In my last post, I shared the first problematic trading myth that all too many traders get led to believe.

You can read about Myth #1 by clicking here

That post ended with a very reasonable question, which we’ll answer in looking at the second commonly believed problematic myth, which is,

I’ve read this in so many books and other sources, and while many traders do take several years to ‘get there’, it is NOT a requirement, by any means.

The reason it takes so long for so many is because their training consists mostly of self-teaching, learning through mistakes and the school of hard knocks

This is not an efficient means of training by any measure.

It makes doubly challenging when you don’t have a full grasp of where your psychological challenges can come into play and create obstacles to consistent profitable trading.

You see, for an occupation such as trading, your challenges can come from any of four distinct categories.

Personal issues.  

Personal, non-trading related issues are things that have to do with you as a person and are not directly related to trading, like your self-image, how deserving you are of success, beliefs about money, etc.  Discipline (or perceived lack thereof) also falls into this category.

I say “perceived” because the ‘lack of discipline’ really is a fallacy.  You’re not a random, undisciplined person.  The difficulty in trading consistently is due to other factors, from other categories which I’ll explain in just a moment.

Generally speaking, based on my experience working with many traders over the years, I’d say you don’t have any personal issues that should keep you from making it as a trader, AND HERE’S WHY: you’ve already demonstrated that you’re okay with both money and success, and that you have what it takes – otherwise you wouldn’t be here.  Trading just isn’t where the average, inept, or weak-at-heart show up.

Trading-Related experiences.

These include those experiences that you’ve had as a trader that haunt you and cause you to hesitate, overtrade, etc and are directly related to your trading history.

While these may repeat and cause you considerable stress, particularly the fear of repeating past mistakes, once you fix the root causes of the past mistakes, these problems often go away on their own, or are at worst fairly easy to resolve.

Tools & Resources.

Good tools and resources are absolutely necessary in any performance activity.  Without good tools, results suffer, like if you tried to play golf with bent clubs or tennis with a broken racquet.  In order to execute well and consistently in any performance-based activity, you simply must have good tools and resources with which to work.

In trading, even if your system is based on a decent idea, but is not documented, or is poorly constructed, you’ll blame yourself when the problem is your system – this happens VERY often.

Once you fix the functional problems with your system, you find that the consistency with which you trade and your confidence both skyrocket.

Skills and Abilities.

Regarding skills and abilities, when a person jumps into a skill-based occupation like trading and they are begin trading before they have acquired all the skills necessary to do that job proficiently, it WILL be stressful, emotional and full of challenges.

Independent, self-directed trading involves several roles, each requiring its own skill set.  There is certainly more to long term, reliable success than simply placing trades.

Trading is a real business and to organize, plan, start up and run a successful trading business requires a variety of very specific business skills.

Also, being a trader requires that you know how to make sure that your system is indeed solid and has the capacity to meet your financial goals.  You also have to know how to modify your system in an organized, calculated and business-like manner as the market moods and climates change.

Included in the skill set for traders is knowing how to identify problems with any given system, how to fix whatever problems exist, and how to establish the confidence in a system prior to risking money with it.  This is essentially the skill of knowing how to make sure your tools are up-to-snuff and what to do if they aren’t.

Self-Sabotage.

If you are lacking in any of these areas, your subconscious knows it, and has reason to make sure you don’t achieve your desired level of success if underneath it all, it feels that you don’t deserve it (because you are lacking).  This is often the underlying cause of self-sabotage.

It’s difficult enough to trade with a subpar trading system, but it’s even tougher when you haven’t acquired the skill set to identify the problems it may have and how to fix them.

It’s also tremendously difficult to have a reliable trading business if you’ve never started up and run your own business before – this is huge learning curve you have to go through in addition to learning how to trade.

Most people who pursue trading without proper training don’t have the time, fortitude or money to last long enough to get through both learning curves before getting their confidence crushed, their mindset and expectations ruined, and an absolutely dreadful “normal” established.

The good news.

If a person gets the proper training on ALL of the skills they need to be a complete, self-directed trader, you can achieve proficiency, reliability and the confidence you seek in less than a year.  With proper and complete training, even expecting your arrival within 3 to 6 months is now reasonable.

Certainly better than 7 to 10 years and thousands of hours of screen time.

Tomorrow we’ll expose the 3rd problematic myth in trading.

Please comments below and let me know how these four areas have affected your trading.

Also, if you liked the article, the please “Like” it! 🙂

Cheers

Brian