Dealing with Distraction in Forex Trading

When you sit down to place a Forex trade, do you find it difficult to concentrate some days? If so, you probably should do something about it, since trading the currency market when your head isn’t in the game is a pretty good way to lose money. When you’re unfocused, you could make a poor decision which you wouldn’t usually make if you were thinking straight. You might miss key elements of what’s going on if your mind is elsewhere. Here are some tips for dealing with distraction when you’re trading the FX market.

• When you’re trading, don’t do anything except trade. That doesn’t mean if you’re in a trade for hours, days, or longer than you should sit in front of your computer all day. It simply means when you’re actually placing an entry or sitting down at your computer to analyze the trade you’re in and make a decision about it, that you shouldn’t also be watching television or browsing videos online. It may help you to actually make a list of Forex-related websites which you can browse while you’re trading so you won’t get distracted surfing the internet trying to answer a question.
• Let other people in your home know what you’re doing. Make it clear to others how important your trading is, and explain that if you are distracted while you’re working, you could lose focus and consequently money. Others should understand you need a quiet, focused environment while you’re dealing with the market.
• Keep your workplace clean and uncluttered. Try to keep materials around you limited to trading materials while you’re working. Some people also like to put on music while they trade — some music might distract you but other music might keep you focused. Classical music is a popular choice.
• Deal with potentially stressful activities after you do your trading, if that is possible. If you think you might find a distracting message from your ex in your email inbox for example, it’s probably best not to bother with your email until after you’ve done your trading. The last thing you want to do is trade while thinking about an unrelated and emotionally unsettling issue. In fact, if there’s nothing you can do about being really stressed out right now, you might consider taking a day off trading altogether so you can get your focus back.

The foreign exchange market is a great way to earn consistent profits, but you can only do that if the most important ingredient in your trading system is working — and that’s you. Being distracted while trading Forex is a recipe for disaster, and if you allow it to happen continuously you’ll be building up bad habits. So address issues of distraction now and start building good habits instead. Those good habits will help you to not only become profitable in the short term but also to create long term success and become a more focused individual altogether. Increased discipline and confidence can be another great outcome of FX trading!

If you have any ideas on dealing with distractions when trading currencies, please feel free to share them using the commentary form below.