As a Forex trading coach with Currensys, I frequently receive emails from traders looking not only for trading signals and Forex
strategies, but for emotional support during a rough trading patch. I consider it both my job and my privilege to help traders get through these rough spots without losing too much money – and without losing their desire to trade Forex.
I recently received an email from one of my traders bemoaning the fact that he just ‘can't' get his Forex trading system working successfully, or to execute the trades the way he envisioned. Because I know this trader somewhat well, I know he's a successful entrepreneur as well as an accomplished marathon runner. Hearing him use the words "?I can't" was both disturbing and surprising, and it caused me to look beyond the complaints.
I'm not a professional psychologist, but because I counsel hundreds of traders annually, I have an understanding of Forex trading psychology that eludes most individual traders. I began to wonder if this trader had a proper Forex trading plan in place, and if he was chronicling his trades to learn from them in the future. Did he understand the rules of Forex?
As we discussed his situation further, it became clear to me that this trader did have a solid grasp of how to trade Forex, but that he had somehow become disillusioned and frustrated with the process. I decided to confront him about his use of the words "?I can't", because these two words can be the most poisonous words in the Forex industry.
I asked him if he had children and he told me yes. I asked him how many times he told his children that they could not win the game or get an A on an upcoming exam. He said never. He told me that not only does he encourage his children, but that he himself had enjoyed many successes, including early success in his trading career, which is why he was frustrated with his failing in the Forex arena.
I explained to him that "?I can't" is learned and that it's actually human nature to succeed. I posed another question: "?when you started running did you run a marathon the first day out? He said "?Of course not. I built it up over time." He knew what I was going to say next. Why should trading be any different than the other things you did? He didn't have an answer for me. I asked him who had he told about his new Forex trading passion. He indicated that he had told his broker as well as a few friends at a party. He recalled that they all thought he was crazy.
His friends, uninformed of course, tried to tell him it was too risky and that most people fail at it. He also indicated to me that within the past few weeks had been challenging in his personal and professional life, He had lost a client; his mother became fairly ill he pulled a muscle and could not run. That is a lot of negative external stimulus. It became clear that he was letting the outside issues affect his trading performance. He became unfocused and didn't have the unshakeable confidence he normally had. He said I was right! He confessed that he needed to get refocused, visualize the good that has happened in his trading as well as the other aspects in his life. Let those few mistakes that were made be a lesson and use them for motivation in the future.
The Forex trading psychologist in me extracted a lesson from this client that is important for every trader: don't let the "?I can't" demon enter into your mind. It can so easily destroy all the good that you've built up. Instead, be cognizant of the good things in life, and record things that went wrong as learning experiences, not as personal failures. If traders are not focused at the task at hand, it's all too easy to let the "?I cant's" of the world to creep into our psyche and destroy the good and positive things that we have accomplished.