Secrets to Become a Successful Trader
Secret #1: Stick to ONE strategy. Find a strategy that makes sense to you and stick to it and it alone like a faithful wife and master it. This is probably the single greatest secret in all of trading. Master ONE strategy. There are no “systems” only strategies that work if you master them. If you jump around from one to another you will never master anything and be forever locked in the sucker’s dream of “the system” or the “Holy Grail” of trading. The truth is, all strategies work for the ones using them if they will learn to master them.
Secret #2: YOU are the main secret in trading. You are the greatest secret in trading. You have been gifted with the fastest computer known to man at your birth and you have the ability to learn, adapt and modify everything you see and come into contact with. The way you “see” things is very different than the way other’s “see” things. If you can master “you” and your emotions about trading (talked about in another of the “secrets), you WILL become successful. And that leads us to secret #3.
Secret #3: Simpler is better. Simpler is always better. The more complex a strategy is, the harder to learn it will be and the easier it will be to make mistakes that will shake your confidence, slow you down and cost you, possibly, years in mastering trading. Anyone who says differently probably has a “system” to sell you.
Secret #4: Accept the “numbers game” view of it. Mastering trading is not hard. It’s just an issue of accepting the “numbers game” of it all. All things have a “probability” ratio or a “numbers game” that creates the success of the effort. Whether it’s sports, industry, sales or trading, there is a “numbers game” behind it all. The more you can find an “edge” something you can exploit, the faster you will become will become consistent at your effort and that consistency leads to success.
Secret #5: Master yourself, master your trading. Your own emotions are the only real “enemy” in all of trading. Brokers who manipulate price feeds cannot defeat you. Market makers who charge large spreads cannot defeat you. The news cannot defeat you. Changing markets cannot defeat you.
Greed is extremely deceptive. It’s not wanting to have large accounts, it’s not wanting to be wealthy. In trading, greed is none of the normal things you are taught it is. In trading, it’s wanting to get that next point when the strategy says your done. It’s wanting 30 points when the strategy’s rules say 15 is enough. It’s wanting to swing for the fences on every single trade. Greed is not being willing to take it slow and allow it to grow. It’s not allowing compounding to work and wanting to have it “now.”
Fear will kill your trading and add years to your effort of being successful. The rules of any strategy are designed to take the emotions out of your trading. Allowing yourself to “second guess” the rules is fear. Not taking a trade instantly on the signal is fear. Exiting a trade before the rules call for is fear. Anything that keeps you from following your rules is fear and it short circuits all of your efforts and all of your training and adds years to your trading and robs you of success. You must eliminate it from your trading.
Revenge will destroy you as well. You are not the target of any great conspiracy and the market couldn’t care less about your trade or your position. The brokers may want you to be a victim, but trading out of a desire for revenge will skew your thought and twist what you “see” on the charts. It will defeat you as will greed and fear.
Arrogance will destroy you just as fast as either of these others. Trading from the perspective of any emotion will kill your trading. Arrogance will do it just as fast as greed, fear or revenge. You are NOT mistake proof. Even IF you believe you have mastered a strategy, any strategy you will still make mistakes. Arrogance will lead you to even bigger mistakes, then to revenge to try to make up for it, then to greed to try to get “just a little more” so you can earn back what you lost.
Complacency threatens to bite you after a few good trades. Suddenly you feel bulletproof, and the next thing you know you’ve made lazy mistakes, abandoned the rules that got you in those good trades, and you’re handing back the money you earned. Each trade has nothing to do with the one before and needs just as much attention, caution and care.
Secret #6: There are no makeup trades. Trade each trade and each session as if it were the only one. Yesterday is gone and does not deserve to be remembered in trading. The only thing that exists in successful, consistent trading is the trade you are about to place. Make it the best on possible and forget the past so your emotions don’t have a place to take hold on you.
Secret #7: Persistence and attitude will overcome everything. If you believe you can do this, you can. If you do not believe that, quit now. Nothing can stop or defeat you but you. That is true of everything in life, not just trading. It does however apply specifically to trading. Never ever listen to anyone who says you can’t trade.
Secret #8: If it’s not boring, you are NOT trading correctly. People love excitement and things that are interesting. SOLID trading is exceptionally boring. One of the hardest battles you will fight is to just trade and not try to “fix it” or “improve it.” or worse, get impatient and “wing it”.
Secret #9: Some days you just have bad days! Every single athlete of any sport in any age has faced the “gremlins” of a bad day when for no apparent reason, someone whose skill and physical prowess are not even close simply trashes them. There are no reasons, to rationales, no analysis that can stop it. It will happen, but you can limit it! Trading is no different.
This is the reason for rules. They are to supersede your mind, instincts, emotions and all of your efforts to overcome it, which runs counter to everything we have ever been taught in life. STOP! Walk away when you start violating ANY rules, ESPECIALLY the 6 winning trades and STOP or the THREE LOSS and STOP rules!
If you’re ever, ever, tempted to not set stop losses as you’re sure the market’s going your way, STOP TRADING AND WALK AWAY. If you have positions that are open without stops, close them immediately, even at a loss, and shutdown your computer. If you keep trading you will undo days, weeks of hard work in one session.
LEARN to limit your arrogance and pride of how good you have become, or how good your strategy is. LEARN to limit your losses! Follow the RULES!
Secret #2: YOU are the main secret in trading. You are the greatest secret in trading. You have been gifted with the fastest computer known to man at your birth and you have the ability to learn, adapt and modify everything you see and come into contact with. The way you “see” things is very different than the way other’s “see” things. If you can master “you” and your emotions about trading (talked about in another of the “secrets), you WILL become successful. And that leads us to secret #3.
Secret #3: Simpler is better. Simpler is always better. The more complex a strategy is, the harder to learn it will be and the easier it will be to make mistakes that will shake your confidence, slow you down and cost you, possibly, years in mastering trading. Anyone who says differently probably has a “system” to sell you.
Secret #4: Accept the “numbers game” view of it. Mastering trading is not hard. It’s just an issue of accepting the “numbers game” of it all. All things have a “probability” ratio or a “numbers game” that creates the success of the effort. Whether it’s sports, industry, sales or trading, there is a “numbers game” behind it all. The more you can find an “edge” something you can exploit, the faster you will become will become consistent at your effort and that consistency leads to success.
Secret #5: Master yourself, master your trading. Your own emotions are the only real “enemy” in all of trading. Brokers who manipulate price feeds cannot defeat you. Market makers who charge large spreads cannot defeat you. The news cannot defeat you. Changing markets cannot defeat you.
Greed is extremely deceptive. It’s not wanting to have large accounts, it’s not wanting to be wealthy. In trading, greed is none of the normal things you are taught it is. In trading, it’s wanting to get that next point when the strategy says your done. It’s wanting 30 points when the strategy’s rules say 15 is enough. It’s wanting to swing for the fences on every single trade. Greed is not being willing to take it slow and allow it to grow. It’s not allowing compounding to work and wanting to have it “now.”
Fear will kill your trading and add years to your effort of being successful. The rules of any strategy are designed to take the emotions out of your trading. Allowing yourself to “second guess” the rules is fear. Not taking a trade instantly on the signal is fear. Exiting a trade before the rules call for is fear. Anything that keeps you from following your rules is fear and it short circuits all of your efforts and all of your training and adds years to your trading and robs you of success. You must eliminate it from your trading.
Revenge will destroy you as well. You are not the target of any great conspiracy and the market couldn’t care less about your trade or your position. The brokers may want you to be a victim, but trading out of a desire for revenge will skew your thought and twist what you “see” on the charts. It will defeat you as will greed and fear.
Arrogance will destroy you just as fast as either of these others. Trading from the perspective of any emotion will kill your trading. Arrogance will do it just as fast as greed, fear or revenge. You are NOT mistake proof. Even IF you believe you have mastered a strategy, any strategy you will still make mistakes. Arrogance will lead you to even bigger mistakes, then to revenge to try to make up for it, then to greed to try to get “just a little more” so you can earn back what you lost.
Complacency threatens to bite you after a few good trades. Suddenly you feel bulletproof, and the next thing you know you’ve made lazy mistakes, abandoned the rules that got you in those good trades, and you’re handing back the money you earned. Each trade has nothing to do with the one before and needs just as much attention, caution and care.
Secret #6: There are no makeup trades. Trade each trade and each session as if it were the only one. Yesterday is gone and does not deserve to be remembered in trading. The only thing that exists in successful, consistent trading is the trade you are about to place. Make it the best on possible and forget the past so your emotions don’t have a place to take hold on you.
Secret #7: Persistence and attitude will overcome everything. If you believe you can do this, you can. If you do not believe that, quit now. Nothing can stop or defeat you but you. That is true of everything in life, not just trading. It does however apply specifically to trading. Never ever listen to anyone who says you can’t trade.
Secret #8: If it’s not boring, you are NOT trading correctly. People love excitement and things that are interesting. SOLID trading is exceptionally boring. One of the hardest battles you will fight is to just trade and not try to “fix it” or “improve it.” or worse, get impatient and “wing it”.
Secret #9: Some days you just have bad days! Every single athlete of any sport in any age has faced the “gremlins” of a bad day when for no apparent reason, someone whose skill and physical prowess are not even close simply trashes them. There are no reasons, to rationales, no analysis that can stop it. It will happen, but you can limit it! Trading is no different.
This is the reason for rules. They are to supersede your mind, instincts, emotions and all of your efforts to overcome it, which runs counter to everything we have ever been taught in life. STOP! Walk away when you start violating ANY rules, ESPECIALLY the 6 winning trades and STOP or the THREE LOSS and STOP rules!
If you’re ever, ever, tempted to not set stop losses as you’re sure the market’s going your way, STOP TRADING AND WALK AWAY. If you have positions that are open without stops, close them immediately, even at a loss, and shutdown your computer. If you keep trading you will undo days, weeks of hard work in one session.
LEARN to limit your arrogance and pride of how good you have become, or how good your strategy is. LEARN to limit your losses! Follow the RULES!
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