Why is it difficult sometimes to maintain trading motivation?
In trading, just like in any other financial activity, there’s always conventional ups and downs. Sometimes, the market moves in a direction that is very beneficial for a trader; yet other times, it can lead to a losing position. Every trading strategy experiences drawdown periods. The key to success is managing these periods and protecting the trading capital while keeping the motivation to pursue trading high.
It is obvious that maintaining motivation during a successful trading session doesn’t present a challenge, as it is in itself an inspiration and motivation to keep on trading and get more payouts. However, it is more difficult to want to continue trading when your trades have failed one too many times.
Not only that, but small and incremental payouts during trades can also
discourage people from trading because they entered the market with too high expectations in the first place. Either way, whether it’s a loss or insufficient gains, it is easy to lose motivation in financial trading when things don’t go as planned.
Tackling the loss of motivation for trading
Now, traders with low motivation need to remember that their condition is associated with their own trading psychology and their attitude towards financial markets. Because of that, there are mental remedies traders can try out to raise motivation levels and want to continue trading.
In the following article, we will take a look at five tips successful traders use in order to stay motivated in trading:
Refrain from comparing yourself with other traders
One key characteristic of success, whether it’s in financial trading or any other field of activity, is that it is purely subjective. Everyone has their own definition of success: some want to achieve the highest career goals in life, some are focused on having an ideal family life, and still, others want to travel as much as possible and see success through that lens.
The point is, there is no point in chasing one universal value of success, not in trading and not anywhere else. Comparing with others can often have a toxic effect on a person’s psychology and motivation to continue what they’re doing.
It is easy to look at a successful trader and think that your current level of success is nowhere near that. But it’s not about how you are doing compared to others; it’s about how you are progressing through time and becoming better than you previously were. Your only reference point in trading is yourself and by focusing on that, you’ll soon realize that compared to what you were yesterday, you’re pretty good today and will keep yourself motivated in financial trading.
Have realistic expectations from your trades
When entering a financial market, beginner traders typically start off with a misconception that financial trading is the quickest way to earn a small fortune. They have heard stories about successful traders and how they managed to distinguish themselves in the industry, which leads them to unrealistic expectations.
Unfortunately, trading isn’t the type of activity that promises to make someone super-rich in a short period of time. In fact, statistics show that the average trader is set to lose when trading Forex, stocks, or other securities.
So, judging from all that, it is pretty easy to lose motivation for Forex trading and resort to despair, thinking that you are never going to make it as a successful trader. However, it is always important to realize that financial trading can hardly bring a small fortune in a short amount of time. Instead, it is a field that rewards patient traders. Therefore, keeping in mind that
small and consistent payouts are what make traders successful will help you maintain motivation during trading.
Take time-outs every once in a while
Like any intensive work, financial trading can also make a person emotionally and mentally weary. Dealing with all the numbers and other sets of data can build up over time and make even the most experienced and successful trader exhausted if they do that continuously. This, in turn, translates into ineffectiveness, as well as a lack of motivation.
As noted earlier, the market is full of ups and downs and there is no effective control over that. What traders can control is how they handle those developments emotionally. Therefore, not to completely wear out after a set of continuous trading sessions and stay motivated in Forex trading, it can be a good idea to take a break, freshen your mind, and get back with more inspiration to trade.
And remember: the market doesn’t go anywhere. It will be there once you get back with rejuvenated energy and motivation.
Remember the times you were successful
Experiencing a loss can no doubt discourage a trader and make them feel like they’re not good enough to trade successfully and get payouts. Thinking that all their efforts are in vain can be the greatest enemy to a person’s motivation, especially if they’re looking at other traders who are consistently successful in the market.
But as we pointed out earlier, it is not about comparing with others and rating your success against other traders’ successes. It is your progression that is important to track and sure, you may be experiencing the drawdown, but it is important to remember that you’ve also had profitable times. If the trading system stops producing positive results, there might be two reasons: the market conditions have changed forever, or it's a temporary thing and things will get better. Traders can decrease their trading sizes or demo trade untill they see that their trading systems start producing good results again. It's also a great idea to start developing new ideas and strategies simultaneously.
Reward yourself after a profitable session
Psychologists always say that the most challenging partner in the negotiation process is yourself. We may think we know ourselves and our aspiration, but in reality, there are lots of hidden truths that even we cannot fully understand.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in our mental preparation to do something. Again, we may think we know what’s best for us and that it is absolutely necessary to do it, however, when the time comes to actually do it, we simply cannot find the motivation for it. It’s like our own self is rebelling against us.
This is because we have to negotiate with ourselves no less than we do with others. This technique can be applied to trading, as well as other fields of our activity. When we feel down and unmotivated to open a new trade, treating ourselves as if we were treating another person can have a positive impact on our motivation.
We can make a deal with ourselves that after a successful trade – no matter if it’s a substantial payout or not, – we will do something exciting like getting a snack, playing a video game, or watching a movie. This way, we keep the Forex trading motivation so that we can quickly get to that exciting thing we’ve offered to ourselves.
Motivational quotes for forex traders
We can learn a lot from successful traders and investors. Let's take a look at some inspiring motivational quotes for traders.
- “Remember, your goal is to trade well, not to trade often.” — Alexander Elder. This quote tells us that the first priority of a trader is not to make money, which makes sense. When you trade the right way, money follows. Greed, overtrading and gambling are the most common mistakes traders make.
- “Risk comes from not knowing what you're doing.” — Warren Buffett. In general, people believe that when it comes to investing, risks and reward are positively correlated, meaning, the larger risks you take, the greater the potential for rewards, and vice versa. However, most forget that there's one more dimension, and that's knowledge. The more you learn about trading, the fewer mistakes you will make.
- “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” — Benjamin Franklin. Beginner traders have a lot to learn. Some might even lose various trading accounts while still in the learning stage. Professional traders call the blown up account the learning fees. For developing as a trader, it's critical to learn from your own mistakes, as well as from other people's mistakes. Reading as much trading related content and having a trading journal are essential for enhancing your knowledge in trading.
- “In this business, if you’re good, you’re right six times out of ten. You’re never going to be right nine times out of ten.” — Peter Lynch. Many people have this misconception that traders need to be great at predicting the future to make money. Which is totally false. The key to success is in probabilities. For instance, if 1 out of 3 of your trades goes in the predicted direction, and at the same time, this 1 trade gives 1:5 risk to reward ratio, you will be profitable. Losses are inevitable in trading. The idea is to cover the losses using profitable trades.
- “If most traders would learn to sit on their hands 50 percent of the time, they would make a lot more money.” — Bill Lipschutz. Trading is all about patience. Especially if you are position and swing trading, you will experience very few trading opportunities. It's critical to only trade when great trading opportunities present themselves. Boredom often causes overtrading and results in lose of money.
The forex motivational quotes are essential in understanding how to approach trading. What makes them even more precious is that they are coming from successful investors and people. The greatest thing that makes humans special is the way we communicate. We have the ability to learn from other traders from across the world.