For the last few days, we’ve talked about how that ‘Trading Psychology’ book won’t fix your problems, and how there are three things you must attend to first, or you’re just wasting your time

If you missed them, you can read them here and here and here

At the end of yesterday’s article, we took note of the fact that you have more than just the role of ‘trader’ to fulfill in being a self-directed, self-employed, independent trader

There are several actually

You see, when made the decision to become a trader, you automatically created a handful of roles for yourself

And right now, we’re going to look at 4 very important roles you now have that directly affect how well your operation performs, how profitable it is, how reliable it is, and how stressful or enjoyable it is

Let’s take a look at the first one you created, possibly one of the most critical, too

Here’s how the story goes…

Now you may not realize it, but you are one of these,

…and for your sake it is important that you recognize it and all that goes with it

Before you became a trader, you were an individual with money that you wanted to invest, to put to work for you

You weren’t looking for a passive investment like mutual funds or CDs, but instead you wanted to be actively involved

You chose at some point that trading is what you wanted to do with that money

With your selection to be the one actively trading your money, rather than just putting it into a managed account to be traded by someone else,

…you effectively made the decision to invest in your own trading operation, your own trading firm, your own trading business

Much like a traditional Venture Capitalist or Angel Investor, you decided to put your investment capital into your trading business

So at that time, you stepped into the role of, and became a business investor (and you still are one)

The reason this is so important is that you may have actually done yourself a great disservice by not recognizing it and treating the matter in an “At Arms Length” way

If it were someone else coming to you with a ‘business idea’ in which to invest say $25,000 or $50,000, you probably would have approached the whole endeavor in a much different way than you did with yourself having the idea to start a trading business

If it were someone else, you’d have quite a number of questions for them before writing that check

You’d ask for a business plan

You’d ask about their qualifications, their education and training, their history in the industry and any accomplishments

You’d ask them if they’ve ever started up similar businesses, so that they are bringing related experience with both the business itself, but also the planning and startup aspects

You’d want to know if they’ve successfully managed a similar business through the growth stages and into maturity

Now if you didn’t do this with yourself, don’t feel bad.

Most traders don’t look at the whole matter as a business

Most don’t consider themselves business investors

They simply see themselves as traders wanting to make some money, for various purposes

But when you look at it from the outside in, as if you were dealing with someone else with the idea, you’d approach it and handle it much differently

The second role began at that same time and continues to this day

And it is equally if not more important

Since you now have your own self-employed business, you are also the Owner and Manager of the business

You decide how the business is approached, what your goals are

You decide what you’ll trade and how, what general strategy you’ll employ

You decide what happens on a day-to-day basis

Basically, you have to make all the decisions beyond the actual placing of trades

And this role is often particularly challenging, and I’ll explain why in just a moment

This role is one that I’ve not heard mentioned elsewhere but it is one of the most vital

As a self-directed trader, you have the critical role of Trading System Analyst

You have to be able to evaluate a trading system for its suitability for your goals

You have to be able to perform a Qualitative Evaluation on a system for its functionality, to know that you’ll be able to trade it without issue

You have to know how to perform a Quantitative Evaluation of a system to know well it will perform, to know its potentials, capabilities and limitations

And you really need to be able to perform these evaluations efficiently, effectively and in a manner that does not require you to put money at risk to find out if it meets with your requirements

The fourth role is actually the one where everyone focuses, and that is the role of the Trader, the person placing the trades on a daily basis

If the other roles are performed well, the role of the Trader becomes very simple and straightforward – and relatively easy to fulfill

If the other roles are NOT attended to, if they are ignored or not performed well, the role of the Trader becomes very difficult and stressful

In short, the two most critical roles are that of the Owner / Manager and that of the Trading System Analyst.

Where most traders struggle is in managing the business, of working for yourself, and of course in being able to give yourself a solid, reliable trading system and the confidence to trade it comfortably

Why the struggle?

The first reason for so much struggle is that most traders do not view or approach their trading the same as they would any other business,

The second reason is that they do not have the training and/or experience for all the roles they now have

The third reason is that they do not have successful experience working for someone else in this industry

In short, they’ve never been properly prepared and trained to BE a successful owner of a trading business

So you’re left to figure ALL this out on your own, while trying to learn about a whole new occupation and a whole new industry, and trying to make money at the same time that your brain is getting rewired

BUT…

When you are given the training, the processes, the guidance to properly organize, plan out, the structure and step-by-step blueprint to build a successful operation, it becomes SO much easier than trying to figure it all out on your own

And it saves you SO much stress, WASTE and lost time and capital

It is for these reasons that I created the Trading As Your Business Complete Trader Training Program

If you have had enough stress trying to figure everything out on your own, and you know that having a logical, proven process to get your business in order, to get your trading system solid, and go to your daily trading very well prepared and confident, then check this program out

If you have questions or concerns, do let me know

Otherwise, this is the one trader training course that covers everything that was missing when you first started out, the training you wish you would have gotten

Now is your chance to set your trading down a much better path

Cheers

Brian McAboy
The Trading Business Coach