If You’re Struggling with Price Action Analysis, Here’s 4 Easy Steps to Fix It
If you’re struggling with price action analysis, you should know that you’re not alone and you shouldn’t get too concerned just yet. Most traders struggle with price action for a handful of pretty common reasons, and today’s article is going to discuss these reasons and help you overcome them.
Read on to learn some of the most common reasons why people struggle with price action analysis, following those reasons are some guidelines on how you can overcome them.
1. You have not fully committed to price action analysis
You have to let go of the fear and doubt / second guessing regarding price action. Part of you thinks trading should be technically difficult, so you feel you ‘need’ indicators and a very complicated and or expensive trading system. You need to let go of these fears and commit to a simple price action approach like I teach.
How to fix it: Commit to the price action approach.
Once you get the training, you need to give it time to work for you and you need to make sure you stick with the program / method. If you take my price action trading course you need to spend the proper time to learn it all and really let it sink in, then formulate a plan and trade a demo account for a little while before going live.
You need to stick to the method for AT LEAST six months to really give it a chance to work in your favor, any less than that and you won’t be giving it a fair shot. I have found that most people have a hard time doing this however, they tend to give up after a couple losing trades and start looking for other methods and approaches and just generally waffle and become undisciplined.
Understand that trading involves both winners and losers, and you will never make money if you aren’t at least disciplined enough to stick with a method for six months or more.
2. You don’t wait for obvious price action signals
I have found over my years of helping traders learn price action, that the single biggest reason they struggle with price action analysis is simply not waiting for obvious trade signals to form from key levels or in trends.
How to fix it: Wait for the signal.
Patience is key here, as well as a clear understanding of what a ‘good’ price action signal looks like, which relates back to the previous point above. You have to first learn a real price action method and then commit to it, in order to know what a good price action signal looks like in the market. If you don’t do that, you don’t really have a price action strategy; you are basically just guessing.
If you do obtain and learn a price action method, you then have to commit to it as I said above, and part of committing to it means actually FOLLOWING it by WAITING for the signals to appear. You have to leave your greed at the doorstep, because it will not help you make money, even though it may ‘feel’ like it will. The most helpful thing I can say to you is that ‘patience’ is the fastest way to making money in the market, as counter-intuitive as that may sound.
Patience means waiting for your edge / strategy to form a signal and then waiting patiently for the trade to play once you do find a signal.
3. You want to get rich quick
Whether we admit it or not, we all want to get rich quick, and trading seems like the perfect way to do that to most beginners. However, it doesn’t take much time in the market to figure out that you aren’t going to get rich quick trading the markets. It usually takes someone years of learning, trial and error and discipline to start making consistent money in the market.
How to fix it: Obtain and maintain the proper trading mindset
The longer you try to ‘make fast’ money in the market, the longer it is going to take you to actually do so, let me explain…
Price action trading success and really any form of trading success, comes from the proper trading mindset and maintaining that mindset over a long enough period of time for it to bring you increasing amounts of money. The proper trading mindset means that you don’t expect to win every trade and you wait patiently for obvious trading opportunities to form; you aren’t jumping at every little pattern that comes along. You need to approach your risk management with the understanding that any one trade can be a loser, if you truly accept that then you will never risk more than you care to lose on any one trade.
4. You don’t actually have a solidified price action method
The most common reason that traders struggle with price action is that they aren’t actually trading a specific price action method. Instead, many traders pick up bits and pieces of price action trading from various sources online and they ‘think’ they know how to trade with price action. But you have to ask yourself; have you actually learned a real, solidified method that is gelled together into an effective price action trading approach? If you haven’t, you’re probably not very focused and you just randomly look at the charts with no routine or process behind your price action analysis.
How to fix it: Learn an actual price action method.
Learning an actual price action method and sticking with it is the first step to fixing your struggles with price action trading. This means getting an education on price action analysis from someone who has put together their approach into a comprehensive learning program.
The point is, you need to find a price action approach and stick with it; don’t combine a bunch of different approaches or jump from one method to the next. If you’d like to learn how I trade with price action, you can get my price action trading course here.
Excellent article Mr. Nial! I am more and more convinced that thinking and the correct habits play very important role. it is necessary to break the I. YOU strongly help to get these correct habits. Thank you
though am not so well conversant with price action because i havent got a chance to be taught but after this article i have atlest grasped some ueseful material concerning it
In my opinion learning price action by pieces will guide to failure. We should learn and train it completely from a to z and forming it as our suitable own edge.
have any lesson about chart reading ? plss give me.
Truely your experience speaks here.definitely u would have gone through the mindset u are treating now.its obvious u are really convinced of ur concept and really,it works. Ur revelations encourages professionalization In forex trading.
This is one of the best articles thanks Nail
For me the best articles you a have ever written Nial. So on the money
Good and educative admonition for us.
Thanks.
Nial
Wise words.
I have been trading with my own money since January 2016 following completeing your course. I have made money, then thinking I knew everything, lost money by over trading. I have suck with it and now 9 months down the line I have finally understood that it is not about making money, it’s about returning positive ‘R’. Making money is a function of the size of your acount and your personal expectations. It’s all about sticking with the plan and managing your Risk and Reward. You taught me this in Janurary but it has taken me until September to practice it. Finally I am now in the right mine set to make ‘+R’.
Thanks Simon
your words sound like a prophecy to me, Im now feeling mentally fit to conquer this fear and self distrust until I make it to the top.
Discipline, patience, learning price action strategy and sticking to it long enough! Thanks for these valuable points that need a special place in my study area.
thank you very much,keep it simple as you said. regard sifiso
Thanks Nail
Actually I have conquered over trading, I always wait for the signals but now my biggest problem is to
Wait for my take profit to play out, like today I missed out on silver because I did not wait for profit target, I made some money but I would have made a lot more if i follow what you say.
Hope I will get better.
Your teaching is sooo good, I count myself so lucky that I found you
Thanks again
Thanks for another lesson to keep our brains fully tuned in to what we should be doing.
It is definitely down to discipline and patience
Great job Nial much appreciated.
Regards’
Peter
A very outstanding article……., most trader’s downfall is over trading (trading a signal which is not 100% agree with trading plan) and not having discipline to stick with trading plan over a large enough series of trades to see how the edge is working out.
Spot on as usual
Tnx
Nice write-up it’s educative,really gained from it