5 thing I would like to know when I first started trading

1. You are the only responsible of your results

At the end of the day, you are the only one behind the screens and responsible for every single action.

  • Having a diet plan will not make you healthy
  • Doctors will not make you healthier
  • Mentor will not make you get results.

They have all a strong indirect impact in your results, but you are 100 % responsible of you actions although in this game.

In that way, their work is 20% and your work must be 80 % to get results.

2. Having the proper education is key but it’s not enough

In this market there is many ways to make money, some strategies that work form someone else will not work with you. In that way, it is important to follow people who think they trade like you want to trade. Is not because someone is making money that you will make the money like him. You are not going to trade like him/her, but you will get some sort of inspiration and bases to build your own trading system.

It will be up to you to build your own habits.

There is no holy grail in this industry. You better stay away from those advertising unrealistic results. You will not find the holy grail by taking a course reading a book or something like this. The only way to build confidence to make money is by adopting the good trading habits in long term.

You should get to a point in which you naturally execute without fear. Simple habits that will help you trade without fear are managing risk, having a proven system, avoiding taking emotional decisions by injecting some logical reasoning into your decision making.

Invest in education but do not achieve the point of confusion. Stick to one simple strategy and one simple mentor.

3. Do not focus on money

If your focus is on money you will never improve your results. If you focus on improvement you will eventually get the money. Do not chase the paper, chase the skill. You can have no money but if you have the skill you will be able to become unstoppable. You will be able to trade with accounts of 1k 100 k or 1M. Your goal is not to be attracted by the materialistic life of a trader. There is more than that. We are doing this for freedom.

4. Psychology is the most important thing

Trading can be simple, or you can overcomplicate.  Prices go up or down, you can just buy and sell. Your goal as a trader is to find good deals, to execute those good deals at then let the deals play out. You can have very good technical but if you cannot master your inner demons it will take you more than expected. You need to learn about how your brain work to become aware when things are not going. Fear acts on our perception of information (how we perceive info , filter info and then behave)  in a way that creates the experience  we are trying to avoid so :

  • If you are afraid of losing money you will lose money
  • If you are afraid of being wrong then you will be wrong
  • If you are afraid of missing out you will miss out.
  • If you are afraid of leaving money on the table you will leave it on the table

It is important to build a carefree and fearless state of mind when we are trading in a probabilistic environment

5. It is all about habits in your trading and external lifestyle

Personal habits

Poverty is a habit / wealthy is a habit / life is a habit.

As Paul Sartre said, we are our choices. What we do with our 24 hours will define the kind of person we are.

This is all about changing and adopting proper habits in your pro and personal life.

If you do have side issues like bad habits or (girlfriend / parents /friend / work etc.. ) they will make it difficult to execute a proper system in your trading. All those bad vibes will send resistive energy and when you get this energy you can either shut down or step through and doo exactly what you are supposed to do regardless. take care of your personal habits and problems.

Avoid bad habits that drain your energy and focus here are some:

  • Wake up late vs. 5 am morning
  • Partying 24/7 vs. Learning
  • Being lazy vs. being a doer.
  • Social media vs/ productivity.

Etc.… Before getting serious with trading, I used to be drunk whenever I had the opportunity.  I used to be lazy and sleep like a baby waking up late. I used to have a lot of bad habits that honestly, I’m not proud of it. But everything can change. The more I fall in love with the process and taking care of my habits and more my trading improve and happier I become.

Trading habits related

Mismanaging risk is a bad habit

Proper trading is a habit.

most of traders have the worst trading habits. They assume they know what the outcome will be, so they bail out of trades. They think it will make them more money, so they risk more equity.

They assume that after a few wins the next trade is likely to be a winner, so they are double up. They assume that after a few losses the next trade is likely to be a loss, so they do not execute  

By adopting simple proper and mechanical trading habits you are trading will improve

It’s key to have a technical system that give you an edge  or higher probability trade over a series of trades where the outcome is unknown and unknowable The more you mentally care about knowing what’s going to happen next the less successful you will be in trading . Is all about proper trading psychological habits combined with a technical system.

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