Holy Grail in Forex
From a definition perspective, Holy Grail refers to what people pursue with extraordinary eagerness because it holds blown-out significance. It represents the utmost desire for people. Indeed, the most sought-after things in forex are profitability and consistency. A forex Holy Grail can also refer to a trading system with a high winning rate because of super-smart algorithms and razor-sharp accuracy in its trade recommendations.
But since Holy Grail in the forex is not defined, different players have a different view of it. Some believe that the holy trading grail is reaching a level of expertise where risk management is top-notch. A trader purportedly enters the Holy Grail ‘phase’ if the risk-reward ratio of his/her is heavily biased on the side of reward.
Others believe that the Holy Grail of forex trading is consistent. One can easily understand where the holders of this view are coming from. Forex trading is a tricky endeavor, and returns often fluctuate from profit and loss. Few traders can post profits over an extended period without suffering losses. The market moves fast, and sometimes it turns against the best. Therefore, the holy trading grail is the ability to beat the sudden turns and make it through the end of a murky market with something in hand.
But why isn’t there a Holy Grail in forex trading? Three reasons. First, market uncertainties are just too many for a forex trader to prepare for all of them. Myriads upon myriads of factors move currencies, and it is hard for anyone to account for each one of them.
Secondly, the Holy Grail’s existing legend in forex trading is not possible because human activities and emotions move the price. Every human being unique; it is not possible to evaluate each of the human traders’ behavior in the market. Thirdly, a trading strategy is good just for a moment. Given the market’s fast-changing nature, even the best strategy breaks under the weight of sudden market fluctuations.
The Holy Grail and the Mortality of Trading Success
Holy Grail in forex trading is an excellent concept if exploited in the right way. The concept can get you in the right frame of mind to take on the market. Nonetheless, it becomes a disaster when traders begin to obsess over the ability to attain a level of expertise where trades are riskless, strategies are 100% accurate, and profits are consistent. In the end, the Holy Grail becomes a significant impediment to trading success.
Would you rather spend your time chasing an impossibility or find your element as a trader? Many noobs fall into the false Holy Grail narrative because they want quick profits. They fail to appreciate the significance of process and mistakes. Forex, just like any other endeavor, favors those who are not afraid of losses in search of their element. The problem is, few traders even know they tend to prioritize seeking the forex Holy Grail over finding their special place in the market.
How do you know you are hooked to the legend of the forex Holy Grail? The most obvious sign is accepting the falsehood that you can design a strategy that defeats risk and earns profits 100% of the time. We already discussed the reasons why a forex Holy Grail is impossible. These are the same reasons why you can never completely de-risk forex trading.
Another sign that you have “Holy Grail tendency” is having a fear of losing trades. Any expert trader will tell you that the market’s best players are standing on piles of lost trades. The good thing is that they used the losses as a stepping stone onto higher echelons of forex trading. The tendency to look for perfection in forex trading is detrimental to trading success because it omits the significance of the lessons obtained from unsuccessful trades.
The Real Holy Grail
Instead of perceiving Holy Grail in forex as a thing, one can look at it as the ultimate manifestation of one’s best self as far forex trading is concerned. Striving towards your “Holy Grail,” therefore, should entail first understanding your personality and your risk posture. Are you a hammer or a mallet? Hammers are ready to jump into the action, but they take caution not to bend the nail. On the other hand, mallets pound the nail without giving a thought to whether the nail will bend or not.
In forex trading context, a hammer is a trader whose willingness to take risk is measured. It is a trader that has boundaries in terms of what kind of risk he/she can assume in a single position. Contrarily, mallets are traders who go in hard. They stake all their worth on risky trades, meaning they stand to earn humongous profits if all goes well. The real Holy Grail, therefore, is first knowing whether you are a hammer or a mallet.
Having known your personality, the next step is to align it with a winning mindset and a proper risk management strategy. In other words, the journey towards the real Holy Grail begins from having a sound and realistic trading plan. These steps do not guarantee de-risked trades, 100% accurate strategies, or consistent profits over extended periods. Instead, the steps position you favorably such that you can easily earn more and bigger profits than other players in the market.
Conclusion
The pursuit of perfection is not unique to forex trading. People everywhere want the best results all the time because failure means the inability to live to personal expectations. However, if there were to be a Holy Grail in forex trading, it would entail traders knowing themselves first.
Self-knowledge helps one to acknowledge one’s weaknesses and strengths. From the point of knowledge, one can then create a trading system whose odds of winning are much higher. Therefore, Holy Grail is not the ability to avoid risk nor the ability to earn consistent profits over an extended period without suffering losses.
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