Perhaps the most important piece of currency trading knowledge that you should have is how to put a fx trading plan together. Without one you will struggle big time. Without your forex route map you will get completely lost and having one will mean the difference between success and failure.
Remember that the majority of traders beginning out in forex trading lose money, so it is crucial to carry out everything you can to make certain that you are one of the profitable ones. Having a strategy will provide you a good start over most traders who simply start trading with no aim of where they are heading.
Having a potentially profitable plan is important and you can acquire many of them out there. Most traders think that the trading system is the one thing that matters and use up all of their time searching for the flawless system that is guaranteed to make money for anyone. But no such trading system exists. Although there are a bunch of fine systems, no system will be successful without a trading plan that is tailored to the specific trader.
This means that you need to figure out your trading plan for yourself. Do not be alarmed however for the reason that it is quite straightforward. Your plan just needs to include three things:
1. Lot size
This can be measured in the number of positions that you will take on every single trade. It may vary according to the strength of your signals or it can be the same for each trade, but it ought to be clearly set out. Do not vary your lot size according to intuition, and do not vary it according to whether your earlier trade was winning or not.
When you are deciding on your lot size, you must also consider your gearing and what proportion of your total funds will be committed to a trade. This forms part of your RMP (risk management plan)and it is crucial to your forex trading knowledge that it is always to hand.
2. Stop losses
Your strategy ought to include a stop loss, measured in terms of pips. Again you should consider the risks that are being taken as a proportionate amount of your trading funds. In most cases you should target for a risk of around 2% for each trade. However, with selected systems or if you have a very low initial pot, you might want to go higher than that to prevent your stop loss being triggered too often. Just be wary that if you do that, you have a greater danger of going bust.
3. Level of Profit
You ought to also settle on the exit position for a winning trade, i.e. how many pips you are aiming to take. If you do not settle on this you will often be tempted to hold out as long as possible, praying that the trend will keep going your way. Often times you will be caught out by a unexpected reversal and a profitable trade can be turned into a loss. So it is very key to decide ahead of time how much profit you will take.
Once you have your strategy, it is crucial to keep to it consistently. Resist the temptation to start a trade when the signs are not correct, or to follow your gut instinct at all, that’s at least until you have got the experience of many years trading behind you. Also, reduce interruptions whilst you are trading. This will help you to get out of making foolish mistakes and keep you concentrated so that you can make the best of all of the forex trading information that you have acquired.
