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.

Why do people fail as forex traders?

It's quite amazing to discover that over 90% of those who begin their trading career lose their trading account within a short period of that. When I got to discover this fact, I was afraid of trading the forex market. Of course what's the use trading a market when majority of those into it are losers. I grew sceptical of what would be my fate if I eventually trade the market. But a thought flashed into my mind as I was about giving up the idea of taking forex trading as a career. The idea that flashed into my mind was, despite the fact that 90% are losing, then there must be about 10% of traders that are making all the money in the market. Also I compared that to any conventional business. In most conventional businesses, about 90% of people who begin a business lose and end up folding up the business. After my comparison, I thought to my self that it is quite possible to join the 10% of trader that are on the winning side. Through research and practice, I got to sift out the major reasons 90% of trader loss their trading account fast.
From my findings I noticed that the losing traits exist in the 90% of traders that are perpetual losers. If you can get rid of these traits, there's no reason why you can't succeed as a forex trader.
Below are some of the traits I got to discover. Take your time to study them thoroughly and I believe that together, we shall smile.
Trait Number 1: Jumping From One Strategy To Another.
Most beginner traders are in the habit of moving from one trading strategy to another. The major reason behind this attitude is because, they hardly spend time to develop their trading system. When they encounter a string of loses, they jettison their trading system and go in search for the next best forex trading system they can find. When they encounter another string of loses as a result of implement their new system, they eventually jump ship and lot for any advertised trading strategy that promises 100% profit in return. When a trader moves from one system to another, he would eventually lose focus and that alone can kill your trading account fast. In forex trading, there's no holy grail. You need to sit down and develop a strategy until you are comfortable with it. That is why it is highly advisable to demo trade first before you start trading on a live account. Another disadvantage of jumping from one trading system to another is that you eventually lose confidence in your ability to trade well.
Trait 2: Poor Money Management:
Bad money management is a disaster that many new traders experience in their journey toward become a millionaire trader in one day. Lack of proper understanding of this subject is the reason why there are more losing traders than winners. To succeed as a trader, you must know what money management is and how to adjust it into your trading plan.
Trait 3: Not Using Stop Loss
This is a common problem with many new traders. They expect to be right all the time and so they feel that it is a crime for them to lose a trade. In their pursuit to win al their trades, they don't use stop loss and so they leave their trading account exposed. The purpose of stop loss is to protect your trading account in case there is a move that goes against you while trading. What most traders think is that the market would always reverse and move in their favour so they will keep a trade open and wait. Most often than not, the never move in their direction, instead the market continues its journey against their trade. If this happens for a long period of time, it would eventually wipe out their account. There are time some traders are lucky to win trades without stop loss. But be rest assured that if that kind of system continues, their account would soon be gone forever.
Trait Number 4:Get Quick Rich Scheme: Many beginner traders think that the forex market is an avenue to make big money in a short period of time. As a result of their belief, they enter trades with big lot size and expect to make 100% profit in a day or a week. When they are disappointed as a result of what they see, they begin to complain.

Combining Inside Days with Bollinger Bands

Prices at the upper Bollinger band are considered high and prices at the lower Bollinger band are considered low. However, just because prices have hit the upper Bollinger does not necessarily mean that it is a good time to sell. Strong trends will 'ride' these bands and wipe out any trader attempting to buy the 'low' prices in a downtrend or sell the 'high' prices in an uptrend. Therefore, just buying at the lower band and selling at the upper band is out of the question. By definition, price makes new highs in an uptrend and new lows in a downtrend, which means that they will naturally be hitting the bands. With this information in mind, our filter will require that buy signals occur only if the candle following the one that hits the Bollinger band does not make a new high or low. This type of candle is commonly known as an inside day. The best time frames to look for the inside days are daily charts, but this strategy can also be used on hourly, weekly and monthly charts. Combining inside days with Bollinger bands increases the likelihood that we are only picking a top or bottom after prices have hit extreme levels. As a rule of thumb, the longer the time frame, the rarer the trade will be, but the signal will also be more significant

Price action trading

Price action is the best indicator of the aggregate belief of all market participants. What happened in the past is the past, lagging indicators only analyze past data and display it to you in a second-hand format that is less clear and less precise than price action. The bottom line is that there is just no logical explanation for using lagging indicators. Price action analysis takes into account all market variables.