By chris | Published: March 29, 2012

New, and even experienced Forex traders, are seemingly always on the lookout for shortcuts and tricks that will make them successful Forex traders. The reality is that Forex trading is hard work, so the first trick at which you will need to gain expertise, is persistence.

Persistence simply means discovering what tactics and strategies work best for you and then repeating them over and over. Persistence is good as long as repeated activity produces positive results. Repeating the same mistakes over and over is not persistence, it is stubbornness. Learn to recognize the difference.

Here are a few other tricks that successful traders utilize on a consistent basis.

1. Practice, Practice, Practice.

Many new traders follow this advice quite well until they begin live trading. From that point, they never again touch their simulated trading accounts. Successful traders continue to experiment with new ideas and variations of old ideas that produced positive results in a never ending quest to get better at trading. They do this prior to live trading, during live trading, and after live trading. Some Forex trading platforms even permit a trading session to be recorded and played back later at faster speeds. Nothing is more effective for learning to rapidly assess price direction and make the instantaneous, instinctive trading decisions that are the hallmark of many successful traders.

2. Learn From Your Mistakes.

Every successful Forex trader, if being honest, will admit to having done some of the stupidest imaginable things during the heat of a live trading session. Such things as entering a trade in the wrong currency pair, buying when the intention was to sell, or closing a trade when the intended move was to add to it, are prime examples of common mistakes.

Successful traders quickly learn not to repeat these mistakes by taking whatever steps are necessary to make this repetition impossible. Even better than learning from your own mistakes, however, is learning from the mistakes of others. When you gain even an inkling of the value of this trick, your appetite for discovering and studying the mistakes of other traders will become voracious.

3. Never Trade When You are Tired or Angry.

Successful traders know that if they are worn out physically, their mental reactions will suffer to the extent where it is possible to completely misinterpret the signals the Forex market is providing.

Adequate sleep, along with frequent breaks for rest and refreshment during a trading session are things that absolutely must be taken into consideration.

Likewise, if you are angry over some event, however significant, your trading decisions are likely to reflect that anger in a way that is seldom beneficial. Learn to observe your physical and mental condition so that you can avoid trading when you’re not at your best.

Hopefully, by now you have concluded that “tricks” of successful forex traders are just good common sense thoughts that will also serve you well in any area of your life. Tricks are what a magician does and there is no magic to trading forex.