Trade what you see and not what you think

Don’t get attached to any one trade

It is important to understand that just because you “think” something will happen in the market does not mean it will. Similarly, even if you do find a very obvious and “perfect” looking setup, you should always remember that the Forex market is a dynamic and a constantly ebbing and flowing arena where anything can happen at any time, so don’t bet the farm just because you think you have spotted a “sure-thing”, because there is no such thing in the Forex market, or any market for that matter.

Learn to control yourself if you want to make money in Forex

One obvious yet often overlooked fact of Forex trading is that the market simply does not care at all about you or if you win or lose money, the market does not know you exist, and it doesn’t get emotional about you. Yet, most traders get emotional about their trades and about the market, thus they are letting a non-living entity control their behavior instead of controlling it themselves. You will not make consistent money in the market until you learn to control your emotions and reactions to the market.

Once you learn to trade only what you see on the price chart instead of what you think, you will be well on your way to becoming a consistently profitable trader, because trading what you see and not just what you think means you are controlling yourself instead of being controlled by the market. The key is to consistently trade only what you see and not what you think or feel, this will help to keep you from giving into the emotions of revenge or greed after a losing or winning trade. Traders who consistently trade only what they see on the price chart and not what they think “might” happen, along with managing their risk effectively, are the traders who make money in forex. When you learn to trade with high-probability price action setups while simultaneously controlling your emotion and risk, you will be in an even better position to make money in the Forex market.

Tips to make sure you only trade what you see and not what you think

It is one thing to fully understand exactly why you need to only trade what you see instead of what you think, and it is another thing to actually make sure you do it. Here are some concrete tips that you can use to make sure you only trade what you see and instead of giving into emotion:

• Take a moment and ask yourself before each trade “what I am doing?”, “what is the setup?”, “does it meet my trading plan criteria?”, “am I acting logically or emotionally?”, “am I controlling myself or is the market controlling me?”, “is there a setup or am I am just making one up”? These are all good questions to ask yourself before you enter any trade, doing this will make you think deeper about what you are doing and if a trade is logically justified or if you are simply acting on emotion.

• If you are trading a specific Forex trading strategy, like price action, make sure each trade you take is in accordance with the concepts that you learned in the trading course or educational material. Ask yourself any or all of the above questions before every trade that you take, until it becomes second nature to only trade what you see. Eventually you will develop a refined discretionary trading perspective that will allow you to almost instantly look at a price chart and spot price action setups.