Top 15 mistakes and solutions in trading TOP 15 Trader's Mistakes
1 - Lack of knowledge of market operation, technical and fundamental analysis, mass psychology and market cycles
In the boom period, when a large number of new participants enter the market, many people believe themselves to be the "god of trading" and the "master of the markets."
Beginners are satisfied with a 10-20% profit during the expansion phase, whereas quotes for liquid cryptocurrencies show a gain of 30/50/150%. Everything is contrary to the logic of the majority, which is how markets function. Sadly or luckily, the majority of individuals make common errors and are unable, due to a lack of understanding, to differentiate the fine line when an uptrend is replaced by a downturn and the distribution phase is replaced by a prolonged decline.
At the moment of trend reversal, a psychological trap and a sequence of catastrophic events are established for the majority of participants, and a number of concomitant circumstances and lack of experience make it impossible to see the situation objectively.
When the market is at its "bottom," the majority loses faith in growth: some sell out and abandon the market, while others wait even lower, do not purchase, and begin shopping only when everything has increased by hundreds of percent.
Solution
Study theory. Dow Jones theory, the fundamentals of technical and fundamental analysis, and any information regarding market cycles will be of great use. Examining the graph using large timescales, such as days, weeks, and months. You may find a wealth of material about the fundamentals of trading in the public domain or in the trading part of our website.
2 - Covetousness resembles a psychological trap
Trading greed presents itself in numerous ways. Many are attracted to the cryptocurrency market by the idea of quick money, but the majority's problem is a lack of understanding of the mechanisms that move the market and how it functions.
In order to arouse greed, pampas are constructed with a single "stick to the sky." Everyone sees a growth of 1000%, and as a result, earnings of 20/40/50 and even 200% no longer appear so promising, people do not sell, they are waiting for more, and the price falls into the red.
Purchasing a full deposit's worth of cryptocurrencies in a single transaction is also greedy. The typical justification for such a "tactic" is that 10% of the overall deposit is greater than 10% of the portion of the deposit. Yet, when the price declines, the trader incurs losses and cannot cut the average entry price at lower values.
Another example is missed opportunity syndrome, or FOMO. The price of the item has climbed by an inadequate amount over the course of one or more candles. Seeing this process, a novice decides to purchase the asset because he believes the price will continue to rise, resulting in losses.
Many make the mistake of wanting to gain a lot of money quickly, but this is impossible. Fear and greed are particularly harmful emotions for traders.
Solution
The market requires a sensible strategy. Greed stems from inexperience and the fear of being late. Refrain from making decisions based on emotions and haste. It is essential to recognize that chances arise and disappear regularly on the market. Before initiating a trade, you should assess and justify your motives for doing so.
3 - Trading in emotional instability and excitement
Any emotion in trading is detrimental. The decision to enter or exit a transaction must be calculated beforehand, devoid of emotion and haste. Emotions make it difficult to appraise the situation accurately, and you run the danger of making a mistake that may result in losses.
Yet, since emotions are innate, it is impossible to eradicate them entirely; however, they can be managed. If emotions prevail, it is time to close the trading terminal and go on to other tasks.
If you wake up at night to check bitcoin prices or are unable to fall asleep, this indicates that you have already made key errors in your risk management system, or that you do not have one. And this requires immediate action and, as much as possible, a "cool" head.
Solution
Take a break from the trading terminal, spend time with loved ones, or go for a stroll; you need emotional relief and rest from time to time. Sports are effective stress reducers. If you have already reached the point of insomnia and emotional breakdowns, you must conduct a thorough analysis of your risk management strategy and take sometimes difficult measures.
If you have executed a number of unproductive transactions or one with an insufficient loss and you have the impression of "winning back," close the trading terminal immediately and do not trade on this day. Do not treat trading as a game of chance; in this emotional condition, you have no chance of success.
4 - leveraged trading
Margin instruments can be effective in the hands of a competent trader, though not always and only under certain conditions. This is simply an unmanageable machine for liquidating a deposit in the hands of a novice. Futures and margin are verboten for rookie traders, since you face the risk of not having time to develop experience, but losing your deposit instantly.
The average daily volatility of liquid instruments in a sideways movement can reach 3 to 10%, which indicates that squeezes may exceed adequacy when utilizing the 10th leverage - movements by 30 to 100% - on low-liquid pairs. When utilizing such leverage, setting a stop-loss is already problematic, as a stop-loss that is too far away would result in enormous losses in the event that it is triggered, and in nine out of ten situations it will be eliminated by an acceptable percentage. In addition, you will pay a commission for financing, taking into account leverage and transaction commissions.
Exchanges will gladly offer you with as much leverage as you like, but this is no longer trading; with this strategy, you have a greater chance of winning money at a casino.
Solution
Study the fundamentals of trading, master numerous techniques, develop your own trading strategy, and gain real-world trading experience on the spot market by physically purchasing and selling various assets. You will eventually comprehend how the market operates. Under certain circumstances, success on the spot market can be enhanced with margin.
5 - Uselessness of stops
Stops in trading are a substantial issue; stop-loss orders are covered in a different article. Stop-loss orders are frequently used irrationally or ignored by novice traders.
Traders can be roughly divided into two groups: those who always use stops and those who prefer to operate without them. However, these are extremes. A stop positioned too closely is liable to be obliterated, while the absence of a stop under certain conditions can result in enormous losses.
It is irrational to use stops during the accumulation phase because, in about eight out of ten instances, stops are eliminated precisely at those levels when there is a substantial accumulation of them, following which the price reverses and moves in the opposite direction. And when a significant upswing is established after a period of accumulation, a knockout almost always comes; it would be a shame to watch the price rise without participating. Yet there is a tight line here; you must be certain for a large percentage that this is the accumulation period, and you need also have a plan for price averaging, i.e. fiat in reserve.
It is irrational to work in the distribution phase without stopping, just as it is crazy to labor in the accumulation phase with a pause. This is significant because many people lose in these situations due to lack of expertise. Eventually, the distribution is finished and a decline occurs, frequently abruptly and by a substantial percentage. Stopping dramatically minimizes the loss.
If you have already opened a position and the price moves significantly in your favor, it becomes sense to place a stop-loss to safeguard profits so that if the price reverses, you will still make a profit and not a loss.
While dealing with margin instruments, stops are required!
Solution
If you have no trading experience, we recommend that you constantly utilize stops until you understand how they operate. If the fundamentals are understood, they should be applied sensibly to the circumstance. Similarly, if you were stopped out by a stop, you do not need to re-enter the trade, pause trading, identify what went wrong, and then determine the next entry point.
6 - Non-fixing losses incurred when the price moves against you but you do not close your position
If a trader becomes an investor owing to circumstances rather than his own volition, he is a poor trader. The "HODL strategy" is an explanation for a trader's insolvency and their own faults.
Long-term asset freezing is the worst thing that can happen to a trader - "I'll wait out the crypto winter and still sell for a profit" is not a trader's behavior model. It does not matter to a trader what the current trend is; he must have effective strategies for any scenario. Waiting out losses is a waste of resources since there is volatility at every price level, and volatility is an opportunity to make money.
Trading on financial markets necessitates the presence of lost deals; it's just the nature of the business. No trader has 100 percent profitable trades, and this is typical. Profitable trades must cover bad trades, and losses must be contained.
If you are unwilling to recover losses when the price moves against you, you lose control of the situation and become a victim of circumstances.
Solution
Before entering a trade, you should have a contingency plan in place in the event that the price moves against you. In certain circumstances, this may involve deliberate averaging, while in others, it may include fixing losses. Recognize that losing transactions are a normal part of the process.
7 - Transaction concluded too quickly
We touched on this topic briefly at the beginning of the article. The scenario is typical: a trader enters a position and the price begins to move in his favor. The trader takes profit at the predetermined level, but the price continues to rise. In itoge, fixed profit represents a modest proportion of the whole movement. The circumstance is representative of a powerful trend.
It would be a stretch to call this a mistake because the profit is fixed; however, in the case of a trading strategy with a limited number of assets, it can take a very long time to wait for the price to roll back below the exit point, in some cases an entire year, and in other instances, the quote may not return to its previous levels.
Solution
8 - Depending on your trading approach, there are a variety of solutions, including:
The gradual sale of a previously acquired asset at varying prices.
Selling of a portion of the asset to remove the invested funds from the transaction and earn a little return, reserving the remaining position (conditionally free asset) for longer-term objectives.
Profit protection with a stop-loss order and its progressive approach to the quote, but not too close so as not to be eliminated prematurely.
Deviation from the strategy or vice versa - lack of action flexibility
Confusion, agitation, and swinging between extremes are certain indicators of a lack of a trading strategy or an indication that it was constructed wrong. Planned action eliminates the possibility of unanticipated situations and makes risks manageable. The plan must account for both potential profits and losses. Frequent strategy adjustments during the trading process are typically detrimental.
The contrary is also true: a trading strategy must be adaptable to the current market environment. For instance, you are in a position and the price is moving in your favor, everything is going as planned, you are almost at your goals, but then you learn that the project whose coin you are trading was hacked. In such a circumstance, you will have very little time to make a choice. In such a circumstance, blind adherence to the strategy will definitely result in losses.
Solution
Your activities must be automated, and you must have a well-thought-out trading plan that takes into consideration all possible eventualities. In the event of a force majeure, it is vital to make swift decisions and build market-specific flexibility.
9 - "Finding knives."
Investing a major portion of the deposit in the purchase of an asset amid a severe price decline is a bad choice. It is known as "catching knives" in business parlance. No one can accurately predict where the price will stop fluctuating and begin to consolidate. Before making a decision based on a thorough analysis of the situation, it is vital to comprehend the core cause of such a decline.
You cannot make purchases after the upcoming autumn without comprehending the market's overall condition. After distribution at the peaks, the value of altcoins can decrease by 70 to 99 percent. To clarify, an asset in a bear market can lose 50% in a day, 50% in price, another 50% in a day, and another 50% in a day dozens of times before reaching its ultimate bottom. In addition, it is not a certainty that he would recover after this, particularly if it is an illiquid asset, of which there are thousands.
Solution
If you continue to employ this technique in your trading strategy, you should limit your exposure by allocating a smaller portion of your entire deposit and bear in mind that this "bottom" may not be the last one. With this strategy, it is crucial to master the fundamentals of technical analysis and how to construct horizontal levels and trend lines.
10 - Absence of system, algorithm, and subjective opinion
You must know beforehand where you are buying and selling, what portion of your deposit you are working on, the permissible losses, and the rationale for these activities at the same levels. All of this is a trading strategy. In acts, there should be no spontaneity, excessive self-assurance, or hesitancy.
You should not take the subjective opinion of another as the truth. The more confident words and assertions sound, the more confidence they inspire on a psychological level, directly into the subconscious, and you begin to feel that these are your own thoughts.
The bitcoin market is rife with numerous types of manipulation; therefore, every information must be double-checked. The situation is compounded by the fact that newcomers are frequently directed by their own expectations and desires rather than by objective data. For instance, a break in a trend or a breakdown of a horizontal level is objective evidence, whereas an item that is overbought or oversold is merely an opinion.
Solution
Incorporating risk management and financial management into your own trading strategy. Use objective knowledge, not the opinion of others, for analysis. If you consume a great deal of information regarding the crypto sector, you need carefully select your sources and listen to opposing viewpoints on the situation.
11 - Ineffective financial management
Money management should be the default inclusion in your trading plan. This entails splitting both the deposit and the assigned amount to join the asset, as for different trading techniques.
It is not suggested to purchase the entire anticipated quantity of cryptocurrencies in a single transaction, since it will be unable to equalize the entry price in the event of a price decline. Beginners frequently make this error while purchasing something with their entire deposit.
In addition, money management covers the distribution of trading and storage locations for assets. We do not encourage trading on a single exchange; use many exchanges. If your bitcoin is sitting idle on an exchange, withdraw it to a cold wallet or hardware wallet.
Solution
12 - Money management must be an important component of your trading plan
Too slothful to retain records
No professional trader would conduct business without keeping transactional statistics and records. It is impossible to comprehend one's own efficiency without this. Some exchanges provide account analytics at a high level, while others do not; however, all statistics are maintained for a specified time frame. After a while, you will forget the prices at which you acquired your own investment portfolio. It will be unusual to sell an item without knowing if you are making a profit or a loss.
A trading journal will educate you more than a dozen trading books combined. Record the purchase price, date, exchange, reasons for entry, feelings during the transaction, and similar information. After a period of time, you will be able to study and comprehend the causes of past errors and successful transactions.
Solution
13 - Notepad, pen, and a methodical approach.
Overestimated dangers
Regardless of the size of the deposit, restrict the allocated funds for high-risk strategies to a specific amount or percentage. In the event of a loss, continue trading with the current balance without replenishing it. If a profit is made and the balance increases, transfer a portion of the money to less risky methods or withdraw them to fiat.
Elevated risks include x5+ leverage, starting a trade with the full deposit or a substantial portion, entering an asset with a single order without averaging, and trading illiquid assets.
Solution
14 - A methodical approach to risk management.
Do everything and you will fail
There are various methods for constructing working portfolios. Someone trades many specific altcoins, someone trades simply bitcoin, and someone trades circumstances without reference to particular assets; however, success is the most important factor.
The enormous number of active cryptocurrencies is one of the primary obstacles for newbies. To handle the situation, it is required to comprehend a variety of project-related aspects, including fundamental analysis, technical analysis, order book status, transaction history, project-related news, price, etc. It is physically impossible to control more than five assets simultaneously without the assistance of a team of analysts.
By working with many cryptocurrencies, you run the danger of losing focus and overlooking crucial nuances that will effect the outcome.
Solution
Initially, do not trade more than three assets; if you can keep track of a larger number, you may gradually increase the quantity.
15 - Inability to withdraw from the market and await suitable conditions.
Staying out of the market is one of the most difficult aspects of trading for most novices. There are times when the wisest course of action is to monitor the market. It is not true that the more transactions there are, the greater the profit. You can conduct dozens of transactions per day and incur a loss in a month, or you can conduct two or three transactions per month and earn a profit.
It is easier to work during the growth phase, and without theory and experience, it is nearly difficult to earn a profit during the flat and downturn phases. If it were possible to make money during the growing phase, the ideal course of action during the turning point would be to take a vacation or limit the trading portion of the initial deposit in order to get expertise trading with little sums.
The remaining 99% of a trader's time is spent on self-development, market analysis, hunting for opportunities, and waiting for advantageous entry points into trades.
Solution
Utilize the time while you are out of the market to your advantage. Instead of mimicking a monkey's actions, participate in self-education: read foundational literature on trading, discover new trading tactics, and study the assets you're interested in as thoroughly as possible. In this way, at the moment when a beneficial situation occurs on the market, you will be ready for it.
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✅Disclaimer: Please be aware of the risks involved in trading. This idea was made for educational purposes only not for financial Investment Purposes.
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Tradingpsyhology
Traders balance between intellect and emotionsHow can traders create a balance between intellect and emotion?
In trading, rationality and passion are two sides of the same coin. Rationality helps us make educated and reasonable trading decisions, but unbridled emotions may be harmful. How do traders strike a balance between these two factors?
- Understand your emotions and their influence on your trading is the first step. For instance, if you experience panic when you lose, you may terminate the deal early than necessary. If you are excited about winning, you may hang onto a position longer than required. Understanding your emotions and their influence on your trade can enable you to exert greater control over them.
- Create a trading strategy based on facts and data, not on your emotions. This will assist you in making more educated trading selections and avoiding emotional mistakes. Create a risk management compliance system that will assist you in minimizing losses and maximizing profits.
- Practice yoga and meditation to enhance your emotional control. This can help you become calmer and more concentrated, which will allow you to make better trading judgments.
- In conclusion, the equilibrium between intellect and emotion in trading is crucial for success. By understanding your emotions, adopting a sensible trading plan, and practicing strategies for emotion regulation, you may reach incredible harmony and balance, as well as make better educated trading judgments.
Throughout the trading process, you must practice and continually evaluate your psychological condition.
Hope you enjoyed the content I created, You can support with your likes and comments this idea so more people can watch!
✅Disclaimer: Please be aware of the risks involved in trading. This idea was made for educational purposes only not for financial Investment Purposes.
---
• Look at my ideas about interesting altcoins in the related section down below ↓
• For more ideas please hit "Like" and "Follow"!
Best advice for achieving success in trading!✅Here's the deal, guys. If you want to make this year a successful year in trading, you got to have an edge. It doesn't have to be rocket science, just a solid strategy. There are plenty of resources out there, so don't be shy to do your research. Once you got a strategy, test it out with a small account or paper money before committing fully.
And when you commit, commit fully. Don't be that person that changes their mind after one loss. Ignore the noise on social media and focus on your own system and 'PnL. It's none of your concern how other people are trading.
Don't buy the hype. You're not going to turn chump change into a fortune overnight. Trading has its ups and downs. So, don't be caught off guard and expect the unexpected. And always be ready for the ride.
And here's the truth, not every trade will be a winner. But there will be a select few that'll make up for the majority of your 'PnL increase. Just make sure you have enough capital to cover 'bills, taxes, and other boring stuff.
And don't be dumb and emotional. Risk management and trading psychology are crucial. If you're having panic attacks before executing a trade, it's a sign you're either not suitable for trading or you're taking excessive risks. Take a step back and assess your current financial situation and the amount of money you're putting in.
Embrace failure as fuel. It's not a setback, but a lesson in disguise. Realize that success is not a straight path, but a journey full of ups and downs.
And lastly, come prepared. Write down a plan for each day, whether it's a simple excel sheet or a written plan. It'll help you stay focused and aware of what's happening in the markets. And remember, trading is hard. Don't fall for the social media hype that makes it seem easy.
Happy trading!
Trading Psychology 101 | FEAR (1/2)A bit of a different video for you..
Thought i should talk about a sensitive subject here..
Psychology in trading and the key factors that you may need to finally BECOME a better trader..
In this part, I talk about FEAR and FOMO. Also, I added a more sensitive part, which is feeling burnt out and ways to overcome that.
Hope you find this helpful!
The "So-Called" Psychology of a Market Cycle!Greetings Dear Investors and Traders, today CryptoQueens, an educational post regarding the so-called Psychology of a Market Cycle.
When making investment decisions, investors have a wide variety of tools at their disposal. While these tools can form the basis of a sound investment thesis, their effectiveness is limited by one’s emotions. Allowing emotions to dictate decisions is a common mistake made by many investors, yet they may not even realize it. People experience different emotions during these market cycles ranging from fear to greed. Below we will analyze, as well as you will find attached in the chart image the different emotions experienced by investors during market cycles which overwhelms the majority of the traders:
Disbelief:
This phase happens after the bottom has been hit. There is a sense of disbelief among investors about the rally. They believe just like it happened in the past few months, the markets will fall again. Their fear of making another mistake causes them to miss the optimal window to re-enter the market.
Optimism:
During this phase, the realization dawns on most of the investors that the rally is real. Investing during this phase if stocks are chosen well can give good returns.
Enthusiasm:
This is the time when the majority of investors are convinced about the market rally, therefore market demand rise. They believe that now is the time to be fully invested. Some naysayers still don’t believe in the market rally and advise caution.
Euphoria:
This is the phase where there is irrational exuberance in the markets. Investors share a collective dopamine as they think that they are genius because they made a fortune. It is advisable to stay cautious during this phase.
Overconfidence/Greed:
Investors continue to increase their positions despite high volatility.
If you buy during this phase, you are sure to lose money, whatever you buy.
Anxiety:
Fear sets in, as losses begin to mount.
Investors believe that the dip is taking more time than expected. This is the the moment when people are notified with margin calls due to the recent market fall. Anxiety kicks in.
Denial:
The herd ignores the market signs as market demand weakens. They believe that since their investments are in great companies, they will bounce back.
Panic:
Herd mentality takes over and market participants rushes to sell leading to widespread selling even at losses. This is a good time to buy extremely selectively for the long term as it may be very difficult to know even for well-informed investors whether we are in the denial phase, panic phase or capitulation phase.
Capitulation:
Market Participants accepts their losses and completely exit the market. They are selling close to the bottom of the cycle.
Agony/Anger:
Steep losses take a psychological factor in many investors and they start to blame the government, or anything correlated, perceiving it as market manipulation.
Depression:
This is the period when investors believe that their retirement savings are gone and their financial security is affected. They even start blaming themselves for investing. However, markets inevitably starts to recover.
Conclusion:
As an investor, you need to recognize these signals and never lose sight of the bigger picture. It is like Warren Buffett once mentioned. Be scared when others are greedy and greedy when others are afraid. Therefore, keep an eye on the fundamentals and behavioral factors that influence the market and always remain ahead of the game. Make sure you include this in your trading plan before to take action on it.
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Best Regards, CryptoQueens.
😱 Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO)📉Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO) / SHORT scenario.
Fear of missing out, or FOMO, is the feeling of anxiety or regret that can occur when someone believes that they have missed an opportunity to invest in a stock or crypto currency that is increasing or decreasing in value.
This feeling can be triggered by seeing others making money from a particular investment, or by observing the stock or crypto's value increasing or decreasing over time and thinking that one should have invested earlier.
FOMO can be dangerous to investors because it can lead to impulsive buying or selling decisions that are not based on sound investment strategies.
In the above scenario we can see the effect of FOMO in play. The price action breakdown of the trendline, indicating weak support and a flip of the trend.
This psychological effect can be observed without the use of indicators and by just looking at the price action.
A deeper look into order flow and Open Interest could further explain the trader's behavior on this particular effect that occurs.
🔴 ENTRY is based on the first major red candle after the breakdown, trying to knife-catch the price, based on no strategy and purely
emotion of missing out a potential short position with a stop loss nowhere close to a potential supply zone where the price action could re-visit
for confirmation of a downtrend.
🟢 ENTRY is based AFTER the retest of the trendline, on a potential supply zone where the price action is looking
for a retest at this level before confirmation of further decline of price action. Stop loss is given above the
last high, above the trendline.
👤 @AlgoBuddy
📅 Daily Ideas about market update, psychology & indicators
❤️ If you appreciate our work , Please like, comment and follow ❤️
The Psychology Of A Market CycleThe psychology of a market cycle refers to the emotional and psychological states that investors and traders go through as they react to market conditions. Here is a short summary of each stage of the market cycle:
🔵 Disbelief:
At this stage, market participants are skeptical about the potential for a market rally or recovery.
They may be hesitant to invest or trade, as they do not believe that the market has the potential to improve.
🔵 Hope:
As market conditions begin to improve, investors and traders may start to feel more hopeful about the future.
They may start to see opportunities for profit and become more willing to take risks.
🔵 Belief:
At this stage, market participants start to believe that the market will continue to improve.
They may become more confident in their investment decisions and become more willing to hold onto their positions for longer periods of time.
🔵 Euphoria:
As the market continues to rise, investors and traders may become overly optimistic and start to believe that the market will continue to rise indefinitely.
This can lead to excessive risk-taking and overconfidence.
🔵 Anxiety:
As market conditions start to deteriorate, investors and traders may become anxious about the potential for losses.
They may start to question their investment decisions and become more hesitant to take risks.
🔵 Denial:
As market conditions continue to worsen, some investors and traders may start to deny that the market is in a downturn.
They may continue to hold onto their positions in the hope that the market will recover.
🔵 Panic:
At this stage, market participants may become panicked about the potential for further losses.
They may start to sell their positions in a rush to get out of the market.
🔵 Capitulation:
As market conditions reach their lowest point, investors and traders may give up hope and sell their positions, even at a loss.
This is known as capitulation.
🔵 Anger:
After the market has bottomed out, some investors and traders may feel angry about their losses and the perceived market manipulation
or wrongdoing that they believe caused the market crash.
🔵 Depression:
After experiencing significant losses, some investors and traders may feel depressed
and lose motivation to engage in further investment or trading activities.
🔵 Disbelief:
As market conditions begin to improve again, some investors and traders may return to a state of disbelief
and skepticism about the potential for a sustained market rally.
👤 @AlgoBuddy
📅 Daily Ideas about market update, psychology & indicators
❤️ If you appreciate our work , Please like, comment and follow ❤️
Your Uniqueness in the MarketTake a look at this chart, or any chart of your choosing, and tell me what you see! Not just the technical terms and the direction of the market but explain what you are seeing, thinking and feeling as you read the market data from start to finish.
If you got the responses from twenty different people, you'd receive twenty different perspectives with twenty different interpretations. Some of them overlapping in their theories and explanations while others violently contradict and oppose each other. The beautiful thing about trading is that we all at one time or another are correct. "Correct" being that their was a legitimate opportunity to place a trade and make money based on your unique perspective of the information.
The difficult thing in trading is really understanding what we see and perceive in all of the market data. I want to emphasize... The difficult thing about trading is in truly understanding how we see and interpret market data in our own unique way. Some people see long, while others see short, and depending upon the system; on any particular trade, on any particular day, both sets of people are correct.
All systems have winners and losers, its an unavoidable fact. The acceptance of this fact will help you understand that you don't necessarily need to go searching for someone else's way of trading, you only to need gain a thorough understanding of how you view things. What resonates with you and your uniqueness? Maybe its moving averages and RSI, maybe its price action and support and resistance, or maybe its simply the day of the week at a specific time. When you start to unpack your way of making sense of the market you can find your unique way of operating in it.
If success in the market was primarily based on technical skills, and the use of tools, indicators, and spreadsheets. There would be a lot more profitable traders. Trading attracts some of the most brilliant minds, intellectual beasts, and academic rockstars, and yet over 90% of traders fail and are unsuccessful. You yourself, as you read this may realize you are a brilliant person yet you struggle to stay consistent with your trading. The answer to your problem is not solely in the technical skill, its likely hiding in the unexamined parts of your personality.
If you know this, then you also know that awareness and application are two totally different things. You can be aware that you have a personal problem with following a trading methodology but feel totally powerless in correcting it. My question to you would then be, how much time have you spent experiencing your own unique style of trading? Stop fighting your nature, and embrace your expression.
There are market fundamentals and market basics that every trader needs to understand.
Price Action
Structure
Trend
Risk
Beyond this your style of trading is likely a combination of many different skills that you've accumulated from various sources. The important thing for each trader is to understand which skills resonate most with them. Which skills fit your unique market perspective. Which skills can you use to build a system of trading that allows you to account for the mixture of wins and losses, while keeping you in an optimal mental space, so that you may execute on your level of understanding.
I think the challenge for every trader, is to take the time to identify a purpose in their trading. To understand why it is that you feel drawn to embark on such a challenging task. Those traders who stick with it, and generate some answers to these questions will have taken huge strides in understanding how the market serves as mirror. Reflecting back at you, the potential for you to fulfill your desires coupled with everything that you need to work on, and improve upon, on a very personal level.
If you don't come from a trading and investing background, either from family ties or academia, then all of this becomes even more important. Self- taught traders need to understand their uniqueness in the market. You are the most important part of your trading system. It would be crazy not to give yourself the time and attention you deserve.
Happy Trading!
3 Ways Traders Can Prepare For SuccessComing into trading with only the desire to make money, often results in not making any.
I didn't make a dime for 4 years till my lucky day came.
Before it, like most traders, I gambled my way into the game with little to no knowledge. I started off with free information. (Youtube and Babypips were my buddies.)
After gathering data from them for 2 weeks, I felt I'm ready, then funded my first trading account. Luckily, I doubled the account on my first day but blew it the next. It was awful but I repeated the process for 3 months till I gave up.
However, I got back a month later. Because I was still hooked by the idea of making money wherever I am. Though at the same time feeling stressed, anxious, and depressed to see my hopes and dreams out of reach, I had faith.
That I carried with me throughout the years, until one day, I found out what was holding me back: a short-term mindset.
Which is what I'll show you how to escape from before it's too late.
**Thus Begin By Thinking In Years Than Months**
Ignoring this advice will be costly. It will cost you your time, money, and mental health. You don't want that.
But you get that by being a short-term thinker. Which is a person who focuses on the now, with little regard for the future. Someone who focuses on short-term results at the expense of long-term interests. A trader who focuses on making money instead of focusing on the 3 stages of becoming a trader:
1. Learning to trade.
2. Becoming a trader.
3. Full-time (profitable) trader.
It's almost impossible to reach stage 3. Yet it is possible when you begin the journey like a long-term thinker. Which is a trader who envisions, plans, and works toward the future. While ignoring the monetary side to focus on the skill (that will serve you till you meet bro, Jesus).
Like what all medical students do.
From the get-go, they know it will take them 6-7 years to become professional doctors. Being aware of this allows them to focus on the stages of becoming doctors. (But lucky for them, they make money along the way through student loans.)
So, coming into trading with an idea that it will likely take you 5 years to become a consistently profitable trader, will assure that. Because it will keep you grounded, focused, consistent, and patient with the process. And that will allow you to enjoy it while growing fast.
With that said, let me show you how you to prepare for trading success below:
1. Create a long-term vision.
A clear vision with a plan will save you from falling into traps that will delay your progress. It will allow you to navigate through the dark cave till you reach the light. But that's only possible when you have a torch and a compass.
Powerful questions and a plan of action.
Questions help you to discover the path. A plan helps you walk the path. Thus to find out if trading is the right path, ask yourself:
- Why do I want to become a trader?
I know you are in it for the money (like I used to be), but that mindset will prevent you from getting it. So take your time answering this question. Don't rush because whatever answer you get will determine your success or failure!
Once you're satisfied with your answer, start planning out your journey by...
2. Setting Objectives
In simple terms, an objective is a measurable step you take to achieve a vision.
For a trader who's in the first stage of "learning to trade" while working a 9-5 job, the vision could be to become a full time professional trader. And the objective could be to buy a trading course from a mentor you perceive as legit, then study and practice till you reach the 3rd level.
To discover that objective, the reason behind it, and how to achieve it, you need to ask yourself:
- What do you need to do?
- Why do you need to do it?
- How you’re going to do it?
After figuring out all that, move on to the next step, which is...
3. Keeping your job
Do not quit your job before becoming a profitable trader. It will save you from unnecessary mental and emotional pain that are caused by forcing profitable trades to pay bills.
That’s a bad approach to trading. It always delivers opposite results that will definitely make you stressed, anxious, depressed, and unsuccessful.
You need not worry about money along your journey, so you can focus on the process of becoming an elite trader.
I’ve made that mistake and it cost me too damn much. So, keep your job to save up at least 2 years of monthly expenses that will get covered once you’ve decided to become a full time trader, and save for a 6 to 7-figure prop firm trading account to manage once you’ve resigned from your job.
Follow the above steps and witness the fruits of being a long-term thinker who focuses on the processes instead of results.
Dealing with losses...before they happenLosses are part of this business. People do not react well to losses. Badly handled losses in trading can trigger bigger losses. Furthermore, these have the dangerous potential of wiping out entire accounts. If you want to make it as a trader you need to have a solid psychological approach to accept and handle losses.
Lots of internet articles are suggesting that the way to prevent debilitating losses in trading is to follow risk management rules. What are those rules about? Basically, they are simple thresholds indicating the maximum $ /percentage you should risk per trade, day, month, etc. Having such rules is a must but it’s not enough. You can still lose much if your mind is not actually prepared to implement them. That’s why many traders set rules only to break them in the most inappropriate moments.
People do not follow their own risk management rules because they are not psychologically prepared to accept losses. They are not prepared for the pain caused by a loss or a series of losses.
The single most efficient way to handle losses is to accept them consciously and unconsciously. One of the most dangerous ways to react to losses is “revenge” or “on tilt” trading. This happens when the pain caused by a loss is so high that the trader loses his / her rationality and only wants his / her money back, disregarding most of the things he/she actually knows about the market. The brain cannot accept the emotional discomfort and the fastest solution is to quickly find a trade to make the money back. Most of the time, the quickest trade is in the same instrument (FX pair, stock, etc) that generated the initial loss, by averaging down/up or flipping. Some of the most experienced traders can work their way out but the vast majority will only make things worse.
In order to prevent this kind of psychological slippage, you need to prepare your mind to consciously and unconsciously accept losses BEFORE they occur. With the help of a psychotherapist or by yourself you can perform visual exercises where you will imagine yourself being in a losing position and reacting the right way. This would desensitize you if done right.
The technique I always use each time I open a position is to do that desensitization process “on the fly”. I watch the market and I see an opportunity. BEFORE opening the position, I imagine myself in the posture of facing that trade ending in a loss. After that, I imagine that trade going the way I want. I might even go back and forth (in my mind) a few times between losing and winning. This way, I prepare my unconscious mind. If I cannot imagine myself easily handling the loss (or the win) I will simply reduce size.
Pay attention though, I am not recommending here to imagine yourself constantly losing because this would do more harm than good. This would be a separate topic about the power of visualization exercises.