Forex Trading Risk Management

When it comes to forex trading, risk management is one of the most important topics. Unfortunately, this is one of the reasons why so many traders end up losing money. Their losses are not caused by a lack of market knowledge but by poor forex trading risk management.

Traders who want to become successful must manage risk properly in the forex market. The purpose of this article is to reveal what you need to know about risk management in the forex market, thus outlining the best practices to make your trading experience less stressful.

The importance of risk management in forex trading

Risk management is vital to becoming a successful trader and earning money using the forex market. Risks are inherent in forex trading, and there are two possible outcomes each time you initiate a trade. Either you will lose money, or you will gain it. The challenge faced by every Forex trader is this.

It is not just their lack of skill that causes Forex traders to lose money, but their lack of risk management strategies. Risk management is one such important area that forex traders need to understand at all mediums.

Thus, every trader must have a good understanding of risk and manage it appropriately.

The biggest financial market globally, the stock market, can make huge profits and enormous losses for both individual traders and financial institutions. Therefore, it is essential to learn how to use the primary Forex risk management tactics to profit. In that case, engaging the services of experienced brokers might prove to be a good decision.

5 stars from 881 ratings

Broker Verified

Review

MFSA, LFSA, VFSC, BVIFSC

Bonus Promotion

USD 5

1:1000

Review Sign up Sign up

Top tips for forex risk management

Whether you’re a new trader or a seasoned pro, here are our top Forex risk management tips for reducing your risk:

1. Educate yourself on the risks involved with trading forex

How should you trade? You should educate yourself as much as possible if you are new to trading. No matter how experienced you are with the Forex market, there is always a new lesson to be learned! So keep reading and educating yourself on everything Forex-related.

Forex education is available through various articles, videos, and websites.

Take our Forex 101 Online Trading Course to improve your Forex risk management techniques! In just nine lessons, a trading expert will guide you through how to trade.

2. Utilise a stop-loss order

Have you ever wondered if day traders lose money? Of course, they do. It’s a regular occurrence. But, in the end, you want to make more money than you lost, so you’ll want to make sure that your profits are more significant than your losses. A stop-loss can protect you against significant losses.

By setting a predefined price at which your trade will automatically close, a stop-loss tool will protect your trades from unwanted market movements.

The trade will close when the asset reaches your stop-loss price, thus preventing further losses if you enter a position on the market in hopes of increasing the asset’s value, but it decreases.

Stop losses, however, are not guaranteed. The market can behave erratically at times, creating price gaps. Consequently, a stop-loss order will not be executed at the predetermined level but instead will be activated when the price reaches this level next time. Slippage occurs in this case.

Generally speaking, you should set your stop loss at a level where you cannot lose more than 2% of your trading balance for any given trade.

It is important not to increase your loss margin after setting your stop loss.

3. Secure your profits with a take profit

Take profits are almost identical to stop losses, but, as the name suggests, they have the opposite objective. When a stop loss is used, trades are automatically closed to prevent further losses, while a take profit is used to automatically close trades after a certain profit level has been reached.

You can set both a profit target and, therefore, a take profit by having clear expectations for each trade.

You can also determine what level of risk is appropriate for the trade. Traders generally aim for a 2:1 reward-to-risk ratio, meaning they expect a return twice as high as the risk they are willing to take.

For example, if your take profit is set at 40 pips above your entry price, your stop-loss is 20 pips below entry (i.e., half the distance).

It would help if you considered the level of upside you aspire to and the level of downside loss you can bear. Maintaining your discipline will help you keep your cool when the going gets tough. You will also be aware of the risks versus the rewards.

4. Don’t take too much risk

Forex traders should never take on more risk than they are willing to lose. This is a fundamental rule of risk management. Unfortunately, it is common for those new to Forex trading to break this rule, despite its fundamentality.

Traders who put more at risk than they can afford put themselves at risk. FX markets are highly unpredictable, so traders risk putting their entire portfolio at risk.

Taking on too much risk with each trade suggests that even a tiny sequence of losses is enough to wipe out most of your trading capital.

Here is a tried and true rule to avoid risking more than 2% of your account balance per trade. The size of the open position is often adjusted in response to volatility in the pair they are trading. For example, the size of the open position is often smaller when trading volatile currencies.

Your trading capital may be burnt through if you suffer a terrible loss at some point. After a significant loss, it is tempting to recover your investment in the next trade. However, when you are already low on your account balance, increasing your risk is probably the worst decision you can make.

Instead, you should reduce your trade size or take a break until you have identified a high-probability trade. Be on an even keel in your emotions and your position sizes.

5. Use leverage sparingly

After discussing leverage in the previous section, our next tip is to limit your use.

The use of leverage can increase profit potential, but it can also increase loss potential, increasing risk. For instance, with leverage of 1:30, you can place a trade worth up to $30,000 on an account worth $1,000.

You are therefore exposed to more forex risk when you have higher leverage. To limit your exposure to forex risk management, it is advisable to avoid high leverage if you are a beginner. Utilise leverage only when you understand the potential losses.

By following this advice, you will avoid significant losses to your portfolio. You will also avoid being on the wrong side of the market.

It is not difficult to understand how forex risk management works. However, a tricky aspect of risk management is self-discipline when the markets move against a position.

6. Be realistic about your profit expectations

Because new traders have unrealistic expectations, they take unnecessary risks. As a result, aggressive trading might seem to help them earn a return on their investment faster. The most successful traders, however, earn steady returns.

Keeping a conservative approach and setting realistic goals are the proper steps for trading.

You must be realistic and admit when you are wrong to be realistic. When it becomes clear that a trade was terrible, it is vital to exit quickly. A human tendency is to turn a bad situation into a good one, but this is never the case with Forex trading.

You can prevent making poor trading decisions by keeping this mindset in mind. Trades aren’t opened every minute; instead, trades are opened at the right time and closed prematurely if necessary.

7. Make a plan for trading forex

It is a common mistake for new Forex traders to sign up for a platform and make a trade based on instinct or a news story that they heard that day. While this may result in a few successful trades, they are nothing more than luck.

It would help if you had a trading plan that details at least the following to manage your Forex risk effectively:

Opening a trade
Close it when you’re ready
The risk-to-reward ratio should be as low as possible
You agree to risk a certain percentage of your account per trade

You should adhere to your Forex trading plan no matter what. A trading plan will keep you from losing control of your emotions and prevent you from overtrading.

By making a plan, you understand your entry and exit strategies and know when to take profits or cut losses without getting scared or greedy. In addition, this approach will help you maintain discipline in your trading, which is essential for sound risk management.

Every trading system’s long-term performance will determine whether it is successful or not. So don’t attach too much significance to whether your current trade succeeds or fails.

It would help if you did not try to make your current trade work by breaking, or even bending, the rules of your system.

Learning from the experts is one of the best ways to develop a trading plan.

8. Prepare for worst-case scenarios

We have plenty of past examples of how markets have reacted in particular situations, but no one can predict the Forex market. It is unlikely that what has happened before will happen again, but it shows what is possible.

Therefore, you need to consider the history of the currency pair you are trading. Then, if a lousy scenario occurred again, think about the actions you would need to take to protect yourself.

Unexpected price movements should not be underestimated. However, such scenarios do happen, so you need to plan for them.

9. Be in Control of Your Emotions

The psychology of trading and risk management has many common principles. The ability to control emotions is essential for Forex traders. You will not achieve the profits you want in trading if you cannot control your emotions.

What’s the reason?

Trading rules and strategies are difficult to follow for emotional traders. Nevertheless, markets can turn in traders’ favour even when overly stubborn and think the market will turn to their advantage.

As soon as a trader realises their mistake, they should leave the market and take a minor loss possible. If the trader waits too long, they may lose significant capital. Once out of the market, traders must wait for a genuine opportunity to reenter.

When traders are emotional after a loss, they may make larger trades to regain their losses and increase their risks. Conversely, a trader can stop following proper Forex risk management measures when on a winning streak.

In the end, avoid becoming stressed while trading. Traders should avoid stress when managing risk.

10. Diversify your Forex Portfolio

Forex is no exception to the classic and tried and tested risk management rule of not putting all eggs in one basket. If one market drops, you can protect yourself by having a diverse range of investments, and the performances of other markets hopefully compensate for that drop.

Keeping this information in mind, you can reduce your Forex risk by ensuring that Forex is part of your portfolio, but not all of it. Another way to expand your portfolio is to trade more than one currency pair.

Bottom line

So this has been a complete guide about what risk management in forex trading is and how you can better deal with it in your forex trading journey.

Risk management is one such important area that forex traders need to understand at all mediums. Its main objective is to mitigate all the possible losses in Forex from certain unpredictable foreign exchange rates.

Undoubtedly, it is uneasy to handle and understand risk management for beginners. But don’t worry because a variety of guides and tutorials are available to teach you how risk management can perform in forex trading.

Categories: Traders Blog | Author: jason | Date: 9 February 2022

jason

Jason Morgan is an experienced forex analyst and writer with a deep understanding of the financial markets. With over 13+ years of industry experience, he has honed his skills in analyzing and forecasting currency movements, providing valuable insights to traders and investors.

Forex Content Writer | Market Analyst

Relevant Posts

How to trade forex with $100?

[top_three_brokers] Many people think trading forex requires plenty of money. But this is not the…

eToro vs AvaTrade

[top_three_brokers] Overview AvaTrade is an online trading platform established in 2006. On the other hand,…

NFP Forex – Non Farm Payroll

[top_three_brokers] Non-Farm Payroll, NFP, is one of the most volatile and significant economic indicators released…

What is NFP in Forex?

[top_three_brokers] Non-farm Payrolls (NFP) is one of Forex's most influential market movers. In addition to…

Finviz Forex Review 2022 – Trading Tools

[top_three_brokers] Investors are prone to become so engrossed in research that they overlook the crucial…

STP Brokers South Africa – Straight Through Processing

[top_three_brokers] A lot of traders don't understand the difference between STP and ECN brokers. They…

Stock Brokers in South Africa

[top_three_brokers] In South Africa, are you interested in buying and selling stocks from your home?…

Oinvest Minimum Deposit

[top_three_brokers] [single_affiliate title="" id="12284" size="big"] FSCA licence 42020 is issued to Oinvest, a forex broker…

What is the MACD Forex Indicator on MT4?

[top_three_brokers] Right through this guide, we will have a detailed discussion about the MACD forex…

Market Risk – Protect Your Capital

[top_three_brokers] Market risk is also known as risk of loss which occurs due to factors…

1.

Bonus Promotion
Sign up Sign up

CFD service. Your capital is at risk.
Remember that CFDs are a leveraged product and can result in the loss of your entire capital. Please ensure you fully understand the risks involved.

Minimum Deposit

Welcome Bonus