Owl, Earlybird, Hawk or Dipper: Which of these four trader-types best describes you?
Owl, Earlybird, Hawk or Dipper: I was speaking to BL, one of my long standing coaching clients at the weekend…
We’ve grown close and always have a bit of fun when we talk, but English isn’t his first language… and I don’t mind admitting – I’m terrible at foreign language.
(I only passed French at school because the teacher – who’s daughter I was dating at the time – tipped me off on what to revise.)
So when I do speak to him, it can be a bit of a mixed-up affair.
We usually start off talking on Skype and then move to pinging annotated screenshots back and forth when we go looking at the charts.
But what made me think of telling you all this was the memory of an early exercise I went through with him, back in January 2012.
You see, I’ve only taken on a couple of coaching groups over the last two years…
The structure has always been to deliver the foundation material in full… letting it all flow into the client’s mind
…and then we pinpoint exactly which of the strategies and methods will suit their own trading goals best.
We do that on the one-to-one calls because obviously, every trader has their own personal situation to consider…
There’ll be different times they can access the markets, different account sizes, a sliding scale of appetite for risk… a hundred and one different factors to consider.
But, despite all that, I’ve recently come to realise there are only really FOUR types of trader
Does that surprise you?
It certainly came as a bit of a revelation to me.
Up to that point, I’d been treating each individual client as a complete blank slate. But the more traders I spoke to, the more I saw the same four basic scenarios crop up again and again.
So today, I thought I’d walk you through the same exercise I went through with BL.
It’s now the first thing I’d ask you to do as a coaching client anyway… so you might as well get the benefit of the exercise here for free!
Which of these 4 trader-types are you?
The secret to building a trading approach that’ll work for you is to always begin with the end in mind.
That means to start with, you need to focus on determining exactly what outcome you can expect from your trading.
And you’ve got to come at this from a reality standpoint.
Because, you know, you CAN succeed very quickly. But to set an impossibly high bar for yourself – somewhere up there in the realms of fantasy – and then to constantly fall short is going to knock your confidence.
So the first exercise you need to do is to take a step-back and assess the resources you have available… your time, your money, and your skills.
Because once you’ve got that picture in place, you can save a load of time and heartache by identifying and filtering only the specific strategies that’ll suit your own circumstances. Only then can you can work out what kind of profit you should expect on your trading campaign.
Now, the skills part is not really relevant because there’s an easy transfer of knowledge and know-how we can do once you’re ready.
And the money issue is no biggie because the Forex markets have such a low barrier of entry. You can get things rolling with just a couple of hundred quid.
(I must point out… you’re not going to become a millionaire overnight from a small account, but it will give you real skin in the game. And that’s a great starting point.)
So that just leaves the time issue. This is where you need to carefully assess how often, and for how long, you can regularly access the markets.
And this is where the four trader-types come in.
(My four categories of trader ended up being christened with bird-like names for some reason!)
Consider the list of four below…
Think how each description might apply to you and then I’ll ask you the critical question… the one thing that’ll help you find your own niche within the Forex markets.
Here they are:
1) The Night Owl: You like to get your orders in the market once you get home from work and before you retire for the evening. You want these orders to continue working on autopilot on your behalf until you next check-in.
2) The Early Bird: You have access to the markets early in the morning for a live trading session and/or you want to place orders that’ll play-out as you go about your daily business. And you don’t want to be tinkering around any further once you’ve placed those orders.
3) The Daytime Dipper: You’ve a bit of time free during the day to dip into your Forex trading account (at lunchtime, tea-breaks, or any other time) and you want to do some analysis of what’s happened in the markets so far… and place orders based on what you see.
4) The Screen Hawk: You’ve got time free to dedicate at the trading screen. You want to quickly see where the immediate opportunities are, get close to the action, and trade them in a hands-on way.
And it’s OK if there’s often an element of overlap – for example: you might trade mainly as a Night Owl and have the occasional Daytime Dip… but here’s the million-dollar question…
Which one of these best describes your current main mode of trading, the one you use to place at least 70% of your trades?
That’s what we’ll class as your Primary Mode – the one we’ll concentrate on as we build your trading campaign.
(And if you’re not yet trading live, which scenario is going to be a best-fit for you?)
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying you should cast aside the trades you would normally place outside your Primary Mode – because of course, every pip does count…
But to build a tight, effective trading plan, with a realistic and achievable target outcome… you need to focus your resources on one spot. Like sun beams through a magnifying glass.
So if you’d be interested in developing your own trading plan along with me – just like my coaching clients have before – have a good think about that first question.
How much time do you currently have free for trading?
And what’s your Primary Mode – Night Owl, Early Bird, Daytime Dipper or Screen Hawk?
I’d love to know… If you like, you can tell me by replying to this email now.
Be Prepared: Market Moving Data Coming This Week (London Time – BST)
All eyes on Friday.US job numbers!
Wednesday 2nd October:
12:45 EUR Interest Rate Decision (EUR)
13:15 US Nonfarm Employment Change (USD)
13:30 EUR ECB Press Conference (EUR)
17:00 US FOMC Rosengren Speaks (USD)
20:30 US Bernanke Speaks (USD)
Thursday 3rd October:
09:28 UK PMI Services (GBP)
10:00 EUR Retail Sales (EUR)
13:30 US Initial Jobless Claims (USD)
15:00 US ISM Non-Manufacturing (USD)
17:30 US FOMC Fisher Speaks (USD)
Friday 4th October:
13:30 US US Employment Numbers (USD)
14:15 US FOMC Dudley Speaks (USD)
14:30 US FOMC Stein Speaks (USD)
I hope you enjoyed this issue. Don’t forget to let me know what your Primary Mode of trading is (or is going to be).
