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Nial Fuller

NIAL FULLER Nial Fuller
Professional Trader, Author & Coach

How to Make a Living From Full-Time Forex Trading

fulltimeforextraderMaking a living trading from home is the dream of just about every trader and active investor. However, don’t be fooled into thinking that Forex trading is a get-rich-quick scheme, because it takes discipline, effort, and planning to become a successful trader and to be able to trade for a living from home. Indeed, there are no ‘short-cuts’, but if you do the things that other full-time Forex traders do, you will have a very good chance at becoming one yourself.

If you are ready to open your mind and put aside all your preconceived notions of what full-time Forex trading is all about, then read on as we discuss some of the most important aspects of making money as a full-time Fx trader.

How to become a full-time Forex trader

While there is no ‘magic formula’ to becoming a full-time trader like many other websites would lead you to believe, there are some things that define almost every full-time Forex trader.

Be realistic – Perhaps above all else, full-time traders are realistic. They do not have overly-high expectations; they don’t expect to win on every trade and they don’t expect to become a billionaire overnight. If you aren’t realistic about what is possible given the size of your trading account, you will end up risking too much per trade and (or) over-trading. It’s very critical you remain realistic about Forex trading and don’t become greedy or too anxious to make money. If you have a small trading account you will have to trade relatively small position sizes in order to properly manage your risk per trade, this means it will take you longer to become a full-time trader. It won’t speed up the process by over-leveraging or over-trading your account, in fact it will only slow it down.

So the first thing you need to do in order to become a full-time trader is to get your expectations in-line with reality, and this means making sure you are managing your risk properly on every trade you take and never getting upset when you hit a losing trade.

The daily routine of a full-time Forex trader

Daily routine – A full-time trader has a trading routine…even if it’s not something they explicitly look at everyday, a full-time trader has performed his or her routine for so long that it becomes a habit, and all full-time traders got to that point because they did have an explicit plan that they followed.

Have a trading plan and trading journal – In order to develop proper trading habits and to keep emotional trading demons at bay, it’s critical to have a trading plan and a trading journal…that you actually use. Don’t be one of the many traders who make a trading plan and journal and then never use them. Religiously using your trading plan and trading journal is paramount to your longevity in the markets and to your ultimate success or failure as a trader.

Daily / Weekly chart analysis – To get into the routine of making sure your daily chart analysis is meaningful, it’s best to create your own daily chart commentary and keep notes in a trading diary or simply in notepad on your computer. Doing this at the start of each week will give you a weekly guide to follow each day as you do your chart analysis. You should also make a daily commentary before you enter any trades; go through your favorite markets to trade and mark the key levels, market conditions and any price action setups you see. Depending on where you live in the world, you will trade during the best forex trading hours for your location, which tend to be during the London and New York trading sessions. Remember, plan ahead…be anticipatory instead of reactive, full-time traders essentially know what they are going to do in the markets before they enter any trades…they make as few decisions as possible in the heat of a live trading moment.

Habits – The end result of a consistent daily trading routine is proper trading habits. Habits are formed after doing something over and over, until it becomes almost a part of your personality. If there is one definite difference that is very obvious between struggling traders and full-time Forex traders, it’s that a full-time trader has developed positive trading habits as a result of following a positive daily trading routine each day, whilst struggling traders typically have all wrong / negative trading habits.

A full-time Forex trader’s office

Setting up your trading office – Your trading office is basically a decision of personal taste and preference, but you will be hard-pressed to find a full-time home-based Forex trader who doesn’t have a dedicated area for their trading. They will probably also have this dedicated area / office be an organized one. You do not get to the point of full time forex trading from being an unorganized and out-of-control impulsive trader; indeed, being organized is a trait that is one that comes from forging the proper trading habits like we discussed above.

Full-time Forex traders are master’s of their trading edge

tradingconfidenceBelieve in your trading method – A necessary component to attaining confidence as a trader is believing in your trading method. If you do not fully understand and believe in your trading strategy, you clearly will not do very well in the markets. Full-time Forex traders obviously believe in their trading method and they do not doubt themselves or any trade that they take. If you want to learn more about removing the doubt and fear from your trading, checkout this article: Can’t Pull The Trigger on Your Trades?

‘Master’ your trading strategy – Do not jump into a real-money trading account if you have not fully mastered your trading strategy yet. Many traders make this fatal mistake and they end up guessing when to enter the market simply because they haven’t truly mastered their trading strategy yet. Full-time Forex traders trade their edge with confidence; they do not chicken-out and then sit there looking at the market take off in their favor without them on-board. Similarly, they do not regret any trade they take, even if it goes against them, because they have mastered their trading strategy and they already accepted that not every trade will win.

Money management is the key

Managing capital is the key – The most basic thing a full-time Forex trader does that struggling traders do not, is win big and lose small. Sounds pretty simple, but if you do not follow the other points discussed in this article you will not achieve it. Proper risk management is perhaps THEE defining factor of a successful full-time trader. Beginning traders and struggling traders typically fail to realize that risk management is the most important aspect of trading. You should NEVER risk more than you are emotionally comfortable with losing on any one trade.

Full-time Forex Trading Psychology

Manage yourself properly – If you don’t control yourself in the markets and control your emotions, you will end up doing stupid things like trading when your edge is not present or risking too much per trade. You need to always be consciously aware of yourself as you trade and ask yourself “Am I trading logically or emotionally?” The biggest reason that Forex traders fail to make money is because they do not have the proper Forex trading mindset. To achieve the proper trading mindset, you need to be realistic and have a structured trading routine like we have already discussed, this will forge proper trading habits which will then forge the proper trading mindset. If you do these things it will only be a matter of time before you become a full-time Forex trader.

What you will NOT find on this website:

What you won’t find is mathematical formulas, complex technical indicators, heavy charts, or elaborate software demands. What you will find is a simple, straightforward approach to home-based trading that can be used by virtually anyone, anywhere. Unlike most ‘experts’ teaching traders today, Nial Fuller has actually made it as a home-based trader. In his Forex trading course, Nial outlines his simple price action trading strategies and explains how to use them to trade Forex and futures markets–his preferred vehicles.

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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. naveen

    Dear Guru, After following your advice, I have started writing Daily Commentary everyday. This improved my intution and anticipation a lot and first time in the last 3 years, Oct ’13 was a positive month with 5R profit (Equity : 2.2 years, Forex : 8 months experience). Still I have to recover my losses.

    Thank you very much.

    Reply
  2. investisseurfr

    I agree with money management. Actually i am trying a lot of money management possibilities.

    My account has grown by 50% and i now i am back to the starting point 3 monthes later ;-)

    I really suspect i didn’t do enough home work in money management !

    Reply
  3. Leon

    Thank you somuch Nial. Your article make my life.

    Reply
  4. Kanz

    Surprise that there are few comments on this article. The contents may seem simplistic but these are the keys successful trading. Thanks very much, Nial.

    Reply
  5. David Kavanagh

    Hi Nial
    I am only trading a short while and want to get it right from the start. I would like to achieve 50pips a day (minimum of 3days or maximum of 4days a week). If you can give me any advice I would be very grateful. I trade 4 currencies and use R1, Pivot & S1 (from a pivot calculator). I try and get 25pips a time with a 30pip stop. At the minute I am only getting around 1 out of every 4 trades. If you can give me any advice that would be great.
    Regards
    David

    Reply