There are many who think that being intelligent or clever will help them become better forex traders but academic excellence or being clever can be a hindrance rather than help...

Why?

Because trading forex is simple and if you complicate it you wont win and many people who are intelligent or clever also have big ego's and if you want to trade forex you need to leave your ego behind.

It's a fact that 50 years ago 95% of speculators lost money and the same is true today and this is despite all the advances we have seen due to the development of human society.

It's not being clever or technology that helps you win in forex markets it's a simple method and the discipline to apply it.

Fact:

Simple forex trading systems work best because they have fewer elements to break than more complicated ones and are more robust in the face of brutal market conditions.

Fact:

Of course you have to have a method that's logical but applying it is the hard part for most traders and this is where clever people often have problems - they cannot accept they are wrong and reuse to take losses and take part in revenge trading and lose. It's totally pointless because the market is always right and you can only be wrong so you need to accept this and take your losses quickly.

Fact:

You don't get paid for effort or working hard in forex markets you get paid for being right with your trading signal - it can take you 30 minutes or 30 hours, but the market only rewards you for being right - nothing else.

In my experience and I have been teaching forex for 20 years it's the humble traders without egos that make money, who use simple forex trading strategies that win. I often come across people who Jake Bernstein (an excellent author on trader psychology) called the "educated fool" he things he knows it all and has lots of complicated ideas and they all fail.

In my experience the people who make great forex traders as a group are good poker players - Why?

Because they know to win they have to trade the odds - folding losing hands or not even betting and then hitting the high odds hands when they come. It's exactly these skills that are needed in forex trading - no ego, not trying to be clever just following a disciplined trading plan.

If you want to win at forex trading and worried you may not be intelligent enough think again.