Is forex trading something that you enjoy? Believe it or not, your answer can give you an idea of how likely you are to succeed as a trader!
Think about it. Do you look forward to browsing through your charts, excited to see how your trades are doing? Or do you perhaps have to drag yourself to your desk and spend most of your time contemplating whether you really need to trade forex to survive?
For a lot of us, especially those new in the game, our daily realities lie somewhere between these two. But the truth is, whether you view forex as a passion or simply as a way to make a living, enjoying the experience can make a difference. After all, without curiosity and enjoyment for the craft, traders would hardly be motivated to pursue deliberate practice and skill development.
With this said, Iâm sure a lot of folks here try to come up with ways to keep their trading enjoyable (with âenjoyableâ possibly manifesting in different ways for each one of us)!
For those who do enjoy it, how do you make your trading enjoyable?
I donât see trading as work. Itâs more of an addiction! If I could do it all day I would, but my dayjob prevents that. I donât need any motivation to tradeđ That said, Iâm sometimes glad when the weekend comes and I can switch off.
I think talking about âenjoyingâ trading is maybe a bit too narrow. Although enjoyment is a large part of what motivates us it is not the whole story by any means.
We humans need plans, ambitions, goals, challenges, even dreams and wild hopes. And there many fields in which we seek to fulfil these needs. Trading is indeed one of these fields.
But whatever field(s) we choose, we need to be able to believe success is achievable and to be able to see the path that leads to that success. Once we can see the path then we can identify the milestones along the way and measure our progress. These milestones set the challenges. And it is through the achievement of these milestones that we feel the enjoyment and satisfaction that motivates us.
But the danger lies in setting our ambitions too high and too soon. Few football fans become professional team players, few piano players become concert pianists and few driving enthusiasts become FI stars.
As traders, we need to set ourselves realistic targets. So many seem to be setting out with the ambition of throwing in their regular jobs and trading full-time, and so many are looking to change their entire lifestyle for themselves and their families. For most new traders it simply is not going to happen.
But I am convinced that the majority of traders are capable of achieving a reasonable return on their capital by taking modest risks on high-quality setups even if they donât make it to âprofessionalâ standard.
The point here is that every trader should find their own comfort zone. How much risk we can carry without experiencing cold sweats and nervousness while watching the prices move. We cannot trade if we are uncomfortable with our exposure. We are just going to make mistakes like exiting too early, and so on. And enjoyment will be lost along the way.
Afterall, there must be more enjoyment from banking a reasonable return on your funds as a result of oneâs own efforts than joining the 80% failures that reached too soon, too high, for the stars and instead stumbled and tumbled into financial oblivionâŚ
You are talking about something that is subjective so for some trading can be enjoyable and for other donât.
I find exciting when I study and see that I am becoming better and my eyes are trained to see my model. That helps me with my psychology and my execution. For my personal experience: that doesnât brings me joy or anything else. I just execute and take my profits or accept my lost; just that!
If I take a lose, I study why I lose. If I win, I study why I win. That proccess is the one that is âexcitedâ for me: looking at my journal and see how I have been becoming a better trader. But as I said: thatâs subjective. For others that can be boring as hell. And yeah, it could be. But that has given to me the discipline to know where to execute and when to stay calm.
I donât enjoy trading but the time and financial flexibility that comes along with trading success. But to get there i have to trade consistant over a long period of time, which i consider as very boring work.
So i built my strategy around this weakness of mine and only trade the DAX and US30 opening hour on the 5m chart. I therefore only place 2 trades a day and limit my screentime to an amount i can persevere forever.
So i donât think you have to enjoy trading to be successful, but when you donât you have to find a way to deal with it.
If you like trading so much, that you talk about it as an addiction like someone above doesâŚwell i would be afraid that i cant maintain a good trading discipline.
Hmmmm. I wouldnât say I âenjoyâ it cause forex has caused me too much anxiety and frustration in the past. BUT it does keep things interesting! Like, sometimes, I feel Iâm stuck in a routine. But when itâs time for me to check on my charts and read about what could possibly affect my trades, I find myself always curious and often learning something new.
I enjoy the process personally. I find the pursuit of knowledge in trading and data collection and analysis fun. The better I get at these things the more I tend to make. I think the issue too many make is that their sole focus is on money and it can be incredibly unsatisfactory when youâre not making it and the novelty wears off when you are to an extent.
Quite good actualy. I am testing this strategy since may 26 and planning to go live in september. And despite an awful 6 day losing streak before the fed interest rate decision last week iâm up 32R after 75 trades,
I tried to find a way to prevent overtrading and to keep entry rules so simple that my fragile mind can follow them even during long losing streaks. i failed last time because of this.
And to return to topic: I donât enjoy creating a successful strategy or tweak a strategy to success because it requires losing a lot. Even if my strategy will prove itself as successful i will lose a lot. I currently only have a 48% winrate. I dont like losing so i will probably never like trading. But i dont have to like my job to be good at it. The potential outcome keeps me motivated.
Though many traders might have strict routines , everyday different regarding opportunities and outcomes ,itâs not a 9 till 5 job . For some who are more towards the extrovert side of the spectrum it might be challenging,because your not engaging with others.I always thought you usually have to be passionate/enthusiastic about something to excel at it .Not sure about trading,maybe it more of a challenge with potential financial benefits .
I sometimes canât sleep because I canât wait to trade in the morning. I do it before work so Iâm often up at 3am to start trading and go to bed early a few days a week.
Everyone else in the house is usually still asleep by the time Iâm done.
To become a successful forex trader, you have to enjoy the process of trading. This means that you have to find the aspects of trading that you enjoy and focus on those.
This doesnât mean that you canât have other goals as well. Making money is obviously a major goal for most traders. But if youâre not enjoying the process, itâs going to be very difficult to stick with it and be successful in the long run.
But it seems like we need to get a little more detailed about it.
Enjoy what, exactly?
â Enjoy winning.
â Enjoy making money.
â Enjoy the pursuit.
â Enjoy being right.
â Enjoy seeing the charts move.
â Enjoy the economics behind the industry.
I bet I can come up with many more particular things, if I keep thinking about it.
But it looks like you have a particular point in mind.
A good question to ask.
But we need to define what is success.
Cause what success is to one person surely doesnât necessarily mean success to another. It can result in:
An account making you rich
An account enabling you to quit your day job & live independently
Enabling you to generate profits and make withdrawals
An account that stays in the positive - over time
The ability to break even - over time
Not blowing accounts anymore
Having evidence of real progress
I think these are questions that need be asking.
ButâŚ
Is it really all about the money?
If we take a real, deep, honest look inside us, & the answer comes out to be a pure, unadulterated need, want, desire for money, then I think thatâs a recipe for disaster.
Iâm sure a lot of people are not gonna like that answer. But if what weâre looking for here is pure enjoyment, happiness, and feeling good about a profession, then itâs going to have to be a motivation coming from something other than pure greed for money.
Look. Iâm sure the whole industry is caught up in the $$$'s of it all. No doubt.
Thatâs human nature for ya. Sure. Just look at those Wall Street movies. Iâm aware of all that. Who doesnât want to become the next Gordon Gekko.
And the pursuit is on, right?
Well, sooner or later, everyone will find out how hard of a field this is.
And I think thatâs where this question is coming from, in the first place.
If you honestly come to a place where you enjoy the craft, chances are better youâll end up being in the game much longer.
Does it matter whether we make it to where we eventually want to?
Maybe, maybe not.
But our lives might be a lot more pleasant if we realize this and try to pursuit things we really enjoy.
Iâll tell you where Iâm coming from.
I know who I am.
I couldnât shake this pursuit, venture, mission, vision, my lifeâs goal⌠if I wanted to.
Win or lose. Goals attained or not. Success felt or not.
This is who I am. Itâs why I was born.
I love everything about trading.
The business
The challenge
The game
The industry
International finance
The fundamentals
The economics
Macroeconomics
Commerce
Human behavior
Relationships of things
The law of numbers
Excel
Probabilities
Business management
My whole point here is that I love the industry.
And Iâm not about the money. Even though the whole entire industry is centered around it. But the whole concept of its value, and dynamics of what money does is a different thing.
One good thing is, that eventually everyone will come to a conclusion about themselves. And I think that those who truly enjoy this for the right reasons will probably continue on. No matter the frustrating times.
But not everyone realizes this.
Money will always be a driving, bottom line factor in what humans want to do.
And weâll always see hundred and thousands of newcomers coming in every day, here in B.Pâs, trying to get rich.
Youâll have that.
All I know is that I couldnât shake this if I wanted to.
Or else I would be denying who I really am.
Thereâs so much to love about the field, I think, anyway.
I wouldnât say I âenjoyâ it cause forex has caused me too much anxiety and frustration in the past. 
BUT it does keep things interesting! 
Like, sometimes, I feel Iâm stuck in a routine. But when itâs time for me to check on my charts and read about what could possibly affect my trades, I find myself always curious and often learning something new.