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Nial Fuller

NIAL FULLER Nial Fuller
Professional Trader, Author & Coach

20 Simple Ways To Improve Your Forex Trading

improvetradingIn today’s lesson, I am going to outline 20 things that I personally do in my own trading and that you can start doing to improve yours. Please read today’s article closely because I spent a long time writing it for you and it’s full of solid tips and insight that can make a big difference in your trading. As always, please leave a comment after reading today’s lesson and let me know what you thought about it or if you learned anything new. Now, let’s get to it:

 1) Have real goals and understand what you’re committing to

Having reasonable short-term goals that you can realistically achieve within a short period of time is how you achieve longer-term goals. Unfortunately, most traders become fixated on the long-term goal of “becoming a professional trader” as soon as they start trading with real money. The main problem with this is that just having a big long-term goal with no realistic plan to achieve it, is essentially worthless.

As a trader, a “reasonable short-term goal” might be that you stick to your trading plan for one month. Then, if you achieve that short-term goal you can give yourself a reward at month’s end, whatever you decide that might be. Just be sure you define short-term trading goals that you can realistically achieve, if you want to achieve your big long-term goal of becoming a very successful Forex trader. If you are seriously going to commit to become a full-time trader, you’re going to have devise a plan to get you to that point, just wanting to be a full-time trader is not a plan or strategy to make it happen.

2) Simplify your trading approach & your thoughts

One of the easiest ways to improve your trading that will also work to improve your overall mindset both when you’re trading and when you’re not is to simplify your trading approach. My key philosophy of trading is to ‘keep it simple stupid. After years of trial and error in my early trading days, I finally realized that I was just making the entire process of analyzing and trading the markets FAR more complicated than it needed to be. When you use a simple trading method like price action, it eliminates most of the confusion, doubt, and frustration that traders experience as a result of being unsure of how to trade their system or strategy. Trading is not technically difficult, it’s emotionally and psychologically difficult; therefore it just doesn’t make sense to use a confusing or complicated trading strategy or system which will make both the technical and psychological aspects of trading more difficult than they need to be or are.

 3) Develop your skills and plan before you trade

I am always amazed at how many emails I get from traders who basically tell me they are new to Forex trading and they want to open a live account. For some reason, people seem to think they need very little experience or preparation to make money in the markets. In reality, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Trading a real account is not something you just dive into with no plan or experience behind you.

I personally recommend that all traders have mastered an effective trading method like price action trading, developed a solid trading plan from that trading method, have a trading journal, and trade their plan on a demo account whilst recording their trades in their trading journal for at least 2 or 3 months before even thinking about trading a live account. The markets will chew up and spit out your hard-earned money faster than you can imagine (and you know that already if you’ve been trading for a while), so the more prepared and experienced you are before you start trading live, the better off you’ll be in the long-run.

 4) Don’t fall off the wagon

It seems to be in our nature to get really excited and motivated about things only to see those positive feelings fizzle at the first signs of adversity or obstacle. How often have you or someone you know made a New Year’s resolution to get into shape and start eating better, only to find yourself back in the same old negative habits by the middle of February?

You’re not alone here; it’s human nature to be this way. However, we are equipped with very powerful brains that give us the power to overcome our human nature and evolution to the point where we can rise up above our peers and create positive habits rather than the negative ones that dominant many people’s lives. I can promise you that trading does not reward lazy people or people who cannot manifest the motivation to stay disciplined and follow a plan for a long period of time. It’s not difficult to get motivated about trading and create a good forex trading plan, what is difficult is digging deep within yourself and sticking to that plan and following your edge with ice cold discipline week in and week out.

Most traders fall of the wagon; they end up trading when there’s no trade, forgetting about their trading plan and gambling their money away in the markets. Don’t be one of the sheep; be the leader, be different, do the things you know you should do even when you don’t want to, persist and be disciplined even in the face of constant temptation, these are the things you must do to be a profitable trader.

5) Stop trading if you’re frustrated or confused

frustrated-traderIf you’re frustrated with your trading results or confused about your trading strategy, it’s best to simply take some time off from trading. This simple exercise can work wonders on your mindset and will restore passion and motivation into your trading routine. Clearing the markets from your mind for a while is sometimes the best thing you can do to improve your trading. Especially, if you just suffered through a series of emotion-fueled losing trades, you need to take some time off from real money trading to regroup and collect yourself.

Even if you are just feeling a little frazzled one day in the midst of a successful run in the markets, it’s still better to just stop for the day and come back the next day after a good night’s rest. It’s very easy to get caught up over-analyzing and falling victim to the temptations of the market, without even noticing. If you find you’ve been at your computer for an hour or two just analyzing the markets and trying to find a trade, you’re probably better off removing yourself from the markets for a while. Finding your trading edge in the market should be a relatively quick and easy task after you have mastered trading your edge. It should be readily apparent if your edge is present in the markets after just 15 or 20 minutes of browsing. So, when in doubt, walk away from the markets until the next day or however long you need to calm down.

6) Trade less than you are now, much less

I talk a lot about over-trading, and for good reason, but I won’t get into it too much in today’s lesson, except to say that most traders trade way too much. I get a lot of emails from traders asking me things like “How many trades can I expect per week”, etc; when in reality it really doesn’t matter. Traders should be far more focused on quality of trades rather than quantity of trades, as you can make a good return each month with only 1 or 2 big winners.

It’s OK if you don’t trade for a week, you need to understand that. Many traders feel like they need to be in a trade all the time or they are “missing out” on an opportunity. Well, the truth is that just because the market is sitting there and easy to access, it doesn’t mean it’s an opportunity to make money. In fact, you should think about the market as a way to both lose and make money, this will help you to avoid jumping in the markets when your edge isn’t present. There’s only an opportunity when your trading edge is present, if you trade when your edge is not present you are simply gambling. It’s a proven fact that high frequency trading is less profitable over the long-run than lower frequency trading. Traders who take a swing-trading approach where they are holding positions for 3 or 4 days or a week on average, tend to keep themselves in business as traders, whereas day traders keep the brokers in business with all the spreads and commissions they generate for them. Unfortunately, day traders and short-term scalpers often up putting themselves out of the trading business simply because they are gambling, not trading.

7) Stop thinking so much and so hard, it’s bad for you

Whereas thinking and brainstorming are generally good things in almost every other profession in the world, in trading they can actually be counter-productive. The reason being is that often it’s best to just not do anything in the markets. Whether that means not entering a trade you know isn’t quite meeting your trading plan guidelines, or not interfering with a live trade, traders do a lot of damage to their trading accounts by thinking too much about what they should do next.

Don’t get me wrong here, I’m not telling you that you don’t have to think at all to be a good trader. What I’m saying is that most traders think more than they need to, there’s a big difference. Obviously, you need to think to become a successful trader. But, once you determine exactly what your trading edge is and you know how best to trade it, there isn’t a whole lot more to think about. After you know how to trade your edge, it really just comes down to scanning the markets quickly each day to see if your edge is there and then either trading your edge or walking away. This type of approach is best implemented as an end of day trading strategy; however you can also use it on the intra-day charts.

Also, don’t over-think your trades once they are live. The “default” trade management strategy that I use is to “set and forget” my trades, then I will check in on them periodically and if there’s any obvious price action showing me that the market bias is changing against my position, I might manually close out my trade. But, I never manually close a trade simply out of emotion or because I thought about it for too long and convinced myself of something that the markets weren’t actually reflecting, this is what many traders do.

8) Accept that you don’t need indicators

I like to think of my website as one of the few true trading websites that focuses on price action and on real trading strategies, rather than the thousands of trading sites out there talking about indicators. If you’ve been following me for a while now you know that I focus primarily on trading off pure price action, with a couple of moving averages sprinkled in sometimes. However, if you want to know exactly why I think trading with indicators is a bad idea, checkout this article on forex indicators. Indicators are for those “lost sheep” traders still searching for some Holy-Grail trading system that simply doesn’t exist. The sooner you wake up to this reality the sooner you can get on the track to learning real Forex trading strategies.

9) Use your brain wisely

You’re not a caveman, it’s 2012, there is no excuse in today’s world not to read, not to be educated and not to make a real effort, LAZY won’t work. Too many traders want to buy a trading system or attend a trading seminar and magically start printing Benjamins from their computers. Unfortunately, this is not how it works. Trading takes time and effort to learn, and you have to use the large mushy area between your ears to become good at it. Many traders never invest in an effective trading education or take the time to learn and really develop their trading skills; instead they just jump in the markets with little to no formal trading and start throwing around their hard-earned money. There’s so much information at your fingertips these days, there’s no reason not to put in the time to learn how to trade effectively.

10) Ditch the fundamentals and news

I know that a lot of you guys spend hours reading economic news, reading forums over on forex factory, or whatever else. The truth is, you are wasting your time. You really are; you need to just accept the simple fact that all fundamentals and forex news variables are reflected via the pure price action on your charts. I’m not going to say too much about this topic in today’s lesson because I have discussed it in other lessons quite a bit, and there’s really no better way to sum it up except to say that every single piece of economic news and all things that affect a market are visible and reflected in that market’s price action. So, if you learn to read the price action you also learn to read the fundamentals.

11) Trust your gut, not another’s

buy-sellWhen it comes to trading, trusting your gut is something you’re going to have to learn to do. Unfortunately, there’s no mechanical trading system out there that will stay effective over changing market conditions. Despite what you read on some trading websites, you need to use your brain, your eyes, and your gut instinct when trading the markets. Your intuition and gut trading feel are things that can be harnessed and improved upon if you develop them by learning a strategy like price action.

Turn off the TV, stop reading the business section in newspapers, and don’t listen to the opinions of others, instead learn to listen to yourself. A good gut trading feel will only come from experience and confidence, so you first need to really master a trading strategy like price action and then practice trading with it on demo. Once you do this for a while you will begin to develop your gut trading instinct and to get a feel for a price action strategy worth trading versus one that’s not, etc. Ultimately, you are the one pulling the trigger on your trades, so you need to trust yourself and not confusing yourself by listening to other people and taking in too many outside opinions. All you really need is a sound knowledge of price action trading, your brain, and the charts.

 12) Keep your day job, and work hard at it

Don’t set out to be a professional trader from day 1, instead, your first goal should be to gain experience and knowledge and become a good trader, then once you’re making consistent money in the markets you could quit your job if you want to. Most traders go about this with the wrong mindset, they think they are going to quit their job after a month of trading and they might even start slacking off at work as a result. This is the wrong attitude to have and the wrong thing to do; you really need to already be financially sound and relatively happy with your life before you start trading with real money. Many traders look to the markets as a way to solve all their problems, when in reality the markets are not there for this. They are for mentally sound people to potentially profit from, so if you are trading the markets just because you hate your job or you “want to be a millionaire”, you probably have the wrong forex trading mindset already.

 13) Be organized and clean (hygienically too)

I am a very organized and clean person, and I firmly believe this has contributed to my success at such a young age. Without trying to sound arrogant or cocky, many people simply don’t have the motivation to maintain an organized and clean lifestyle, and I think it’s very hard to be a consistently profitable trader if you live this way. Everything from having the files and content organized on your computer to having a clean and organized place to trade is important to your overall trading mindset. One of the reasons why many people fail at trading is because they aren’t organized and disciplined, trading seems easy on the surface, but if you aren’t exited about developing positive habits and about being patient and disciplined, you’re probably not going to make it as a trader.

 14) Don’t be stupid

A lot of traders simply act like fools in the markets. They shuffle around their charts like lost souls desperately in need of a trading signal, panicking if they don’t find one and ultimately entering the market anyways. Biting off more risk than you can chew and generally behaving like gambler in the markets is not the way to make money, in fact it’s simply stupid, to put it frankly. You need to think like a businessman or woman and act accordingly, that means managing risk and having a plan.

 15) Learn to love patience

For many people, patience brings up images of boredom and things they would rather not do. However, in trading, you need patience more so than in most other professions. You need to have patience to sit on your hands when your trading edge is not present, and you need to have patience to see your trading edge play out over a large series of trades, rather than getting emotional after hitting a few losers. Indeed, if there is one “key” ingredient to success as a trader, it would definitely be patience.

Trading seems to naturally tempt peoples’ ability to be patient, and the more you can maintain your patience by waiting for valid instances of your trading edge, the better you will do. As humans, we have not been wired by evolution to be patient in most situations; when we are hungry we need to eat now, etc. So, as traders, we need to override these “caveman” urges which cause us to over-trade and risk too much, by planning ahead and not becoming emotional as we trade.

 16) Don’t expect to win every trade

I’m going to let you guys in on a little secret that all pro traders know; you don’t have to be right to make money trading. In fact, you can actually be wrong on THE MAJORITY OF YOUR TRADES and STILL make money. Yes, that’s right. If you want to see how, click the article I just linked to.

The point is this, you can’t freak out every time you lose a trade, EVEN IF you think it was a “perfect” trade setup. I get a lot of emails from traders sending me charts of setups they took that they said are “perfect” and that they just “don’t understand why the trade lost because it was so perfect”. Well, the cold hard truth is that it really doesn’t matter why the trade didn’t work! Also, why do you care so much? Have you risked too much on that one losing trade? Do you expect to win every trade? If you do expect to win every trade you are in for a lot of struggle and strife as a trader. The sooner you accept losing as part of being a trader and devise a realistic plan to deal with it, the sooner you can get on to making money in the markets.

 17) Enjoy Losing – Each loss brings you closer to a large win

Similar to the point above, you have to actually learn to enjoy losing. I know that sounds strange, you’re probably thinking “How can anyone enjoy losing?” Well, if you are really passionate about being a trader, and you’ve already accepted that losing is part of being a trader, then at the very worst you should not make a big deal out of a losing trade. You have to learn to embrace your losers and think of them as just one trade closer to a winner. I always tell my students to “stop trying to avoid losses”, as losing is a big part of winning a trader, and the more you try to avoid losing trades, the more of them you are probably going to have. Think of losing trades as a coworker you really don’t like but that you have to work with everyday. If you take a bad attitude with this coworker and try to avoid them, it’s probably going to hurt your chances of a promotion and thus make you less money in the long run.

 18) Be consistent

You just had 4 losing trades, what do you do, remain calm and collected, following your trading plan as usual? Or, do you freak out and jump back into the market to try and make back the money you just lost? If you lose your confidence and stop trading your proven trading strategy, you are probably going to miss out on the next trade that would have been a big winner. Trading is the ultimate test of being able to brush off and ignore obstacles that are in your way now for a longer-term reward. If you crumble at the first sign of adversity or hardship, you are probably going to become very emotional after a losing trade or two and start making stupid trading decisions.

 19) Read, study, and improve…Always

Great investors, traders and business people, read, study and educate themselves on an ongoing basis. You need to invest in yourself because it’s the most important investment you will ever make, and it will lead to direct growth in your knowledge and skill as a trader or personal fund manager.

I am always amazed at how many traders think they don’t need to educate themselves about the markets or on a proven trading strategy. Many of them tend to think they can just dive in head-first to real money trading, with no formal trading or education, and that somehow they are on the right track. Well, that’s not the case, trading takes time, effort, and education, like anything else. The trick is to make sure you learn an effective trading strategy like price action and that you learn how to trade from a genuine and honest source.

 20) Daily Trading Affirmations

positiveaffirmationA secret formula of many successful people has been to verbally reinforce the most important goals in their life. For a trader, having a wall poster or post it notes with important goals and phrases will help. We did a great lesson on this some time ago and it’s worth a read for any of you looking to take your trading to the next level…this stuff really does work and anybody can practice it…you can check out my trading affirmations lesson here.

It’s important to read through these affirmations everyday before you trade, I would even incorporate this into your trading plan. Doing so, will get your daily trading routine started off on a positive note.

Finally, I just want to say that I hope all of you have learned something from today’s lesson, and that if you really read through all 20 of the points above, and fully absorb them, you will gain some solid insight and knowledge that will help you improve your trading.

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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. Johnny Snyman

    Good Day Neil

    Thank you for sharing your experience in Forex trading. This has helped my a great deal in understanding Forex trading so much more after doing two formal courses. My biggest problem was the initial stress and all the wrong emotions I experienced when I started trading with a live account after testing what I have learned on a demo account for 8 months. Your experience and lessons help my tremendously in this aspect, i.e. how to set and forget, and to focus on the many more trades to come.
    Johnny

    Reply
  2. San-J

    Thanks Niall for sharing your knowledge.
    this will help in stopping the losing trend in my way of trading.

    Cheers

    Reply
  3. Farkad

    Dear Nail,
    Great thanks for all your articles.

    I promise once finishing reading all your valuable writings , I will join the trading course , hopefully as soon as possible.
    Thanks

    Reply
  4. Eve

    Great Nial, you are my Bible !

    Reply
  5. peachy

    thanks to share your knowledge . it made me calm down before jump on the real trade.

    Reply
  6. maria

    Brilliant! Thanks Nial, you truly are a trader and wonderful person for sharing your wisdom

    Reply
  7. naveen

    Thank you Nial. Every other site teaches about indicators and methods. But no one teaches about the psychological part better than you.

    Reply
  8. giwa

    this is great . thanks

    Reply
  9. Jan Strydom

    Hi Nial,

    This will be one lesson among many I have printed that I will read as many times as it takes for all to sink in.
    I was thinking going live but I now reliase I have to do a lot more trades on the demo account over the next few months till I am comfortable to go live.
    Thanks for all the good lessons.

    Jan

    Reply
  10. Rob

    Excellent! The truth will set you FREE! Great job Nail, you really tell it like it is . . .

    Reply
  11. Tomson

    Thanks for really nice article,

    Those are really helping a lot, always looking forward to next friady to see what interesting reading that might come up. Trying to get time to read through others in the archive meanwhile.

    Cheers Tomson

    Reply
  12. Sudip Ahmed

    Hi Nial,
    This is your one of the best article to me, as your student always i get your guideline, after all, i got something useful from this article, thanks a lot.
    Regards

    Reply
  13. kubatos

    Nial, you are the best teacher I’ve ever met!!!!!
    Regards!!!!!!!!!

    Reply
  14. radiostar

    As always Nial, superb and valuable advice

    Reply
  15. Sher

    Thank you Nial. Sometimes we don’t realize how much we have forgotten until we are reminded. Since being exposed to price action trading, I am a more skilled and confident trader, and this has positively affected my trading account more than any other method i’ve tried in the past. After almost 5 years of trading and learning,learning and trading, I am now fully equipped to earn a darn good living trading the forex market. Thank you.
    P.S. Still will continue to educate myself, that’s something I believe in wholeheartedly.

    Reply
  16. rafal (poland) London

    Hi,

    I just want to say that for the work that Nail does it must be considered to be one of the greatest trader on the planet.
    I used to be trend follower (unsuccesful). Since this may my account grown up by over 150% and this could only happen because i follow Nail’s method and the beautty is that his method works even better on commodities, indicies and bond markets.

    Nail Thank you very much

    Reply
  17. Naiteek Vikamsey

    A good article to brush up the old rules… Thanks a lotttt… :-)

    Reply
  18. roy

    Hello great article, i want to see this web page to learn more forex but, is there the nial´s lessons in spanish because i speak it, a few english

    Reply
  19. Blixa

    Yours is the only trading philosophy that ever made any sense to me.

    Reply
  20. Richy

    absolutely priceless, nial. thanks…what can i say, it’s a never ending journey and you addressed, i believe, about all the ‘stuff’ along the way! what generosity…r

    Reply
  21. nabs

    Great article as usual :-)

    Reply
  22. HFxTr

    That Was Awesome Thank u :)

    Reply
  23. xiucui

    Yes, trading is for mentally sound people to potentially profit from:)

    Reply
  24. Edward

    Just what we need to keep us “on track”
    Thank you for putting forth the time and effort to help us be successful.

    Edward

    Reply
  25. Lance

    Excellent article…thanks a lot!!!

    Reply
  26. Romny

    Great i like this one)))

    Reply
  27. Mauro Batini

    Hi Nail, I find really interesting the many Neuro Programming Language references in this article and in general in your writings. It’s the most stressed concept, and I agree on it ’emotionally controlled, positive approach’. It’s the way it works almost in any aspect of the life. Now I just miss a good technical tool, like mastering a simple and effective strategy. Your writings are always a pleasure.

    Kind regards
    Mauro

    Reply
  28. GlobalTrader

    Hi Nial, have visited a lots of fx-websites but this one of yours beats them all in knowledge and most of all…psychology!!! Thx for all your secrets revealed here!!!! Have a great weekend and God bless you for everything!!!
    Rgds. GlobalTrader Hamburg/Germany

    Reply
  29. Bbbird

    Thanks so much Nial,

    I recognize doing many of the things you shouldn’t do but also recognizing that this is part of the learning curve having lived the mistakes to finding the path to be a better trader. For me it it is learning what not to do more than what to do to be successful .

    You have re enforced every point so accurately – thanks for your brilliant insight.

    Reply
  30. Surya

    Another great article.I am now getting a great overall perspective about trading,

    Reply
  31. Dean

    Incredible, Always worth reading, I get a fair number of educational forex material to my inbox, I make sure when I receive something from you I put aside a bit of time to give it a look. Organization was a standout on the list for me. Life is very interesting and I have plenty going on,organization is often the last on the list of priorities as
    it seems to escape the need to achieve, when in fact it could be the catalyst to achieve much more.
    Thank-you for the inspiration, I appreciate the time you take to inform the ignorant, the struggling and the baffled.

    Reply
  32. Steve

    Great stuff, as always. Thanks for sharing knowledge we who want to learn legitimate ways to be successful traders can actually use.

    Reply
  33. Bruce

    Thanks Nial. Your advice is appreciated.

    Reply
  34. Shyam

    My dear Guru Nail Sir,
    Namaste from India

    Now, I have come to know that… Why most of the traders are not successful in their trading endevours, by reading and studying your all precious articles.

    CAUSES OF FAILURES
    1- Lack of trading knowledge
    2- Lack of trading skills
    3- Lack of trading discipline

    Thanks for your right guidance.

    Thank

    Reply
  35. William

    Hi Niall,

    Great article and these topics will always hold out to be true

    Reply
  36. Mike

    Hi Nial
    You’re a brilliant person at the core and wonderful mentor as result. This article made me lough over and over, it’s just so truth yet so entertaining. I have incorporated paragraph 5,6 and 16 into my Trading Plan right away. Thank you, I wouldn’t have come this far without your guidance.
    MH

    Reply
  37. tehio

    thanks you so right

    Reply
  38. Rayh

    Hi Nials You have a gift for teaching and many thanks for the effort you put into conveying these issues I certainly accept I need to embrace all ofth em, maybe 1 at a time.RayH

    Reply
  39. Timon Weller

    Love this list, i am bit of a different trader to you but still all these rules apply except for cutting losses to me, i prefer to hedge a bad trade where others put stop losses rather than closing in loss..That way i can hold until the market turns again in future.. Never had issues, but everyone has there own style yeah.. I use price action as well and no indicators, not even a moving average, only trend lines and manually added daily and weekly support and resistance lines. ;)

    Reply
  40. Ramli M.S

    Thanks Nial

    Follow your footstep to be a good trader.

    cheers

    Reply
  41. ada

    Hi Nial,
    Well, First things first!
    Thankyou for recommending Napoleoon Hill’s “Think & Grow Rich” book. I am slowly and deliberately working through it in an applicable manner – Making it my own.
    As for the present article, its the first point off the list that is my challenge. Finding ways of breaking down the overall goal(s) into bite sized pieces and then rewarding myself for those achieved states. Apparently, its what all successful athletes do when injured. They break down the recovery into do-able exercises that eventually lead them back into their profession. And to quote one of the snippets within the book I mentioned, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit”.
    I think there are many peeps who appreciate your habitual teachings and helpful guidance. I know I do.

    Sincerely, Ada.

    Reply
  42. Lyte

    Patience is by far the hardest discipline yet the most rewarding. I have been an avid reader for the last 3 years with todays article being one of the best and inspirational. Thanks Nial.

    Reply
  43. Mick

    Excellent article. I do not know a lot about your ‘price action’ trading plan but after spending the last 4 months trading a demo account and developing my own trading plan I can fully endorse and relate to all your comments above.

    I have had mixed success trading but after finally finding my edge I know the most difficult part of trading is managing the emotional and psychological effects of trading.

    Something I have noticed but not mentioned above is that you can get carried away with success become complacent, willing to take more risks leading to bad trades. It can also lead to feeling guilty when things go well because it seems too easy which I think can also have a negative impact on your subsequent trades. You need to maintain a winning mindset in good times as well as bad.

    The most important thing I have learned is along the lines of point 4 – to remain positive and think of losing trades as part of a learning process on your way to becoming a better trader.

    I’m at the stage now where I am almost ready to start trading real money but keeping the stakes low with money I can afford to lose.

    Thanks

    Mick

    Reply
  44. Claire

    Thanks Nial. A very timely article. I have had an extremely frustrating week and your article is a fantastic reminder that trading is not a race. Thanks!

    Reply
  45. Souto

    Another great lesson, point by point , the way to the top! thanks Nial

    Reply
  46. Shane

    Another GREAT article Nial.
    Probably the best I’ve read that sums up trading for success.
    Thanks!!!

    Reply
  47. peri

    Great Educative Articles !

    Reply
  48. David-William Coombs

    I Think you know the secret! thanks for the time you have given and the daily lessons you send
    Davey boy

    Reply
  49. Shezan

    Dear Nail,

    After reading this article, i honestly feel you are not just a trader – but a philosopher and psychologist. My deep respect and thanks for guiding us.

    Reply
  50. Naman

    Gems flow from you as usual…and this is one such piece of your talented work. Your way of explaining is as well ‘keep it simple’ which I like very much and it connects.

    Thanks Nial vm.

    Reply
  51. Naman

    Gems flow from you as usual…and this is one such piece of your talented work. Your way of explaining is as well ‘keep it simple’ which I like very much and it connects.

    Thanks Nial.

    Reply
  52. suresh

    all you posts are best…..thanks a lot…if any one can understand all that u have written then he/she can be a successful trader….it,s my personal belief.

    Reply
  53. James Mboho

    Nail, you are great, you are my mentor. i have open a special file tag “Nailfuller Forex Lesson”. i make sure that i have hard copies of your article. May you be rewarded for your kind and free minded articles.

    Reply
  54. Pavel

    Dear Nial, I am really impressed with the job you are doing here with your website. Simply incredible and amazing…. thanks a lot.

    Reply
  55. Wajdi

    Patience, discipline and education. If anything I think learning to be a great trader is also learning to be a great person.

    Reply
  56. CK Lim

    Thanks Nial,I like the way you do things .Great Articles.Very educational and useful .

    Reply
  57. sanu

    Awesome post mate…

    No one give these type of insights to newbie traders rather they give unrealistic expectation from the market.

    I Noted all 20 tips and enjoyed them all. Those are damn true. After joining here I have the patience to wait for a trade until my edge presents. No hurry at all. Trying to trade everyday cost me huge amount. I’m not gonna say my returns now. Because somebody LIKE the number and I may lose all :D Lol….

    Cheers

    Reply
  58. Ian

    Great article, keep up the great work.

    Reply
  59. Alan

    good post Nial…I needed some of that common sense down wisdom.

    thanks.

    Reply
  60. Richard Agustin

    with all your great forex articles, it help me to shorten
    my learning curve.

    Thanks Nial

    Reply
  61. Adegoke Fred

    WOw!! what a mind opener,now i’v got some new materials to work with,thanks Nial, keep up the good work.

    Reply
  62. Babatunde

    extraordinary Guidelines for living a successful life! Period!!

    Reply
  63. Francisco

    Thanks Nial. I am a student of your course. I am not yet a profitable trader but I appreciate very much every one of your lessons and articles.

    Reply
  64. adedeji

    Well, i am realy enlighten about many mistake i normaly make when take a particular position in the market. To me, i think the key to success after having good trade strategy is patience. Thank you very much sir!

    Reply
  65. Helen

    Really appreciate your emails with great articles, thank you. It is like gym training for trading — keeps me focused and on track. Also great that the email lessons keep coming.

    Reply
  66. Colin

    Thanks Nial you have got me thinking once again. I have been a member 12 months. So far I am keeping my head above water not losing money but not making much either.One thing that as really saved me is my money management. I think if I can be a bit more patient,trade less, I will be a lot better of. My short term plan is for the next 2 months is to go back to trading Dailys live. Stop watching the computor for hours. Demo trade 4 & 1 hr charts from when the EURO market opens. Just to improve my skills.I write a journal & screen shot all my trades & print then out. At the end of the month I go through them. Ok thanks Nial

    Reply
  67. KRISTOFA OKENTA

    It is yet another great nugget from the professor. Thank you so very much.

    Reply
  68. Robert

    Great article, regards from Poland :)

    Reply
  69. Brett Reynolds

    Good to read this lesson as i can’t remember reading it before? So the point is,I just learned something ‘new’, or ‘reinforced’ something that i may have read about sometime ago! The point is, don’t take ANYTHING for granted, always strive to ‘learn’ more…not only about the Forex Market..but about ‘Yourself’ and your own ‘Emotions’!
    Things are becoming clearer for me…but like Nial says..it takes ‘TIME’!

    Reply
  70. John

    Good reading, solid precis.

    Reply
  71. RSE

    Since I follow your whole trading path, my trading style has improved consistently.

    Thanks Nial.

    Reply
  72. Emmanuel

    Dear Nial,
    I must commend you for your write up, infact i spend a lot of time on the forex factory forum trying to read people opinion concerning upcoming news. But since i joined you i have resulted to price action.i will also thank you for your article on why you need a trading plan, and since then i have developed one and is working for me.AS at today i make an avarage of 30-50pips a day on my demo using only one strategy the pin bar.

    I forward to more of your material .
    Emmanuel

    Reply
  73. Herve

    Very good article, Nial
    like always!
    thank you a lot for this summary

    Reply
  74. david

    nail you are good in fx

    Reply
  75. david

    nail.thaks a lot i only need patience more

    Reply
  76. Steve

    Hi Nial,

    Just wanted to say that I enjoy reading your articles. I can corroborate the lessons you put forward as I only started making money when I stopped trying to make a fortune in 12 months and instead started creating a cv (my trading record) for applying to work as a trader for a prop firm. It really makes you focus on the best trade setups.

    Interestingly, when I started managing my account as if I would have to justify my trades to investors (currently an imaginary scenario, but useful nonetheless), I found that using the Kelly Criterion really showed that by picking the best setups I can actually risk more per trade and so grow my account in the most efficient way possible.

    PLEASE NOTE (new traders): The Kelly Criterion is far too volatile on its own and to make it acceptable for me I only trade a small fraction of Kelly (7% of Kelly, ie only around 2% of my account per trade).

    Only making 20% net profit for the year is not glamorous when you only have an account with a couple grand but once I start as a prop trader and prove myself that share of the profits of a larger account is suddenly not so small.

    Anyway Nial, I just wanted to say thanks for all the effort you put into your business. Goodness knows I don’t have the patience to teach like you do but it’s nice confirmation when I read an article of yours and recognize a little of myself in there..

    All the best for the future.

    Kind regards,
    Steve.

    Reply
  77. Haroun Kola

    Thanks for this article Nial. Always great to get back to basics.

    Reply
  78. grant

    Another great article,

    Your help is invaluable.

    Many thanks

    Reply
  79. Dan

    yet another great article!

    Reply