I admit that I have been guilty of the title Forex Trading Gambler. During my first few years and quite some of the time, I trade forex because of the adrenaline rush and the thought of easy money. I get excited on every high risk trade that turns out to be a winner. It was my high. I was addicted to the feeling. Like a gambler who doesn’t care about the risk, odds or the probabilities of winning or losing. He just wants to experience that same high that got him hooked.

As if I were a junkie.

Then comes the realization, I continue to lose and I kept increasing my trading size. Only to burn even faster. With that good feeling that you miss, you just want to trade more and more, larger and larger, only to experience the bottom faster. Trading this way will not work.

It is not about the feeling in trading. How much money you made or how much you lost should not be the basis of trading. The more I trade, the more I realize that. Money doesn’t matter in trading. For me, being right matters most.

Its all about the odds and probabilities. Its all about timed aggression and patience. A little bit of luck may help. But don’t depend entirely on luck. Because even though luck is involved, there is a reason why the final table have so many familiar faces.

It is a different kind of feeling that the thrill of winning big. Being right is better than breaking the bank. This is not a sprint, its a marathon. Trading larger size may give you great gains, but also great drawdown, and greater risk to go bankrupt. What we want is to make the right decisions each and every time.

The more I read about the stories of successful traders, the more I realize that trading is much like poker. Some people treat it as gambling, some treat it like a sport, a mental sport like chess. Some play poker just to have fun, feel the rush, some play poker as a profession, as a business. We should approach forex trading the same way. Its all about the odds and probabilities. Its all about timed aggression and patience. A little bit of luck may help. But don’t depend entirely on luck. Because even though luck is involved, there is a reason why the final table have so many familiar faces.

Happy trading!