What it takes to be a successful trader

Now if you are like most newbies, you are anxious to get started. In fact, you are looking into the currency market because you've seen the kind of money that can be made and you just can't think of anything else right now except jumping on the bandwagon, right? Let me say one thing at this point: HOLD YOUR HORSES!

There are many things that contribute to success in the market place, but too few resources spend their time telling what the most important thing is: MIND-SET (otherwise known as trader psychology)

Your mind is the driving force behind everything, including your trading. It controls your beliefs, your perceptions, your decision-making process and so many other things that will have an influence on your trading. Inability (or unwillingness) to acquire and control a proper mind-set is probably what leads 95% of all traders down the path to failure. As grim a statistic as that is, it is true. Don't doubt it. So, your best bet is to take these next 2 posts more seriously than you will any other post and you won't have to end up in that 95%. It really is up to you.

Trading successfully really can be narrowed down to 3 main things (and each will be discussed in detail in future posts):

1. Method. This is your strategy that dictates when/what you buy and when/what you sell. You need a set of rules to keep your decision process consistent at all times. This accounts for about 10% of success

2. Money. This refers to your money management plan, better known as risk management. It dictates how much you risk on any given trade or set of trades. Important to realize is that you can have a brilliant method, but if you mismanage your risk, you are doomed just the same. This accounts for about 30% of success.

3. Mind. This is the most crucial element and the one that deserves most of the attention. It accounts for the remaining 60%. In fact, many would say that it accounts for as much as 90%.

No matter though. The individual percentages are not nearly as important as your ability to embrace all 3 elements together. Truth be told is that if these things are not all working in concert with each other, long-term success cannot be achieved. You can have the mind of a robot, free of emotion, free of all the natural human biases, and risk too much on each trade and blow up your account! You can have the best money management plan on earth, but if you don't have a sound method of making decisions you will blow your account.

Before going any further please take a moment to manage your expectations according to the 3 success factors. I will be elaborating much more on methods and money management, but in the next post i really wanted to spend some more time on attaining the proper mind-set.