We would like to share a tip with you if you have ever struggled with perfectionism in your trading. Perfectionism is a huge problem for many traders for the following reason:
Trading outcomes for even the best trading systems and strategies are variable. Any given trade result can be a profit, breakeven, or a loss. Over a sequence of trades a highly successful system can easily rack up consecutive losing trades of 5-10 or more before the next winning trade: this is completely normal and should be expected!
Perfectionism can cause traders to adapt their trading style to an unsuccessful approach. By this we mean they are more inclined to run losing trades longer than they should in the hope for a turn around, and book profits faster than they should to secure (small) guaranteed gains.
This problem is more common than you might think: just last week we received a request similar to many of the direct messages we get from our followers on Twitter asking “i am new trader i want earn daily only 15 pips please help me”.
As much as we want to help this trader make 15 pips daily, the Forex markets just don’t work this way. Indeed it is this line of thinking that creates profit opportunities for successful Forex Traders.
To make profits in the Forex markets, you need to accept Variance in your returns.
This means some days, weeks, and sometimes months, you will be in drawdown. This is normal, even for the most successful traders, and if you want to succeed in your trading then you need to accept this.
In the long run the only way you will survive and prosper in the forex markets is to follow a proven robust trading system, accept variance in return and focus on the execution of your strategy so that you can build up positive expectancy trade sequences and returns.
