Successful Forex Traders Don't Try Too Hard

But trying hard is what it takes, right?

Not quite.

This might apply to other ventures in life, but Forex is the exception. Successful Forex traders know that trying too hard is a sign that something isn’t right.

This is different from studying hard. As a new trader to Forex, studying the market is highly recommended.

For instance, you can’t spend too much time learning the ins and outs of the various currency pairs, or how to draw key levels. The harder you try to learn those particular topics, the better.

However, trying to make a trading strategy work will only lead to destructive behavior, such as emotional trading. Similarly, trying too hard to find trading opportunities is a good way to lose money on subpar setups.

Jack Schwager, the author of the Market Wizards series, said it best when he wrote, “good trading should be effortless”.

When I first started trading Forex, I remember spending countless hours studying setups over the weekend. I would often come back to my trading desk multiple times on Saturdays and Sundays.

Then on Monday, more often than not I would end up taking a completely different trade setup only to watch the original trade idea move in the intended direction without me.

Does that sound familiar?

It happened because I was trying too hard. As soon as I stopped over-analyzing trade setups and trying to make them work, my profit curve started to rise.

Now I spend maybe 20 to 30 minutes per day looking at my charts—the exception being the charts I post on this website, of course.

As counterintuitive as it may seem, learning to not try so hard was one of the things that completely changed my trading career for the better.

Successful Forex traders have taken note of this, which is why they let the market do the heavy lifting for them.