Many of us take the learning process for granted and pay attention to earnings only. We often forget that knowledge, skills, discipline, consistency and practice is prerequisite to profits. When I started trading I was very eager to see how it works in the real world so I didn't give much time to learning and practice which made me lose my hard earned money. Though I learned it the hard way, I am glad that I learned at the right time.
Trading forex presupposes lots of challenges and troubles and not all of the people are ready to take them and withstand the high pressure of the market. The first challenge is to learn. Traders should constantly learn. It is not that kind of skills like riding a bike, where you can learn how to do it once, and the skill will be with you for all of your life. You should understand that the markets are extremely dynamic. So, in order to be a success you should improve your skills all the time. The second problem is dealing with the psychological pressure. People are always nervous when it comes about money and the traders are not an exception. However, the more emotions you use in your decision making process, the more likely you are to lose the money. It is not easy to deal with psychology and it takes lots of practice to pull yourself together and make the right decisions.
I'll reply here, not that I'm a fx trader, but for another reason. There's currently a thread running "Stress and Trading" which I couldn't be bothered replying to, mainly because I feel people can't be bothered listening. But your post imo basically hits the nail on the head, if you don't have the correct motives, one will struggle with stress and failure in trading. Trading although a job, should be seen as a game/challenge/sport/competition and see it in a fun light rather than a some terror to be faced. Set the experience up (takes time) and the tools, those who see trading as a get rich fast scheme and lack patience and focus will struggle imo. Most gains come from chipping away with small wins, not as a result of hitting jackpot.
Possibly because at this stage you have not finally settled into how you really want to trade, eg, you are still in the experimenting, try this, try that, see if this works stage. Very difficult for most I would imagine to have a method they are happy with and trading it consistently. Many traders are of the belief they need to trade different methods to suit the trading climate/environment, ya, well, maybe for some, but I disagree. Jumping pillar to post, will bugger up consistency and discipline.
These are few of the challenges that I faced when I started trading- 1) Creating a strategy. 2) Coping with trading psychology 3) Good risk management 4) Dealing with loss 5) Overtrading
We can learn many trading strategies but focus on one strategy development, build up a good mindset, this is not a quick scheme to get rich, keep in minds every tick price movement has the risk, stay tuned to work based trading parameter signal, the loss is part in trading that sometimes inevitable, accept it don't be angry, overtrading is not a good idea, stay work-based plan trading.
Forex trading is very different compare to conventional trading, in forex, the main point is about quality trading, not quantity trading, which makes many transactions even make confusing to handle all trades.
When I started I felt so distracted in the live market that I couldn’t stick to my trading plan. But after constant efforts and losses, I have gotten better at it and try my best to avoid all types of distractions no matter how profitable they look. Currently, saving my money for future trades by taking small risks.