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Why You Need A Backup Plan When Trading Forex

In this video:

00:58    The Importance of computer backups
03:10    Having a VPS
04:32    A lot of success in 12-hour chart trades

 

 Why You Need A Backup Plan In Forex Trading

 Do you have yourself a backup if your computer crashes and everything goes wrong? Let me explain exactly what I mean right now.

 Hi Forex traders, it’s Andrew Mitchem here and I’m the owner of The Forex Trading Coach and I want to talk about having a backup plan. Well we allu have plans in our trading and everything else that goes on but do you have a backup plan if the worse happens to your computer?

 Now the reason why I want to talk about this is because I’ve had this exact the same experience myself just last week. I’ve had a number of issues with my computer, it wouldn’t start and I took  it to the computer shop but luckily because I have a plan, first of all I’ve got a very reliable computer shop who look after me but also I have everything backed up.

Backing Up Your Information

Now it’s important that you have things like Google Drive or Dropbox, you have your computer, your software backed up to maybe a portable hard drive or even backed up incrementally offsite so it’s stored on another server elsewhere whatever it is, make sure that you have that in place.

Also if you are using a desktop all of the time for your main trading like I do when I’m trading here from my home;

• Make sure that you have a laptop and it’s up to date

• Make sure you have all your trading software on there

• Make sure that you have copies of if you’re using MT4 let’s say, like I do

• Make sure you have your indicators, your scripts, any robots, your profiles, your templates, everything backed up

 

So all you need to do is either download another version of the platform or get it straight off for the backup file whatever it is that you have. But it’s really important that you have everything ready to go.

The other thing also to consider of course is an Internet backup. Now personally if I ever not only do I have two separate connections one hard-wired and one wireless , I also have an iPhone hotspot if I ever need it and of course for travelling that’s just fantastic because it allows you to just trade off your laptop.

Do you have an iPad or tablet? Do you can or do you trade off your phone whatever it is make sure that you have a good number of reliable backup sources that prevents that whole panic from happening. Because when your computer does go wrong, you get a virus or something goes electrical fault whatever it might be. It’s never you know at the best time and there never is a good time. So you want to try to eliminate as much of that headache and stress as possible when that happens. Now this is especially true if you have trades open, now of course you need to potentially have your broker’s email address and phone number handy. Don’t make it something that’s a headache to find. All those things in place having a plan will really help you should the worse go wrong.

The other thing to consider also is a VPS, a virtual server so maybe like a shared virtual server so you can have your trading platform on there, which means that you can login at any computer anywhere and have your trading platform up and running without needing your own computer so it’s a really important point. It’s not something that a lot of people discuss but like I said when the worse happens and things go wrong make sure that you have a plan ready in place that doesn’t interrupt your trading at all.

 

Current Market Conditions

The other thing I want to talk about of course just the market conditions. I think the market conditions right now are pretty tough to be trading right now. On the longer timeframe charts I found the daily charts, one day the market’s up and it’s down and it’s up. The Yen for instance, go and look at the Yen on your charts for this past week. One day it’s been really strong, it’s been weak and it’s been strong, it’s been weak. It’s just been a nightmare to trade on the longer time frame charts. I’ve personally found that 4-hour charts have been fantastic this week. Had a lot of really good success on those but daily charts have been a lot harder to trade.

I’ve got some trades open on a lot longer time frame like the weekly and the monthly and I’ve also taken a number of trades on the hourly charts. Now the other thing that I’ve shared with my clients was I’ve had an indicator written that allows you to trade other time frames that aren’t available in MT4. I’ve had a lot of success trading 12-hour chart trades and today being Friday, I’ve actually taken a number of trades that are open right now in my computer beside me here on the 12-hour charts and I’ve shown a lot of good setups. A lot of them have been showing of potential strength coming into the U.S. Dollar (USD) as we head on to Friday so by the time you see this you will know whether that U.S. Dollar strength continued or not but right now it’s showing me that this potential U.S. strength for Friday.

So that’s it for now. A slightly different video and podcast this week as you can see behind me if you’re watching the video it’s now spring time here in New Zealand so really looking forward to getting outside and trading those  longer time frame charts which means you can go and do other things, more enjoyable things than sitting and watching charts. Charts are great to watch but you don’t have to be trading all of the time. You can trade the longer time frames, the 4-hourlies, the 12-hourlies, dailies, weeklies, etc. which means that you’re not sat watching every single pip move up and down which unfortunately so many people do.

The Reality of Forex Trading

Trading is about having a great lifestyle and enjoying your trading and making it realistic. You can’t sit there for 8 to 10 hours a day watching charts five days a week and tell me that you enjoy doing that all of the time because it’s not just realistic even if you’re making a huge amount of money from it. It doesn’t lend itself to being practical all of the time which is why I much prefer to trade those longer time frame charts. So trade less, higher returns per trade when they’re profitable trades and do things like go outside here and enjoy the great outdoors.

So that’s it for this week. Have a great weekend and I look forward to bringing your more this time next week.

This is Andrew Mitchem from The Forex Trading Coach.