The world’s top forex traders may all have different methods for making money but they all tend to share the same personality traits that make them great traders. To be a successful trader you must approach the markets with the right attitude. Here, I have isolated ten key traits that the world’s top traders have if you are going to achieve longer-term success.

1. You Are Responsible
You are in charge of your own destiny and responsible for your own actions. No one else can be blamed. In today’s society this seems to be an alien trait to many people. There is always someone to blame. The fact is, if you want to trade successfully, you need to take actions and understand that you, alone, are responsible – no one else. Traders who lose are quick to blame the friend they got the tip from, the newspaper they read the story in, or their broker.

2. It is not everyone’s fault but their own.
When you place a trade you need to evaluate it yourself and understand that you are responsible for its profit or loss. This leads on to understanding the environment you are operating in and are happy to accept the loss or profit as your own.

3. Education
Many traders take tips from friend’s brokers and newspapers without knowing how and why the markets really work; they are of course doomed to fail. You would not try and drive a car without having lessons and the same applies to trading. You need to study and learn about trading before you start to trade. This may sound obvious but the bulk of traders don’t bother to learn the basics. You need to spend time reading about all the aspects from psychology to different approaches and methods. Once you have learned about the environment you are working in you need to derive a method you are comfortable with.

4. Develop Your Own Method
The method you develop should be one that is compatible with your personality and what you have learned. The approach you adopt must be comfortable for you. Randy Mackay, one of the worlds top traders asserted: “Virtually every successful trader I know ultimately ended up with a trading style suited to their personality.” This is one of the reasons many traders who purchase systems off the shelf don’t make money, even if the system is a good one. While the odds of finding a good system are small, the odds of getting a system that it’s your personality are smaller still. If you can’t stand to give back profit then a longer term trading system will not suit your personality, even though it may be profitable over time. You have lots of different methods you can trade:
Long term,
Short term,
Breakouts,
Reversals,
The list is endless. You need to decide which one you are comfortable with, and which one you fully understand the logic of, and which one you are confident will work for you.

5. Confidence
All successful traders have confidence that they will succeed longer term in their aim to make money. This is a universal characteristic amongst the top traders and stems from the points we have just covered. Dr Van Tharpe a psychologist who has studied the world’s top traders and the personality traits that make them successful, concluded that winning traders believe “they have won the game before they start”

6. Discipline
Discipline stems from confidence. It is the one trait that every top trader when interviewed refers to and its importance cannot be over estimated.
There are two reasons why discipline is so critical:
1. First, it will help you maintain proper risk control, and allow executing trades in accordance with your method during a losing streak that all systems suffer.
2. Second, it stops you from second guessing your system. If you do this you will almost always get it wrong. Why? Because you will tend to pick the comfortable trades and these are not the ones that are likely to make money longer term. Bill Eckhardt a trader who helped train the world famous turtle traders once said” what feels good is often the wrong thing to do” and this is very true in trading. It’s difficult to take trades when your friends, newspapers and your broker tell you otherwise. But successful traders don’t believe in running with the herd and feeling comfortable. They believe in making money.
Being disciplined and feeling uncomfortable is necessary for longer-term success. You are never immune from bad trading habits. None of us are – we are all emotional beings. The best that you can do is suppress your emotions and having discipline, and is essential to keep them in check.

7. Assume the Worst – Money Management
Many traders only think of the profits they can make from a trade, but never consider the worst eventuality. They are blinded by greed. The fact is that all the top traders tend to know their downside as soon as they enter a trade, and decide whether the risk of the trade is worth taking. Money management is essential for trading success, and by always assuming the worst, you can decide if the risk reward of the trade is right for you. As a broker once said to me about trading, “Always assume the worst and you won’t be disappointed. Things can only get better.”

8. No system makes money all of the time
So it is important in these losing periods to have strict money management criteria in place to help you preserve your equity as best you can. Money management is, perhaps, more important than your trading method itself.
You may have a successful system, but if it loses all your money quickly and recovers when you have lost your stake, it is of little use. You need to reserve your equity so you can stay in the game longer term. Always decide if you can take the prospect of the worst eventuality in relation to your trading capital.

9. Know What Your Edge Is
It is a fact that 90% of traders lose money longer term. Your edge is what separates you from them. Any successful trader has something that sets his or her method and personality apart from the majority and enables them to make money when others lose. You need an edge that you can do and gives you confidence that you can beat the herd. If you don’t know what your edge is, you don’t have one!

10. Love What You Are Doing
Trading is mentally demanding. It’s tough and not all traders are suited to it. To illustrate how tough it can be, I have known several traders commit suicide after taking heavy losses. This is an extreme, but you get the picture of the demands it can put on someone’s personality. As in all walks of life, not everyone is cut out to be a trader. If the market makes you angry, frustrated, or all you can think about is trades you have on and nothing else, then trading is not for you. All the worlds’ top traders enjoy what they do. They know at the end of the day they will make money, which is the whole aim of trading in the first place. They enjoy the challenge and the rewards trading can bring, and can handle the stress that is an inevitable part of trading.

We are glad to inform that FXDD had successfully transferred accounts from FXDD New York to FXDD Malta Ltd, (”FXDD MALTA”) a fully licensed and regulated Category 3 Financial Services Firm registered with the Malta Financial Services Authority located in Valletta Malta (www.MFSA.com.mt ).

When your account is in FXDD Malta, one of the advantages is you can enjoy higher leverage, which is 200:1. Please note that ESA intends to upgrade your current leverage from 100:1 to 200:1. The upgrade is required in order to enjoy higher Margin Level and thereafter your trading lot size may be reviewed accordingly.

ESA shall make the upgrade request to FXDD Malta on the 23rd March 2010 (Tuesday) and onwards. The upgrade will NOT affect your current open positions and if you want your account to be upgraded with the higher leverage, you do not have to do anything.

However, if you want to stay in the current leverage which is 100:1, you are required to send an email to support@esatrader.com by 22nd March 2010, 18:00 (Hong Kong time).

Thank you.

Regards,
ESA Management Team

In conjunction with FXDD transfer to FXDD Malta, we would like to grant a special promotion for New Student Enrolment. The promotion price is USD 150 effective 1st March 2010 till 30th June 2010. 

Besides, FXDD is giving out 8% bonus to all new and existing customers for new deposits made into a live FXDD trading account from 1st March 2010 till  12th March 2010.

Thank you.

Regards,
ESA Management Team

Most experienced traders tell novice traders that they need to develop a system — and stick to it no matter what. Letting your emotions rule your decisions can hurt your trading in a number of ways. The system tells you when to buy, what to buy, when to trade and what to trade for. By sticking to your system you’ll maximize your profits. A system based on technical analysis of historical market trends is one of the most potent tools that you can utilize if you’re just getting started in Forex trading. Many traders, with years of experience, continue to use this system to keep the profits rolling in. Many traders will tell you that when their gut instinct and their system collide, the system is almost always right.

Using a mechanical system takes the emotion out of your trading, eliminating one of the reasons people fail. Your system doesn’t sway with emotions. It sticks to a tried and true course. To be effective, your system — whether you develop your own or adopt one created by someone else — should identify the entry and exit point of your trade, mitigating factors, and an exit strategy. In general terms this is as follows:

Under what conditions should I acquire a currency?

For instance, you may have a buy order for when a particular currency drops more than 5 pips because your analysis tells you that that’s likely to be as low as it goes.

When should I trade one currency for another and for which one?

There are two reasons to exit — to maximize your profit, or minimize your loss. That means you have a set stop-loss order and a set take-profit order at which point you cash out your trade.

What factors will I allow to change that decision?

While the money market moves in predictable patterns, there are always individual variations of a trend within those patterns. If you’ve taken those variations into account, it will be far easier to decide when a factor really does make a difference, and when it’s just wishful thinking. If you’re not careful however this is where emotion could come into play and sour deals for you.

How will I trade out of a currency?

Your exit strategy may be as simple as a stop-loss order when my loss hits 5% or a take-profit order when I make 40% profit’.

Another key is perseverance. Analysis of trends in the market will show you that the market moves in dips and spurts within overall patterns that are predictable. No trend moves smoothly in an up or down line — there are inevitable periods of time when values suddenly spiral up or down based on some outside factor. These are the times when emotion can hurt your portfolio. When a currency that you’re holding takes a sudden dip south, it’s tempting to succumb to panic trading, cut your losses and run even if your system tells you to hold on. On the other hand, it’s easy to catch the rising excitement as a trade starts increasing in value and scramble to buy more of the same. These are exactly the times to rely most heavily on your trading system. It will tell you exactly when to trade for maximum profit.

If you control your emotions and stick to the system you’ll maximize your profits andall should be smooth sailing.

by David Mclauchlan

Please take note the following email notification from FXDD about their server change. You must change your server when logging into your account effective 7^th March 2010 otherwise you cannot access your account.

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Dear Valued Client,

FXDD is committed to providing our clients with the highest performing and most reliable trading platforms in the Forex industry. In order to enhance your overall trading experience, we are making some technical changes that will require you to connect to a new server address when logging into your account on or after Sunday, March 7, 2010. The new server address will be “mt4server4.fxdd.com:443“. Your login and password used to access your MetaTrader 4 account will be unchanged.

To change the server address:

1. Open your MetaTrader 4 Client Application to login. Find the Navigator Window and double-click on your account number in the Account List. (see example below)

2. A dialogue box will appear. Please enter ‘mt4server4.fxdd.com:443‘ in the ‘SERVER’ field. Then click ‘Login’. (see example below)

If you encounter any difficulties during this process, please do not hesitate to contact us via email at sales@fxddasia.com or call us at (866) FOR-FXDD between Sunday 5:00 pm EST – Friday 5:00 pm EST.

This is a routine change designed to enhance your trading experience with FXDD and we apologize for any inconvenience.

Thank you for your continued business.

Best regards,

Team FXDD
75 Park Place, 4th Floor
New York, NY 10007
Tel: +1.212.791.3933
Fax: 212.937.3845

http://www.fxdd.com

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Thank you.

Best Regards,
ESA Management Team

The following announcement was made by FXDD to inform the transition to FXDD Malta.

Dear FXDD Customer,

We would like to welcome you to FXDD Malta and assist with any questions you may have with your account transfer. FXDD Malta hopes that you will enjoy trading with the same confidence that you have always placed in FXDD and assures you that you will have the same first class service and support you have become accustomed to.

Under the guidelines set forth by the NFA, your FXDD New York account will be transferred to FXDD Malta at the close of trading on Friday, February 19th, 2010. The standard trading session will resume on February 21st, 2010 at 23:00 CET. Transferred accounts will have the same balance, equity and open positions that were carried by FXDD New York.

The transition to FXDD Malta will be seamless for you and offers many advantages including:

For immediate questions please see the FAQ’s below or contact us with any additional questions at support@fxdd.com.mt

FXDD Malta is an affiliate company incorporated in Malta, a full member of the European Union, and operates under the same regulatory structures as all other financial services companies in the European Union.

You have the option to maintain your account status with FXDD and opt out of the transfer by sending an email request to transferoptout@fxdd.com with your account number(s) in the subject line. Your email must be received by 4 PM EST, Friday, February 19.

DISCLAIMER: Trading in the Foreign Exchange market involves a significant and substantial risk of loss and may not be suitable for everyone. You should carefully consider whether trading is suitable for you in light of your age, income, personal circumstances, trading knowledge, and financial resources. Only true discretionary income should be used for trading in the Foreign Exchange market. Any opinion, market analysis or other information of any kind contained in this email is subject to change at any time. Nothing in this email should be construed as a solicitation to trade in the Foreign Exchange market. If you are considering trading in the Foreign Exchange market before you trade make sure you understand how the spot market operates, how FXDD is compensated, understand FXDD’s trading policy and rules and be thoroughly familiar with the operation of and the limitations of the platform on which you are going to trade.

FXDD 75 Park Place, 4th Floor, New York, NY 10007
Toll-free in the US: 1-866-367-3933 or +1-212-791-3933.

Please be informed that all the open positions had been closed in PAMM (Account 1 to Account 6) since yesterday. As such, if you wish to transfer your fund back to your MT4 for withdrawal/ trading at MT4 platform, you have to write directly to FXDD at sales@fxddasia.com for funds transfer. If you wish to continue trading on MT4 platform, please write to support@esatrader.com

For further detail instructions, please login to your student portal.

Thank you.

Best regards,
ESA Management Team

On 13 October 2009, we published a news pertaining to the Malaysian Central Bank warning (http://www.esatrader.com/news/important-for-malaysian-forex-traders/). Today (4th January 2010), the Central Bank of Malaysia (Bank Negara Malaysia) has released an official public announcement which may be obtained at http://www.bnm.gov.my/index.php?ch=8&pg=14&ac=1976. As a FOREX trader, you need to be highly aware what you are doing or about to do. Please read and understand all the risk assessment where FOREX trading suits your risk appetite.

It is our duties and responsibilities to announce to our Malaysian students about the press release as per follows:

Beware of Illegal Foreign Currency Trading Schemes

Bank Negara Malaysia would like to caution members of the public not to participate in any illegal investment or training programme on foreign currency trading offered by individuals or companies both domestic and foreign.

Members of the public are usually enticed to attend such investment or training programmes with promises of quick and good returns. The modus operandi of such programmes have included:

• Offering free training, seminars or workshops to lure investors, prior to inviting investors to set-up an online foreign currency trading account with a principal company (purported to have valid licence to trade foreign currency overseas);
• Providing convenient access to the principal company’s website and trading facilities to facilitate online foreign currency trading by investors;
• Recruitment of fresh graduates as marketing executives and encouraging them to get their family and friends to trade foreign currency; and
• Requiring investors to deposit an amount of money into a bank account to begin trading foreign currency, and subsequently, requesting for a top up on their initial investment (”margin call”) to avoid losing their capital.

Under the Exchange Control Act 1953 (ECA), it is an offence for a person in Malaysia to buy or sell foreign currency or do any act which involves, is in association with, or is preparatory to, buying or selling of foreign currency with any person, other than an authorised dealer.  It is also an offence for a person to aid or abet another person to buy or sell foreign currency with any person, unless the person is an authorised dealer.

The list of authorised dealers and financial institutions permitted by the Controller of Foreign Exchange to buy or sell foreign currency can be obtained from Bank Negara Malaysia’s website (http://www.bnm.gov.my).

For further enquiries, members of the public can contact Bank Negara Malaysia at:

BNMTELELINK (Customer Service Call Centre)
1-300-88-5465 or
E-mail: bnmtelelink@bnm.gov.my

Bank Negara Malaysia
4 January 2010

As year-end approaches we’d like to take this opportunity to thank you all for the co-operation and support you have given during the past 1 year.

The teams’ achievements over the past year are many. To name just a few we have:

* The establishment of new identity of ESA Trader.
* Growing number of students as ESA Trader Community.
* Be the truly traders’ community hub.
* Strategised our team portfolios.
* Successfully launched PAMM system.
* Traders trading profit hit the record target.
* Engaged with all professionals in training and consultancy.
* Educate our community about FOREX trading.
* Proven track records of our trading strategies.
* A dedicated business development team

We continue to go through significant changes. We need to continuously engaged with all our stakeholders.

The creation of ESA Trader in 2009 was a significant step forward for us. ESA Trader has enabled us to provide a renewed impetus to catalyse FOREX Trading transformation by playing a leading role in validating and down-streaming IT innovation into trading strategies.

The work-streams we have set-up are working hard to investigate and recommend ways for us to improve how we do things. And the input received from the people in the team has made a real difference.

So, as we break for the year-end period, we encourage you to reflect on what you have achieved individually and as a team and what you plan to achieve next year. We have no doubt that the next 12 months will be just as formidable, if not more so, as we continue to face challenges to deliver more for less.

Stay safe over the break, and enjoy the time you spend with your families and friends. We wish you all the best for the holiday season and we look forward to seeing you in 2010. With this, we would like to announce that new students intake for 2010 is open for all now.

Thank you.

Best regards,
ESA Trader Management Team

All trading activities will be resumed on 11 January 2010. The week after the non-farm payroll. Thank you.

Best regards,
ESA Trader Management Team