When I first started to trade I was always looking to get into as many trades as I could. Tonight while I was looking for a trade and another post for the Forex Trading Journal I saw several entries that looked promising. However, I decided not to pull the trigger on any trades tonight and thought that I would write a post about being patient and finding the best setups rather then settling for any old trade.
One of the major psychological hurdles for me to over come was over trading. I always had to be in a trade at all times and when I was searching for trades I would usually jump in without much thought. As I have advanced over the years in my trading I have learned to be more patient and wait for the setups I want to happen. That is me controlling my trading rather then letting my trading control me. Tonight I have some key setups that I am waiting for but I don’t mind waiting because I know that eventually they will move into a place where I can trade them.
So instead of taking any old trade I am going to wait for the pair to move into a position that I have the most confidence in my trades. Part of that is waiting for a retrace or pullback. If I missed an entry of a trade that I wanted to get into I will exercise patience and wait for the pair to move back into support or resistance before entering in the direction that I believe the trade is going to continue to move in. I never enter trades unless I am either in on the initial move or if there is a pull back. I have learned not to chase trades because when you do that, the price will usually whip back and stop you out for a loss.
Using patience and waiting for the best setup rather then taking every trade that comes my way has added to my trading profits and that is something I like. I am always looking for ways to fine tune and improve my trading and choosing the right trades has added to my totals by quite a large amount. It is amazing how a few small improvements can add up to large gains over the long haul.