It’s easy to take your eyes off the goal, what with all the hustle and bustle of everyday life, and the distractions that come with it.
So, occasionally it can help to think back to the “why”.
Why did you get into trading in the first place?
What goals, hopes, and dreams will you fulfil by being a successful trader?
By the way, saying “to make money” is usually not the real reason, nor should it be.
There is always something deeper. It’s freedom, it’s a better life for you and your family. It’s a chance at greatness. It’s control of your financial destiny. It’s peace, happiness, and living a life less ordinary.
It’s choosing yourself over “the man”.
The bleak investing landscape of the traditional way
Let’s step back and take a look at the big picture.
In the current day and age, you can’t trust someone else with your money. You need to take charge of it yourself.
You want to trust your banker? All they will do is push on you the product that they make the most commissions from. Don’t believe me? Ask someone you know who used to work in banking; they will tell you it’s the real deal.
Or maybe you want to trust your financial advisor? Let me tell you a little story. In 2007, I was doing some estate planning and went to talk to a financial advisor. “What should I invest in?”, I asked him. He said stock market warrants, which would make money if the market went up, and lose if the market went down.
The cost: $30,000 a warrant. The risk: All of it.
Of course, what happened in 2008? The global financial crisis. I pity the fool who followed the advice of this fool.
Another choice is to leave your money in the bank. I thought it was a joke when in Singapore I saw a bank adverting 1% interest rates on your deposit as the best thing since sliced bread. You can thank the Central Bankers for oppressing hard-working savers with their low interest rates. The pathway of compounding interest is gone.
Or perhaps you can rely on “job security” or a government pension. But we all know this does not exist anymore (or won’t very soon). You can’t rely on companies or governments to protect your future. Unfortunately, those days are gone too.
But it’s not all bleak.
The best time in history
There has never been a better time in history to trade.
You have greater access to information, faster execution, and lower costs than ever before. Trading has been “democratised”.
There is actually, without exaggerating, very little difference between the information and technology a bank trader uses compared to what a retail trader has access to.
The future is right there for the taking for the committed trader.
The significant importance of thinking “long-term”
Let’s think big picture again.
How long do you have to invest and manage your funds (whether you want to or not, I might add)? Is it 20 years, 50 years, maybe even 80 or 100 years, given the advances in life enhancing technology and medicine?
So, what if it takes 2 or 3 or even 5 or 7 (like me) years to learn how to trade?
You have a lifetime of benefit ahead of you.
You will no longer be at the mercy of the fickle buy and hold strategy peddled by the commission-seeking agents of financial institutions, or suffer from today’s crushingly low interest rate regime.
You can take charge, and when you do, the benefits of it will be felt over a lifetime.
By learning to trade today you can:
- Learn how to control and manage risk
- Learn how to capitalise on a myriad of global opportunities
- Learn how to make money in both up and down markets
- Master your psychology and grow as a person
It’s more than that. You will take back control. Earn your freedom. Give yourself choices. The advantages really are that great.
Forex as your vehicle
Forex is a very good vehicle for this:
- You can start small, and your cost and commissions are equally small, unlike stocks
- You have supreme flexibility in money management and position sizing, unlike futures or options
- The markets are open 24 hours a day, 5 days a week, so you can trade even if you have a full-time job
- You can be a short-term trader holding position for minutes or hours, or a long-term trader holding position for days, weeks or months—whatever suits you.
- You have equal opportunities if the market is going up or if the market is going down
- You can take what you learn and apply it to other markets—it’s a great place to learn
It’s time to begin. Start today. Don’t let life get in the way of what is important any more.
Choose yourself in 2017.
About the Author
Sam Eder is a currency trader and author of the Definitive Guide to Developing a Winning Forex Trading System and the Advanced Forex Course for Smart Traders (get free access). He is the owner of www.fxrenew.com a provider of Forex signals from ex-bank and hedge fund traders (get a free trial). If you like Sam’s writing you can subscribe to his newsletter.
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