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Nial Fuller

NIAL FULLER Nial Fuller
Professional Trader, Author & Coach

The Top 8 Things I Wish I Had Known When I Started Trading

timemachineIf I had a time machine, one of the things I would do is go back in time to when I first began my trading journey and tell my past self all the things I now know about trading. It would have greatly sped up my progress as a trader and significantly shortened my learning curve.

Unfortunately, there are no time machines just yet. Fortunately for you however, I can share with you the most important trading lessons I have learned over the course of 15 years of trading and analysing the markets.

Here are eight of the most important things I wish I had known when I began trading and that you can take advantage of right now…

It’s easier to over-trade than you think

“Over-trading” is probably a term you’ve heard before, but what exactly does it mean?

One of the biggest things I realized as I became a more experienced trader, was that in the first few years of my trading experiences I was over-trading and I didn’t even know it.

It’s extremely easy to justify trades and convince yourself that you have a sound reason behind any given trade. But, the real test of a trade is simply whether or not it meets your trading strategy and trading plan criteria. Of course, that assumes you have mastered a trading method and you have built a trading plan from it. You need to do both of these so that you can develop some structure and routine into your trading processes and so that way you can tell whether or not you’re over-trading.

In short, over-trading is when you take any trade outside of your predefined trading strategy and trading plan. It’s a very, very easy mistake to make, especially for beginning traders, and it’s also a very, very costly one.

Indicators are a waste of time

This piece of insight would have saved me a lot of hours of frustration and headaches. If I had known that indicators are just a gigantic waste of my time and energy, it would have significantly shortened my learning curve. So, this is your chance to shorten yours by listening to my input on this topic.

I have a good article on why you shouldn’t use indicators, but let me give you some more of my views on this…

I know indicators can seem attractive and ‘fancy’ at first, they make you feel sophisticated when someone sees them all over your computer screen, but that is about the end of their usefulness.

The trading industry and trading ‘educators’ like to package indicators and market them because they are easy to sell. Aspiring traders are very quick to fall for the scam that indicators will ‘help’ them.

It is pretty obvious if you think about it logically…all indicators are derived from price action, so analysing them gives you no advantage on the raw price action of the charts. All it does is add another variable for you to wrap your mind around and try to make sense of, and you don’t need to do that. Trading success for me came from reducing and eliminating variables, not adding them.

Sure, moving averages can quickly draw our eyes to trends and to value areas (support / resistance), but beyond a couple moving averages, I do not use any indicators. Truly, I rarely use moving averages anymore but they can be good for beginners to find trends and levels.

If you can’t read and trade based on the raw price action of the chart, you are going to be working off of second-hand data and that is obviously not ideal. I teach my members exactly the same way I trade; price action analysis with no indicators except a couple moving averages on the daily charts occasionally.

Short time frames are very dangerous

A lot of these points are interconnected. For example, over-trading is often caused by looking at small time frames, such as those below 1 hour charts. If I could go back in time, I would certainly explain to my past self the importance of trading higher time frames instead of lower time frames.

Staring at a 5 minute or even 30 minute chart is going to make you over-trade because you’re going to think you ‘see’ a bunch of potential trades that are actually just market noise. Also, there are many more signals on those short time frames that will fail, simply because those time frames aren’t as significant as higher time frames. So, you may well see a nice looking trade setup that does fit your trading plan criteria, but because it doesn’t carry much weight on a short-time frame chart, it has a higher chance of failing than a similar signal on a 4 hour or daily chart for example.

Trades need time and space to play out

This one is big, huge in fact; traders often make the mistakes of not giving their trades the time and / or space they need to play out.

In a recent article, I discussed how good trades often take longer than we think to play out. This is true and it means we need to be more patient and take a more ‘set and forget’ approach, but we also need to give our trades more space to play out, meaning wider stop losses. I discuss the average true range in that same article I just mentioned, and how it can help you give your trades enough space so that you don’t get shaken out before they start moving in your favour.

You cannot avoid losing trades

I find that traders run into a lot of trouble because they try to ‘avoid’ losing trades. You may not even know you are doing this, but you are probably guilty of it to some degree, as I was in my early trading days.

If you are doing things like: Trading without stop losses, moving stop losses to breakeven too soon / every trade, taking small profits (less than 1R), closing out trades before they hit your stop loss at your predetermined 1R risk amount and other similar emotion-induced trading errors, YOU ARE trying to avoid losses, and that is the wrong approach my friend.

Simply put, losses are a part of trading, and you have to lose to win, so to speak. The key is to make sure that the losses you take are a normal part of your trading edge. Meaning, you are taking good trades that meet your trading strategy criteria, and the losses you have are just good trades that don’t work out, as every trading method has.

The losses you can and should avoid, are the ones that come from over-trading and not trading your plan and sticking or you method. Those losses are ‘bad losses’, not the normal losses I just mentioned, and you should try to avoid them. Just remember that some losses are normal and cannot be avoided even if you are trading with discipline and patience. This is why you always must manage your risk properly.

Simplicity is powerful

Simplifying your trading approach from your charts all the way down to your trading office is a big piece of insight I would have told my former self if I could go back in time to when I started trading.

You don’t need five computer monitors with charts plastered up in indicators and CNBC playing on the flat screen TV. Especially for the beginning trader, these things amount to little more than distractions and unnecessary variables that will cloud your thinking.

In my article on a minimalistic trading approach, I go into detail on how simplifying your trading approach and really your life, can significantly improve your trading results.

This means less trades, less time on the charts, less clutter on your screens and less clutter and confusion in your mind. All of these are cornerstones of my trading approach and a big reason why I finally became a successful trader.

Focus on the trading process not on the trading profits

I know to some of you who follow me regularly I might sound like a bit of a ‘broken record’ on this point, but it’s only because it’s so true. You simply cannot become a successful trader if you are solely or overly-focused on ‘profits’, ‘rewards’ and those big lofty trading goals that everyone obviously wants to attain.

Becoming a good trader is what makes you money in the market. To become a good trader you have to be skilled in your approach and that means developing a mastery of your trading strategy and a mastery of yourself and your behaviour in the market, if any of those are missing you will not succeed. You can only attain these things by focusing and becoming passionate about the trading process and forgetting about the profits and rewards.

The more you focus on the process and on becoming a good trader, the more the money and profits will become attracted to you over time. However, when you are overly-focused on profits / rewards, it causes you to commit all the trading mistakes that I talk so much about like over-analysing, over-trading and over-leveraging your account, because you are trying to ‘force’ the success rather than earning it the right way.

T.L.S.

Through my years of trading experience, I’ve realized that market analysis and trade entries can be boiled down into T.L.S. or Trend, Level, Signal.

Traders get all caught up with trying to analyse news, indicators, in using expert advisors and mechanical trading systems, when in reality, all they need to focus on is T.L.S. I teach my students in my trading courses that if you simply can get two out of three of the T.L.S. components lining up, you have the potential for a good trade entry. My point is; your trading strategy does not need to be complicated or involve news analysis, indicators or really anything outside of the market’s trend, key chart levels and price action, this how I teach my students to trade and it’s probably the biggest piece of advice I would give myself if I could travel back in time about 15 years and talk to my former self.

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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. Meryl

    Very good article. I’m very happy to read this article that provide your so precious advices. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.

    Reply
  2. SAM

    Good. man

    Reply
  3. maria

    what a great article. thanks a lot

    Reply
    • SAM

      thanks man! I totally agree with you. thanks a lot man

      Reply
  4. phumon

    T.L.S. Trend, Level, Signal.

    Thank you ! I love it !!

    Reply
  5. Marcin

    Nial thank you so much for your guidance :)

    Reply
  6. Marcin

    How come that after 2 years of sweat and tears I want to be the best. It is irrational is not it? I want it all and i want it from big players. I want to make my meal out of them. Yes i do. In the morning and in the evening what i feel is a desire to take their money. I want people to take them the money. I want you to take them the money. Just try not be stupid enough to step on a landmine purusing that. Why would i want that ? Imagine that taking their money is easy. What you do after that is hard. Profiting is possible, the reason it does not happen is you. I told you that in Poland.

    Reply
  7. Khesiwe

    Thanks Nial for this article may God bless you with more wisdom thanks

    Reply
  8. sbala

    Great article Nial. I read every words of your articles and try to digest it. It really helps.

    Reply
  9. Woodrow

    Nial, I take your expert advise very seriously and it has helped me tremendously. This article was just what I needed thank you again Sir.

    Reply
  10. Purav Thakkar

    True genius, always bang on target. As easy to read and understand its as difficult to follow as well. I feel lucky for subscribing to your trading course. Cheers mate.

    Reply
  11. ubana Godwin

    Thanks, I now know how I can manage my loses

    Reply
  12. Jason

    Thank you Nial. Excellent article! We appreciate you very much for sharing thoughts with us.

    Reply
  13. aziz

    I agree with every point.

    Reply
  14. David

    This post shows how consistent is your trading approach and really just high lightens the fact that it’s not THAT hard and that you’re a professional.

    Thank you for sharing your broken record, a lot of us don’t have it and we still are destroying our own.

    Reply
  15. Colin

    The 8x golden rules are a sharp pointed reminder to keep focused. Not to over analyse and to be patient. Thanks for sharing this dynamic article. Really appreciate the emphasis on learning the trading process not profit focus. Thanks again

    Reply
  16. Muhammed

    A very great one! Thanks.

    Reply
  17. dan

    thanks nial

    Reply
  18. Alfredo

    As always a great article!
    I bought your course last year and I have
    only one regret… If I knew how excellent
    it was, I would have bought it a long time ago.
    Many thanks Nial for sharing with us your
    knowledge.
    ALF.

    Reply
  19. Busari Rufus

    Nial, you are too good, You make me feel great even though I am an amateur but you built confidence in me thank you.

    Reply
  20. sat_ehis

    Always on point. Thanks for your kindness to humanity.

    Reply
  21. Marie

    Nial. Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge with everyone. I enjoy very much reading all your articles and visiting your site. I would like to sign up with you for a course but at present it’s not possible as I’m committed /tied up with something else for a while but will definitely in the future. For what I read in your website and what I compare with others I think you are very wise and sincere. Thanks again to you and the Universe that I found your site.
    Marie

    Reply
  22. Petermod

    Hey Nial, as always: you absolutely hit the point.

    Reply
  23. Gilbert

    I wish I had found your trading method before I started my Forex trip. Now I feel more in control of my account. Lovely piece of advice. Thank you, Nial.

    Reply
  24. Shaireeg

    Excellent, Great job

    Reply
  25. Gabor

    pure Gold

    Reply
  26. marisa

    Thank you Nial for these important reminders.

    Reply
  27. Alan Kleeger

    Your letter is excellent. Hinde sight they say has 20/20 vision. The other side of that is that is how we learn to get better or evolve. I remember a poster from Yoda which said: “The difference between a Master and a Beginner is the Master has failed more times than the beginner has ever tried”

    I keep that poster on my wall infront of my desk as a reminder.

    Best regards Nial: Alan Kleeger.

    Reply
  28. ShayaFX

    Dear Nail.

    I love you so much for the knowledge you giving us for free. Since i started following you 100%, theres a great improvement on how i view market. Indeed you are the best in this industry. I have seen many trading materials but yours is the best. You making trading so simple yet profitable. Lots of love may God continue to bless you.

    Reply
  29. fareed

    Nial , that’s just amazing. I agree with every point.

    Reply