Why you Need to Trade the Markets like a Sniper

​In my previous article, I wrote about how important it is to trade like a military ranger, on how applying rangers’ characters and mindset can greatly help us to be successful in the markets. Rangers are elite-soldiers, and among them, there are few super-elite ones that caught my attention. These are the Snipers. I have lots to write about snipers since these elite soldiers are one of those I admire the most when I was in the military. Even in movies we saw, snipers are highlighted and they make the war movie more exciting. Let me mention some of their distinct characteristics below that will surely help us to be a successful trader. So let us talk more about Snipers. When I was in the military training, we had a basic marksmanship course (shooting course) in which we were taught how to shoot properly using our rifles. I thought it was just easy to just shoot until I found out that shooting is a skill that needs to be learned over time. Snipers do not only have extraordinary skills in shooting but also a remarkable character. You can never be a good sniper if you don’t have superb patience. I remember during the training, we have what call as “dry shooting” in which we aim at our target, adjust our body and muscles to the most comfortable position to aim our rifles, apply proper breathing rhythm and pull the trigger without bullets for how many sessions. This is very frustrating since you need to be under the heat of the sun for how many hours aiming your target. The training is specially designed to shape a sniper’s patience and attitude. Snipers are very important units of the military. They can pin-down high ranking profiles of the enemy with just one shot. Their mission is very critical since they are deployed with just a few of them, so the dangers are there. It is important that they shouldn’t be detected so they wear a camouflage suit to hide themselves in the bushes with a very limited to zero movement. They even hide like you really cannot see them since they are very good at blending with the environment.

​Be a Forex Sniper... So how does this relate to Forex Trading? Well it is very much related in such a way that Forex Traders needs to act and behave like snipers in their trading approach. Let me enumerate some:

• Patience - Snipers never pull the trigger unless they are sure that the target will be hit, and be killed on the spot. They only have few bullets but that number of bullets are not wasted since it only hunts high-profile enemy targets in a "one-shot-one-kill" rule. They have very high precision because they already have an "X" mark for the enemy. Forex Traders should do the same, not wasting every penny just for a low-quality trade. Every dollars that we risk should only be for "big movements" and "high probability trades" in the markets. We should only risk our money for high-quality/ high probability trades which I will be discussing on my next articles. With that being said, traders applying snipers way will trade less, but has high precision. Patience is the number one quality of a trader, it is a matter of life and death in the forex market. I will also be writing about patience and how to develop one in the next articles.

• Pre-planned Target - Snipers already calculated the target's movement, speculated the possible escape route and even the possible counter snipers location. They know what they are looking for, what position the target is in, and the wind direction that may affect the bullets projectile. Every details are pre-calculated and with that, Forex traders should do the same. In Forex, we only pull the trigger of buying or selling once we see what we are exactly looking for. Snipers calculate the movement of enemy which related to knowing the Trend first in the markets. They also wait for the enemy to step on their "X"-mark or that is the "kill-zone" which relates to waiting for the markets to be in the "Key Levels" in the chart; and lastly, they wait for the target to either sit down, face front or in a specific position which relates to Price Action to form in the Key Level.

• Anticipation - Snipers are very good at anticipation especially if their target is moving. They know what angle to fire and the impact to the target at a certain distance and angle. They were able to "master" every movement of the enemy. In Forex, one thing a trader should do is practice, get familiar with markets movement before risking your money into it. Experience will make us great traders since we can easily spot high probability trades based on our market exposures. In the markets, it is very important to focus on analyzing few markets first, like major currency pairs and be a "jedi master" to it. There is really no excuse, good results only happen if a trader masters what he/she is doing. Never expect to hit a target if it is your first time sniping. You have your own time, so focus on developing your skills, adding your experience and applying appropriate strategy like Price-Action Trading.

Conclusion

Our aim as traders is to maximize our win in the markets and control our loses. That is the only way for us to sustain and make money in the markets in the long run to achieve our life dreams. But then again, we need to realize that it is not as easy as that. We need mastery first. We need to pass the process. Applying the characteristic of a Sniper can truly help us to succeed in Forex Trading. To sum up, we need to continue learning in the process and have a superb-discipline to follow a routine to be an expert market technician. Snipers will remind us to be a quality-trader than quantity trader, to be patient to wait for our signal to show up before pulling up the trigger (buying/selling, to anticipate the markets movement, and lastly to plan our trades and sticking to a plan. Have an awesome trading journey!