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The Less You Work, the More You Earn. Learn Why.

There is a problem in our minds, one among all the others that needs to be uprooted for us to become successful traders.

We have been always taught that in order to earn our living it is necessary to literally break our backs, and to work hard. The same refrain goes on and on: the more you work, the more you earn.

Nothing further from the truth.

History teaches us that it is quite the opposite. Successful men in history have always been people capable of delegating their most repetitive activities to other equally skilled people, in order to have more time for themselves during the day.  This was very precious time to build up energies and allow deserved time to creativity.

Even the very famous Virgin’s founder, Mr. Richard Branson, teaches this in his latest book “Like a Virgin” (you can buy it or download the Kindle Edition in English here)


If you want your business to become profitable, surround yourself by talented people and create a group, delegate, open yourself to the world, and let your ego make a step backwards.

This is a typical problem of the so-called “freelancers” who are very fashionable today. Bloggers, young web entrepreneurs, graphic designers, designers, they all live with the deep conviction that no one better than them will be able to do the things for which they have specialized.

They run away from an employee- kind of work to search for freedom but what they do find is an even worse prison. A prison where “the more you work, the more you earn” equation exists, since they believe they are the only ones who know what to do.

This is a much more risky kind of job because you are the only person who to count on, where you find yourself working even at night, at the week-end, dangerously overlapping your private and professional life, having to answer to one and only big boss: yourself. The worst of all bosses, the most difficult to manage.

Now you will ask me: what has all this got to do with trading? A lot, believe me.

Always keep in mind that the trading on Forex is identical to any other business. There are investments, strategic ideas, costs, profits, risks, and so on.

The same rule applies to trading too: the winner is not the person who works more, but the person who works better. The winner is the person who has the best ideas and can put them into practice in a strategic and not improvised way. As in any other market, the winner is the person who has a project and allows the project to work for him.

Ok, now let’s try and be even more practical. How can we translate this concept in every day’s operations?

How can I know if I have fallen into the “free-lancing” trap and I have reduced myself to living for the trading and not the other way round?

To find out, try and answer these questions:

1) Have I got a Forex System?

Do you know the meaning of having a Forex System? It means having a project, a behaviour code that does not foresee surprises. A series of strict, firm and successfully proven rules which will guarantee my full free will during operation activities. Be honest with yourself: how much is improvised and how much is instead semi-automatic in your activity? Having a Forex System allows our ego to make a step backwards and having it work at our place. Therefore less work, more profit.

2) Have I got a daily plan?

As in all large companies, there are long, medium and short-term plans. Our long-term plan is the Forex System and its rules; our medium-term plan is what we call Daily Brief. A strategic action plan evaluating the market’s technical data whose output is a series of potential trades which are the only ones able to be carried out during the day. There are no possible trades outside it. If I feel like doing a trade that is not foreseen in my daily plan I am breaking the rules, I am pulling my own leg, I am improvising, I am gambling. I have stopped being a professional and I have gone back to being an apprentice. Therefore, once again, let’s avoid overdoing it, and let’s ask our Daily Brief to guide us. Less work, more profit.

3) Do I know when to trade and when not  to trade?

When the market goes up, we can make a lot of money with Forex. I can also make a lot of money when the market is down. I cannot make money when the market is still.  When you learn this important concept, you will also learn to choose the best times to do trading and the times to avoid. There are statistics indicating if the market is moving or not.  I trade only during the Forex “prime time”, when I know the market will move. I keep away from the market for the rest of the day because I know that if I enter, the market will not move or will move very slowly and the likelihood of my being stuck for hours and making  little money is very high. Therefore, once again… less work, more profit

4) When I trade, how much do I trade?

I trade for 8 hours a day, but actually the effective time spent at the computer is a bit more than an hour. Why? Because we use the Master Candle concept, invented by us.  The Master Candle concept is a bit too long to explain in detail here, but the main thing to say now is that it allows me to avoid sitting at the computer for all those hours. As a matter of fact, we never enter the market directly, but we always wait for the breaking of a determined Japanese candle. Therefore, if a candle is good and can be defined Master, we will place orders and thanks to the Metatrader alarms, we will be in the environs in order to manage the order in case of entry. In contrast, if a candle does not correspond to the requisites of a Master candle, we simply wait for the closing of the next one. We do not need to stay in front of our computers, and we can do something else instead. Guess what? Here too, the less you work the more you earn.

5) Are you hypnotized by the snake?

As I see it, the price that moves on the graphic is like a snake. It can easily hypnotize you. This is the reason why I have created the concept of Master Candle, because I have understood that if I sit too long at my computer the price will hypnotize me and I will stop being capable of evaluating my strategy in an objective way.  I have discovered that keeping away from the graphics and looking at them occasionally, every half an hour, I am faster and able to individualize winning patterns better. It is just like when you look at something sticking on your nose: you cannot understand its complexity; you can just see one detail but cannot see it as a whole.  You can try it too. Do not stay too long in front of your computer, and you will see how you cleverer you’ll become in individualizing the winning price patterns.

Now and always, then, the less you work, the more you earn.

Remember that it will be difficult to instill this thought in your mind, because it is now programmed to work the other way round. Even if you do not believe it, note that it is just like this. Society and the most certain beliefs heavily influence our actions, mainly unconsciously.

We think we are free, but only few of us really are.

We think we are alert, but only a few of us are.

Therefore observe yourself, continue asking yourself questions, whether you are working or not, and measure the time you spend at your computer.

I will give you an even more practical piece of advice for you to be more aware of what you are doing. Unload a computer timer, a simple meter. It will tell you how long you are spending at the computer in an objective and direct way.

You can also set some alarms, which can discipline you on getting up and do something else according to periodical and pre- arranged intervals.

Here is where you can find them:

If you have a Windows computer: http://www.orzeszek.org/dev/timer/

If you have a Mac: http://www.iboostup.com/app/com.alinofsoftware.alinoftimer

Keep control of yourself, reduce your time at the computer, and do not waste your energies.

Imagine that your time spent in front of the graphics is like the energy of a videogame character. This energy lowers each passing minute. While energy lowers, also your capacity to be lucid on the market does.The less lucid you are, the less you earn.

This is the main reason why our name is Surfing The Pips. Because we allow the wave (our Forex System) to make the money for us. Without efforts, but with huge,  immense control.

See you at the next wave.

Davide Franceschini

Chief Trader

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