There is one undeniable truth about self-directed trading: get this part of your trading right, or you will fail forever as a trader. Because you can do everything else perfectly, and will all be for naught.
You can have the perfect system, the perfect platform, a perfect computer, broker, data feed, everything. But if your head isn’t right you WILL FAIL as a trader, because in its essence, trading is a decision-making process. All the other items are simply tools and/or inputs.
Your mind is where the process takes place, where the decisions are made. Everything else is just inputs or tools, but the process of trading is a mental one.
Where Traders And Educators Get It Wrong
Some make the mistake of over-simplifying the matter, thinking that it is a matter of tricking or forcing yourself into being more disciplined. Of course, how often does that work for any substantial period of time? That’s like every New Year’s resolution, like starting a new exercise program or new diet – will power alone rarely works. There is a little more to it than that.
Others make the mistake of over-complicating things. There are tons of articles and dozens of books on trading psychology, but unfortunately, most are written by psychologists – and take the approach that you have mental problems to be addressed. They operate on the presumption that you need a year’s worth of therapy to attend to the lifetime of Freudian issues before you’ll be able to succeed as a trader. While you might have some issues (who doesn’t have something they could talk about with a therapist), there is nothing inherently wrong with you.
There Is Good News
Fortunately, trading successfully is much more straightforward than either of those approaches. There is a profession, an entire field of study devoted to getting consistent, solid performance from a wide variety of people in a wide variety of occupations (Quality Assurance). This, combined with good business practices and trading experience in a proper setting and training curriculum facilitate helping traders achieve consistent reliable results, with relative ease and in a very practical manner.
Best of all, successful and reliable trading can be achieved, no matter where you come from, your age, gender, etc. Consistency is very possible when you understand the nature of the mind and certain critical aspects of working for yourself. Much of what trouble traders is subconscious, some of it is conscious, but nearly all of it gets neglected by most traders. Your emotions are there for a reason, and if you listen rather than fight them, you’ll win.
When you approach your trading in a business-like and calculated manner, focusing on good trading and building your skills and not just on making money, you get an entirely better result. Most traders focus almost solely on their system and the profit from each trade while neglecting the factors of successful trading. One must remember that trading is a real business, and in order to have a successful and reliable business, the realities of the matter must be addressed. In trading, that starts with the psychology and your training.