A lot of people struggle with disciplining themselves when working from home and Forex traders are no exception to this rule.

However, when it comes to successful trading discipline does play a key role.

In this piece we are going over some of the main things that can help traders form a productive routine and make sure that they are not self-sabotaging when they are working (trading) from home.

So let’s get right into it.

Make and follow a schedule

The first thing you need to do after you decide to trade forex from home is to make a routine.

You need to decide on the hours that suit you and see if they coincide with the times in the market when it is most volatile. Usually when the London and New York markets overlap, things are most volatile.

That is often the best time to trade because more volatility means more chances to bag bigger profits.

This, however, only applies to day traders and scalpers.

Trading is like any other work. You have to set some hours that you think you should be trading for and then stick to them.

Just because you are working from home does not mean you don’t need to discipline yourself. In order to make a full time career out of it, you will need to.

Make some rules for yourself

These rules main comprise of not using the computer for any other purpose but trading, not using social media, not getting distracted by things around you, limiting your snack or break time etc.

When you are working for yourself it does not mean that no rules are needed for work now. It just means that you are the one making them. So you can make sure that you are happy with what you have decided and you know why you have made those rules, but make yourself stick to them.

Set aside a space for trading

The environment and space in which your work has a huge impact on productivity. If the space is noisy, if it is cluttered, if there isn’t adequate comfort around you then your productivity will be heavily reduced.

The best thing to do is to design a space that is your ideal trading station. It does not have to be something too lavish or expensive. All you need is  quiet corner to work where you can sit and focus on trading without getting distracted by things and sounds around you.

For example, don’t keep any irrelevant books or magazines in that area because you might start reading them and wasting time. You might also want to make sure it’s clean.

Limit your interaction with the world

Don’t make calls or send texts when you are trading. Don’t allow yourself to aimlessly scroll through social media.

Sometimes even news can be distracting. So you have to make sure you are spending time only on that which is relevant to trading. It is so easy to get sucked in by papers and news on TV and find yourself reading something completely irrelevant.

Work hours are work hours

You have to be firm about some things right from the start. Just like your family would not have come into your office to talk about little things had you been at a formal office, so should they not when you are working from home.

For many people it is not possible to stay completely away from family, especially if you have young kids and that’s fine.

Just do the best you can and try to explain to your family that this is work and so they should treat it as such.

In conclusion

You will find that disciplining yourself can be quite a challenge. This is just human nature that when no one is supervising you and you know you are not answerable to someone you might indulge in self-sabotaging behaviour.

The only time it doesn’t happen is when people really like the work they do.

So this is perhaps the best and final tip to be able to focus on trading: make sure that you genuinely want to become a forex trader.

Good luck!