Like many other beginner traders, I lost a pretty substantial amount of money during my first year of trading derivatives. I had to learn the ins and outs of trading, hoping to get better at decision-making. I had to try out different strategies to find out which one worked best for my individual style. Of course, losing strategies were discarded, while profitable strategies were refined and improved over time.
I’ve been trading on Binomo for over a year now, and throughout that entire time, there were four things I did that continuously gave me good results. Because of that, I called them my four Binomo successful trading secrets – my must-dos in order to succeed at trading on Binomo.
Curious about what those trading secrets are? Well, today’s your lucky day! In this article, I’ll share the four trading secrets I learned while trading on the platform.
Take the practice account seriously
Honestly, Binomo users are very lucky to be able to use a practice account where they can practice their trading skills without losing their own hard-earned money.
This means that users can easily familiarize themselves with trading and even practice new trading strategies without any real risks. This is a great benefit that you should take advantage of and use to full potential.
When I was just starting out, I made sure to take the practice account seriously and use it the same way I would use a real account. I would practice my trading strategies there just to get an initial feel for them. It’s also the perfect way for knowing if a strategy does suit my trading style. If I manage to make at least a few successful trades that way, then I’ll implement the same strategy to my real account.
My efforts all paid off in the end because when I finally moved to the real account, I was already as prepared as I could be. I already had a clear idea of what strategy would work best, the best amount to invest, and what the best markets for trading are. This is the proof that you need to take the practice account seriously and treat it like it was a real account.
Think about it. If you don’t take the demo account seriously, then all the time you spend “practicing” will all go to waste. Many beginner traders use their demo account as if it’s something to be played with – they invest large amounts of virtual money, they don’t implement the right strategies, and they basically just play around on the platform. They probably think, “Well, this isn’t real money, so what’s there to lose?”
A lot, actually. The purpose of the demo account is to help you get started on the real account. So if you practice the wrong strategy or the wrong approach, then you’ll simply carry over those mistakes to the real account. And that leads to real repercussions, like losing large amounts of money in the real world.
My recommendation to all beginner traders out there is that they spend a lot of time on the practice account first before diving into the real deal. Not only does it help you build confidence, but you’ll also have a clear grasp of what works and what doesn’t even before you start investing real-world money.
Think of it as something that pro athletes would do. They practice a lot – in fact, most of the time, they’re simply practicing, spending even more time there than they would actually play on the real playing field. For just a few hours or even a few minutes on the actual game, pro athletes would still spend a lot of time practicing. And afterward, regardless if they succeed or lose, they will simply go back to practicing in order to get better.
Practice makes perfect, so they say. Even if it doesn’t, well, at least you’ll get a whole lot better. Binomo lets you practice those much-needed skills beforehand, so make sure to use it to its full potential.
Don’t do 60-second trades
The reason why many people skip practicing is that they would rather make a quick buck than put in real effort. That’s also one of the main reasons why so many beginner traders prefer investing in 1-minute, or 60-second, trades.
That said, most of the time, 1-minute trades are also very stressful. You might feel anxious or even fearful. You might have a hard time thinking clearly because of those emotions.
If you gain in a multiple 60-second trades as a beginner trader, you might think that’s a good thing. And money-wise, it is, of course. But one of the four trading secrets I learned after 1 year on Binomo is that overconfidence is a bad thing. Although you might think that you’ve discovered the perfect way to make a lot of money at once, you have to think of the opposite scenario too. You could lose a lot of money in just a few losing trades, or even just a single huge losing trade. Have you ever thought of that?
Remember, big rewards equal big risks. The more you have to gain from something, the more you have to lose from it. 60-second trades are the most volatile trades out there. Prices are fluctuating constantly, which means even just a small decrease or increase in price can lead to huge losses.
Of course, even longer timeframes have price fluctuations, but they’re less significant, so you don’t lose as much money as 60-second trades. It’s also much easier to analyze the market and study the patterns when you’re trading on a longer timeframe.
Always check your trading history
All traders out there have a singular goal: to keep losses at a minimum and to keep gains at a maximum. There’s no trader out there in the right mind who would continuously make losing trades on purpose.
One of the trading secrets you should know when you’re trading is to always review your trading history. That’s right, your trading history. Never heard of the term?
Back in the days, if you wanted to have a reviewable trading history, you would have to keep a handwritten log of all the trades you performed. You would then have to review it every day in order to see how your performance went.
These days, it’s so easy to keep track of your trades automatically. In fact, Binomo even has a free tool to help you document your trades automatically. You can check it on the left bar of your trading interface. It’s called the ‘Trading History Tool’ and you can click on it to see all the trades you’ve gained in or lost.
Make sure that you’re always checking this tool, at least once a day, to see how your daily performance goes. Did you make a profit on this particular day? Did you make more losses than gains? Where exactly did you go wrong?
That last question is the reason why trading history is so important – because you can use it to assess your performance and see how you can improve next time. That’s why it’s one of my favorite trading secrets, and why it deserves to be on this list.
That said, you can also uncover more details by simply using the trading history tool. For instance, you can use this tool to determine which financial instruments led to more successful trades. You can also use it to see the most effective strategies and the best time schedules for you. With the trading history tool, you might discover that trading the EUR/USD currency pair from 10am to 11am is more effective than trading the same pair from 2pm to 3pm. This allows you to adjust your current trading strategy to reflect what actually works.
Create a realistic and an attainable money-making plan
I mentioned in the beginning that I was losing a lot of money as a beginner trader. Aside from my lack of skills, obviously, there was also another reason why I wasn’t making a lot of profitable trades: I didn’t have a realistic and attainable money-making plan.
In fact, for a period of time, I didn’t have a plan at all. I would simply trade whatever I felt like that day, in a random market, and at a random time schedule. I didn’t bother setting goals or making plans. If something worked out, then I would continue my aimless trading. If it didn’t, then I would move on until I found something that worked again.
Evidently, this kind of ‘strategy’ didn’t work. I lost more money than I ever made during this time. When I finally lost more than 80% of my total account balance, that was when I decided that I should probably start taking trading seriously. I took a look at what successful traders did and tried to analyze their own strategies.
That was how I came up with the last of my trading secrets: to create my own money-making trading plan.
So, what exactly is included in a money-making plan?
First of all, you have to make sure that you’re already following the above trading secrets before you start making a money-making plan. That’s because you’re going to have to use your own individual learnings and experiences when making your own personalized plan.
In my case, I practiced first for 3 consecutive weeks, with the goal of finding the best financial instruments, markets, and time schedules in mind. I was also experimenting with the best amount of money to invest per trade. The trading history tool was really helpful during this time because it helped me analyze things better.
Despite having this nifty tool at my disposal, I also wrote in a trading journal that was a lot more detailed. It contained the financial instruments I traded, what times I traded them, the strategies I used, and even the amount of time I allocated to each trade.
After 3 weeks of this intensive practice and planning, I decided I was finally ready for the real account. The last step before doing so, of course, was to make a money-making plan that was both realistic and attainable.
These are the things I included in mine. Take note, the answers to these vary from person to person, so make sure that your plan reflects your personal trading experience.
- How much money should I deposit?
- How much should I invest per trade?
- What strategies should I use?
- What time interval will I trade?
- What charts and indicators should I use?
- What are the best markets for me?
- What are the best times for trading?
- When should I stop trading? (In my case, I stop trading if I have 3 consecutive losses)
- When should I withdraw my profits?
- What percentage of my profits will I withdraw or reinvest?
This is just an example of what is in a money-making plan that actually works. You could also add more questions if you want. Again, money-making plans are very personal, which means they vary from person to person.
I hope you learned something from my trading secrets! Have you been trading on Binomo for long? If you haven’t done so yet, make sure to open a free practice account first! Try to implement my 4 trading secrets and see how they’ll help you reach your full potential better.
Good luck on your trading journey with Binomo!