Successfully Trading Forex is like Picking Your Own Strawberries

Every year in the UK, numerous farms open their fields for the public to pick their own strawberries –  probably happens in many other countries as well– with signs outside: “PYO Strawberries”.  It’s quite a good business model: rather than employ farm workers to pick the fruit, invite the customer to do it for themselves.

The customers decide before hand what they need, grab a basket or two, survey the field and set about picking the strawberries that are at the perfect ripeness – not too ripe mind you - discretely eating a few free fresh ones along the way. It’s a simple job: check a plant, if no strawberries move to the next; if strawberries meet the quality criteria then pick. When done picking, the picker pays by the punnet and returns home content. They don’t attempt to take every strawberry in the field home with them and didn’t once get upset for passing a plant that didn’t have fruit that met their requirements, even if there was nice fruit hidden away.

Successful Forex trading is like PYO strawberries.  Rather than paying professionals to trade your money, you do it yourself. Using the simplest possible method, you seek out the nicest looking trades, take as much you need and move on. You wouldn’t feel bad for leaving a field full of good strawberries behind or if you dropped a few along the way; so, you shouldn’t feel bad for not getting the whole of a move that you’ve traded, or even missing out on some trades.

Retail traders often struggle with leaving the fruit behind; they feel they must take every trade on offer and get every single pip (there’s the strawberry link again) of a trade; rather than just look for the best trades and be happy with a nice return. Instead of congratulating themselves for a trade well-executed according to their rules (regardless of outcome) they berate themselves for not doing better by getting all of a good move or winning all of the trades on offer; heaven forbid they should ever lose some trades. The result: more losing trades, lost faith in the method and more time spent wandering aimlessly around the field looking for the best way to pick the fruit. On the other hand, the wise seasoned traders, with a simple and consistent approach, have congratulated themselves for a job well-done and gone home happy - they don't care if they didn't get as much as someone else..

Trading is about making a profit – that’s the sole reason we do this. You don’t need much to achieve that goal: a trading plan for a simple system, realistic goals for returns and a good splash of discipline.
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Pick your own strawberries and enjoy them; there will be more to pick tomorrow.