How To Improve Your Currency Trading Game
I had an idea about writing an article about punters. My first task was to find a sensible definition for the term in relation to forex trading - the subject for my piece. There was far too many definitions of the word 'punt', but my searches for 'punter' yielded the one I required. According to a British source, a punter is a person who speculates money, often against a bookmaker in the form of bets.
Having discovered what a punter is, I needed to know what a punter is forex trading was. I had not come across any sort of formal definition. Traditionally, a punter refers to someone who trades on instinct, often against market trends. This follows the British definition for 'punter' that I had found, which implies an attitude more akin to gambling than trading.
My desire to write an article about punting is partly down to the fact that after decades of forex trading, I occasionally have the urge to take a punt, to gamble on a trade. It is only discipline that prevents me from going ahead. In my early days, I was a bank trader. This was before the days of screens providing all the market details, and we had to rely on instinct in order to trade. Perhaps it is this background which leads to my desire to punt nowadays. On the contrary, it may be the wealth of market information that we now have available. You can focus on the price action on the screens and get drawn into trading that way. Either way, punting is not a method for long term success, no matter how good your market instincts are.
When trading simply on instinct, one often gets early profits when you are right, but the losses are often too late when you are wrong. These types of trades are not based on risk/reward strategies, which have defined targets and stop points. These trades are based on using gut instinct to hope that you have timed the trade to coincide with the top or bottom of the market.
Today there was an event that encouraged me to begin to write this article. After the bank of Canada announced its decision on monetary policy - to keep rates unchanged - the USD/CAD firmed. The previous day, the rate had closed at 1.0298, after a sharp fall in line with a weaker USD. Before the announcement, trading was around 1.0310. However, afterwards, the price began to firm and punters were instinctively looking to sell at each pause. This was also my instinct, but experience told me to look at the charts and I abandoned the idea. Punters were lured into trading as the USD/CAD paused at various levels, but it carried on rising higher, until peaking at around 1.0525. Some punters may have been fortunate enough to gain a few pips, but the price action offered a poor risk/reward. The losses far outweighed the gains if the timing of entry was not perfect.
Neither punting, nor any other form of forex trading, are a guaranteed method for long term success. It has been said before, and it is worth reiterating, traders who treat currency trading as though they are gambling in a casino, will get the same results in the long term as though they were gambling in a casino. If forex trading is treated as a business, with strong analyses, risk/reward ratio strategies and good money management, there is a far greater chance of success. - 23218
Having discovered what a punter is, I needed to know what a punter is forex trading was. I had not come across any sort of formal definition. Traditionally, a punter refers to someone who trades on instinct, often against market trends. This follows the British definition for 'punter' that I had found, which implies an attitude more akin to gambling than trading.
My desire to write an article about punting is partly down to the fact that after decades of forex trading, I occasionally have the urge to take a punt, to gamble on a trade. It is only discipline that prevents me from going ahead. In my early days, I was a bank trader. This was before the days of screens providing all the market details, and we had to rely on instinct in order to trade. Perhaps it is this background which leads to my desire to punt nowadays. On the contrary, it may be the wealth of market information that we now have available. You can focus on the price action on the screens and get drawn into trading that way. Either way, punting is not a method for long term success, no matter how good your market instincts are.
When trading simply on instinct, one often gets early profits when you are right, but the losses are often too late when you are wrong. These types of trades are not based on risk/reward strategies, which have defined targets and stop points. These trades are based on using gut instinct to hope that you have timed the trade to coincide with the top or bottom of the market.
Today there was an event that encouraged me to begin to write this article. After the bank of Canada announced its decision on monetary policy - to keep rates unchanged - the USD/CAD firmed. The previous day, the rate had closed at 1.0298, after a sharp fall in line with a weaker USD. Before the announcement, trading was around 1.0310. However, afterwards, the price began to firm and punters were instinctively looking to sell at each pause. This was also my instinct, but experience told me to look at the charts and I abandoned the idea. Punters were lured into trading as the USD/CAD paused at various levels, but it carried on rising higher, until peaking at around 1.0525. Some punters may have been fortunate enough to gain a few pips, but the price action offered a poor risk/reward. The losses far outweighed the gains if the timing of entry was not perfect.
Neither punting, nor any other form of forex trading, are a guaranteed method for long term success. It has been said before, and it is worth reiterating, traders who treat currency trading as though they are gambling in a casino, will get the same results in the long term as though they were gambling in a casino. If forex trading is treated as a business, with strong analyses, risk/reward ratio strategies and good money management, there is a far greater chance of success. - 23218
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