Forex Trading Is A Business – Not A Game

Today’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

After 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

I 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.