Being a successful trader - Forex Signals & Mentoring

Being a successful trader:How to make the "Switch"By Vladimir Ribakovwww.VladimirRibakov.comIs it that hard?What does it really take to be a successful trader? Is it that hard? Is it morelike a "dream"?How come there a lot more lawyers than traders worldwide?Is a degree in law studies easier than becoming a trader?How come there are more doctors than traders? Being a doctor is definitelymore difficult than being a trader and it also has much more responsibility.So what is the real reason that most of the people who try to trade the Forexmarket lose their money? How come such intelligent people keep makingthe same mistakes time after time?There are a lot of answers for these questions, and I'd like to help you makethe "switch" in your head.In this document I will share with you the insights and experience that I havegained during my many years of trading the financial markets.Make sure you read until the very end and open your mind for some amazingthings that will help you become a real successful trader.| P a g e 1

Learning from mistakesMy name is Vladimir Ribakov, and if you've been looking at major Forexwebsites and forums, there's a good chance you've heard my name.For years I've been actively participating in the online Forex community,mentoring traders and providing signals.I don't like to brag but I know from looking at forums that my signals andanalysis are highly regarded. That's NOT because I am some kind of geniuswho was born with magic hands or a magic head. That's just because I did allit takes to think like a trader and to make a switch in my head and realizingthat being a trader takes a lot.From my point of view there are several main things that decrease anytrader's chances to become a successful trader from the very beginning. I willshare with you these things and share with you the conclusions I have cometo which helped me a lot.So let's look at all the obstacles and psychological issues that challenge youon your way to becoming a successful trader. We'll look at them one by oneand see how you can deal with these obstacles and overcome them.1. MarketingWhen you open your web browser and search for Forex education, tradingsignals, robots, strategies, etc., most of the search results you'll see are thework of internet marketers.My main problem with these Forex marketers is that they are concentratedon showing you how "easy" it is to make money in Forex.In some ways, that's 100% true. But, can everybody do it? Again, the answeris most likely yes.But, now is the time for the real question. Will everyone really do it? Theunfortunate answer is - no.| P a g e 2

The Forex market is like other financial markets, and one of its importantfeatures is that it is a "zero sum game".For example, if someone makes a profit of $100,000 then 100 people have tolose $1000. Given this, we can understand why the reality is that only 1% oftraders succeed.But let's admit the ugly fact. With no "dreams" sales, no one would evenbother to try and trade on the Forex market…Don't you just love these sentences: "Turn $1000 into a million in 1 year","Make 995% per year using the MOST simple rules", "100% success using thisrobot, you don't even need to trade"… etc, etc…Sadly, these ideas make us believe that becoming an overnight multimillionaireis right around the corner. However let's not forget that if youturn $1,000 into a million, 1000 people will have to lose $1000. That's simplyhow it works.So what do you think? The odds that you will be in the 1000 losers are muchhigher than the odds that you will "make it big" this time.If you have money available, I invite you to try. Deposit 1K and try to make itbig and make the million. BUT be ready to lose 1K more than a few times.What usually happens is that after you lose your 1K several times, you leavethis market angry with the idea that it’s impossible to make money here.But in the reality someone that did follow the real trading rules took all themoney you lost as it is a zero sum game. So there are ways to make moneyfor sure.Conclusion – Don't live the dream. Yes that's possible to make it big. Yes it’spossible to turn 1K in to a million. But probably 1 person will do it, 1000won’t.| P a g e 3

2. LeverageOhhh what a huge issue this is. Most traders don’t even understand it. Yes, itis possible in our world to trade with money we don't have. But, do you thinkanyone is going to give you gifts when it comes to financial market??The idea behind leverage is simple – "You want to make fast money? Cool,you can. BUT remember that for that you will have to risk MORE!" Not moremoney, but more % of your balance per trade.Let's call it simply on its right name: Leverage = The speed of you growingyour account or losing all your money!It's hard to admit, but that's what it really is. As on the first point, it ispossible to turn 1K to 100K, if you use CRAZY leverages. During my tradinglife I saw people that turned 10K to 300K in 3 months, but I saw many morepeople who lost 10K after a week!!! That's how it works - The simple rules ofeconomics.It's actually very simple to understand. Imagine that you are buying a house.If you have all the money for the house, you pay with it and the house isyours! You bought it, and you enjoy it as your own. Now imagine you don'thave all the money so you borrow it, usually from a bank. You pay % for that.The more money you borrow, the longer the period you have to pay for it!The same rule applies to trading. When you use leverage – you use moneyyou don't own! And you will pay for that! But in the case of trading, you willnot pay % to the bank, you will pay your deposit money to the broker whenthe market is going against you!My conclusion – don't use leverage! Yes, it will take longer until your accountreaches high numbers, but you will sleep well, with no worries and with no"debts" you have to pay.| P a g e 4

3. Professional trader – what does it mean?One of the most common mistakes by anyone who wants to be a trader is:trade in all styles of trading.As you know, the trading profession offers many possible ways ofapproaching the market: break out strategies, moving average strategies,sideway moves breaks, trend lines, support and resistance, counter trendtrading, divergences, intraday, short term, swing, investing, patterns,candles… and SO MUCH more!Now let me ask you something; when you choose a profession for your life,do you plan to work in every possible profession? Do you plan to be a pilot, adoctor, a lawyer and football player and a writer, all at the same time??No! You choose ONE profession for yourself.And when you choose that one profession, for example being a medicaldoctor, do you plan on being a Neurologist AND a Plastic surgeon, AND anOrthopedic surgeon, AND a dentist AND a psychiatrist?Probably not… You choose the type of specialty most appealing to you, thengo for it, and become an expert at it.So why do new traders, and in some cases even veterans, think that they cantrade all trading style together??? It is impossible!The ways are different, for one you will need to sell, for one you’ll need tobuy, and it will only confuse you and will bring you to lose trades, time aftertime!Choose any style that you feel comfortable with, and go with it!Of course it has to be profitable, but you should never trade in severaldifferent ways at the same time.| P a g e 5

4. Following a Trade planTraders think that they can trade without a clear plan for each and everytrade, and without having a clear plan of how each trade fits within theirgeneral trading.And I say – it’s wrong! How can you remember what are you going to do with10-15 planned trades that you have? It is simple – you can't.So make yourself a simple trade following list and write the plan for everytrade that you are looking to enter, or have entered. It will not only save youtime once you come the next day and want to analyze the charts again andagain - you will also avoid the risk of forgetting important levels to watch, orsituations to beware of.So instead of wasting 1-2 hours analyzing it all again, you will just follow yourplan and your levels, which will take you 15 minutes, max.It's like going to a supermarket with no list of things you need to buy. Youwill go to the supermarket and buy all you see as you will not be sure whatyou have and what you don't have. The results: you will waste more moneythan you planned to, and probably forget a few important things you neededto buy.The same goes for trading. If you trade with no plan, you either over-trade,or miss trades, or execute the trades badly.Conclusion – build a plan and follow it. Remember – we plan a trade andonly then trade our plan.It will take some time from you, but it will save much more time and moneyfor you during the next days\weeks\months of trading.| P a g e 6

5. StrategiesFor me, a "strategy" is something that people make up, and if they arelooking at it in the wrong way, it can actually hurt their trading. And I willexplain what I mean:Trading, as you know, is not doing 1-2-3 and BAM you have a winner. Tradingis about understanding the real market. Understanding why prices move theway they move.Only after you do understand what is really going on with the prices, onlythen you can try to build yourself a set of trading rules: "if this happens andthat happens – I'll do this and that".This is what traders call strategy, but I prefer to call it: "a meeting betweenyour rules and market conditions".Let me ask you something. When you learned to drive, how long did it taketo you? A day? A week? A month? Probably longer... Even when you got yourlicense, you still weren’t as good a driver as you are today. It took you a longtime.And how did you learn to drive? Did you have any "strategy" for that? Noyou didn't. Right? You've learned all it requires, step by step, to become adriver. How to correctly look in the mirrors, how to use the wheel, how toswitch the gearstick (or how to use the automatic cars today ). You'velearnt how to push the gas, how to use the breaks. And you've learned themost important thing – how to drive carefully so you don't make anaccident! You've learnt how crazy drivers can surprise you. You've learnt topredict what other drivers will do. And today, after the whole process youare a good driver, good enough to take the responsibility of driving otherpeople with you in the same car!Today, if you've been driving for some time, you don't use any strategy fordriving. You don't do any tricks. You just do all the things that you've learned.And you don't even pay attention to that. You just do it.| P a g e 7

You sit in your car, turn on the engine and drive. All the rest you are doingautomatically. Of course every driver has his own things. Every driver drivesa little bit differently. But the result is the same. The car is moving.Trading, is EXACTLY the same!!!You have to learn how to "drive" in the Forex market "roads". You have tolearn how to be careful of "other crazy drivers that might surprise you".Only then can you drive great and make real money. But first, you have tolearn all it takes and I mean the real price action. Only this way, can youbecome a trader that understands what he or she is doing.Like a doctor that understands which pills will do what and knows exactlywhat to do with any desease. Same here in the trading world. When youunderstand what the market is doing, it's easy for you to make profits.6. Magic toolsMy friend, let's put the cards on the table. There are NO magic tools. There isno magic indicator that will give you 100% success or the most accuratesignals with entries and exits. It is simply IMPOSSIBLE! Accept that, and don'tlook for any magic.The default simple things like MACD, RSI, Stochastic, moving averages thatworked well for their creators, are still good to use and will always be good(as long as you use them properly, but that's out of our scope now).It is simply because they represent the real price action in the simplest, mostoptimal way. The indicators are visual aids. They help us to see the priceaction under a slightly different light. They might help us make decisions.But you CAN'T trade indicators only! So my recommendation is to use themfor s visually better decision. And, if you find yourself making betterdecisions without any indicators, don't change your ways.| P a g e 8

7. PatienceThis is probably the most common problem for every trader that wants totake their account to the next level, to trade the big money.Try to remember, how many times you deposited $500 or $1000 or more,and told yourself: "Now I am going to take it slow, but steady!". Then afteronly few days, weeks or months, you found yourself taking huge risks andnot following your own program.How many times has it happened to you? I can guarantee that for most ofyou, the answer will be "too many times". And that's how it works.In the new reality, when we can have it all as fast as we want, we expect tohave a lot of money and a huge account starting only with a $1000 account.And that's my wake up call for you, friends.I don’t blame anyone for this. It is our reality. We live in a world wherepeople want everything here and now. If you are hungry at 2am you canorder pizza and it will be at your house in 20-30 min. If you want to have acar, you take credit, and you have a card in few days (even if you don't havethe money!). If you want to fly to another continent, you can find yourself onan airplane in few hours.These opportunities took our life to a much better place. We can allowourselves much more and that's amazing. But for trading, that's exactly whatcan cause us to lose again and again and again, time after time, attemptafter attempt.In trading, we get credit. Free credit, called LEVERAGE! As I've explainedabove, it's a risky tool. But we can open a trade of $100,000 even if we onlyhave $1000, and that's just unbelievable! And that's what is so risky in thisbusiness.You can build yourself a plan. You follow a plan for few days, maybe a fewweeks or even a few months. But then something happens and you makemistakes. You lose your patience and you make mistakes and you lose mostof your money or even all your money.| P a g e 9

So as you understand, patience is the most important tool to make youraccount grow STEADY! Now let's see just how important it really is.I usually hear from people (especially newbies) that they are looking to make50% per month, or double their account every few months, or some similartargets.Such ROI (Return On Investment) might happen rarely, but since I prefer toleave those pie-in-the-sky dreams to lottery, let's look at numbers which canbe slightly more realistic.We'll take a relatively small account of $3000, which we are able to grow 5%per month. This translates to almost 80% growth in a year. The yearly growthis more than simply 5*12 = 60% due to the power of compounding – theprofits are re-invested.Let's see if that could be good enough:This shows you how, if you are able to consistently make 5% per month, atthe end of the year you’ve already turned $3000 into $5388. After 5 yearsyou have $56,038 and after 10 years you get from $3000 to more than oneMillion!| P a g e 11

I know, it's not realistic to expect every single month to be winning, even forthe best of the best of traders, however the spreadsheet above clearlydemonstrates how even 5% per month are extremely powerful, even thoughmany newbies mistakenly consider that to be "too little"…Of course, if you're doing well and believe you can make more than 5% permonth, feel free to do so and accelerate your growth. But it is important notto play dangerously with leverage, as I explained earlier.Now pay attention to something interesting. To make 1 million, it took thetrader above 10 years. But, to take it from 1 million to 2 million it takes evenless than 1.5 years!That is my friend, the secret of math. That's the well known saying: "Moneymakes money" and it is so true when it comes to trading!You can't go through shortcuts. I've tried, it's impossible! So what I cansuggest is that you build yourself this kind of plan. Print it, and put it in frontof your eyes, so you always remember it's a long process.But in 10 years, you CAN achieve all your dreams and you can take youraccount the level you always wanted.If I would ask you before you started your trading life: "Are you ready tomake a million with 3K account at the beginning?" what would you answer?I bet the answer would be: "OF COURSE".But after you start the process, you might find yourself losing patience. Andthat's exactly why I want you to have this long term plan in front of youreyes, to remember that it takes time and to remind yourself to continueslowly but steadily all the way towards your goal.| P a g e 11

In Conclusion:Trading is much simpler than many describe it. The tech tools and analysesdo not need to be complicated.The most important thing is to remember that there are no shortcuts, andyou can't skip levels exactly as you can't build the 10 th floor in a buildingwithout building the 9 th and the 8 th before.Building the account and achieving your goals take time.Don't allow all the seductions and distractions ruin your plan.Don't use the leverage too much. It’s TOO risky!Don't be lazy. Create yourself a plan for each trade!Stop once a week, give yourself feedback and get ready for next week.Don't look for magic, it doesn’t exist! If you want to see magic, go to a magicshow.Do choose yourself a profession. Describe yourself as a trader. Don't try tobe all kind of traders at the same time.Follow that friends, and see your account growing!I want to thank you very much for your time reading this document and Ihope I've opened your eyes a little bit and helped you to start a really goodprocess in your trading life.To your success!Vladimir Ribakovwww.VladimirForexSignals.comwww.VladimirRibakov.com| P a g e 12