How do I find the confidence I need to get started?

Beginner Questions
1

I’m new and I’ve been digesting information, data, techniques, strategies, all that jazz in video, book, and blog post format for about two months now. This is how I learn… I open the flood gates and allow everything I can get my eyes on to flow through me. Meanwhile I’ve been demo trading here and there.

When I started I traded whenever I could get some free time. But now, as I learn more, I’m finding it harder and harder to pick a trade and execute it. I’m paralysed. I see a setup, I see the patterns on the chart, but I just can’t get in. I can’t do it.

It gets worse when I see conflicting setups, when I’m in conflict with myself. That just blows my mind.

What doesn’t help is the fact that the last three trades I took where trades I was sure of, trades that I saw the setup for, trades I waited for to reach my targets before getting into, and they all failed. I got stopped out and felt miserable. How could they fail so badly now that I know so much more than I knew a month ago?

But last month I was up on my demo account. Now I’m down and it’s hurting me.

Those three trades were two weeks ago. I haven’t taken a single trade since then. My problem is: how do I know whether I was just unlucky or if I’m doing it wrong? How do I know anything? Without the confidence of knowing what I’m doing is fine, I can’t proceed. And if I don’t proceed, how can I gain the confidence I need?

I’m stuck and I need your help.

2

I am no professional trader but, take a little break of Digesting Information and try with what you feel is okay (Sometimes knowing too much makes a war inside your brain thus makes you not think right).
Always put a sensible Goal (SMART Goals Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely). Those might help making you feel more confident.

And for the loss everyone looses don’t worry, i doubled my account last week this week i lost a little because i got Greedy over my Goal (Here Study what you did to lose, “Why” and write it down) find the Fault fix it and try again.

Good Luck my Friend and never give up !

3

Hi
I am a newbie too but don’t seem to be having the issues you are, the way I have approached trading forex was to complete Pipschool which gives you a very structured learning curve and the ability to create a trading plan. Are you using a trading plan and have you created a journal? These 2 things are instrumental in my successes so far. Your losses are just as important as your wins correctly journaled they will enable you to anaylse your trading style and adjust what is wrong. Don’t be downhearted with your losses journal them and after a period of time you will learn what you are doing wrong. I really recommend pipschool and you will have all the information you need to deal with the issues you are having at the moment.
Daren

4

I’m sure you’ve heard that traders’ worst enemies are Fear and Greed. And I agree, being at either extreme will destroy you, and you need to imagine them being at the two ends of a scale, and your goal should be to achieve a balance of both.
Your problem is that you fall more on the Fear side, which I think it’s worse than falling on the Greed side. Why?! Because with greed you’ll do more trades, which will lead to more experience and learning from your mistakes, but with Fear, you won’t be able to identify your weaknesses. Now obviously you shouldn’t do that on a live account. But be greedy on a demo account, take big risks, learn from them, then start reducing your risk as you learn more, and only when you’re happy with your demo results, you then can move to a live account, hopefully as a disciplined trader.

[B]“The point is ladies and gentlemen that greed, for lack of a better word, is good.”
-Gordon Gekko[/B]

5

True confidence needs to come from within- not an external source.
Plain and simple.

Do you have any hobbies or anything in particular that you’re [B][U]REALLY[/U][/B] good at?
…so, let’s say you’re really good @ fishing. Think about the very first time you ever went fishing…You weren’t going to become a master angler overnight, in a few weeks, or even in a few months. There was always something new to learn.

Trading is know different. Internal confidence will come from experience. Experience comes from screen-time.

Jake

6

No matter what you can never win 100% of the time so your losses can be from either good setups that just went sour, it happens, or you are attempting to implement to many strategies and signals at once. Rookie mistake of mine as well, the less you know the better because you’ll have a simple strategy that you have to follow with discipline. However nothing works if you still have emotional reactions from losing which is the number 1 cause for failure. So I would work on that first.

One more side note: You will hear it again and again, PATIENCE IS THE KEY. No one wants to hear that but I spent nearly 2 years on Demo and Reading to finally go live when I saw that I had an edge and over time my winnings did overcome my losses. Not only that following a plan with discipline, if you start with a Micro or Mini lot your profits isn’t going to be much so even if your profitable are you able to understand that you may not make as much as youd like?

7

Hello M4NTI,

Confidence isn’t something you necessarily find, it is something you build. Many new/developing traders make the mistake of treating their learning process by digesting ‘[I]information[/I]’.

If ‘[I]information[/I]’ was all that is needed to become a successful trader - more people would. But trading isn’t an ‘informational’ endeavor - its a ‘[B]skill-based[/B]’ endeavor.

Although bringing in information is useful, it doesn’t become useful till it is [B]transformed into a skill[/B].

Skills are formed by [B]repeated actions and choices[/B]. When they become [B]habit[/B], they are a skill that can be relied upon.

This is when you will start to [B]build confidence[/B], because you are taking direct actions each day towards building your skill set.

Every time you go against your distracting emotions, or your thoughts, your desire to take the easy way out, you build internal confidence. Its a message saying, ‘[I]I am willing to sacrifice convenience for a later reward[/I]’. Every time you do this, you wire away from your reptilian brain (which only looks for quick rewards, also fight or flight mechanisms), and develop the neural circuitry to have a [B]successful mindset[/B].

Hence every time you fill in your journal, follow your trading plan (instead of greed/fear), review your trades, do forward live simulation trading (in forex tester 2, for example), you continually communicate to your [B]self-image[/B] you are willing to do the work.

The more you do this, the more ‘[B]confidence[/B]’ you ‘[B]build[/B]’ in yourself.

Forexunlimited wisely pointed out the method, of looking at things in your life you are good at. This not only brings confidence that you can do something with skill, but also reminds you of the process you took to get there.

We have to be [B]process oriented[/B] when it comes to trading - not result oriented. Very much like - in the beginning of my archery training, if I was focused on results only (i.e. hitting the target), then I’d easily be dismayed by my lack of consistency or skill.

Yet by focusing on the process, I create the techniques, and neural wiring to perform this skill correctly. And that is when the consistency and performance comes, which only results in ‘being’ confident.

Also Fares92 made a good suggestion about having [B]SMART goals[/B]. This is a really good method for having a plan of action, and measurable goals to see how you are developing with your process, and comparing your level of skill as you develop.

When you develop the latter, the results will come.

Hope this helps to give some perspective.

Kind Regards,
Chris Capre