THE TRADERS MINDSET

In today’s post we are going to discuss something near and dear to my successful traders hearts. It is the mindset required to become a profitable trader. There are many attributes that make traders successful but in this post, we will narrow down on the two characteristics we believe to be most important. 

A certain mindset must be attained in order to succeed in any area of life. Trading is no different. Forex trading requires the fine-tuning of a handful of characteristics in order to be successful. These specific traits will be identified a little later in this post.

But first, I want you to think about something… “Is success for a trader really different than attaining success in any other field of life?” To be a professional sports player, is there a different mindset required than becoming the CEO of a Fortune 500 company?

No. The skill set may be different but the mindset for achieving success is transferable across all fields no matter what you are trying to achieve. If you study the lives of successful people in different areas of life you will find a common thread that runs throughout. 

People who achieve high levels of success all have one thing in common. No matter the particular area of life they chose to master, they all have a high level of belief in themselves. Confidence in who they are and their ability to achieve what they have set out to achieve.  

This is the most important attribute that you need to develop. If you develop an unshakeable belief in yourself there is nothing that can stop you on your journey to success. Why? Because when anything comes against you, you still take action. Because you believe in the end result. You know with total confidence that you will reach your goal so you let nothing stop you. This is the unshakeable attitude you must develop to be a successful trader.

With that being said. There are two particular mindset characterizes that are essential for success in forex trading.

Discipline

The first is discipline. You must develop a rigid routine that you follow to a tee. Forex trading requires that you execute the same actions day in and day out. You must know how to follow a plan and stick with it. This will ensure your long-term success. Where I see many traders fail is not following a strict trading routine. Their emotions sway their actions and this causes inconsistency in the routine. An inconsistent routine is a mess. There is no structure to follow. Lack of structure makes it easier to trade based on your current mental state and emotions.

Since this is what we want to eliminate in our trading we want to ensure that we have a strict trading routine and follow it. Having a solid trading routine makes it easier to have discipline in the first place. You know the action steps that are required of you every day and you execute them.   

What is the next attribute that all successful traders have?

Patience

You have probably heard about having patience time and time again. It is so important that you develop an attitude of patience when trading the markets. It will ensure your long-term success. How? 

When you have patience you wait for the right setups to present themselves to you, you take trades that only meet your trading plan criteria and you do not have the fear of missing out. Patient traders understand that the market has an abundance of opportunities and that if the trade does not look quite right, there will be another opportunity for them to capitalize on.

Great trades happen often but it takes a patient trader to capitalize on them. Not allowing the emotions of the market reel them into “Okay” setups. 

Patient traders play the long game. They understand that trading is not a get rich quick game and that true success in the markets takes time. When you understand that, you do not try to catch every trade. You wait for the perfect trades to present themselves and you execute. Suddenly you are not lured into okay trading setups but you only take pristine setups that perfectly align with your plan.  

I cannot stress enough how important these two qualities are to your success as a trader. If you want to learn how to develop these qualities I would recommend doing personal development. This will help you to get into the mindset of success. Patience and discipline are needed to succeed in any area of life but they are especially important for trading. If you can master these two areas I have no doubt that you will be on your way to consistent and profitable trading.