I’ve been reading Market Wizards by Jack Schwager again recently and in the book one of the traders mentions getting to know just one individual market really, really well.
So, is this still a good way to start?
Should you focus on just one Forex market or learn to trade them all?
Now, Market Wizards is a very good book and I won’t hear a word spoken against the trading luminaries featured inside.
But you’ve got to remember those interviews are now at least 30 years old.
And even if the principles of trading haven’t changed technology certainly has.
It would have been much more difficult to accurately track a range of markets in those days than it is today.
A tight singular focus would probably have been right. It would have helped prevent errors, mistakes, and missed opportunities from sheer overwhelm caused by managing the flow of market data.
But imagine what the old-school traders would think if you whipped out your iPhone and showed them how you can now trade, literally, from your trouser pocket.
Setting automatic trades with your broker… no phoned-in or faxed orders… getting SMS or audio alerts as soon as certain markets did certain things…
They’d think all their Christmases and Birthdays had come at once!
So I think managing a portfolio of markets is certainly more feasible than it was in those days.
There’s still a lot to be said for learning the character and personality of a market, though. They all do have their quirks and tend to trade slightly differently.
But going narrow and deep (only trading one or two markets) can mean sitting on your hands for weeks at a time if they ‘go dead.’
Or… if they go too wild.
Think what GBPUSD was like a few weeks ago at the height of Brexit frenzy. And we might still have more of that to come!
So instead of going narrow and deep, the other option is to cast your net shallow and wide.
And I don’t mean to attach any negative associations to the word ‘shallow.’
I just mean that instead of delving deep into one particular market, you can learn how certain patterns tend to crop up and give you an advantage in many different markets.
Here, your focus is on the mechanics of price movement in general rather than the structure of any individual market.
It means you can take your skills and apply them to wherever the ‘money’ is at any given time.
You can simply up-sticks and move into whichever markets are giving the best opportunities whenever you like.
But this isn’t license to go too far off-piste.
Here are a couple of caveats to bear in mind:
2 rules for free and easy trading
1) I’d still stick to the highly liquid and technically trading Forex ‘major’ pairs. Don’t go wild trading the Turkish Lira V’s Norweigian Krone or any exotic stuff like that.
2) You will need a reliable ‘pattern’ or method of analysis that you can carry with you from market to market. Make sure whatever strategy you’re thinking of using isn’t a one trick pony that only works in , say, the EURUSD market. It needs to be a proven method of giving you an edge in the markets.
Speaking of which. It’s almost time to finally reveal to you the 4DFX method…
Trading a curated portfolio of major forex markets. Applying timeless analysis that’ll put multiple high-probability opportunities on the table for you each trading day…
If you’d like to know more I’d keep an eye on your inbox around this time next week.
Until then…
