If you want any chance to make money on the Forex Market, you better have a plan – because without one you might just as well burn your cash now and get it over with. I know traders who understand all the terminology, have studied all the indicators and have taken expensive courses and DO NOT HAVE A PLAN and yes, they keep losing money! DUH!!

First of all, let’s make one thing Perfectly Clear. With a GOOD PLAN and with good Forex knowledge you CAN make money – in fact, a whole lot of money! However, if you are one of the majority of traders who repeatedly make more bad trades than good, then you need to read this, or just burn your cash now!

I remain amazed at the number of traders that get so caught up in trading that they never just sit down, take a deep breath and ask themselves, what the heck is my plan. You all know that if you were going to travel from North America to Europe you would have a plan. You would not just start walking and get there! It really won’t work! Try it! You can practice meditation, you can run every day, you can lift weights, you can put pictures of Europe on your fridge for motivation, you can book time off work, you can learn to speak French and German, you can read maps, you can draw lines on your maps - all great things, but they won’t help unless you have a PLAN that will actually GET YOU THERE!

These plans are often relatively easy, but so widely overlooked. To get from North America to Europe you can ask someone who has successfully done it and they will likely tell you to save your money on all that other stuff and invest in an airplane or boat ride to Europe! Voila! See how easy that was. So why do so many traders, or at least wanna be traders, not understand the same is true with the Forex Market? YOU MUST HAVE A PROVEN PLAN! And there are many!

I asked a trader, who has been trading for just over one year now, what time a day he trades. He told me that he trades whenever he gets the time. Ouch, no wonder he has been losing so much. When does your flight leave for Europe? – “when I get time”. Good plan! I asked him what kind of trading he does. He asked me what I meant. Do you sail, do you surf, do you hedge, do you specialize in certain pairs, do you do anything on a regular basis? No, was his answer. I just kinda do what I feel is best! Are you kidding me! Would he actually show up at the airport with no luggage, no ticket, no idea when an appropriate flight might leave and actually tell me that he had a feeling it would just work? Maybe, but I doubt it. WOW.

Before any of us laugh, do we all have a great plan? Does it work enough of the time that you make regular profits? If you do, you don’t need to read the rest of this article. Seriously, you already know this stuff, because you will not make regular profits in this business without a great plan. PERIOD! Do I sound a little tough? YES – I want you to make the kind of profits possible with a great plan and there is no polite way to beat around the bush – it simply will not happen any other way – despite the endless crap (excuse me) on the internet these days telling you things like ‘just hit the button when it turns green’ – OH MY how can they get away with this!

Sorry, I get so passionate about this because I just hate rip off artists, especially when it comes to Forex Trading, knowing that great plans can yield great profits and those of you who are truly interested and committed to learning deserve to know this so you too can start planning properly.

A great Forex Trading plan starts with the end in mind, just like planning a trip – where do you want to go? How much money do you have? How much time can you spend? When can you afford that time? Then, and only then you can decide what skill-set, tools and training would make that plan work the best for you. Then ask yourself, what do people who successfully trade ‘that way’ do to make it work? With a plan in place, you can start to focus on the details relevant to that plan rather than being so overwhelmed with the complexity of trading that you revert back to ‘feelings’. That just won’t work on a consistent basis at all!