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Nial Fuller

NIAL FULLER Nial Fuller
Professional Trader, Author & Coach

Don’t Focus on Money, Focus on Being a Good Trader

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By in Forex Trading Tutorials September 25th, 2011 | 50 Comments

focusIt’s a fact that professional traders don’t think about money as much as amateurs do, instead they focus on mastering their craft and being exceptional traders, which means becoming an expert at reading a chart’s price action. There is no doubt that most aspiring traders focus much of their attention on how much money they can make, when their primary concern should be developing as a trader.

This article will discuss why focusing your efforts on mastering price action analysis, instead of worrying about how much money you can make, will help you develop into a successful Forex trader much faster than what would otherwise be possible.

• Trading success is a function of self-mastery

One common attribute of professional traders is that they are very well disciplined when it comes to trading the markets. Put simply, there is no way you can make money consistently in the markets if you are an emotional train wreck who gives into every little mental impulse you feel about the market. You have to have the fortitude to know when to trade and when not to trade; you need the ability to consciously over-ride your emotions and do what is best for your trading account, instead of what feels best.

• Transfer your focus from making money to becoming a master trader

So just how does one truly “master” their own mind and emotions in the market? Well, when it comes to trading, a key ingredient to mastering your mind is forgetting about how much money you “want” to make or how much you “could” make, and instead focusing that energy on really learning all the nuances of the trading strategy you are employing.

In essence, you should be passionate about trading in and of its self; not because you want to get rich. A by-product of being passionate about trading and truly mastering the art and skill of price action analysis is that you will naturally start to attract money to yourself. This may sound a bit “fluffy”, but it really is rooted in logic; if you make mastering your chosen trading strategy your all-consuming desire, instead of making money, you will naturally reduce the probability of committing emotional trading mistakes because you will not be focused on money (focusing on money induces emotional trading). These principles apply to any area of life you wish to excel in; in order to truly master anything you have to go “all-in” and make it your passion; people who do this by specializing in one particular field naturally attract money to themselves as a result of becoming an “expert”.

You aren’t going to fully develop your trading skills or your ability to read price action by constantly thinking about how much money you can make on a trade, conversely, you aren’t going to make any consistent money in the markets until you develop your trading skills. Essentially, spending any time thinking about how much money you can make on a trade, beyond normal risk reward calculations, is wasted mental energy and wasted time. If you really want to become an efficient and effective Forex trader, you need to follow the path that takes you there; mastering your trading strategy.

• HOW to forget about the money

Now that we have discussed why shifting your focus from making money to trading mastery is so important, let’s discuss how this shift is accomplished.

The first thing you need to do is really take a cold hard look at how much money you have to trade with, then make a decision to be realistic with yourself about how much money you can logically expect to make (on average) given the amount you are trading with. Too many traders come into the market with $1,000 or less and think they are going to quit their jobs in a month.

The truth is that most retail Forex traders don’t have nearly enough money at their disposal to trade with to have a realistic chance of making it their sole income. So, the first thing you can do to take your mind off the money, is to just flat-out accept that you aren’t going to get rich anytime soon. Instead, focus on being consistent each month, even if that means making less than you would like, consistency is key. Now that you have released your expectations of making tons of money super fast, you should be ready to “forget” about the money and focus on developing your trading skills.

Next, you will need to focus in on one aspect of your trading strategy at a time, this way you can maximize the time you spend learning and perfecting your craft. I suggest to all of my students that they learn to master one of my price action strategies at a time on the daily time frame before the moving on. By learning to trade on the daily time frame you get a clearer picture of the market than what is possible trading the lower time frames, and by focusing on one trade setup at a time you truly can become a master of it and “make it your own”, meaning you get to know it intimately and all the nuances that come with it.

• Investing in yourself now will pay off later

This process of mastering one piece at a time should be repeated until you have mastered all aspects of your Forex trading strategy, in the case of my price action trading strategies it means mastering one of the setups that I teach at a time, on the daily chart, before learning a new one. Eventually, this process will develop your price action trading skills to the point of giving you the ability to quickly analyze a daily price chart and tell almost immediately whether or not your edge is present.

Learning to trade in this manner takes a lot of time and effort up front, but as you proceed and learn, you will refine your discretionary trading skills and eventually you will become a confident price action trader. However, most traders do not put in the necessary time required to reach the point of truly mastering one Forex trading strategy at a time, instead they quickly skim through material in a haphazard manner because they cannot resist the urge to start trading real money.

If you can learn to overcome these emotional urges to “make money” in the market, and instead focus your efforts on becoming a master price action trader, you will simultaneously master your own mind and emotions. In essence, you need to build your Forex trading skills on a solid foundation of education and study, without worrying about money or being greedy, if you can manage to do this you will be light years ahead of the masses of aspiring traders who don’t follow some kind of structured trading education course or concrete plan of action.

Trading is not for everyone, you truly need to be passionate about it and really “get into it” by becoming a “trading nerd”, learn early on to love and master it, and this passion will pay you back many times over, but along the way you need to learn to let go of the money and the thought of getting rich quick. If you can do this and be realistic with yourself you will have a much greater chance of making consistent money in the market.

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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. gab

    very well, i’ll work on it,thanks alot
    gabriel,lagos, nigeria

    Reply
  2. amos

    Nial I always enjoy and relish your lessons. My love of trading continues. I have to remind myself not to compare myself with someone else because inside we all have different challenges to meet and overcome in order to manifest what we want on the outside.

    Reply
  3. Phil

    At some point the money does need to be evaluated in your trading. Money is the score on how you are doing.

    Reply
    • nial

      I disagree.. we evaluate our trading in terms of ‘risk reward’.

      Reply
  4. seb

    Yes Nial how right you are about this theary, I have been doing just that for the past 3 months and i must say it is quite amazing just how much better i am now at getting consistan winners, i have also been consentrating on profit taking and i must say the results are doing wonders for my comfidence. thanks again, best regards…

    Reply
  5. Marcia

    Great article i like ur advice and it gives me a better understanding of where my focus should be – on learning to trade, which is what i have been trying to do… i just got into trading and really want to learn it…. thnx

    Reply
  6. Jo

    Great!Great! advice. I have found that thinking about the money results in over-trading which ultimately results in a spent account. It is quite normal however to keep a financial goal in mind BUT the focus should be making consistent pips through mastery of a trading strategy – and as you say that will convert to the money eventually.

    Thanks again for helping to keep us on track

    Reply
  7. Ozzy John

    Good One Nial

    It makes so much sense now after 2 years at it , you have got to learn the signals first, and then comes the money , it’s like most jobs….you have to learn it, mater it , before you get good at it , nothing this good comes overnight .

    Reply
  8. Kotijett

    thanks Nial

    Reply
  9. JOHN

    Nial I always enjoy and relish your lessons. My love of trading continues. I have to remind myself not to compare myself with someone else because inside we all have different challenges to meet and overcome in order to manifest what we want on the outside.

    Thanks again john

    Reply
  10. Azahar Rais

    Good one Mr Nial :)

    Reply
  11. adrian

    Thanks Nial. This is what I`m doing now with pin bar

    Reply
  12. Jomarie

    Nice one nial!

    Reply
  13. isa4forex

    Nail,thanks u r a prof trader.

    Reply
  14. Paul

    Good advice Nial. It really can be tempting as a newbie to want to dive straight into real trading, but you will get burned without the extensive required knowledge and practice. Thanks for putting me back on the straight and narrow and reminding me that my main aim is to become an expert and beat the market overall (using my practice account).

    Reply
  15. aderemi

    good work Nial the great mentor of our time.keep it up

    Reply
  16. bruce

    When first starting out trading, the only thing to think about was the money. Love the stuff !
    After three years of pain, even with NIAL’S guidance.I very slowly started getting my trading in order.
    If I trade a winning trade and gain 100 pips i’m over the moon.
    I enter trades without emotion. Just reading the chart as it is.
    Trying to get the direction right is my only endeavour.

    Lost on the GBPUSD toay. It had everything in my entry rules
    but in the middle of the night, pivitted, hit my stop- out!!

    Reply
  17. andrew

    thank”s for the really good advice.cheers andrew.

    Reply
  18. James Voo

    Nial,

    U are right!
    Cheers!!!

    Reply
  19. William D'Arbe

    Hi Nial,

    Thank you for these words of wisdom.

    Top advice and teachings.They are so relevant.

    Many thanks

    William

    Reply
  20. Frank

    HI Nial. Absolutely truth what u writting here. First effort then skills and money will come as next… Otherwise we will put our money to somebodys pocket…

    Reply
  21. sanjaya

    hi nial, really marvolous, your writings truly reflecting the reality, thanks for showing the right path.

    Reply
  22. Jay

    Great stuff Nial. Thanks for helping us to realize the realities that we encounter as emotional traders.

    Thanks
    Jay

    Reply
  23. Butch

    The truth, and nothing but the truth. Thanks Nial

    Reply
  24. Rikus

    Hello Nial,

    I have found one price action trading system n now trying
    to master it before moving to the next one.

    Thanks you for your helpful articles.

    Rikus

    Reply
  25. Ramli

    Thanks Nial. Its a long journey trading with full of discipline.

    Great advice.

    Cheers

    Reply
  26. Erkan

    Good article and lesson from a practising pro. But personally i prefer to replace good trader for a pinpoint high and lows trader.

    Reply
  27. UCHE

    Great article as usual,keep it up NIAL am learning fast,thanks for your mentorship

    Reply
  28. Emmanuel

    Tnks Nial,.u hit d nail on d head..it was spot on..am saving up for ur course..please keep d good work..cheers!!

    Reply
  29. Geoff

    Hi Nial,

    You have put the first focus point for a newbie to start mastering the art of trading strategy in which we always failed during our begining trading.

    Really a master peice of advise,thanks so much to you..Nail.

    Geoff

    Reply
  30. Anni

    Thanks Niall – your advice of investing in yourself now will pay off later and taking the time to master one strategy at a time is sound advice.

    Reply
  31. Prasetyo

    Love the trade, not the money..Big thanks Nial. Pras

    Reply
  32. Parashar

    Well said Nial. Really true…

    Reply
  33. joshua

    ^^^trading nerd. Great article Nial.

    Reply
  34. phillip.t

    Great insight. That is exactly how I feel. I will try and change my focus away from making money to being consistent.
    Easier said than done!!

    Reply
  35. Tommy

    Thank you Nial, a very timely and well stated reminder on where my focus needs to rest.

    Reply
  36. Mongo

    Nial – props for bringing to light the No. 1 trading downfall of trading “noobs”…focusing on the money.

    Most excellent trading education you provide.

    Cheers mate.

    Reply
  37. Olusola

    Prof.,Thats is great piece.Thanks for the write up.I am learning fast everyday.Although,it’s a good advise to forget the money first.However,you will agree with me that greater number of people are forex not for anything but the money.Bcs,that seem to be the reason for it’s existence in the first place.I pray I would be able to adhere to the advise.Once again,thank you,
    Olusola
    Nigeria.

    Reply
  38. TRACY

    Another platinum hit, Nial…

    Reply
  39. Galen

    Hello Mr. Fuller

    Yes I will start focusing on the craft. Good article!

    Reply
  40. Kenny

    Great stuff Nial. It’s hard to not think about the money but the point of this article hits home! Thanks!

    Reply
  41. Nick

    it’s really a very meaningful messenger & also a meaningful work from u,thks a lot Nial…

    Reply
  42. Eudes

    Hi Nial. I learned what we must to produce wealth before of to produce money. Your lesson is a exemplo. Thank you. Eudes

    Reply
  43. Erik

    Great stuff there Nial. It takes a long time to the point of reading charts as a book, and to forget the money and just trade because the there is a perfect signal.

    Reply
  44. Ed

    Thanks. Emotional trading is a real stumbling block. These lessons are helping heaps. Thanks again

    Reply
  45. Tomas

    I believe such articles are no less important, than the trading strategy itself; Thank You for Your kind efforts to help building characters, Nial.

    Reply
  46. Alex

    Spot on. I’ve been on this journey 3 years now. Finally I have given up the money idea, just trading for the skill itself. I’ve stopped chasing and gradually it is coming together. Thanks Nial.

    Reply
  47. Alex G

    Excellent article Nial, that really hit home.That was exactly what I needed to hear. Thanks,

    Reply
  48. David

    I have found that thinking about making money has meant I take bigger risks than I should. I start gambling, dreaming about how my bank will rise and rise. All I have ended up doing is seeing it fall. Trading is a marathon not a sprint. Consistently making money, however little, means you are moving forwards. Base your trading on good technique like Nial’s PA and with discipline you can move forwards.

    Reply
  49. T Allen

    Thanks Nial – great lesson and a great reminder at a great time in my trading journey.

    Reply