Mental Agility

Mental agility. Trading requires lots of it.

Sometimes the worst condition is not when you think prices are headed one way, but they do a rapid 180 degree pivot and gallop in the opposite direction. No, often that's not the worst because your stops should be in place to deal with that. The worst condition, short of busting your account, is when you think prices are poised to explode, but instead, they just sit there, arms folded, refusing to budge at all!

This is analogous to the surfer who paddles in circles waiting for the perfect wave only to see what he thought was about to be a fat ride simply dissolve beneath his board.

Often there's no explanation. The currency just doesn't do what it's done dozens of times before.

Some traders advise you to exit quickly, absorb your loss, and move on to trade a more active currency. I agree, but I don't always follow that advice. Often I'll tighten my stops and check the news to see if there's a bias I can identify. If not, it is better to exit and move on. Otherwise, you're not trading, you're not betting, you're hoping.

Frustrating? Yes-particularly if your mentally ready for and expecting rapid price movement.

This is one of the challenging characteristics of trading-and it's a charcteristic that can be deeply frustrating to a Type-A personality. Type-A personalities are accustomed to making things happen. But, guess what, traders can't make price action happen no matter what their personalities might be.

So, if you're accustomed to making things happen, then trading as a profession has a lesson or two in store for you.

Mental agility. Trading requires lots of it. How you deal with 'nothin happin' is one example.