We have held numerous consultation sessions at our offices, and others on phone and via skype with potential clients. But Patrick’s session was different. You know Catholics have a session in their worship services they call the ‘Sacrament of Penance’. The confession with a priest. I am not about to be a priest, nor am I Catholic, but with Patrick, I must admit it felt gratifying to listen and offer my professional counsel to a man really hungry and in need of the truth and growth.
I trust we’re well acquainted by now. That was the talk before Thee Talk. Let’s indulge. This article is an attempt to summarize my journey into the world of trading, while at the same time edifying you on factual guidance on what it takes to trade profitably and consistently for the long term.
It’s 2.30 PM, a gentleman walks in our offices, bold and well-composed. It’s one of those hot afternoons at the office, and interestingly, everyone is busy attending to their own business, stuck on their screens, a deafening silence! I am reading an article by Peter Thiel, the topic “Life is Short. That’s the point.” I propose you look him up, check his works. He’s one of the most brilliant thinkers and writers of our times. It’ll be worth more than a dime for your time!
After the salutations, Patrick is served coffee and we start chatting. From the beginning, he sounded so enthusiastic about venturing into the world of Forex trading. That got me hooked to the conversation. I quickly gather that he’s not new to trading. But he was oblivious of consistent profitable trading, and that’s what led him to knock our doors.
“How and where did you learn about forex trading?” I posed the question to understand his locus.
He is open and doesn’t shy from telling the truth about his journey into the world of trading. He explains that he has watched a number of YouTube videos on different forex ‘strategies’, including scalping, fundamental trading, and a few technical setups. He further explains that he had a chance to attend a few trading training seminars organized by Forex brokerage companies, where they were taught on how to place trades on MT4 using the short timeframes of 15mins and 30 mins. Some of the trainers had actually promised to be sending trading signals to guide them initiate trades and Wolla!!
There was so much light and glamour to the party that he hurriedly signed up for a live account with a forex broker, funded it with $500 of his hard-earned money. Ready to set off on his journey to ‘turn his life around.’ His exact words, not mine.
I couldn’t help but only imagine the mental ruin and the emotional weight of the person in front of me. Not to mention the financial degradation he had been through for the past four months of his journey into trading. I could relate. It took me almost a year to land on a reputable and credible trading platform to learn from. Of course, I paid expensively for my mistakes & assumptions. However, 12 years later, I owe my success to that first move to go for reputable trading education. One thing that new traders fail to acknowledge is that the cost of not subscribing or enrolling for a trading course is way greater than the price you pay for that course/education. Why would you put your time, energy, and resources on the line for a ‘war’ that’s beyond your prowess?
So guys, today I am going to be blatantly honest with you. There’s No single Forex brokerage company in the world that will ever serve you coffee, and shed light on facts about what it really takes for you to achieve consistent profitability in trading. Sounds harsh, right? The sole goal of Forex brokers is to get as many clients signing up for trading accounts as possible, and for them to fund those accounts with as much as they can, as quickly as it calls for. Brokers don’t care much if you’re losing or winning. Why should they care anyway when they are getting their profits from spreads and margins, regardless of whether your trades end up losing or winning?? The more the trades you make in a day, or an hour for that matter, the merrier for them. They all about volume, quantity over quality. This is the reason why most brokers preach the gospel of trading shorter timeframes of 5 minutes and 15 minutes. Anything to hook you into high-frequency trading. A great deal of business for the broker, but a painful journey resulting in overtrading, emotional instability, and financial losses, especially for newbie traders such as Patrick. It’s therefore upon you, as a new trader, to look out for what’s best for you.
Essentially, any credible and successful trader will outrightly tell you that trading off any timeframe lower than 4 hours or at the very least, 1 hour is guaranteed to ruin not only your capital but also your mental and emotional balance. I have been there, I have done that, and it simply doesn’t work! And even if it worked for a few individuals, why would you spend your life getting adrenaline rush and sweating your but all day, when you could place your trades, set up your limits to control your risk and target your profits, walk away from the screen, attend to other affairs in life such as family and other ventures? More consistent profits, more free time, no mental ruin/adrenaline rush. It’s an absolute win.
This is the gospel that your Forex broker and most Forex academies/trainers won’t tell you. Any Forex trainer or course out there that cares about your growth as a trader must be open with you from the word go. Trading can be relatively easy or hard, depending on where you seek education and mentorship, and your commitment to follow the various rules of the game, even when they are seemingly ‘boring’. In fact, profitable Forex/Indices/stocks trading is boring. Jesse Livermore, one of the greatest traders of all times, said it right, “Money is made by sitting, not trading.” What he meant is that the sole job of a trader is to wait patiently for the best setups, and go big with them, as opposed to trying to chase or force trades on the markets every other minute.
Having said that, I have nothing against Forex brokers, in fact, we all need them. They are our bridge to access the markets. I am only looking out for the masses out there, such as Patrick, who are enthusiastic and looking forward to kick start their careers in forex trading, so that they don’t make the same mistakes I made during my first days into trading.
I am about to cover and expound on my full consultation with Patrick, that is how I got to respond to his trading distresses and inquiries in an elaborate, but precise manner.
I’ll put forth the questions as I posed them to him, then I’ll answer to them coherently. You’re welcome to seep some more of your coffee☺
Question One: How and where did you learn about forex trading?
Whereas attending trading seminars and workshops is a great way to expand your knowledge about trading, it would be a big joke to assume that that would be all you needed to get started on trading and to be a pro trader. Getting a reputable training education is mandatory for you to learn any new skill. Attaching yourself to a mentor in your line of career shortens your learning curve and grows you as a person. This is how you win, not only in Forex trading but in attaining any significant skill in life.
This is also true for watching YouTube videos or reading some blog articles. Not even our blog page at Fourthstreet Consultants is adequate to set off on your path to trading and making consistent returns. Yes, it’s indeed a great place to gather trading incites and knowledge about the various disciplines of the business. But until you immerse yourself into a fully developed, reputable, and tested trading course, that comes with dedicated mentorship, then you’re quite far from the real pie.
Let’s be real with life. There’s no shortcut to success. Pilots learn for 5 years before they can get their badges. Lawyers spend at least 7 years to learn and practice law. Boxers and athletes practice for at least 5 years before reaching their career peaks. What about traders? They want to learn everything about trading today and start making handsome returns tomorrow. This is the biggest irony with our industry. Shortly after, most newbies either give up or cry foul of how much trading is ‘gambling’. It might not necessarily take you 5 years to learn and practice profitable trading, but failing to invest in trading education is guaranteed to cost you more in the long-term.
Question two: What Type of a Trader Are You?
Any trader must answer this question outright without blinking or collecting words. Are you a technical trader? Or a fundamental trader? If that’s the case, are you a day trader, a swing trader, or a position trader?
Of equal importance is, do you have a trading plan that strictly guides all your actions on the markets? I put together a guide on how to develop a trading plan here.
If you can’t satisfactorily answer these questions, you aren’t yet started as a trader, you only possess ‘ideas’ about trading, and you’re not equipped with the required trading skillsets to engage in live trading activities.
Question Three: What are your expectations as you venture into the business of Forex trading?
The internet is awash with too much noise, and people selling lies and false lifestyle to woe you into their fishing nets. Most beginners go through a couple of YouTube videos, and just like that, they imagine themselves making the millions overnight from trading. Rude shock! There’s no quick money in Forex trading. No legitimate business model makes profits all the time. Even the biggest companies of our time suffer small losses, and other times, big losses. Varied performance with different seasons is a norm for any business. Different company stocks, for instance, appreciate during certain quarters of the year and dip in other months. Forex trading is no different. With this understanding, your job as a trader is not to avoid losses, but to manage losses by keeping them small, while maximizing on your profits.
Our course not only guides you on how to manage your losses but illustrates in expounded videos how to set up your trades on a live account, one funded with real money. We took it upon ourselves to fund a live account with real money $$, and recorded all our trading activities in real-time, for three continuous months. You will hardly get this value from most trading courses out of them. Is your trading coach/trainer daring enough to trade live and record as they practice what they teach you with their money in real-time?
This is all that is covered in MODULE THREE of our comprehensive online course.
Question Four: Are you always excited and attached to your running/active trades?
Anytime you find yourself excited about your entries, getting the adrenaline rush when your trades are running, then everything you’re doing is wrong. In most cases, you’ll have risked a little too much, or got in late into the trade. Essentially, anything you do on the markets without strictly adhering to a documented Trading plan is wrong. As a normal human being, you’re prone to be fearful and/or greedy, which consequently causes you to break your own rules.
Consistent and profitable trading is boring. This is because you follow the same set of rules and steps in all your trades. There’s no excitement or anxiety because every action is guided by the trading plan. This is how we train our traders at Fourthstreet Consultants. If you’re to approach Forex trading as a business, you’ve got to learn the rules of the game and detach trading from your emotions. We simply approach every trade with a mindset of Risk Vs. Reward. The discipline to only place trades with low risk and high rewards is not a matter of contention. You can only learn these disciplines through practicing and proper mentorship from experienced traders. So you want to be a profitable trader? Now you know what to do, right? As for Patrick, he is already on his new journey into learning and earning consistently with us, trading off the biggest financial markets in the world where more than 5.3 trillion dollars are exchanged every day.
This is it for our coffee date. Please note, you’re the one paying next time.
OH, before it slips off my mind, just in case you were still wondering whether to learn Forex trading or pick up an online skill that would add up that extra income for you, this article here is specially the Wake-up call for you. Good luck!
