Women in Forex – Raghee Horner: “Balance is about juggling… success is about flow”

Raghee Horner has been trading since she was 17, she’s now 43. Almost half her life.  We interviewed her in 2010 about her career and life. Today, as part of our “Women in Forex – 5 years later” series, we talked with her to know what she has been up to and if her views about her life have changed. “We as humans change very little”, she says. Raghee still trades and teaches, and still thinks that the markets don’t care about her gender. Her routine helps her in her day-to-day but she believes that “the idea of balance is a myth”.

“Trading Out Loud”

* In July 2010, you were running RagheeHorner.com and were Chief Currency Analyst at InterbankFX. Do you still have the same job?

I have taken my approach to trading forex, simplified and made it more effective in the process. I am teaching and sharing trades through SimplerForex.com now. My trading indicators, the 34EMA Wave and GRaB Candles, continue to grow in popularity and I am beyond pleased because I freely give this pair of tools away and the feedback has been tremendous. You get what you give in life. After InterbankFX joined TradeStation, I have been happy to conduct regular forex presentation for TradeStation which has been a huge honor.

* So you still trade and teach?

My life is still trading and understanding market psychology and then writing and teaching. That part of my life I have found feeds the need I have to empower people to succeed in a field they are told – all too often – that they are doomed to fail. I fight those odds every day at SimplerForex and with every article I write and every webinar I present. “Trading Out Loud” as I like to call it does have its up and downs but the relationships have been priceless and my own trading continues to exceed my expectations and find new levels of clarity. I’m a blessed and lucky girl.

The idea of balance is a myth

* You work from home… don’t you feel solitde is hard at times?

I think trading reflects how you live and who you are in life. I have been able to travel to visit with other traders and my business partners but frankly I like the quiet solitude of trading from home. And it’s never truly lonely since I spend the first two hours of the morning talking with other like-minded traders, sharing set ups, and teaching in my chat room.

* Do you still manage to find the right balance between private and professional life?

Working from home means I do what I want, when I want… and it’s this freedom that trading – specifically forex – gives me in terms of flexibility and opportunity to trade. My family and friends know the “routine” and since I am 25 years into this, most people know my schedule as it has been fairly consistent. I have learned that the idea of “balance” is a myth. I have succeeded because I committed and even obsessed about being great at trading. Balance is about juggling… success is about flow. I prefer living in flow and success so balance is not what I strive for. Maybe once I believed I needed that, but now, in my early 40’s I’ve discovered that it doesn’t make me happy.

Men and Women: No major different in the potential

* In 2010, you told us you believed you gender was not of much importance as a trader. Do you still feel the same?

I think I do have the same opinions. We as humans have changed very little.

Maybe our roles are more blurred and therefore so too are the responsibilities but our behavior generally has not changed. I’ve never thought there was a major different in the potential for men or women to succeed but we certainly have different tendencies. The markets do not care if a man or women is on the other end of the keyboard and board… the markets don’t care if I have a pretty smile or not… but I’m smiling a lot.

Links:

• ‘Markets don’t care I’m a woman: men see the same price that I do’ – Raghee Horner (Interview July 2010)
• Raghee Horner on Twitter
• Raghee’s website “SimplerForex”