"I think I'm finally getting the hang of this FOREX thing!"
Do you ever get that feeling of impending doom for no reason? I do. It usually happens right after something good has happened. (...which doesn't speak well of my general outlook on life, I know...) But we all experience it from time to time. You get to the end of your trading day and say "Wow, all winning trades today. WOO-HOO" in your best Homer Simpson voice. It makes your day, and you feel good about yourself as a trader. Then the next day it happens again. By the time that third day rolls around, how are you feeling? Invincible? Or like you just KNOW that today is the day it all comes crashing down?
To be honest, I'm not sure which is worse, feeling 10 feet tall and bulletproof, or feeling like today is the day you fail. (...actually, as my wife tells me all the time..."why are you making me choose?", so you could probably feel them both simultaneously!...) Feeling invincible usually leads to bad results...really bad results. I've been there before. A few years ago, after demo trading for several months, I signed up for a Prop Firm account.
As soon as I signed up, for some reason I just lost my mind and started trading contrary to how I'd been trading up till then. Just going off, shooting from the hip, not following my rules. I lost all the way down to within 1 percent of my maximum loss, which would have caused me to lose the challenge account. So I got back to basics and started trading the way I knew I should. Then I started having success, and with each success the little Yosemite Sam version of me started to creep back in.
I eventually traded my way back to even, and then commenced to shooting my six shooters off any which way to celebrate, not realizing that I had simply been lucky...that my last week of trading had been as reckless as my first week, only this time I benefitted...until I didn't. I wound up losing that account, and eventually learned a valuable lesson. (...after loading myself down with a metric ton of guilt and recrimination first...)
Feeling like you can do no wrong inevitably leads to a downfall. Poor King Nebuchadnezzar had just shouted "I am and there is no other" on his balcony when God said "Oh...you think so?" and made him spend the next few years out eating grass with the cows. (...the world's first vegan diet...) Going through something like that will give one perspective, so the next time you experience a string of successes, you remember how you got there, and where it could lead.
That doesn't mean the answer is a life of pessimism. The last thing God wants is for us to live our lives expecting disaster. What He wants is for us to recognize our dependence on Him, and that "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning." James 1:17 (NKJV)
So these days I try to always recognize that "my" wins aren't my success, but God working through me. And as long as I keep my eyes on Him, everything will work out like it should, win or lose.
Until next time...