Making it as a trader!
Sorry I haven’t been updating the blog for a while but everything has been really hectic! I am getting married very soon and have a lot of wedding preparations. In addition, work has taken over the rest of my waking time. I was doing extremely well trading the Forex markets and then, a glut… my trades were rubbish and I was losing money. From a 11 trade winning streak to a good run of losses… what was going on?
I search high and low for an answer, I look at myself to see what was going on. I even managed to talk to a guy who was trying to sell me a trading course but I think I have got enough out of him to find the answer….
I want to start at the beginning with the evolution of how one becomes a trader….
It all starts when you read about the amount of money you can make…. you then read a few books, understand a few terms and how to read a chart and usually, off you go. You maybe lucky to start off with and make a few bob but in time, you will lose. You will find that you get angry and frustrated which then furthers you to read more books and/or even go to seminars. You will try some new things which you have learnt from these books/seminars and find that these also don’t work… you go on more and more and you start to build quite an amount of knowledge to be able to speak the lingo and understand most of the terms which are presented. However, success as a trader still eludes you. You keep trying through more education and more seminars, more testing and doing anything you can to succeed….
Most people after losing a sizeable amount of money or finding themselves getting frustrated stop at this point. It’s an endeavour which they close their doors to…
I’m at the stage where I have seen some short term success…. and then to lose it. The thing is, trading isn’t what you expect it to be. It’s not a road to quick riches.. to be successful, you need to gradually build your stake and trade larger and larger sizes as you become more successful. Trading is a very personal endeavour too… it can be lonely and quite frankly, boring! However, the financial rewards can be huge!!
What I have learnt is that it is about discipline, it is about pulling the trigger when the time is right and it’s about sticking to a system which gives you a positive expectancy. The system you use will not be foolproof however, you will not get a 100% winning system… that is what most people find hard to cope with. A trading system that works can lose you money even if you follow it and make you money when you don’t. It is your discipline to follow through which makes trading work… you cannot be emotional about your trades… you just pull the trigger and wait to see what happens.
There are a lot of systems out there which do work.. however, where it fails is usually with the trader. The trader is unable to pull the trigger or tries to refine the system. It gets to a point, as a result of the refinements, that the system is no longer the system you started with but something completely different and non profitable.
Also, there is the tendancy to think that trading is a highly complex endeavour and people will design these systems with elaborate and over complex indicators.
Find a simple system and follow it…… after many years of pursuing trading, I think I’m finally coming to the answer and it’s been within my reach all along. It’s about believing yourself and being disciplined enough to follow through a trading system. You need to find one which suits your personality… Trading is about finding yourself and learning what works with you and what doesn’t…. it’s a journey that can lead to a lot of frustration yet joy!
