Seykota developed and traded the first computerized trading system for client money and increased one clients account from $5,000 to $15,000,000 in just 12 years. He was influenced by Richard Donchian's 4 Week rule which still remains one of the best trading systems and also had a big influence on Richard Dennis when devising the Turtle trading program.

He compared trading to surfing and takes the view that to be a successful trader, you need to know nothing about the resonance and physics of waves ( why trends develop) to surf them and get a good and safe ride. You simply follow the wave (or trend) and go with the flow and while not every wave is the same when you surf it your skills are adapted to the wave as it develops.

To trade long term trends, all you need is to learn some simple skills and learn to follow them with confidence and you will be getting in on all the big trends and profits.

Below are some great quotes which all traders can learn from:

“A Fish – at One with the Water sees nothing between himself and his prey A trader at one with his feelings feels nothing between himself and executing his method.”

A trader has only one focus when trading and that's making a profit and all outside influences which can distract him are blocked out and trading effectively is effortless and should require no thinking or effort, as your Forex education and strategy is applied with discipline to catch profits from big trends.

“As with all markets, to get a good piece of the major move, you may have to ride out some corrections.”

Most traders simply can't do this – as soon as they have a profit they want to bank out but if you do this you will never catch any really big trends and profits. The trend follower rides out corrections and sees them as just market noise and focuses on the long term trend which can be many weeks, months or years in some instances.

“If the trend is already in progress, one way to get on board is to enter a stop order just outside the recent trading range. If a trend is not currently in process, you can enter a stop order outside the long-term trading range.”

Trading breakouts of ranges to new lows or highs is a proven way to make money but very few traders have the patience or the discipline to do it and this is the reason it's such an effective trading strategy to use. Never trade in the noise of the market or try and predict Forex prices, wait for confirmation of high odds entry points for your trading signals via breakouts.

“Markets are fundamentally volatile. No way around it. Your problem is not in the maths. There is no maths to get you out of having to experience uncertainty.”

“The markets are the same now as they were five or ten years ago because they keep changing-just like they did then.”

Markets are volatile and there is no way of modelling volatility with certainty, markets will surprise even the cleverest or best trading systems. You need to manage risk and uncertainty and that comes from within you.

“Here’s the essence of risk management: Risk no more than you can afford to lose, and also risk enough so that a win is meaningful. If there is no such amount, don’t play.”

You have to trade and when you do, you need to be trading for a big enough profit to cover your inevitable losses also – many traders make to much effort in their trading and want to force profits from the market – what happens? They end up taking low odds trades and losing – for long periods of time the best trade is actually no trade.

"Everybody gets what they want out of the market."

This is so true – how many traders really want to make money and make the necessary changes to their trading strategies to do so? Not many in my view. While trading currencies is essentially easy to learn very few succeed and this is simply because they cannot change their mindset to the one which is needed to win at Forex trading

Final Words

If you haven't read "Market Wizards" by Jack Shawager go and get it. The book has a great interview with Ed Seykota and other legendary Forex traders so if you want to get some timeless wisdom from some of the greatest traders of all time – get Market Wizards.