The Path to Price Action Forex Trading Success; “Less Is More”
Sometimes the more we want something the harder it becomes to obtain. This is never truer than it is when applied to the world of forex trading. Many, if not most, traders approach the forex market from the mindset of, “I NEED to make money from this”, or, “I REALLY want to quit my job and become a full-time forex trader”. While these are indeed admirable and lofty goals, such thinking patterns can contribute to a cascade of psychological impediments to consistent trading results…
Less is More in Forex
Most aspiring forex traders quickly realize that the path to successful trading comes plagued with a virtually unlimited amount of temptation. Such temptations are usually born out of a feeling that doing more analysis, or reading more trading books, will ultimately lead to better trading results. Unfortunately, this urge to be over-involved with the forex market is usually what knocks traders off the path to becoming consistently profitable. Most traders become frustrated and then try harder once they get knocked off path, they think that the reason they aren’t achieving consistent results is because they aren’t putting in enough time or trying hard enough. This leads them to push harder and put in more time studying and analyzing various market variables, this of course only adds fuel to the fire of emotional trading mistakes. Most traders never stop to think that perhaps trying LESS and putting in LESS time doing technical or fundamental analysis might actually IMPROVE their trading…
Of course there are certain basics that you must know and practice before you can take advantage of the power of this set-and-forget style of forex trading. Learning some simple forex trading strategies that provide you with a high-probability market edge will give you a foundation to build your trading success on. Strategies like price action setups can be this edge, once you master just one simple price action setup you can begin to really embark upon the path to forex trading success. Forex trading success is very similar to success in human relationships, in that, the best relationships usually don’t require a lot of work on behalf of either individual once a certain level of understanding has been achieved. Similarly, in the world of forex trading, once you understand how to properly read a raw price chart any extra work or time spent analyzing other extraneous variables will actually work against your forex trading success.
Step Away From the Computer.
Why did you first become interested in forex trading? I’m willing to bet it wasn’t so that you could sit in front of your computer all day or night, staring at your charts, trying desperately to manifest a trading signal. Yet for many aspiring traders, this is the exact reality they find themselves in. When you learn to trade with simple price action strategies you don’t need to sit in front of your computer all day worrying and over-analyzing. The absolute maximum you need to check the charts is once every 4 hours, and many successful traders look at them much less, once every 8 or 24 hours is more than enough to earn consistent money in forex when you know what you are looking for on your charts.
Forex trading success is all about discipline, decide what times you are going to check the charts each day for price action setups and stick to it. Once you know what you are looking for on the charts, there is simply no need to spend extra time looking at them. A good way to start this process is just to say to yourself that you will monitor the 4 hour and daily charts each day at the New York closing for setups and then leave yourself the option of checking in again 4-6 hours later at the EARLIEST. Don’t over-think your trading, sometimes our own intelligence as human beings can cause us to over-think the market, this over-thinking is futile because the market cannot be controlled our influenced by one person’s thoughts. Trading is as easy as finding a high-probability market edge and learning to have the discipline to use this edge correctly. Most people make trading much more difficult however; they over-trade their edge by looking small time frames and / or risk too much money per trade. If you do these things even the most accurate edge in the world will not make you money.
“Just hold on loosely, but don’t let go, if you cling to tightly, you’re gonna lose control” – .38 Special
The above lyric by the band “.38 Special” essentially sums up what successful forex trading entails. As we discussed earlier, many traders make the mistake of “clinging to tightly” to their forex trading activities. There are really only two main outcomes from this over-involvement; losing time and losing money. Simple trading strategies like price action setups actually become MORE accurate as you move up in time frame, generally speaking. So, it goes to reason that trading price action signals off the 4 hour chart will make you a MORE ACCURATE TRADER than trading off the 1 hour chart, and trading off the daily chart will make you a more accurate trader than strictly trading off the 4 hour chart. The reason for this is that time frames act like filters; the higher time frames in forex filter out the meaningless market “noise” of the lower time frames and so give you a more accurate representation of possible impending market direction. When you know how to interpret and utilize simple price action setups, you can use the power of this higher time frame filter ability to free up your life and unchain yourself from your trading desk, all the while becoming more consistent and accurate in your trades.
For many people the belief that less is more in forex trading can seem very counter-intuitive and perhaps just strange. Until or unless you accept this belief as fact, you are doomed to be stuck in a cycle of boom and bust trading, meaning you might hit some good winners along the way but ultimately you are going to blow out your trading account or just hover around break-even at best. So, if saving time and making money are your priorities in the forex market, begin to obtain these priorities by learning to trade off simple price action strategies that give you the power to look at your charts one time a day and then go about living your life. Even if you miss an excellent setup there will always be other opportunities, many traders treat forex trading as if every trading day is their last one ever. It helps to remind yourself that the forex market will be around as long as there is human civilization, so if the goal in our short time on this earth is to live as stress-free but as successfully as possible, than start working on this goal by employing a set and forget trading style by using simple price action trading strategies.
epic
Very inspirational indeed , Thanks a lot Nial hope to be part of your forum soon enough , so I can get the chance to trade with the mentor
Hello Mr. Fuller
Good advice. As your student I will follow your words, which will come easy, for I don’t went to spend all the time in front of a computer. K.I.S.S..
Its like stream of pure water.
Thanks again,again,again…..
Great article, I always learn something from you, and it don’t cost me anything,I think I’m going to buy your course, I learn more from you then anybody else I’ve tryed, I beleave I can trust you on anything. Thanks nial for being you. p.s. What do you mean URI
What an eye opening article. Thanks I needed the awakening call. From now on I’ll eliminate all short time frames and use not less than 1 hour. I appreciate your efforts in educating as many people as you can.
Thanks again.
Art
P.S. What does URI mean in the above entries?
Thanks to you Nail, for sharing your professional experience with us. You are the BOSS!
like your writing and trading. BW
Fantastic artical.I have greatly benefited from your free forex trading videos and i think price action is very practical and and simple.It’s the discipline to wait for the signal i find challenging.So i get myself looking at the screens,as you so well put it,trying to manifest trading signals.I find myself shifting to shorter time frames to force a signal.
I have decided to stick to four hour and daily chart.Check the markets every four hours to start with and hopefully once a day.The few times i have been able to do this the results have been good,so hopefully this will reinforce good habits and build on my discipline.Your articals are a great insight to trading and i always look forward to the next one.Thank you Nail
Hi Nial
You article is real good and eye open for new traders …keep simple small trade less risk …consistant profit…HUGE money is made with small risk consistantly…
thanks for ur advice
hari
sydney
Hi Nial,
Thanks for this article. To be frank the amount have learnt from your course , and free videos is priceless. this article represent me so well. I wanted to be in market always , trade based on impulse … trade on smaller timeframe. Now things are just so clear.
Recently I was about to short trade AUD/USD .. just because it retraced nicely.. but stopped myself and I wanted to know what is making me go into the trade… is it price action confirmation , SR level etc , and the answer was nothing. It was just an impulsive trade .. if I had taken that trade, I would have lost money.
I am still learning a lot.. and everyday getting to become a better trader. All thanks to you.
Cheers !!
Hi Nial, I haven’t really got an immediate comment, just thanks for the article, i will read it again to absord its content.
Based purely on price action strategy EUR/USD pair I invested $2,250 left to go to work and after my shift came home logged into my trading platform and found that my had gone through take profit closure for 8,585.00. Thank you so much Nial. Keep up the excellent work
That’s what I want , Thanks from Bangkok
yes nial! we definitely need to focus on this set up, maybe you could blast us with more insight & and technical awareness on the set up, I think we all are in need of being focused in this direction, I suppose one’s we have been blasted with it enough we will get it in to are heads. Nice one mate look forward to the next lesson.
I am very happy to know you as a big time trader, i acctually enjoy you teaching and this your teaching have improve my strategy. I thank you once again and please don’t stop to give me what will help me in the future trading. I am very a biginner and i want to advancce. Thanks
Hi Nial, I thank you for your article, I really like your teaching. Thank Lada
Nial I agree totally. Simple is best. A while back you also opened my eyes as far as trading higher time frames. Thank you for that. What is nice is that forex using a micro account allows us small traders to get it started trading the higher time frames i.e. 4 , 8 , 24 hour charts.
p.s. John ..if you want to trade higher time frames and still get quick experience I recommend you a forex historical trading simulator. Will improve your game quicker.
I enjoyed your post Nial for it reflected closely my own process for this past year. I am still doing a demo account but using price action setups, then off to work I go to return 10 hours later to view results. Until I have consistent favorable gains and a good understanding of what I am doing I will demo demo demo. Oh by the way this month using price action 11 wins and 4 loses. Nial it is good to have you as a mentor!!
We are so focused on the technicals and or fundamentals, we miss the purpose of why we are trading. Time is the one commodity we all have the same amount of so if we can make the same money using the daily charts then why would we use minute charts?
The reason I use lower time frame charts is twofold – I am under capitalised and secondly need to get time in front of the screen to learn the ebb and flow of the market. Once the capital base has increased, I will be using longer time frames. I want a life and time is precious. Good Article Nial, well done.
John
Dude, you’re awesome – love your simplicity in work! I can personally say that my trading has become so much better in every way, after I realised and applied the less is more principle.
Nice sermon!
Thanks Nial for shearing your expertise with a beginner like me.As much as I agreed with you on the need to trade higher time frames, my opinion is that the amount of money put online is important.For somebody who trades with as little as $100 ,trading on a daily chart, that usually demands for high stoplosses can wipe out your account easily.I agree with you that traders who can afford to trade with bigger sums of money are better off on higher time frames.
the article is an eyes opener.i wish everybody can stick to price action for their trading decisions.
As always, another informative article. This one is directed right at me. There is much to be said for disciplined emotions. I’ve had the course just 2 weeks, but I don’t believe I’ve quite mastered the setup recognition. I’ll get there. Thanks for the words of wisdom. I really do want to spend less time at the computer.
Hi Nial , Thank you for a fantastic article . Perfectly relevant for me and a big reason why I bought your course .
Great information! I really need to learn your techniques. I am guilty of doing all of the wrong things you mention in this article and plan to start your course as soon as I have the money available. Thanks for sharing.
Nial you couldn’t have said it any clearer than that article. I did and said everything in that first paragraph and I actually got goosebumps because I thought you were talking directly to me. I want to quit my day job so badly that I bought countless books and did loads and loads of research and just stared at my monitors for hours waiting and taking less than favorable trades (now that I look back) until I found your site and the rest is history. I’m not as emotional when I take trades now.
I also realized that I may go days without trading until I find a favorable set-up and that is something that I’m beginning to accept because before if I missed a move while I was at work I used to get angry and it made me think that if I continue to miss opportunities like that I will never quit my job to become a full time trader. This made me trade more aggressively and in turn result in more losses. Then I’d trade to try and make up for the losses which led to more losses! Talk about an endless cycle!
Price action trading has slowly freed me from that destructive path and I can’t thank you enough for sharing what you’ve learned over the years of your trading experiences! :-)
wow!!! how i wish am in your backyard …..learning. your article change my trading style
of all strategies your best, in my opinion.
Yes, this is indeed correct, but in order to arrive at this time of need.
I like your style of writing, all so very true and straight to the point!
N