How to change your trading habits

If you have fully accepted the reality of what is possible given your account size and effective risk management, then you can start devising a concrete plan to change your trading habits, or if you are brand new to trading, develop the proper habits. The first thing you need to do is be sure that you know exactly what your “edge” in the market is and how to trade it. If you haven’t mastered an effective trading strategy yet, you should check out my price action trading strategies, as they can provide you with high-probability entry signals by learning to analyze and trade the natural price dynamics of a market. After mastering an effective trading strategy, you need to plan out how you will trade it. You should design a comprehensive yet concise Forex trading plan on your computer and print it out. This plan will be your guide for how to interact with the market; by pre-defining all aspects of your trading you consciously eliminate the potential to turn into a greedy trader, assuming you follow your trading plan of course.

Why discipline is essential to becoming a consistently profitable trader

Forex trading obviously requires a high degree of discipline, most all traders know this, whether beginner or pro. However, knowing is different from doing, and while most all traders know they should be more disciplined, it often ends up being something they think they can put off until they make X amount of money. Trying to rationalize in your head not being disciplined is one of the biggest mistakes that almost all traders make at some point. I know how it works because I was once in your shoes. You probably have thought something like this recently, “I’ll start to become disciplined and manage my risk better once I get my account up to X amount of money…” Sound familiar? I’m willing to bet a lot of money that you thought that exact thing at some point or still think that. Almost every trader has.
The problem with thinking you can put off being a disciplined trader until XYZ happens is fairly obvious, yet most traders continue to do it. This is simply a mistake born out of greed, and greedy traders do not make money over the long-run. If there is one thing that will destroy your trading account faster than anything, it’s greed. A greedy trader trades too much and risks too much per trade, over-trading and over-leveraging are the two main reasons why most Forex traders lose money. In my opinion, trading almost naturally induces greedy behavior in traders due to the constant temptation of easily being able to make fast money by just clicking your mouse. Thus, for almost all people who trade the markets, a conscious plan to fight greed before it consumes you is necessary if you want to become a successful Forex trader.