Why must it be FX — what I wanted to think about before looking for a method

When I was doing FX, I was always thinking about "how can I win".

Which method is good.

Which timeframe is good.

Where should I enter.

How should I cut losses.

What should I improve to become consistent.

But after I stopped FX, I began to feel there were questions I should have asked earlier.

"Why FX in the first place?"

That is the question.

I didn't love FX for FX itself

Looking back,

I didn't particularly love forex itself.

I didn't necessarily want to study the world economy.

I didn't want to make chart watching my lifelong job.

The goal was simpler.

I wanted to make money.

If possible, I wanted to earn income without being bound by place or time, by my own effort.

FX looked attractive as a way to do that.

FX looked very rational

FX has parts that look appealing.

You can do it with a computer.

You don't need large facilities.

You don't have to hire people.

You don't have to create products.

You don't have to find customers.

You look at the market and

decide whether to buy or sell.

If your judgment is correct, you profit.

It looks very simple.

So I spent time thinking about

"how to win in FX."

But,

"why choose FX as a way to earn money"

I hardly compared.

If the goal is money, you should have compared the methods

If the aim was,

"to master FX"

then the reason to continue FX would be clear.

But my aim was,

to earn money

after all.

In that case,

before comparing FX methods with each other,

perhaps I should have compared the ways to earn money itself

instead.

Beyond FX,

work for a company.

Acquiring specialized skills.

Helping someone with their work.

Writing.

Creating products or services.

Running a business.

There are various ways.

Of course, none of them are easy.

It isn’t the case that you’ll succeed if you quit FX and go get a job.

There’s a possibility you’ll fail in another path as well.

But I think there was room for comparison.

“FX can be done alone” was appealing

One of the reasons I was drawn to FX was,

the ability to complete things by myself

I didn’t have to find clients.

I didn’t have to sell to people.

I didn’t have to bow to anyone.

In the market, I could test only my own judgments.

This was quite appealing.

But later I realized that

there is a downside to that appeal.

When you work with people,

you may develop the ability to explain things.

you may learn to understand others’ needs.

you may gain experience collaborating with others.

you may build trust and relationships.

you may leave behind tangible outputs.

In FX, it’s easy to avoid those frictions.

But at the same time,

you may have avoided some of the benefits you could gain from work

through others.

Avoiding friction comes with its own costs

If you dislike dealing with clients,

income without clients may look attractive.

If you dislike being in a company,

being able to do things alone may look attractive.

But,

if you choose a method just to escape what you dislike,

you may not truly want that method itself.

For me,

FX wasn’t so much about liking FX as

a way to escape another kind of suffering

that I saw in FX at the time?

“Before how to win, ask why you’re doing it”

Back then,

I compared methods quite a lot.

Is this approach better?

Is that approach better?

Scalping?

Day trading?

Other criteria?

But now, before the method, I compare.

“Where to spend that time?”

Why FX?

Is it something you want to do even with the time spent?

If you don’t win, can you still feel meaning in that time?

If you had asked this first, the five years of use might have been different.

What remains when things don’t go well

Now, when I spend time on something,

not only if it succeeds, but also

what remains if it fails

I think about that too.

The skills that remain.

The experience that remains.

The connections with people that remain.

What you created remains.

The track record remains.

Of course, nothing you do guarantees that something will remain.

But

“even if it doesn’t go well, is there something you can take to the next step?”

is a criterion for choosing where to spend time.

I’m not trying to discredit FX

Here,

I’m not saying, “there’s no meaning in doing FX.”

There are people who love markets themselves.

There are people who enjoy trading just for the analysis.

There are people who trade while understanding the risks.

For such people,

I’m not going to tell them, “there’s no reason to do it.”

What I’m considering is

not loving FX itself, but spending years seeking a winning method just to make money

in that case, I think it’s okay to switch the order once.

“How can I win in FX”

“Why am I trying to earn money in FX?”

to think about it.

If you know your purpose,

FX is no longer the only option.

Think about your own time before methods

For five years,

I kept thinking, “which method will make me win?”

If I could do it again, I’d ask this first.

Would I want to spend my time on this method?

What would I gain if it works?

If it doesn’t work, what remains?

And,

is what I truly want something that can be obtained only through FX?

“Why FX?”

But,

before you start looking for a method, just think about it once.

Even that alone might change how you use your time.