TRADING PLAN

Most of you have been Reading about what could be the best way to start in this world, I know, some of my blogs have been about the best for beginners, but I can avoid this one, actually, is a big next step to keep in mind.
Doesn’t matter if your plan is good or bad, even if it was or is good, you won’t know until you use it, so make whatever plan and try to be discipline for that, so you can be ready to understand the best way to make another great plan. Trading plans can be as simple or complex as you want it, but the most important thing is that you actually HAVE a plan and you FOLLOW the plan. With that said, here are some of the essentials that every trading plan should have.
These are some steps, tips, stuff you can read and writing down, try don’t forget anything, are important to you.

Routine
For me this is too important, that´s why is the first. A plan will determine three very important things: when you will analyze the market and plan your trades, when you will actually watch the market to take trades, and when you will evaluate your actions during your trading day.

System
Something else too important, so you have been working for more than 2 months in a demo account, so you can make up your mind about if this is the perfecto for you, or do you need try another one, could be better. If you are not really happy with it, it´s time to go out there and looking for another one. Include all the necessary information about your system such as: time frames you use, criteria for entries and exits, how much you risk during each trade, which currency pair(s) you trade and how many lots you trade.

Mindset
I know this can be hard for you, actually this is hard for everyone, more for beginners. Let´s suppose you have everything I said, so now you have to be careful, I know, the way you trade is for you, nobody else, but you have to know that there are so much people with you in the market, and you are one of millions. Most of traders are not getting any emotions in the market, something like, they have no emotions, neutral, so they can think clearly and this can help is a rush situation, pay attention because if you want to trade with short Frames Times this can be for you. This section of your trading plan will describe what frame of mind you will be in when you are trading.

Trading journal
It´s not the same as a routine, this will be a valuable tool to helping you become a better trader. Make sure you log all your trades and why you took them. Later down the road you can look back and evaluate your trades and see how you are progressing. I’ve looked back at my trade journal and have seen just how much I’ve grown as a trader. My first entries were very basic and as I’ve progressed, my trades make more sense to me now. I’ve gained a lot of confidence throughout my career and by looking back at my trades, I’ve really been able to evaluate myself and see if I am getting closer to my goals. This tool will help you tremendously in the long run, so take a few minutes each day and log your trades. You’ll be happy you did!

Weaknesses
You are not the only one, there are a lot of people with the same feeling. We just don’t like talking about them. But ask yourself this, “How will you ever get better, if you don’t admit to what you need to work on?” This section will be an objective way to keep track of things that you need to work on in order to become a better trader.
I don’t want to change everything about you, you are as you are, don’t waste time changing your feelings, emotions, thinking, everything, try to be careful of getting that in the market, there are people smart out there, think like them.
Goals

Don’t pretend to get millions in one day, it´s awful to think that. Don’t even think about it. Sit down and really think about what you want to accomplish as a trader. Do you want to trade for a living? How much return can you realistically expect from trading based on your knowledge and experience? Your goals don’t even have to be about making money. Maybe you would like to be more disciplined or gain more confidence. These goals can be personal. What do YOU want to get out of this? Use these goals as your motivation when times get tough. These goals will be your vision, and you must always keep your eyes on the prize!
Do you need more reasons to do this? These are the last 2
It keeps you in the right direction

Consistency is very important to have in your trading routine because it allows you to truly measure how successful you are as a trader. If you have a sound trading system but always break your rules, how can you ever really know how good your system really is? Your trading plan will keep you on target. Read it every day and stick to it.

Trading is a business and successful businesses ALWAYS have plans
I have never seen a successful business not start out with a plan. Walmart, Mcdonals, Coca-Cola had plans and now you can look at them I’m sure almost anyone can make a better hamburger than McDonalds, but the difference between them and the individual is that they have a successful business plan that guides them to success.

The difference between a losing trader and a successful trader is the PLAN. If you have a good trading plan and you are disciplined enough to stick to it, you will be successful!
This are some steps I think can be the best for you, obviously, if you have more, you can share them with us, beginners are by millions so you can help them.

Japanese Candlesticks

Most of you have to know how the candlesticks work, because if you already have a software to trade, this candlesticks are key to understand the market, most of people use them to trade every day, it doesn´t matter if you have MT4 or Mt3, the thing is you can see this everywhere, even, most of the pictures you can find about software for fx, the candlesticks are in there.
Let me tell you a little bit about this, I can trade without them, they tell me everything about the market.
Japanese candlesticks originate from the Japanese rice trading markets in the 1700’s. They were used to track rice futures on the world’s first futures exchange. When the price is increasing, the candle turns blue as it heads higher. When the price is decreasing, the candle turns red as it moves lower. Candlesticks have a 2 wicks and a body in the middle. One end of the body represents the opening price, and the other end represents the closing price. The wicks on either end indicate the high and the low.
The kind of chart displays each time period in a "candlestick" format. As in the bar chart, the candlestick shows the open, high, low and close of a specific time period. A candlestick can either be solid or transparent. Its appearance depends on the relationship between the opening and the closing price. If the close is higher than the open, the candlestick is transparent or empty.

If the close is above the open, then a hollow candlestick (usually displayed as white) is drawn. If the close is below the open, then a filled candlestick (usually displayed as black) is drawn. The hollow or filled section of the candlestick is called the “real body” or body. The thin lines poking above and below the body display the high/low range and are called shadows. The top of the upper shadow is the “high”. The bottom of the lower shadow is the “low”.
Long bodies indicate strong buying or selling. The longer the body is, the more intense the buying or selling pressure.
Short bodies imply very little buying or selling activity. In street forex lingo, bulls mean buyers and bears mean sellers.
The upper and lower shadows on candlesticks provide important clues about the trading session.
Upper shadows signify the session high. Lower shadows signify the session low.
Candlesticks with long shadows show that trading action occurred well past the open and close.
Candlesticks with short shadows indicate that most of the trading action was confined near the open and close.
Candlestick charts have three major advantages when compared to bar charts.
1. Candlestick charts are much more "visually immediate" than bar charts. Once you get accustomed to the candle chart, it is much easier to see what has happened for a specific period - be it a day, a week an hour or one minute.
2. With a bar chart you need to mentally fill in the price action. You need to say to yourself, "The left tick says that's where it opened, the right tick where it closed. Now I see. It was an up day." With a candlestick chart, this is all done for you. You can spend your energy on analysis - not on figuring out what happened with the price.
3. With candles you can spot trends more quickly by looking for whether the candles are clear or colored. Within a trend, you can easily tell what a stock did in a specific period.
Most importantly, candles are vital for spotting reversals. These reversals are usually short term - precisely the kind the swing trader is looking for. When traditional technical analysis talks about reversals, usually it is referring to formations that occur over long periods of time. Typical reversal patterns are the "double top" and the "head and shoulders." By definition, these involve smart money distributing their shares to naive traders and normally occur over weeks or even months.