This article is one of the most important lessons in forex trading and develops over a period of time. If you become the master of the art of sniper trading then no one literally no one can stop you making money in stocks, forex or any kind of trading.
Now take a pause and this what a sniper does? What kind of strengths he has? A sniper in army or security agencies works with an edge. He used to have extreme command on his weapon and weapon’s strengths and weaknesses. But most important to this, he has solid self-control, patience and the quality to remain cool & calm in a pressure situation. A little of his aggression can either spoil his chance or can be a cause of his identification in a camouflage situation. Now let’s see how we can apply these in our trading system.
If you are trading stock or forex then you need an edge over your competitors and that edge is provided by your trading system or trading strategies. The real thing is not having a trading system that has an edge on the market but to follow it religiously and to be a master of it. You should have strict self-control and be very disciplined to use that trading system. You are supposed to apply your trading system flawlessly in the pressure trading environment. Just like a sniper in war, the trader in a market needs overwhelming control on mind and body to be the winner.
Act like a trade sniper and wait for your opportunity to come. Waiting is the most important part of any kind of trading even more important than executing the real trading. Almost 90% of a real trader time spend in waiting for the real opportunity and then trading it wisely by utilizing all of its weapons like trading system. They use each and every bullet very wisely. On the other hand, a trader who act like a machine gunner and run for every trade by thinking that this is the trade that will give him the fortune. These are the traders who are very optimistic about every trade and get involved in FOMO (fear of missing out) traits. If you want to know more about FOMO behavior then read my other article of “3 psychological mistakes of traders”. When in market, you will always get the temptation of trade, your hand will always try to reach out the button for execution but you have to have that much self-control that you can control that temptation. Think like a hunter, he will only press the trigger when the prey is in range, and he is 100% sure that he will get the target. For that he may have to wait for hours while his prey is roaming in front of him. It is not always that his prey will enter into his targeting zone, sometimes he has to let it go to save his bullet for the better one. That’s what a trader has to do. He has to save his capital for the next opportunity for that he is 100% sure. Always remember before execution the trade that losing an opportunity is better than loosing the money.
Trade Less Waits More in Sniper Trading
A famous prover is trading is that less is more in forex. It means that successful trader trades less and wait more for an opportunity just like snippers. In the beginning, when the traders are not very experienced, they run for more and think the more they trade, the more they will earn. They use more indicator and spend more money on less quality trades. But the real situation is altogether different. Here quality is better than quantity. The less and right you trade in stocks or forex, the more you will earn as you will loose less in the game. So here again, let me remind you of a sniper who may shot a bullet after hours of waiting an opportunity but whenever he shots, he grabbed the opportunity.
Time Frame
The next thing that I wanted to mention here is the timeframe that you will use for your battlefield. To execute it properly and to see which time frame suits you, you have to do your personality analysis. But one thing is sure, higher the time frame means higher odds of winning the trade in price action trading. In higher time frame there are less chances of fake outs as compared to lower time frame. Here you have to make a perfect balance between accuracy of time frame and the number of trading opportunities. The higher the time frame means higher accuracy but less trading opportunities. To me, daily time frame providing the best trade off between accuracy and trading opportunities. Just like sniper, who can take a couple of shots in a week but that can change all the circumstances in the battlefield. If you run for every shot like machine gunner do, soon you will be out of your capital like machine gunner run out of his ammo.
Patience, A key element of Sniper Trading
Patience, self-control, waiting, these are all the terms that can used intertangle. If there is only one key in the successful trading then that’s it. It is the only thing that can differentiate the ordinary trader from the successful one. Its like a magic ingredient in your trading recipe to make it a profitable one. Most beginner traders have many expertise but the only thing that is stopping them to be a profitable trader is the patience. They are aggressive and over-optimistic and want too much too early. This dream of becoming rich overnight is the main hurdle of becoming rich ever. Just like snipper, don’t lose your self-control to go for trade too early. You should have control on your body and mind and calmly take every trade when it is in well control. Greed is good but over greed is always bad. It is in human nature to be impatient when it come to money. Whenever you become impatient for trading think of Warren Buffett statement that “Stock market is a place for transferring the money from the impatient one to the patient one”
Expertise in Strategy
Sniper are well trained and their skills are well polished over a period of time. It takes a lot of time to train a well skilled sniper and when he got trained, he exactly know, how his targets look alike, what are their behavior, how to aim them and when to pull the triggers. Just like snipper, a traders first aim should be to focus on his education. Before entering into the battel field of trading, a trader should be well skilled. He should now how to look at trading opportunities, when to enter and when to exit the trade and how to look at charts instead of playing blindly that will kill him instantaneously. A trader is supposed to put his time and effort to learn how to master a trading strategies and skills. If you give proper consideration to developing your skill set for trading that you be a sniper trader sooner than you think.
Developing Mindset
Sniper are not just physically trained persons who are supposed to kill their opponents whenever they find a clear shot but instead more than 99% of their job is related to developing a right mindset. With the passage of time they develop their self confidence and disciple that is required to complete their job. Similarly, a traders have to develop a mindset that is required to become a successful trader. They should have confidence on their strategies and above this they should have confidence on themselves of choosing the right strategy and the right tool at the right time. They should have so much self-discipline to enter and exit the trades based on logics and system rather than emotions as there is no place for ego in the trading world. Markets do not know who you are and you cannot have any impact on the market. It is only just you that have to adjust your mindset with the working of the markets and trade just like snippers.
