Just What Goes Into Making A Successful Forex Trader?
By: Donald Saunders | Posted: 02nd September 2007
If you were to divide foreign currency traders into two groups – those who are successful and those who are not so successful – would it be possible to identify the characteristics which differentiate one group from the other?
It is not really important what we do in life, and that includes foreign currency trading, however, no matter what we do, one thing that will have a greater affect on our success than anything else will be goal setting.
It is a simple fact that the human brain is at its best when it has a clear roadmap to follow and, by setting a goal, you start building your roadmap by defining the end point of your journey. However setting a destination is not sufficient and you will also need to define the route which you are going to follow to get to your destination. Here is an example.
Suppose you make up your mind to build a fortune as a foreign currency trader, who doesn't after all! This in itself is not however much help as any goal that you set needs to be measurable, otherwise you will have no way of knowing whether or not you have reached it. So, at this stage, you need to define precisely what you mean when you talk about a 'fortune'.
Let us say therefore you set a goal of making $1,000,000 in the next twelve months. You now have a clear destination. The next problem is that, as you are probably a newcomer to the world of foreign currency trading, are still trying to learn the ropes and possibly have only limited money to invest at this stage, making $1,000,000 in the next twelve months is possibly not that realistic a goal.
As well as being measurable, goals also have to be realistic. It is immaterial what goal you set for yourself in foreign currency trading, but it has to be within your capabilities. There is no point in deciding that you intend to win Wimbledon if you have never even swung a tennis racket.
So, rather than aiming for $1,000,000 let us set a far more realistic target of say $120,000. Once we have done this, we next need to break this figure down into marker posts which we can add to our roadmap and this can be done by viewing our target on a monthly instead of a yearly basis. This gives us twelve $10,000 markers. Now, if we continue along these lines we can next break our goal down further into $2,500 weekly markers.
At this point we have got something that we are able to view against our current and recent experience and it is a reasonably easy matter to determine whether or not this figure is attainable. Is it possible, against the background of your current experience, to make $2,500 trading Forex in the coming week?
Goals have to be measurable and realistic, but they must also be attainable. It is all very well to set a realistic goal, but you also need to have the right tools, in the right place at the right time to reach that goal. If you are currently getting $750 a week then you are probably not going to convert this into $2,500 overnight so, in this instance, your goal is not attainable and you will need to go back to square one and start over again.
But, if $2,500 is attainable, then there is one additional step that needs to be taken before you are ready to set off on your journey. Your last step is to paint a mental picture of your destination.
Despite the fact that you have set a goal of making $120,000 in the next twelve months, the money by itself is of course not really what you are aiming for, but it is what you can do with the money that is important. So, having got your $120,000 what are you going to do with it? If you are planning to purchase yourself a new sportscar then paint a picture in your mind's eye of driving off into the sunset with the roof down and then you will truly have a goal.
If you wish to achieve success in foreign currency trading then you need to set yourself a goal that is measurable, realistic and attainable and than paint a picture of that goal in your mind's eye. If you do this you will be amazed at how simple a matter it is to get to your destination.
LearningForexTradingOnline.com is the ideal place to learn Forex trading online and provides information on a wide range of topics including the vale for the novice trader of Forex mini trading
This article is free for republishing
Printed From: http://www.articlealley.com/article_210258_19.html
Back to the original article
Tags: money, capabilities, simple fact, newcomer, target, journey, ropes, fortune, roadmap, twelve months, foreign currency trading, tennis racket, human brain, currency traders, measurable goals, currency trader, wimbledon