How the Smart Trader Wins

You do not need to have a degree in astrophysics to make money from Forex trading but being a smart trader will help. Retail Forex trading is not difficult, it just requires traits which humans find difficult. Ask any human what their attributes are, and rarely will you hear discipline and patience mentioned!

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  • The firm's main research and development office is based in Tel Aviv Israel. It originally specialized in Forex and indices spreadbetting and CFDs but has recently expanded in stock trading also.

    At the time of writing, eToro has 2.2 out of 5 star on Trust pilot. The comments suggest that the platform offers some impressive features but withdrawing money can be difficult. Having said that, some of the negative reviews appear to be rants rather than constructive criticism. This can be examples of traders losing money through their own recklessness rather than eToro's fault. You should therefore take this reviews with a pinch of salt.

    “the platform offers some impressive features but withdrawing money can be difficult.”

    Robert Firmin
    76% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider.
  • OANDA is a global financial services company providing advanced currency solutions to both retail and corporate clients all over the world. In this article, we are going to review this broker’s trading options, tools, platforms, spreads, commissions, security measures, and educational resources to help traders make the right choice.

    76.6% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing
  • AvaTrade offers a wide variety of trading solutions (spread trading, CFDs, and social trading), and peace of mind with its comprehensive regulation, covering the EU, Australia, Canada and South Africa. Clients can use a variety of platforms for discretionary and automated trading.

    76% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider.

Less speed more haste

Have you every heard your parents say that to you as you rushed around the house as a wee little nipper? What they are helping you to understand is that speed does not necessarily equal a faster resolution. Sometimes slowing down will get you the same result. A smart trader knows this too. Rather than pursuing every trading opportunity aggressively, why don't you let the market come to you?

A smart trader is not affected by a black swan eventIf you have already created your Forex trading plan you can take advantage of events rather than reacting to them. This is how a smart trader makes money. They take the low hanging fruit. This approach is one of the principles of a risk-adjusted return. Rather than taking lots of risk for a return, you only expose a small amount of your portfolio in one position. We recommend only taking positions of 1/2% of your portfolio. This means that if a Black Swan event occurs you have only lost a small amount.

The disciplined smart trader

Knowing when to buy and when to avoid is about being disciplined and sticking to a trading plan. Too many traders use their emotions to decide when to buy and sell. If you get into a mindset of making small regular profits whilst taking small risks, your profits will accumulate. Learning to take a profit and not 'seek more' from the trade is where the discipline also comes in. Ask yourself why you feel the need to 'push it'? Are your emotions to prove yourself so powerful that you would pass the chance for a small quick profit?

Handling a loss

A smart trader knows how to handle a lossYou will lose money trading. This is a fact. How you handle this will define how successful you are. A smart trader will analyse how and why they lost money so as to ensure this does not happen again. There is no such thing as a bad trader. But there are poor traders who repeat the same mistakes time and again and lose all their money. Which one are you?