WHAT IS TRADE ?

Trade is an act which we do in order to gain profit. Does this happen? No, especially, when it's related to the game of speculation. Be it share, commodity or forex trader, nobody is left unscathed.

To be a winner, a trader has to have certain qualities. If a person who wants to be a trader does not have such inbuilt characteristics, then they have to be imbibed and practiced before venturing into this field.

I MONEY MANAGEMENT

Disciplined Approach:

Few traders implement disciplined, professional money management strategies. Given the recent price action in the fields of stocks, forex and commodities, it’s time to get serious about management of money and risk. Professional risk and money management strategies are the foundations of success. Money management is a defensive concept. It keeps you in the game to play another day. You know how many shares or contracts to trade at a given point and whether you have enough new money to trade additional positions if required.

Risk Management:

Money management is basically risk management. Risk management is the difference between success or failure in trading. Trading correctly is 90% money and portfolio management. Unfortunately, this is a fact that most people want to avoid or don't understand. Once you have your risk management in place, you are in control of the situation. The moot concept of risk management lies in being amply rewarded for the right risks and minimally punished for wrong ones. This can be achieved by putting in place correct stop losses, trailing stop losses and take profits. 

Optimization:

Money management optimizes capital usage. Few have the ability to view their portfolios as a whole. Even fewer traders and investors make the move from a defensive or reactive view of risk to an offensive or proactive posture, in which risks are actively managed for a more efficient use of capital.

Draw Downs:

All systems have draw downs. You can't have a profitable methodology, without taking some calculated risks thus, some losses. Trend following draw downs are a function of the risk level desired. Risk level among Trend Followers varies depending upon the size of the profit they seek. If you sought 100%+ a year gains you must be prepared for the possibility of a 30% draw down. 

Positional or Contract Sizing:

Always keep the size of the contract one-third when playing short-trend as compared to longer trends. For trading long trends, instead of bulk buying, put money step by step. This way you can lower your positional cost, thus the profit and loss balance shall be tilted in your favour.

II TRADER'S PSYCHOLOGY

There are many characteristics and skills required in order to be successful in the financial markets. The ability to understand the inner workings of a company, the ability to determine the direction of the market are a few of the key traits needed, but not one of these is as important as the ability to contain emotions and maintain discipline.
The psychological aspect of trading is extremely important, and the reason for that is fairly simple. A trader is often darting in and out of stocks or contracts on short notice, and is forced to make quick decisions. To accomplish this, they need a certain presence of mind. They also, by extension, need discipline, so that they stick with previously established trading plans and know when to book profits and losses. 

Don't Get Psyched:

When a trader's screen is pulsating red (a sign that stocks are down) and bad news comes about a certain stock or the general market, it's not uncommon for the trader to get scared. When this happens, they may over-react and feel compelled to liquidate their holdings and go to cash or to refrain from taking any risks. Now, if they do that they may avoid certain losses but they also will miss out on the gains.
Traders need to understand what fear is, simply a natural reaction to what they perceive as a threat  to their profit or money-making potential. Quantifying the fear might help i.e., by pondering what they are afraid of and why. Doing this ahead of time and knowing how they may instinctively react to or perceive certain things, a trader can hope to isolate and identify those feelings during a trading session. Once identified, try to focus by moving past the emotion. Of course this may not be easy and may take practice, but it's necessary for the health of an investor's portfolio. 

Curb your Headless Desire:
Headless desire or greed in investors cause them to hang on to winning positions for too long, trying to get every pip. This trait can be devastating to returns because the trader is always running the risk of getting blown out of a position. Greed is not easy to overcome, the reason being within many of us there seems to be an instinct to always try to do better, to try to get just a little more. A trader should recognize this instinct if it is present, and develop trade plans based upon rational business decisions, not on what amounts to an emotional whim or potentially harmful instinct.

Emphasize on Rules:
To get their heads in the right place before they feel the emotional or psychological crunch, investors can look at creating trading rules ahead of time. They can establish limits where they lay out guidelines for when they will exit a trade, regardless of emotions. Of course, establishing price targets might not be the only rule. Like, if positive or negative earnings or government policy news pertaining to  specific securities  comes out, then trader will take position. Also, if it becomes apparent that a large buyer or seller enters the market, the trader might want to get out. Traders might also consider setting limits on the amount they win or lose in a day. This works for investors because sometimes it is better to just go on, take the money and run, as one bird in the hand is better than two birds on the tree.

Chalk out A Plan of Action:
Traders should try to learn about their area of interest as much as possible. Start by educating yourself about that particular field by going to trading seminars and conferences. Devote as much time as possible to the research process i.e., studying charts, speaking with trading gurus, reading trade journals and doing background work such as macroeconomic analysis or industry analysis. A wealth of knowledge can help the trader overcome fear issues in itself. In addition, it's important that the trader consider experimenting with new things from time to time. One of the best ways a trader can learn is by experimenting but, within reason. This experience may also help reduce emotional influences.

Finally, traders should periodically review and assess their performance. This means not only should they review their returns and their individual positions, but also how they prepared for a trading session, how up-to-date they are on the markets and how they're progressing in terms of ongoing education. This periodic assessment can help the trader correct mistakes, which may help enhance their overall returns. It may also help them to maintain the right mindset and help them to be psychologically prepared to do business.

Nut Shell:
It's often important for a trader to be able to read a chart and have the right technology so that their trades get executed, but there is often a psychological component to trading that shouldn't be overlooked. Setting trading rules, building a trading plan, doing research and getting experience are all simple steps that can help a trader overcome these little mind matters, called psychology.

III AUTOMATED EXPERT ADVISOR

A Forex / Commodity / Share expert advisor offers a lot of benefits over manual trading:

Discipline:

Discipline, is one of the most important aspects to successful trading of the foreign exchange or any other market. A trader must have the self-discipline to take trading seriously, to treat it like a business, and most importantly to stick to his rules and guidelines when it comes to getting in and out of trades. This is much easier said than done and the majority of traders will tell you they started losing money when they stopped following their rules. But a robot only knows how to follow its programming or inbuilt rules.

Experience:

Experience, or lack there of it. The vast majority of traders treat the markets like a casino, playing with money they really can't afford to lose. Thus, making poor decisions because of lack the experience. They enter the market haphazardly with little or no research or reason and hope for a windfall return! The markets in this case, will happily take their money leaving them frustrated that it didn't do what they thought it would. Trading for profit then becomes about having the knowledge of when, how, and why to trade and the discipline to implement it.

How does all this apply to an Expert Advisor or Forex / Stock Market Robot? Utilizing advanced computer programming to test and back-test literally hundreds of different strategies and parameters, A professional FX or Market trader can combine the efficiency of advanced computer programs with his own massive and successful experience to create an expert advisor. These robots can be the perfect blend of years of professional experience, knowledge, and expertise with the ultimate non-emotional, rule-following, automatic trading system.

Freedom:

Lets not ignore one other major advantage an automated trading system has over manual trading, freedom of time! Utilizing a robot can free up immense amount of time. If you're trying make a full time income by trading currencies or any other market instruments, no longer does one need to stare at the computer watching charts all day. Even if you already have a full time job, with some of the best FX or any other Chart robots you can literally put them on autopilot where they'll watch and analyze the market all day. When the conditions are right, they'll place trades on your behalf. You can spend more time with your family, focus on your day job, play a little golf. Just check on your account every day and watch your balance grow.