Forex Money Management - Why It's So Hard To Accept Huge Profits

The typical forex trader gets a profit and feels pleased. The bigger it gets though, the more tempted he is to take it. Swings in price go back against his position and eats his open equity and this causes emotional problems.



The bigger the profit becomes the more tempted the trader is to take it. The trader ends up snatching the profit early, as open equity swings cause him to panic and he banks it and then what happens?



The trade continues the way he thought and goes on to pile up $10, 20 30,000 or more and he's not in.



Its hard holding a profit in a long term trend and taking short term swings against you, by sometimes thousands a day - but if you want to catch and hold the long term trends that's what you have to do.



It requires total understanding of your trading system and confidence in it - and this is why most traders can't do it they are emotional "shoot from the hip" traders or following a guru.



A good forex trading system will normally win 30 - 50% of the time (forget the traders who claim 90% their lying) so your losers will be normally more or the at the same level as your profits. So you need to have a profit 3 - 5 times bigger than your loss to make good profits on your overall trading account.



Most traders simply don't have the patience and discipline to follow long term trends but you must to win. However, look at the major forex trends and you will see they last for months or years and can make you rich - IF you can lock into and hold them.



Many forex traders simply can't cope with trend following so they try day trading and vendors present it as way to scalp small profits and build them over time - good story, doesn't work. Day trading is a loser's game as all short term volatility is random.



If you find long term trend following to stressful, try forex swing trading as profits and loses come quickly and you don't need to endure the open equity dips you do in trend following.



If you're a novice cut your teeth on swing trading and build up your confidence and discipline to try long term trend following - if you can catch these trends, accept open equity dips and keep your eyes on the end prize, you could make huge profits.