Consistency is the key to successful trading

by Darwin on August 7, 2017

The trader lives and works in his own little bubble. Each day’s forays into the Forex market makes him like a fighter pilot hurtling into the sky in order to take on the deadly foes on the other side.  So much of his success or failure is posited on his mental frame of mind. In a sense this is where the comparison with the fighter pilot is not completely valid because a sense of calm purpose is far better suited to Forex trading than blood rushing to the head resulting in headstrong behavior.

The key to successful trading in what is frequently a stormy, up and down begins with your approach to everyday life. Do you go to bed at a reasonable hour? Do you get enough sleep? Do you take sufficient exercise?  Do you eat regular and sustaining meals?     All these are questions whose answers will denote whether you have a consistent, calm, methodical approach to life. If you think a certain way consistently, if you are attentive and focused, all these life traits will have a bearing on your success as a Forex trader.

It goes without saying that in the same way that we don’t want to see the pilot of our plane yawning and sleepy, you can’t have much confidence in a broker who can’t keep his eyes open in front of the screen.  Acquire the consistency to sleep well, eat sensibly and exercise, these traits make you a better balanced person and ultimately a more successful trader.

Consistency implies that you have a plan and that broadly speaking you adhere to it, you will trade according to that pattern. How does one know whether a strategy is working?  Well, there is only one answer which is to test, test and test again. If you keep changing your strategy, how will you ever know whether or not that strategy was correct in the first place?  The wisdom of experienced traders suggest that you should give any strategy six months to prove itself or otherwise.

You also need to be consistent in the amount you will risk on any trade. That allows you to keep a lid on your emotions (keeping you away from revenge trading) and a cap on any losses that you might incur. Drop the consistency and the sheer gambler in you might come out and the result might be disastrous. Remember the lines “If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster and treat those two impostors just the same”. Whether you win or whether you lose, your approach to the next session of market trading should be just the same.

It pays to keep an exact record of all the trading that you carry out. It can be heavy going but it is inherently worthwhile as without an exact record, how can you be sure where you strayed from your pre-determined path?

The moral of this short article is this: whatever your role in life and whatever challenges come your way, a consistent approach always makes good sense.

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