The successful trader

Activeness, focus and consistentency

So many things separate them but one I'll like to point out is being calm and understanding what's going on in their trading. Every trader must go through the point where they sit back, and observe what they've been doing. And stop allowing their trading journey to be blown by the wind. But be intentional. Figure out exactly what's been going wrong and what's been doing right. To be conscious enough to know what needs to be worked on and improve on it and to know what's working and keep doing it.

The ability to understand and analyze the market

I like the fact that u mentioned focus and consistency

Cos a lot of traders want to win, but they're not ready to put in the work

And that's basically what majority of Fx trading entails..... showing up day in, day out and not just that, but also figuring out what worked in a trade or why a trade went wrong

Exactly 💯

Most traders just think winning in fx is just to keep on trading and trading and trading even when they're on a losing streak.

Knowing when not to trade is just as important as knowing when to trade. It's very important to review your trades every once in a while and that's where journalling comes into play

Very true

For sure, technical analysis is key when developing your own trading system, that's why it's very important to take enough time to learn this skill, don't rush!!!

Afterall, it takes a very long time(years) to attain mastery

Journaling is one thing that separates successful from unsuccessful traders. Not many traders keep an actual trading journal showing entry, exit, reaction to news, etc. Everyone just be assuming they can remember it off the top of their head. You can even see it from the threads people create here, you hardly see a thread dedicated to a particular cause, showing detailed entry and exit with explanations.

Ability to automate.

Successful traders know how to use AI, build robots, code programs using python, etc. Having this skill helps you filter out data and better your trading strategy. just like I said earlier, here there's not any thread on coding a script

I feel you, the people retail traders are up against are busy building computer models to sort data, coding scripts to improve trading efficiency, some even have dedicated desks for research of new strategies that give them an edge. But the regular retail trader learns one strategy and thinks that is the all in all and he relaxes and never makes effort to learn anything new again.

A real trader is like a medical doctor, they never stop reading. You will see even consultants in the hospital still reading books. But today they have turned trading into hype, everyone is teaching what they have not mastered. it is not uncommon to see traders today not being able to tell you the meaning of CFD

Trading is trading, whether you trade stocks or forex etc. In general what always gives traders an edge is access to the right information that can give you an edge. With the right information you don't even need to look at the charts too much, you just place your trade set a wide SL and wait. Many unsuccessful retail traders today don't even have a daily read, such as a newsletter they read before trading every day. Some don't even believe that information gives you an edge, they think they can just look at the charts and decipher where institutional traders placed their order. What a joke!

If it were that easy to tell where a bank or hedge fund placed their order by merely looking at a chart, then 95% of retail traders wouldn't have been failing. Unsuccessful traders re mentally stubborn and deeply rooted in their wrong way of doing things. So much that, even if you showed them the right thing to do they would refuse LOL