The Forex market trades over $1 trillion a day world wide, attracting traders, but sometimes intimidating them. It doesn't take a lot of courage to pour over charts, get your confirmation signals, and find your buy and sell points (all things you should always do prior to entering a trade).

But then even after analysis, double checking, the time comes to place a trade and you get cold feet. That's understandable. It's easy trading with a practice account, it's much more difficult when it's your own hard earned money being put out there.

Analyze anything long enough, and you can talk yourself out of any trade, no matter how good it looks. Same with procrastinating. If you put off entry long enough, you can talk yourself into saying you missed the trend that your charts showed, and then not pulling the trigger on a trade that would have made you good money.

Having the guts to pull the trigger right when your indicators say is essential to becoming a successful (i.e. profitable) trader. You can have all the knowledge in the world about the Forex market, understand trends, and have a stunningly accurate system - but if you don't have the courage to pull the trigger, then what good is that knowledge?

It's not, because it's never going to make you any money if you can't pull the trigger.

One of the best ways to reassure yourself when preparing to make a trade is to have a small checklist you can look at.

Ask yourself, do I have my setup for the trade and how much am I going to trade? Then, where is my entry? Next, where should I place my stop loss? Finally, where is my projected exit? If you can answer the previous questions, then you should pull the trigger. If you can't then stay on the sidelines until you can.

Everyone needs a boost in confidence once in a while, and you can't let fear paralyze you. You can't make money in the Forex if you never place a trade. Having the courage to pull the trigger on trades that get you in and out of the market is a necessary part of being a successful Forex trader.