The job of the Forex Day Trader

Part 1

Forex Day Trading

Forex Day Trading can be very lucrative. No matter what type of market you chose to day trade you must know the “personality” of the market you are trading. Every market has its own characteristics and it is important to know what they are before attempting to profit from it. The forex market is no different. In this article we will go over very important general day trading principles/rules and then we will see what a day trader has to recognize when specifically day trading the forex market.

As the term implies, day traders are concerned with what happens in the market today. Not tomorrow, not next week and not next month, but today.
Forex day trader’s job is to capture intraday price swings. Depending on the system or trading method employed, this can mean capturing one intraday swing or various intraday swings.

The general job of a Forex day trader is:

To be disciplined

This principle is key for any type of trading but particularly for forex day trading. If I had to name one single aspect of a day trader that can make him or her a winner or a loser it is discipline. You can have a so-so system but still make money if you are disciplined. However, you can have the best trading system in the world but if you are not disciplined I guarantee you will not be a successful trader.
So, what is all this discipline everyone talks about when discussing trading? Very simple, it’s respecting and strictly following your forex trading plan, your forex trading system, your money management rules, and your commitment to the business. Being disciplined with regard to each and every one of these components is essential for your success.

It is so easy to deviate from your trading plan, the rules of your forex trading system or any of the above mentioned components, especially when day trading. Why? Two reasons. First, because the trader is trading very frequent and does not have time to cool down, think, and evaluate. Second, because reality is replaced by hope. Your trading system rules (reality) say: “get out of the trade” hope says “hang in there, maybe it will still be profitable”. Your money management rules (reality) say “risk only 2% of your account on this trade” hope says “since I lost on the last trade I will risk 4% on this next one so I can make up for the loser and also be profitable”. Your trading plan (reality) says “trade each day 4 hours, give yourself Wednesday or Thursday a vacation to rest” hope says “Since I am not doing very well now I don’t need this rest day, and I will also trade 7 hours per day to make up”. I know (not hope!) you now understand the point!


To control risk

One of the most important jobs as a day trader is to control your risk exposure. Sure, controlling risk is a concept you must use in any type of trading; however in day trading you must look at this issue from a different angle. Since your job is to capture various price swings during the day naturally your profit objectives will be much smaller then of a swing trader (who places a single trade aiming for a much larger profit objective).
So, when placing several trades during the day it can be easy to “drift” away from your pre-determined stop loses. A common (very common actually!) day traders thought is “if I extend my stop loss just a bit I hope the market will turn around”! Hope is one of the trader’s biggest enemies.
These little extensions of stop losses add up and suddenly without noticing you are losing more dollars per trade than planed making your risk/reward ratio turn against you.


To focus on the appropriate time frame

As a day trader your primary concern is to catch intraday swings. Your trades start and finish the same day. Your world is the day you are trading in. You don’t care what will happen in the market tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.
Your objective when trading is focusing on the appropriate time frame chart. My opinion is that day trading should be done on a 1, 5 or 10 minute bar chart. Remember, you are looking to capture several fast and short moves during the day and hence you must focus on the charts that best illustrate events as they happen in a short period of time.

However, the fact that you are day trading on a 1,5 or 10 minute bar chart does not mean you can’t use a larger time frame chart for the purpose of analysis. This however, is very subjective and depends very much on the traders’ strategies and methods of trading. As an example, many day traders would look at one hour bar charts in order to have a view of how the market has been behaving in the last week. Is it moving sideways (and so maybe I should only place trades between support and resistance areas)? Is it trending (and so maybe I should only be looking at placing trades in the direction of the higher time frame trend)? Are there any major support and/or resistance levels I should be aware of (areas where I should refrain from placing trades since it is uncertain how the market will react when reaching them)? Did the market brake out of a congestion area?

Again, it is very subjective. Some day traders believe that with proper larger time frame analysis they can select better their day trades. My personal opinion is that the more you analyze the more conflicts you will have and the more uncertainties will appear (especially if you are new to trading). I like making things simple and I found it very useful when trading (proof of this is that all of the trading systems I use are 100% mechanical). Don’t get me wrong, this is not to say that larger time frames should not be used at all for analysis purposes. But, try to keep it simple and if you see that looking at larger time frame charts interferes with your correct decision process when placing day trades then simply stop.

The job of the Forex Day Trader - Part 2 >>