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Nial Fuller

NIAL FULLER Nial Fuller
Professional Trader, Author & Coach

How Beginner Traders Can Fast-Track Their Success

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By in Forex Trading Tutorials October 6th, 2017 | 23 Comments

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Trading is an endeavor people become attracted to largely because they believe it offers a way to make money fast. However, as any experienced trader will tell you, the reality is quite different. The disconnect between what is possible through trading and what (and how long) it takes to actually achieve it, is typically quite significant.

This lesson is about fast-tracking your trading SUCCESS, not necessarily about how you can make fast-money as a trader. These are two different things and it’s important you understand the difference between them if you want to not just survive, but thrive as a trader.

What does “trading success” really mean?

The first step towards speeding up your trading success is making sure you understand what defines trading success. At first thought, beginning traders think “success” is equivalent to money, and lots of it, fast. However, I am challenging you to change your conception of trading success, which will help you change how you think about the market and as a result, will change your trading approach to a more sustainable and successful one.

Now, if you want to manage your risk properly on every trade you take (which you must do if you want to succeed long-term), you’re going to have to accept that you cannot risk a large portion of your trading money on any one trade. What does this mean for the average retail trader with a relatively small trading account of say $5,000 or less? It means that you simply are not going to make a lot of money on any given trade, and it is going to take you a decent chunk of time to build up your trading account even IF you’re doing everything right.

Next, as I teach in my trading course and in many of my articles, there simply is not a high amount of high-probability / high-quality price action trading signals in any given week or month. What this means is, if you want to trade properly, you are not going to be trading a lot. At first glimpse this might seem to be another thing that ‘slows down’ your trading success, but as I will discuss next, that notion is simply the result of faulty thinking about what trading success is.

Trading success is:

  • Taking the time to learn an effective trading strategy, including entry and exit criteria, money and risk management as well as trading psychology.
  • Next, put all that knowledge together into a cohesive unit that makes sense to you and provides you with a trading approach and ‘plan of attack’ for your interactions with the market.
  • Now, THE MOST IMPORTANT FACTOR IN TRADING SUCCESS – DISCIPLINE. You must be disciplined and consistent and stick with your trading approach in all areas – entries, exits, risk management and psychology.
  • Build a trading plan to help you stay disciplined and provide you with a tangible ‘road map’ to keep you grounded and accountable.

If you can put in the time to do the above things and stick to them, you will already be far more successful than the vast majority of traders.

Remember, if you have a small account, you aren’t going to make a lot of money fast if you are doing everything right. However, a trader who consistently makes money on a small account, even if its $100 a month, is light-years ahead of a trader with a $100,000 account who is losing money each month. If you develop a 6-month + trading track record showing consistent results and profits on even a $1,000 account, THAT IS TRADING SUCCESS, even if you only made $500. The point is, the dollar amount you make does not necessarily equate to trading success. Trading success is measured by assessing many different metrics besides just money. A successful trader will be profitable over a year or more, and he or she will have done it with consistent actions, not impulsivity with huge draw-downs in between gains.

The fast way to achieve trading success may seem like the slowest, at first

Because people often want to make money fast in the market as we discussed above, they tend to follow their first feelings on how to do that, and those feelings almost always lead to over-trading and risking too much per trade. These things, as you may already know, lead only to losing money in the long-run, so whilst you may get lucky and make some fast money by being greedy (over-trading / over-risking), ultimately you will lose that money if you continue with those improper trading habits.

Thus, the fastest way to make money is by being strategic, logical, objective and patient, which will probably seem like the ‘slowest’ way to make money at first. But, and perhaps you may think unfortunately, there is no other way to consistently make money over the long-term than to learn how to trade properly and to then ACTUALLY trade properly. So, the sooner you start learning proper trading habits and strategies and carrying them out with consistent discipline, the sooner you will start making money.

As your account grows through proper trading habits, you can trade larger and larger position sizes to the point of eventually being able to make a lot of money from even one trade per month. This needs to be your overall goal with trading, for it’s truly the only way a smaller retail trader (like you) stands a chance at making consistent money and then eventually life-changing amounts of money in the market.

Let your trades play out

It’s very tempting to close a trade out as soon as it goes into profit a little bit for you, especially if you’ve recently endured a few consecutive losses. But, often, closing a trade out for a small profit, before it hits your profit target, is the wrong thing to do and will make it much harder for you to make money over the long-run.

One of the biggest turning points in my trading career was when I realized that to succeed, I simply needed to be less involved with my trades than I was up to that point. My biggest wins and best trades have always been the ones I didn’t micro-manage, the ones that I let go until they reached my predefined profit target and didn’t sit staring at all night.

Trading can be as hard or as easy as you make it, and generally the more involved you become with your trades (watching them, adjusting them etc.), the harder it is to make money. The market is going to move, but you do not know when or by how much / how far, so if you are sticking to your trading strategy, it’s silly to sit there worrying about and watching your trades, because that is not going to help anything, at all. This is the main theory behind my set and forget trading approach and time and time again it has proven its effectiveness to me over the years.

I would even go so far as to say that you could perform an ‘experiment’ of sorts, wherein each time you enter a new trade (and after setting stop loss, position size, exit level), you do not look at, mess with or even think about that trade for 7 full days. If you use my price action strategies with this ‘experimental’ trade management approach, I’m willing to bet you would do quite well over the course of a year.

Don’t confuse ‘under-involvement’ with under-performance

Whilst it may FEEL like you are not ‘doing’ a lot of things with your trading if you are following everything I discussed above, you must not let this feeling be confused with a lack of progress in your trading. This is perhaps the most difficult part of trading; that our feelings and emotions are typically at odds with what we need to do to make money in the market. You need to remember that low involvement with your trades does not necessarily equate to slower progress in building your trading account, in fact it’s usually the opposite.

We are our biggest obstacle to making money as fast as possible in the market; no matter how you slice it, trading failure always comes down to human errors born out of emotions like greed, fear and revenge. The more you think about that and devise ways to circumvent it, the faster you will build your trading account the RIGHT way and eventually achieve long-term success in the market.

Conclusion

This lesson has given you a small glimpse into my teachings and my views on trading and trading success. Without trying to sound like I am trying to sell you something, if you want to truly fast-track your trading success, you need to learn more from me, an experienced trader with more than 15 years in the markets. Learning from others, from mentors with the skills you are looking to develop, is the fastest way to learn anything. In my trading course and members area I give you all of my knowledge and trading strategies, built from years of real-world trading experience. This is an invaluable tool that is probably the single biggest thing you can use to speed up your trading success.

I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR YOUR THOUGHTS, PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT BELOW :)

Any questions or feedback? Contact me here.

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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. Emmanuel Martine

    I am a Tanzanian, your write-up has made me feel like I have never learnt on forex ever before, your ideas have opened up my brain, I was really burning my eyes on screen seeing my trades and sometimes closed them immaturely…and the bias continued on my side still. Thanks the efforts

    Reply
  2. Josphat

    Hi would love your support on trading

    Reply
  3. Niwagaba precious

    I have no words to say,this is un believeble, man God bless u for this resourceful info, lam a newbie now comfortable with yr source of info hoping l will do wel in forex business. Xanks Mr Nial

    Reply
  4. Lawrence

    The word consistency is a huge word because it a collective word that involves few aspects with one sole goal to achieve. I give an example of somone who is overweight the more he or she consistently stick to good eating habits and exercise . more he or looses weight bit by bit yet over a period of time ,being consistent, he or she will lose a big chuck of weight .Viva Consistency Viva!!!!

    Reply
  5. nguyen thi ngoc huong

    it is good lession for not only beginner but for any success trader .
    I have been almost 1 year trading: fist period I have no any trading experience so I follow 100% the teacher and get trading success . Then I learn and get more knowledge but not good in proper trading habits that made me get bad trading. Your lesson is very much benefit for us Thanks a lot

    Reply
    • li bao cheng

      Thank you ,i am from china ,i like your couses and article so much.every time i like to enjoy your new ideas about your trade.although i do not have enough money to buy your course,i am a student,but ,thank you very much. A real great teacher.

      Reply
  6. Rahwa

    this is very teaching lesson, may God bless you and the whole family

    Reply
  7. Thandi

    Thank you for such good advice on trading. On point Nial, it’s much appreciated.

    Reply
  8. Peter Miller

    Not only does one get a trading course to learn to trade, but many very good articles to keep ond focused, without a doubt the best and only mentor one will ever need to be successful. It’s all about consistency and involvement which is what Nial gives us. Very grateful
    Peter Miller

    Reply
  9. omid

    excellent.thankyou mr fuller

    Reply
  10. Mavhungu Lufuno

    money management ,risk and reward, setting stop loss and target profit, patience and discipline plus price action , is your doctrine that u insect in me …thanks Nial Fuller……………………..South Africa

    Reply
  11. derrick

    i think i got that poin. it was a damn fine one
    in all over trading wouldnt be so good especially for us trading dailly i think concentrating on one trade would be better

    Reply
  12. J.E.N from Nigeria

    You are my trading courage, highly appreciated

    Reply
  13. KRISTOFA OKENTA

    “Because people often want to make money fast in the market…., they tend to follow their first feelings….., those feelings almost always lead to over-trading and risking too much per trade. These things, as you may already know, lead only to losing money in the long-run,.
    Thus, the fastest way to make money is by being strategic, logical, objective and patient, which will probably seem like the ‘slowest’ way to make money at first.”…NIAL FULLER.
    This portion of the article summarizes them all for me. Thank you so much.

    Reply
  14. Gustav Chuene

    Every time I read you articles Nial, I get a sense of what trading is really about. I bet if we can all learn to keep our emotions in check, the possibilities are endless and only then can “Trading success” be achieved.

    You are selfless and amazing Nial.
    Thank you.

    PS. Come to South Africa Please!

    Reply
  15. Chris N.

    Great Article. Thanks Nial.

    Reply
  16. matson

    I can attestation this. Thank you Nial

    Reply
  17. Lyndt

    You always spot on, thanks Nial.

    Reply
  18. kevin cunningham

    Thanks you very much. Your articles have kept me from self destruction!!!!!

    Reply
  19. Agono Michael

    Great insight, excellent post.
    I will work more on everything you have said to improve my trades. Thank you

    Reply
  20. Roy Peters

    Excellent article.
    Daily timeframe does promote patience. It’s nice to trade without looking at charts all the time and getting stressed.

    Reply
  21. Mavhungu Lufuno

    this is one of the best article u ever posted, God bless u

    Reply
  22. David Kelly

    Thanks for the insight, Nial…

    I can attest to your statement about being less involved with your trades after they are opened.

    I had been live trading for about 3 years with inconsistent success (well…consistently losing a bit overall in my yearly statement…20% first year, 12% second) when, after 30 years in our home, we decided to move. There was MUCH to do and I had very limited chart time…just enough time to go on at the H4 and Daily candle close times, set my trades with stops and take profits and get back to work.

    It took months and months to get everything done and we moved at around year’s end. Once settled in a bit at our new place I ran a yearly report and was surprised to find that I actually was up 6% that year!

    That was eye-opening and I have kept that in mind every time I am tempted to tweak a position. MOST of the time that stops me now and I am a much improved trader thanks to that forced lesson!

    Dave Kelly

    Reply