Most traders attempt to make trading a perfect game. In other words ‘How can I trade without incurring trading losses or committing mistakes – I just want to be perfect at trading’ Guess what? This is really a very normal line of thought (no pun intended) – this is how normal people are hardwired. So when the ‘no fail’ trading setup stumbles and doesn’t function so…perfectly, what happens? We naturally go searching for the next best trading setup and when this setup again fails to work…. wash, rinse and repeat continuing in our search for the holy grail. You get the idea. And as long as you’re on this merry go round – you will either get really frustrated and quit or end up blowing away your account and move on (with a lot of pain). Ouch!
Unfortunately most stock market traders will experience this cycle at least once in their trading careers and with regret most will not find success and give up. So to minise or hopefully skip this painful experience let’s take a look at a few things you can do to better your possibilities of coming out ahead.
So what is the secret to success?
There is no one trading secret…sorry…just many keys that together help to your trading success…
- Understand that 90% of your trading success lies between your ears.
- Give yourself time (screen time) to develop and learn as a stock market trader.
- Be adequately capitalized – being undercapitalized is a killer mentally (see #1).
- Use a reputable trading mentor or experienced trader to provide guidance and critical feedback for your success.
- Don’t trade for the money (READ THIS AGAIN).
- Have a good trading plan that covers all of these points as well as other important factors.
- Old fashioned hard work – studying your trading setups on multiple charts and timeframes, reading about your trading setups, reading your journal daily and LEARNING FROM YOUR MISTAKES.
While they’re a few other factors that play into your success (money management and setup/trigger confidence) following these 7 keys you can increase your odds of become a successful, consistently profitable, professional trader.
Trade to trade well!
