Build daily habits that help forex traders

Forex trading can be tough. There are so many things you need to pay attention to, and it’s not always clear what you’re doing wrong—especially when you haven’t built strong forex traders habits or a consistent approach to forex trading strategies.

Often, that’s because what you’re doing wrong isn’t part of your trading strategy. Or at least, it’s not something you consider part of it.

Sometimes, traders can use the right indicators, be familiar with the market, and trade under the right conditions, yet still find themselves in bad or unfamiliar situations.

Sometimes, this is just bad luck or an uncommon turn in the market. However, sometimes, it’s things you can control, but that don’t immediately seem like a part of your trading routine. This article is devoted to that, finding those small optimisations in your day-to-day that can have a significant effect on trading when stacked up.

Have a daily routine for trading

One of the most common mistakes people make is not having a fixed routine. They trade when they feel like it or when they feel like there’s nothing better to do.

This leads to a lack of motivation, poor preparedness, and weak consistency. These are exactly the kind of forex trader habits that can hold you back, even if you use solid forex trading strategies.

Now, most people already know that they should have a routine, as it’s one of the first pieces of advice new traders receive. However, another issue pops up when people stick to the first routine they made too diligently. Exhaustion sets in, and it becomes difficult to maintain a good emotional state for trading.

The solution is to modify your routine until you feel like it fits in your day. Matching the time when you feel most rested with the best time to trade your assets is a crucial thing here, if your other obligations allow you to do so, of course.

So, the real tip is this. If you want to be serious about forex, it’s not about tweaking your routine. It’s about making daily life changes so your routine matches the best time for you to trade. Strong forex trader habits make forex trading strategies easier to execute consistently.

Devote some time to education and strategising

Many traders, once they start feeling comfortable in the markets, get complacent. However, forex is so vast, literally covering the entire world, meaning there’s always something new to learn.

It may be trading-related, like a new tool, pattern, or strategy. It may be related to the particular currencies you’re trading, like the industrial sectors that affect their growth, trade relations, business deals within the region, or political events. You may even decide to learn a completely new pair or add a CFD from a different class to your trading arsenal.

The gist of it is that repetition reinforces. And if you keep doing the same thing over and over again, you’ll get stuck. This goes for good habits, but also for bad ones. You can make small adjustments here and there, but that will only take you so far.

So, take at least ten minutes to learn something new. Perhaps it helps you trade the particular assets you’re interested in, or perhaps it allows you to better understand general markets and market participant behaviour.

Information is power in trading, and you never know where you’ll find inspiration for a new trading avenue—especially when you’re building stronger forex traders habits to support your forex trading strategies.

Limit your information intake

We just said that information is power, but that doesn’t go for all information. In the current state of the world, we’re forced to absorb so much, further increased by social media and our general internet presence. However, this can be fatal for your trading performance.

One of the most difficult hurdles for traders to overcome is emotional trading. Even the most seasoned traders can struggle with it. A large part of emotional trading comes from fear of missing out, a fear that you’ll miss an important event or that a great opportunity will pass you by.

The internet, in general, has a tendency to make everything sound like the most important thing in the world. It’s all about engagement, and you get more attention by overemphasising things. You can see how these two facts don’t mesh well.

When traders take in large amounts of exaggerated information, it becomes more difficult for them to remain level-headed. You hear influencers shout, “TODAY is your only chance to earn thousands if you trade EUR/USD!” and, even if you don’t agree or necessarily want to listen to that.

It does stay somewhere in the back of your mind—so building disciplined forex traders habits and sticking to your forex trading strategies matters even more.

Managing Algorithm-Driven Noise to Build Strong Forex Traders Habits

Another issue comes from the algorithmic nature of today’s internet landscape. Once your algorithms pick up that you’re interested in trading, you’ll get bombarded with these messages. This can make it very difficult to avoid them.

So, what’s the solution?

Swearing off all social outlets would be one, but that’s not something most traders are willing to do, and it may make you miss the things that are actually generating buzz.

Let’s scale back and look at some more realistic ways you can do this:

• Get your information primarily from news sources specifically related to trading
• Block creators who often make exaggerated claims
• Only follow creators who prioritise informational content over hype
• Stick to the content you follow in the hours before your trading session
• If you’re struggling with FOMO, consider avoiding social media altogether in the hours before your trading session

Observe the markets

Now, let’s get into the things that are more closely tied to your trading routine. Traders often start their sessions without knowing what’s going on. They figure they’ll start with their regular strategy and then figure out the rest along the way.

What this does is it creates a sort of staggering effect, where traders trade a bit, then explore, then trade again, then explore some more.

It diverts your attention, makes it more difficult to focus on your routine, and slows down your decision-making—two things that can quickly weaken your forex traders habits and derail your forex trading strategies.

Instead of this, you may want to consider taking some time before you start your session, simply observing what’s going on. Check the market conditions, the potential presence of any high-impact news, possible breakouts, find the current support and resistance levels, etc.

This will let you actually focus on the trades you’re making and your own mental state during the session, and cut out busywork. If you already know what’s happening, you’ll be able to mentally prepare for what you need to do, rather than having to come up with a plan on the spot.

Journal more

Our final tip for improvement is journaling. Many traders avoid it because they feel like they can get similar information from their trade history tab and adding a note to their trades here and there.

However, journaling is the most effective way of finding optimisations and actually understanding why you’re doing the things that you’re doing. Just the fact that you’ll force yourself to write down the things you’re thinking about will make you more cognisant of your behaviour.

Here are some things you can journal that are out of the reach of your trade history:

• Why you entered or exited a trade
• How you felt during the entry and exit
• What the market conditions were like
• Why you didn’t make a specific trade
• Was your decision influenced by something you’ve seen today
• Did the trade follow your plan
• Were you rested for the session
• Did you understand the market and why the price moved the way it did

Recording this information will allow you to practically implement all the small habits we mentioned today. Feel free to make your list your own, and focus on the areas you feel like you struggle with. Do this, and gradually, you’ll be able to optimise the small things most traders miss, but that can have a huge impact on your performance.

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