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Nial Fuller

NIAL FULLER Nial Fuller
Professional Trader, Author & Coach

Forex Trading Is A Business – Not A Game

Biz PlanToday’s lesson is the ultimate guide for setting up your Forex trading business. I am going to give you some solid insight and information on why you need to treat your Forex trading like a business and how to get started. If you’ve been trading like a drunken gambler in the casino, consider today’s article your official wake up call for getting your crap together once and for all…

Setting up your trading room

The first step to getting started treating your Forex trading like a business is creating the optimal work environment. Yes, you can work from anywhere when trading, but this doesn’t mean you should trade from your lazy-boy chair while eating potato chips and watching your favorite TV show. Just as with any other business, you need to separate your trading business from your personal life as much as possible. You need a clear mind when trading, and this starts with a clean trading environment and a work atmosphere that allows you to cultivate the proper trading mindset. I wrote a whole article dedicated to setting up your trading room, check it out after reading today’s lesson: Setting Up A Forex Trading Room To Improve Trading Results

What do you need to get started? You can trade from only a laptop, but if you choose to do this I suggest getting a dedicated laptop that you use only for trading. Laptops are relatively cheap now and there’s no harm in investing in a good machine so that you can keep all your trading activities separate from your kids’ computer games or whatever else you have clogging up your computer now. Remember, developing the proper trading mindset begins with creating a clean and clear trading environment. This does not mean that you need to charge up your credit card and buy three new flat-screen monitors and two high-powered desktop computers. You can obviously go all-out if you want, but you can also trade effectively from just a quiet room with a simple desk and a good laptop or iPad.

One other note about getting started with the proper hardware and software; there’s no need for expensive trading software or news-feed subscriptions. All you need is the free MT4 charting package provided by most reputable brokers and a good working computer. You don’t need to confuse yourself by watching CNBC or reading tons of Forex news every day; this will only cloud up your thinking and cause you to second-guess yourself.

Choosing your trading strategy and developing your Forex trading business plan

After you get your trading room all setup and sorted out, you need to figure out what strategy you are going use to trade the markets. You then need to learn everything about your chosen trading strategy so that you truly become a master of it. You should have no doubt what you are looking for every time you step into your trading room or open up your charting platform.

After you master your trading strategy it’s time to develop your Forex trading business plan. Every business starts with a business plan, so to think you are going to figure out how to trade successfully with no plan in place is just silly, yet most traders ignore Forex trading plans or think they don’t need them…and most traders lose money.

I am not going to go into too much more detail about this topic, but you can check out my article on forex trading plans for more. For now, you need to understand that treating your trading as a business revolves around mastering a trading strategy and developing a comprehensive yet concise trading plan around the strategy you’ve mastered, and then following your plan with unyielding discipline.

Set aside time to analyze and trade the market

marketanalysisAfter creating the optimal trading environment, mastering an effective trading strategy, and creating your Forex trading business plan, you need to dedicate time each day JUST for market analysis. You should not place any trades at this time, instead you need to dedicate a certain block of time each day to analyze the charts with a clear and calm mind. Spend at least 15 minutes to one hour a day on nothing but analyzing the markets with a calm and clear mind.

I really want to stress that it’s important to take time for market analysis and separate yourself from your life’s daily distractions. This might mean you have to lock yourself in your trading room with your favorite music on to mute whatever is going on around you. You’ll have plenty of time to spend with your family and for your other hobbies after you launch your Forex trading business, but for now you’ll need to set aside a certain amount of time each day to get your trading business up and running.

Now, AFTER your dedicated daily market analysis time, you can place your trades if there are any setups that meet the pre-defined conditions in your Forex business trading plan. Keep in mind, placing a trade is a BUSINESS transaction, not a random gamble at the casino. So, just like any business transaction you should be sure any trade you take is worth the money you have at risk, and realize that if you enter too many stupid trades (trades that don’t meet the conditions in your trading plan), you will eventually go out of business, meaning you’ll blow out your trading account. So, if after your market analysis you find no obvious trade setups that meet your trading plan conditions, you simply don’t trade that day; don’t force a trade if there isn’t one there.

Emotion management is an on-going part of your Forex trading business

Just as you do not want to be emotional when participating in a business meeting or discussing a business deal, you do not want to be emotional when analyzing or trading the market. Essentially, emotion is the number 1 enemy of forex trading success, and the more impulsive and emotional you are the worse you are going to do in the markets.

Remember, you are running a trading business here, so you’ve taken risk to make a reward, just like any other business. There is no reason to mess around with your trades all day or over-analyze the market. Part of trading successfully involves giving the market room to breathe, you are going to be the LEAST emotional BEFORE you enter the market, and so it only makes sense to do all your “thinking” and analysis BEFORE you risk your money, not WHILE your money is on the line. Once you decide to enter into a business deal you usually cannot back out of it unless you want to pay a hefty fine or break the law, in Forex trading it’s usually better to just let the pre-defined decisions you’ve made play out instead of breaking your trading rules by interfering with your trades.

Manage your trading money like a business

forex-money-managementI personally don’t know many people who compound their trading accounts by never taking any profits out. You don’t want to just leave your money in your account; you need to take your profits out periodically so that you “earn” the money. You’ll have to pay taxes on your profits when you withdrawal them, just like any other business, this is something you’ll have to explore more on your own time and according to the laws in the country you live in. In Australia…

Of course, you can’t take any money out of your Forex trading business if you are not making any money. If you want to make money you will have to do everything we’ve already discussed in this article as well as practice effective forex money management on EVERY single trade you take. Most traders mess up big time here because they say to themselves, “I’ll just risk a little more on this trade…”, and then it kicks off a wave emotional trading that is very difficult to stop. Just like any other habit in life, it’s best to develop positive habits early on and then stick with them, rather than trying to “fix” years of negative habits. Get in the habit right now of managing your risk effectively on every trade if you want to seriously run a profitable Forex trading business.

I’m here to help you with your Forex trading business

I have dedicated myself to ensuring that traders learn effective price action trading strategies and develop the proper mindset to have the best chance at surviving in the market and become successful. My Forex trading community and trading course teach simple yet effective trading techniques for traders to build their trading plans around. I want to see every member succeed, so I have built my website and members’ area to help traders get their trading business started on the right track.

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Nial Fuller

About Nial Fuller

is a Professional Trader, Investor & Author who is considered ‘The Authority’ on Price Action Trading. His blog is read by over 200,000+ followers and he has taught 25,000+ students since 2008. In 2016, Nial won the Million Dollar Trader Competition. Checkout Nial's Professional Trading Course here.
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  1. Patrick Pressler

    Thanks for your excellent lessons. Your lesson on being disciplined makes so much sense. I’ll be joining up soon!

    Reply
  2. Mark Wilson

    Really good stuff and i am completely agree with you forex trading is a business not a game It involves many steps which have to consider before planning forex trading. As u said we have to separate business life from personal life. This is a main concept which mostly person not follow.

    Reply
  3. Loreto

    Gracias Nial
    Como siempre muy interesante!!
    Loreto desde España

    Reply
  4. Gurpal

    Hi Nial,

    Hope you are well. Thank you very much for another superb lesson.

    Thank you for all your help

    Thanks and Regards

    Gurpal

    Reply
  5. deji okeowo

    thanks,i enjoyed your article on forex is business as a newbies in forex it gave me clear direction on the trading plan plse sir i want you to be my mentor thanks again

    Reply
  6. Kenny

    Hello Nial, thanks 4 ur article. I really enjoyed it as 1 of d most useful forex articles I have ever read. However, I want to know what A TRADING PLAN is. After building d strategy, how is d trading plan like, and how do we go about it? thanks.

    Reply
  7. Olusola

    Prof. Nail,Thanks for the precious article.In addition,I now see myself as an investor which it more than trader.That seem to give me more intuition of taken things more serious.The information on setting up the trading room is great.However,in developing country,there are many challenges.In Nigeria,greater no of trader,trade using Cyber cafe.However,i will work to details on your recommendation.
    Once again,thank you.

    Reply
  8. Taf

    Great article Nial.

    You have pointed out some crucial factors here to trading success and sustainability and I for one hope to be able to apply these ‘rules’ effectively to my trading.

    Thanks Nial.

    Reply
  9. steve portman

    It’s so important that you keep insisting on not trading if your desired formation is not on the charts. By the way, have you tried a slow stockastic at 8,8,8? It seems frequently predictive rather than lagging.

    Steve P

    Reply
  10. ifechukwu

    thanks Nial fuller for this wonderful lesson,your knowledge can never be limitted as you open heartedly share that which you have. tnx once more

    Reply
  11. Jid

    It is the great article. God allows Business and prohibits Gambling! Even many Gurus say that if you gamble in forex you will definitely loose your money.

    Thank you Nial for your good article and advice!!!

    Reply
  12. Wmwanikis

    Thanx Nial, for another concise and precise lesson al one has to do is apply with discipline. so for I have witnessed that simple works and am thankful for whats happenin to my trading a/c. thax.

    Reply
  13. Nabil

    Excellent article, as usual.
    Thanx Nial

    Reply
  14. chris

    Nial,

    Good stuff man.., it should always be a business approach, and traders need to invest in sound education to run the business well..

    Reply
  15. Raj

    Nail,

    Awesome article, Success is a planned event, setting up the trading room and just focusing on analysing without any emotional decisions would surely setup th trader in a right path, yes need to build good habits initially. Great one once again.

    Thanks
    Raj

    Reply
  16. Anton

    Thanks Nial, another great lesson. Half year ago I meet your course and became a member of your community. All my trading was one big habit. Your articles help me to restore new habits , find pleasure from trading and improve results. Please keep writing.

    Reply
  17. CY

    Positive Art

    Reply
  18. Larry H.

    Nial,

    Never said it before but on a scale of 1-10 you and your site are 11’s!!!!

    Have been wanting to ask you – what role does “practice” play in Forex trading and do you have any suggestions regarding same? Thx Larry

    Reply
  19. Filopastry

    The opening paragraph says it all.
    That is me in a nutshell,
    great kick up the A#$@ Nial
    Thanks again
    Filopastry

    Reply
  20. Mithun

    Eye Opener !

    Reply
  21. olajubbu

    Thanks for this great advice.

    Reply
  22. Lionell Dixon

    Thanks for another great article Nial!

    Reply
  23. Marco Sainz

    Nial

    Gracias por tus enseñanzas, quiera pedirte por favor hacer tu curso en español para la comunidad latina, seria grandioso poder aprender tu estrategia en español.

    Gracias

    Marco

    Reply
  24. Salami

    A job well done. Thank you τ̲̅ȍr †ђε lesson

    Reply
  25. Dale

    Gaining control of your emotions is the hardest thing a trader has to do. If you approach the market with a serious attitude and keep your emotions out of the equation, add in Price action and you’re on your way to success.

    Unfortunately a lot of people never get control of their emotions and destroy their account. So good article Nial. Good, Honest, Genuine support. What more can you ask from someone!

    Reply
  26. Eve

    … and tnx my friend Tony to send me YOU !

    Reply
  27. Eve

    Nial, I have soo soo respect to you, your articles are best of the best !

    Reply
  28. Ingeborg

    Hi Nial.

    Thank you so much for posting these lessons. It is of great help and inspiration. In this lesson you just wrote what I have considered to do for quite some time – buy a new laptop just for trading and set up a clean trading environment. Now, after reading your advice, I will act – first thing next week, not just considering. Thank you.
    Ingeborg

    Reply
  29. Gbolahan

    Thank you on your brilliant article,it has been an eye opener to me

    Reply
  30. Franko

    Serious lesson for us to learn from. Trade like a business, i agree. No more gambling like a fool.

    Reply
  31. Terese Walton

    Please accept my thanks for your lesson today.
    Terese

    Reply
  32. Cory J

    Setting up a forex business and taking your trading seriously is CRUCIAL.. everybody re read this article. . it’s priceless.

    Reply
  33. Ilya

    Today’s lesson is more then lesson of bussiness.Thank you/

    Reply
  34. Steve20555

    Great lesson Nial as always,
    Many thanks your keeping me on the right track
    Steve

    Reply
  35. Francis

    I am loving your information and education contents on this blog. You are a true mentor to me.

    Reply
  36. Tobias

    I am going to set up my trading room over the weekend, thanks for the heads up on this idea

    Reply
  37. Sanjay

    Hi Nial, Since joining your website, i have learned so many invaluable information, i am following your daily trade updates and working through your materials each day, everything I read is extremely good information. It is hard to find such quality informations on other blogs, you have truly saved me.
    Thank you

    Reply
  38. Gaza

    Nial, excellent lesson, and excellent blog. I am now a member of the course and forums, loving your daily commentary. Your the man.. thanks, Gaza.

    Reply
  39. Paul

    Hi Nial

    As always a fantastic article

    I hadn’t previously considered having a separate ‘analysis’ session on a regular basis with a rule that no trades are to be placed during that time. A very interesting point that will guarantee to keep emotions out, as there is no decision making to do. That comes in a separate session, when you are merely looking for specific set up ‘triggers’ that cause you to place an order.

    I will try that suggestion / recommendation

    thanks again, best
    Paul

    Reply