utilize your trading profits.
Let Your Account Sustain Itself
Now let’s be honest, when you are employed, you allocate transport money from your salary. Your trading account should be able to do that for itself as well. When you take data/Wi-Fi off your budget and let your trading account take care of that, you will feel so great. This is the first one to do, it shows that you are winning and you are moving.
Start A Business
In this case, I would look at the trading account as an investment. When your investment grows, take a portion and put it towards starting a business or growing your existing one. Every end of each month, you’ll need to close your trading books, see how you did and allocate a certain percentage towards growing your business. You can do 10%, 20% or whatever amount that you see fit. That percentage amount should be the same every month. This will not only help you grow your money but it will encourage you to take your trading account more seriously and treat it like an investment. As your business grows, invest some of the profits back to your trading account and keep repeating.
Invest in Shares
If you are in S.A, you can invest in shares using reputable brokers. From your trading account, allocate a percentage that will go towards your share portfolio. Investing in shares is long term, grow your portfolio by using your Forex money.
Buy Something For Your House
Yes I said it, buy something that you will always look at and be proud that you bought that with your trading money. Just like when you start working, it feels so good to look around and see a new microwave that you bought with your own salary. That sense of ownership will encourage you to always do your best in your trading account so you can acquire more. A happy trader does way better than a frustrated one. By all means, do things that makes you happy.
Grow Your Savings or Emergency funds
Allocate a percentage towards your savings. When you have grown your emergency funds/savings account or your tax free account (if you are in S.A) you will feel so proud and be more encouraged to do well in your trading account so you can allocate more. You can make your own list of things that you can do with your Forex money. This post is for someone who is making profits but just keeping them in the Forex account. I recently did an episode on my Podcast covering this topic. You can listen HERE. Thank you for stopping by. If you think this is an eye opener post, please share with your peers and feel free to leave a comment.
SOURCE Wikipedia: Personal development consists of activities that develop a person’s capabilities and potential, build human capital, facilitate employability, and enhance quality of life and the realization of dreams and aspirations. Personal development may take place over the course of an individual’s entire lifespan and is not limited to one stage of a person’s life. It can include official and informal actions for developing others in roles such as a teacher, guide, counselor, manager, coach, or mentor, and it is not restricted to self-help. When personal development takes place in the context of institutions, it refers to the methods, programs, tools, techniques, and assessment systems offered to support positive adult development at the individual level in organizations.
The Importance Of Personal Development In Forex Trading.
Forex trading is not only about learning certain trading strategies. A lot of traders have amazing trading strategies but they still fail. Trading is more about being able to manage ourselves. The best way to manage our trading accounts or money is to manage ourselves. A trader who works on themselves finds it easier to navigate through challenges. Below are the few areas that one can develop as a trader.
Patience
If there’s one thing that a trader needs, is patience. Patience to analyze and to wait for a perfect setup before executing trades. As a trader you will also need to be very patient with yourself and give yourself time to learn and gain the necessary experience. If you are an impatient person in all other areas of your life, you are not going to suddenly switch to a patient person instantly especially in your trading. You will keep on messing things up in your account until you work on yourself and fix your patience levels. As a teacher/mentor/coach, I also do a lot of personal developments. Patience is one of the areas that I had to look at because it would be impossible to teach without it.
Gambling Addiction
Over the past few years, I have taught, mentored and coached people who come to me with different challenges. A couple of times, I had mentees who were addicted to gambling, they would spend weekends at the casino. No matter how much I tried to help them stop gambling with their trading account, they would still gamble. It was only when one person who had the gambling challenge told me that they are getting help because it has been a problem for so many years and it has affected his business and marriage. If this person did not work on that problem, he would have lost a fortune in the markets.
Self Control
Some people need to develop this area. If you lack self control, you are likely to struggle with keeping your profits. Most people make money but at the end of each day or week, they give it all back to the markets because they just couldn’t stop. They kept on going back for more trades even when they have made their target. Until such a trader works on their self control issues, they will keep on donating to the markets. Check out these VIDEOS here and avoid such mistakes.
Confidence
In 2019, I published a blog post on how to build self confidence, you can check it out HERE. When it comes to confidence, one may have confidence in other areas but lack confidence in trusting self or making decisions. This can also be worked on through personal development. If you always end up loosing opportunities because you are lacking self confidence, this can be fixed. I only shared a few just to give you an idea. You can search for more areas that need to be improved in your own life and start working on those. The person that you are cannot be separated from the person who trades. I recently published an episode on my PODCAST on this topic.
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Hello subscribers and readers, welcome back, it’s been a while. If you just stumbled upon this blog today, you are welcome. Should you find value in this post and wish to be notified whenever there’s a new publication, please kindly subscribe. Today’s topic is one of the frequently asked questions from people who follow my work online, people ask me this question every other day, including my mentees. That is also a biggest contributor of people seeing it fit to borrow money to trade. I cannot ignore the fact that Forex trading has been portrayed as the quickest way to make money online. Without further ado, let me get to it.
Why Do People Borrow Money?
Most people borrow money when there’s an emergency that needs to be taken care of and they have no emergency fund to finance it at that time. I know that other people do borrow money just so they can go and have some fun, but today I need to focus on borrowing for a need. A person who borrows money to trade may feel that there’s a need as they also believe that they can easily pay it back after trading for a week or so.
Disadvantages Of Trading With Borrowed Money
Trading requires you to be “sober minded”. Anything that causes stress, pressure and anxiety should be eliminated or avoided. When you trade under pressure, you are likely to be impatient and make mistakes. Let’s say you borrowed R50 000 from the bank and your loan repayment is R3000 p/m (please note that these may not be accurate figures), this will mean that every time you place a trade, you will be thinking about making that R3000 and if it happens that you are only left with one week to pay, you’ll find yourself forcing your way into the markets so you can make the loan repayment amount. I have done this a lot and I have seen other people doing it. It always leads to margin call.
What If My Start Up Capital Is Too Small?
I always advise traders not to trade on demo for too long because trading on live account is totally different from trading on demo, it requires its own practice and no one gets too attached to fake money. If you think your capital is too small, do not wait until you get more money. Start small and work on growing it. I have published a PODCAST on this topic, please do check it out for practical tips on how to grow a smaller trading account. I know from feedback that this episode has been helping a lot of traders to grow their smaller trading accounts.
I hope this helps. Thank you for stopping by. Please kindly share this post with your peers using the share buttons on the sidebar. For weekly tips on trading psychology, you can download the App on Google Playstore and never miss out on those tips. Stay safe and take care.
Stock Index trading is when you trade a basket of stocks which make up an index , but you go through one of the instruments like Nasdaq, Ftsee100, S&P500, Dow Jones, Dax and many others to trade it. Stock Index trading is different from Stock Trading. In Stock Trading you are trading stocks of specific companies, and each company has its own price. Once you’ve purchased stock, you then own the stock and it has to be transferred to you by the seller. Stock trading also requires you to do lots of research about companies where you want to buy their stocks.
How to trade Stock Indices?
Trading in the Forex markets is not only about currencies. There are various financial instruments that can be traded (you may require a bigger capital to do so). Maybe up to now you thought trading stocks is not for you, you are a Forex trader. The opportunity for Stock Index trading is presented right in front of you, you see it every day when you log in to your trading platform. If you are like me and you have taken trading financial markets as an investment, you might want to diversify your portfolio by introducing Stock Index trading to your daily activities, instead of focusing on currencies only. Let me start by identifying some of the few stock indices that you can check out.
INSTRUMENT
CATEGORY
Dow jones/USA30
Industrial
Nasdaq/USA100
Technology
Ftse100/UK100
Comprises of 100 companies on London Stock Exchange (Vodafone is one of the companies listed)
S&P500
Comprises of highly market public held companies. Amazon is one of them.
Dax/Ger30
Represents 30 largest and most liquid German companies that trade on the Frankfurt Exchange
Advantages of trading a Stock Index
Stock indices have generally higher returns than the stock market they represent.
The volatility is reduced when compared to currencies.
Stock index trading requires less research as opposed to trading /investing in individual stocks.
When trading a stock index e.g. FTSE 100, you do not have to spend weeks analyzing all 100 companies under this umbrella but all you can do is just follow FTSE 100 index as you would do analyzing your currencies.
Stock index trading does not require any traditional stock brokerage where you pay high fees, you can buy and sell on the same Mt4 trading platform as you would do with your currencies and it is a much cheaper way.
How to trade FTSE 100
You will have to know what is happening in the markets as far as the economic calendar is concerned in order to succeed in this. A few points to consider when trading FTSE 100 is the release of Interest Rates announcements, UK manufacturing numbers, GDP (gross domestic products) figures, housing figures and Inflation data.
All the above are key to trading FTSE 100 successfully. This index tends to imitate the European markets as it trades during the same time frame as European markets. As I always say “we are eating this elephant one piece at a time.”
Ask anyone in any field, they will tell you that without patience and perseverance , you can never go anywhere (we cannot do anything without it). Whether you want to lose weight, eat clean, start a new business, or even being a parent requires a lot of patience. Being patient means we have to learn to be calm, even when things aren’t going our way. As hard as it is to exercise patience, it is one skill that everyone must possess, especially in this field of trading in the Financial markets.
When I look back at what I’ve been through in my trading journey, there were times when I really felt like giving up but I am glad I didn’t. A trader who lacks patience will always donate his/her money back to the Markets. Newbies to the markets do not really like to hear the word patience, all they want to do is to place that trade and make their profits. Professional traders do not trade every hour of every day and as a trader, you need to develop different types of patience for different situations.
1.Patience to wait for your perfect setup
Most traders fail even with the best strategies. They fail because they are not patient enough to wait for that perfect setup. If you always trade when in a rush and never plan for your trading sessions, you are only headed for disaster. Every business has a structure, I fail to understand why traders think it is OK to just trade without a proper plan or structure. If you want to be successful in this field, you need to learn how to plan and follow through with your own trading plan.
2.Patience to let your trade run for a bit longer
There are traders who are very patient to let a losing trade run for a few days while it depletes their free margin, but they fail to let a winning trade run till it reaches it’s targeted profit. All the above applies with every method of trading. In my method of trading planning is everything. I teach my mentees to be good planners and never to be random in the markets. Every business has some sort of structure and forex trading is no different. This was the shortest post I’ve ever written but hopefully you have gained something. I have just done my weekly trading plan and I am ready to face a new week with new possibilities and opportunities.
Thank you for stopping by. Please kindly share this post with your peers. To receive notifications on your email whenever I publish a new blog post, you can subscribe to the blog. You can also download my App on Google Playstore and have this content at your fingertips. Earlier today, I published a new episode on my Podcast titled ”Trading for a living, is that even possible?”. Till next time, cheers.
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