Applying Forex Trading Knowledge in Other Areas

At first glance, online Forex trading seems to be a very specialized kind of activity with a narrow skill-set and limited area of knowledge. In reality, the list of skills and number of expertise fields that every successful trader acquires can be astounding. Moreover, it is usually unique to each trader as trading styles differ greatly among FX traders even if they trade the same currency pairs.

Transferable skills in trading

A technically minded person might start learning to code in order to automate their trading strategy. Some traders would get fascinated by data analysis and learn everything about it, acquiring necessary data mining skills. Others would gravitate towards fundamental analysis and study a lot about economics, gaining skills related to macroeconomic research. The possibilities are numerous.

Then, it only seems reasonable to assume that traders would be able to use these abilities in some other parts of their life. The skills that could be used that way are usually called transferable, and there is no lack of them in trading. The basic example would be a better understanding of FX rates when traveling or making remittance in various currencies. Another example involves skills and knowledge acquired by experienced fundamental traders — better understanding of the global and regional geopolitical and economic situations results in ability to make more informed choices (electoral voting, long-term investments, life choices). Those technical traders who have spent time learning to code and automate their trading systems would be able to apply their software engineering skills to help in some other daily routines or even to find a nice day job in addition to (or in place of) Forex trading.

Disadvantages?

However, can such knowledge, which was acquired during learning to trade Forex, hurt? Although it is not obvious, it definitely can. First, it is easy to overcomplicate things when you know a lot about something, or, more precisely, if you think that you know a lot. It is also easy to become overconfident in your "smart" decisions only to find out that you have overestimated your level of understanding of currency rates or global economics. Second, the probabilistic approach, which is a real prerequisite to successful financial trading, might turn against you if you try to apply it in areas requiring quick and hard decisions that involve a lot of deterministic if-then connections and intuitive mind activity (which is usually replaced by deliberate mind decisions in successful traders). Fortunately, such situations are rare and are not worth worrying about.

Perhaps, you even have some trader friend who knew some coding before entering online Forex industry, then created expert advisors and indicators in MQL4, improving their skills and learning coding best practices. Or maybe you know someone who was able to adopt and apply thinking in terms of probabilities in a few other areas to help better understand long-term investments and to stay away from many choices that had had poor calculated expectancy. This isn't so rare with Forex traders.

If you want to talk about how you apply the knowledge and skills you have acquired while trading Forex, please do so on our forum.