Do you want to transition from playing around to making a serious attempt at profitable trading? If you desire to compete with the big players in the market, you must adopt a mature approach and abandon childish behavior. Today’s post is a raw and honest wake-up call that only we can deliver, and we make no apologies for it because you must hear it to succeed.
To succeed in trading, you must gather yourself and operate with efficiency, without necessarily being a superhero. However, you must reflect on your current trading habits and mental processes and decide whether they are leading you in the right direction. It is evident that your current strategies may not be yielding results, which is why you are likely reading this article. If you persist in your old ways and fail to address the underlying issue, you alone are responsible for your shortcomings in trading and other areas of life.
Mental toughness
Mental fortitude refers to the capacity to stay focused and implement solutions amidst uncertainty or difficulty. Trading is perhaps the field that epitomizes these conditions the most, with only active combat zones in a war having a comparable degree of uncertainty and adversity.
To attain consistent profitability in trading, you must have the mental fortitude of an oak tree: a steadfast discipline in the face of the market’s ceaseless temptations and uncertainties.
Emotional discipline is crucial to succeed in trading. You cannot pursue every opportunity that comes your way but must exercise patience and wait for the high-quality trades that align with your plan. Developing emotional discipline demands mental fortitude, the ability to focus and execute your trading plan with utmost precision, despite the constant temptation to deviate.
Is trading an exclusive domain for individuals with exceptional genetic traits of discipline and mental fortitude? While some may have a natural advantage, anyone willing to commit can develop the mental tools essential for consistent profitability in trading.
Discipline in money management is just as crucial. You must exercise control in both risk and reward, as explained in this article on how to trade with discipline and this post on the psychology of taking profits.
State of Mind
Having the right state of mind is crucial to being a successful trader, even when you’re not actively trading. Self-control is a key trait that good traders possess, and if you lack self-control in other areas of your life, you’ll need to work on that if you want to succeed in trading. Being self-confident is also important as self-doubt and hesitation have no place in the markets. You have to act and think like a winner, even if you’re not there yet. To be successful, you also need to be counter-intuitive and avoid following the herd. This means training yourself to think differently from the masses of traders who fail. For example, when a market looks like it’s about to break out, it’s often a false breakout, and traders who jump in end up being stopped out. Patience and having a trading plan are key to avoiding such pitfalls. While you can’t always avoid losing trades, being patient and disciplined will help you avoid unnecessary losses.
Belief Systems
It is our belief that trading should be approached and treated as a business, with your trading plan serving as your business strategy in the markets. Your plan should encompass your overall trading style, ideal setups, risk management protocols, stop loss and profit target strategies, daily trading affirmations, and more.
Just like any other business, you need a plan and systems in place for your trading. Without a plan, you are essentially just gambling.
Consistent reinforcement is crucial to ingraining your trading strategy into your winning mindset. In our own personal trading strategy and the one we teach to our students, we take a “less is more” or K.I.S.S. (keep it simple stupid) approach, focusing on higher time frame charts and relying on select price action signals. This is all incorporated into our trading plan, which we review daily to reinforce it into our psyche.
Self-belief and confidence are also essential for success in trading. You must have complete faith in yourself, your abilities, and your trading strategy. As we mentioned before, hesitation has no place in the market. However, it is important to strike a balance and avoid becoming overly confident, as this can be just as detrimental to your trading success.
Solid daily routine
How do you currently structure your daily routine for trading? Do you have one at all? If you’re unsure, then it’s likely that you don’t. It’s important to be able to clearly explain your daily routine to others and to have designated times each day for analyzing the markets.
Routines create habits – A structured daily routine is incredibly valuable and powerful for developing positive habits. By repeating certain actions each day, you train your brain to form habits that can make or break your success. To learn more about the power of routines, check out our article on trading routines.
The daily routines of successful traders – Winning traders have a different mindset and approach than most people. They are more organized and focused, with clear short-term and long-term goals. They prioritize learning, staying fit, staying focused, and following their trading plan with discipline. They don’t waste time on distractions like television or socializing, but instead devote their time to their trading goals. By building daily habits that support their long-term goals, winning traders consistently achieve success in the markets.
Accountability and reaping the rewards of trading
To develop a winning trader’s mindset, it’s crucial to hold yourself accountable. As a trader, you don’t have a boss to answer to, but you must be accountable to your trading plan and routine to maintain discipline and establish positive habits.
- Create a tangible trading plan and review it regularly. This helps you stay accountable and maintain discipline, ultimately leading to consistent profits. Additionally, keep a trading journal to log your trades and details. This helps you stay accountable and review your progress.
- Don’t wait to enjoy life until you start making trading profits. Implement a low-frequency, end-of-day trading approach now and enjoy the benefits. Trading less frequently allows you to take a set-and-forget approach, giving you more time to enjoy your life.
- Finally, break down your larger trading success goal into smaller, more easily attainable weekly and daily goals. Think of trading success like a puzzle, where each small goal is a puzzle piece that needs to be mastered and put in its rightful place to achieve the bigger picture.
Conclusion
If two traders were compared, one with a million-dollar account and a high-tech multi-monitor setup, and the other with only a simple laptop and $1,000 but a winning mindset, we would bet on trader B every single time.
While trading involves both technical and mental skills, it’s often said that the mental aspects make up 80% of trading success. In our trading course and members area, we teach both aspects, but mastering the mental aspects can be more challenging. That’s why we write posts like this one. To be a successful trader, it’s not enough to just learn a trading strategy and fund an account. You must actively work to develop and maintain the proper trading mindset.
One way to start priming your brain for success is to get organized in all areas of your life. By becoming a better, more efficient, and successful version of yourself, you’ll be better equipped to make money trading. So, are you ready to make meaningful changes and become the best version of yourself? The choice is yours, but remember that nothing will change without change.