As we travel on our trading journey, we spend a lot of time looking in the rear view mirror, discovering the deep inter-workings of how we think and act. Our own mind dictates whether or not we will be successful. Here’s a look at the steps you must go through in order to master the trading game.
You are the master of your fate, the captain of your soul. Hold yourself accountable for your own actions, emotions, and trades. It all starts with making the commitment to become successful, whatever it takes. We then look to build confidence in ourselves and our trading beliefs. We look to develop consistency through developing routines and habits of perfect practice and execution.
Focus on what you can control. We must know ourselves and make a conscious effort for personal growth, each and every day.
You need both a strong psychological control and the ability to execute effectively in order to succeed in trading. Adapting to ever changing market conditions is the glue that holds it all together.
We must work hard. There are no shortcuts. “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.” – Ben Franklin.
Stages of a Traders Growth
- We learn something new. Discover a new strategy, indicator or book. It excites us.
- We put what we’ve just learning into practice on a SIM account.
- We become even more excited and begin trading our new found method with real money.
- Things don’t go as we expected. Our emotions pull us in different directions and the emotions of fear and greed take over our decision making.
- Back to the drawing board. We switch back to SIM trading for a while until we master our methodology.
- Somewhere between here and trading live again we become even more enthusiastic. It is at this stage in the game that you must simplify and clarify your ideas so they are clear as day. Only the absolute necessary information gets your attention during the trading session, everything else is turned off.
- Live trading resumes. This time the strategy is sound, it’s just a matter of making a conscious effort to identify your bad habits and emotional responses that are now guiding your actions. After all our attitudes influence our behaviors.
- After much internal reflection we begin to identify the areas that are holding us back and causing our trading to waver when real money is involved.
- The numbers start to take over and the emotions of the trading game begin to fade into the background.
- Trading becomes less exciting, but more real than ever before. We understand the nuances of how the game is played and what success means to you.
Remember, the markets will always be there. The journey is more meaningful than the destination.
