Traders familiar with Forex School Online will know that becoming a successful trader and having trading success has far more to it than just finding a signal on a chart and setting an entry order. Consistently profitable traders have a set routine that they follow time and time again that allows them to build really good habits. It is these good habits that allow the trader to then have a profitable edge on the market that they can use to their advantage to make profits.
Making & Trading Your Routine
Your trading routine is absolutely vital because it is the cornerstone of your day/week and will be the backbone of where your habits will be formed. You can make conscious decisions about your routine and whilst to start with routines can be hard to stick to, after a while they become second nature and will become more comfortable.
Some things cannot be changed such as work or picking up the kids from school etc, but could you make a sacrifice somewhere else to tweak your routine to make a better outcome for your trading? In a recent trading article I discuss my personal Forex trading routine and how important it is to my trading that I be at the markets during the best times of the trading session (UK & US Sessions for intraday trading) and during the other times I am either having down time or attending to other matters, so I tweaked my routine this way.
For others this will not be possible and they will need to work around factors such as sleep, different world timings with the market and the best time to get up for the daily and intraday trades. What is so important though is that a routine is built because your routine is going to help you form the correct habits with your trading day in, day out which I discuss below are super importast.
Practicing to Be Profitable
This is a huge point that all traders that want to become successful Forex traders need to concentrate on. It does not matter if you are trading on a demo account, a small live account or are back-testing, every trade you take and every trade you manage needs to be taken as if you were trading with a million dollars. So often I hear the comments “I am only taking this trade for practice” or “I would not take this trade if I was on a live account, I am just taking it to get experience”, but the facts are these traders taking these trades are practicing when they take these trades and they are getting experience, but of the completely wrong type.
When taking these average trades or trades that they would not normally trade, these traders are practicing to lose. The subconscious mind is a super powerful part of our mind that controls all of our thoughts, feelings and habits. Everything we do is constantly being put away and stored into the subconscious brain. We don’t consciously remember what the subconscious has stored, but it is constantly storing away everything we see and feel.
The quote above is an awesome quote for Forex traders because it reminds us that whilst today’s results might be going well, if we are not constantly and continually trading the right way and sticking to the right trading habits (planting the seeds for future trades to produce), then in the future our trading can quickly decline. Traders need to be always trading the right ways and never looking for the short cuts because this is constantly planting the seeds for the future winning trades and reinforcing good habits.
When traders are taking rubbish trades, they are continually filling their subconscious with bad trades and practicing to be a losing trader. Traders want to be practicing exactly how they want to trade when they either have a live trading account or are trading with a bigger account. This way they are constantly reinforcing good habits over and over again and when under pressure and stressed out, they won’t fall back into the bad habits, they will go to the only habits they have built which are winning and taking solid trades over and over again.
Forming the Right Habits
As discussed above; forming the right habits are super important to a trader because under stress it is often these habits that the traders will revert back to. There is a common myth that says to form a new habit only takes 21 days. It is not surprising that this myth exists because 21 days is a perfect amount of time to inspire people. It seems not too long, but just long enough to be believable.
It is widely believed that this 21 day new habit rule/myth was formed when a plastic surgeon, Dr Maxwell Maltz would often perform operations in the 1950s such as amputations and would notice that his patients would take at least 21 days to get used to the new situation. With a lot of the arm and leg amputations, the patients would often talk about having a phantom limb until at least 21 
days giving power to Dr Maltz rule that it took 21 days to form a new habit.
Since then there has been some study carried out by a health psychology researcher at University College London, Phillippa Lally. In this study, Phillippa Lally wanted to work out exactly how long it took to form a new habit.
The study looked at 96 people and their habits over a 12 week period. The conclusion at the end of the study was that it takes on average two months before a new habit is formed or the exact study group average for a new habit to be formed was 66 days.
Why is this important for traders? Because this study also showed that it is important that if habits are to be formed, the new habit needs to be continually repeated in the correct manner time and again. Unlike the myth of the 21 days, if traders seriously want to build the correct habits and trading techniques, they need to stick with the trading method they are using and then work at it and practice it the right way over and over again.
It should be no surprise to traders that all the “light-bulb” or “Aha” moments start occurring once traders have committed to their trading method and have started forming the correct habits. After repeatedly practicing with the correct method, it is then that these traders will start to notice and pick up on things that create their “Light-bulb” moments flicking on in their brains to take them to the next step in their trading. This often does not happen for a lot of traders because they never build either the correct routines or stick it out long enough to form the best habits that are required to succeed. They often are too quick bouncing from new system to new system that they never actually have the time to form any good habits and give the trading method any chance of success.
Recap
After reading this study, it is no surprise that the traders who bounce from method to method, fail to have any success. When traders move from system to system, they never give themselves a chance to form the habits they need to be able to succeed. The truth is; traders won’t have success until they stop, commit and start building a routine with successful habits. I hope this article has inspired you to continue practicing the right way and to make a routine and commit to a method rather than hopping between different methods & systems. Safe trading and all the success,
Johnathon
I do know one thing, I lOVE daily charts….yeah !!!
Hit the head of the nail ( a Norwegian saying) again Johnathon. I confirm that it is crucial to trade like it is your hard earned money no matter if it is a demo or live account. And stick to your working strategy even if it fails now and then. Be patient and read the market.
I am bowing my head in the dust for your way of teaching us how to trade and behave in the forex market.
Your dedicated lifetime student Henning
Thank you so much Forex School online. It was great article for us.