1) Be Disciplined

Anybody can get lucky and make money in the forex market; however, only the disciplined can make money consistently over time. Being disciplined is by far the most important factor that determines your success. Every professional trader knows that the trading method or strategy does not determine your success. It’s how you follow through on the strategy that matters.

Your trading strategy is your compass and will tell fx traders you where to go and how to get there. Do not get lost. Don’t make trades because you “like” a specific currency, or because you “think” that there will be strong run-up in a specific currency. When you start making arbitrary decisions like these, you will get lost and start losing money.

Following your system is always your best option. You must have the discipline to follow your strategy even through a string of losses.

2) Persevere

Everybody fails. But not everybody knows how to come back from a failure. Many successful forex traders today began their trading careers by losing their entire bankroll. Millions of people are lured to forex by the promises of easy money, and unfortunately most of us that attempt it lose a great deal of money. So is losing money a pre-requisite for forex success? Of course not.

The majority of people that lose money will never become successful. They become depressed, discouraged, and give up trading immediately. On the other extreme, some people who lose their first 10,000 dollars will borrow another 10,000 dollars and lose it in the exact same way.

Beginners will lose money; that is a fact. But failing to learn from your failures will be your greatest mistake.

Take the opportunity to learn from your mistakes. Did you trade based on emotion? Were you trading based on a tip? Does your strategy fit the current market trends? Did you risk too much money on one trade? Did you misread the charts? Were you impatient? These are the questions you must ask yourself when you fail. But the most important question is this:

Why did I fail?

If you can answer this and learn from it, you will no doubt be on your way to becoming a successful forex trader.

3) Treat trading as a business, not a hobby

Let’s face it, we can’t all quit our day jobs and start trading currency full time. Not yet anyways. Professional forex traders are better traders than most people for the simple reason that they spend at least 40 hours a week either trading forex or researching the forex market.

Trading forex is a business for the pros. If they lose money trading, they will lose their jobs. That’s pretty good motivation to be good at what you do. The same attitude should be adopted even if trading is not your full time job. Treat it as a business and not just a hobby. A hobby is something you do for fun in your spare time. A business is a venture to make money.

I trade forex to make money, not have fun. I have lots of other activities that I can do for fun. I enjoy running, traveling, and watching TV, none of which will make me any money. In fact, most hobbies will cost you money. Trading should not cost you any money, it should make you money.

If you approach you trading as a business, your outlook changes completely. Losing money is not acceptable in a business because if you do it long enough, you will be out of a business. You will take every possible step to stop losing money.