Continuing with our guest blog posts for the week, I would like to introduce Pierre Charlebois from Tradingpostfinancial.com. After reading his posts for a while, I finally asked him to write a post that would help our thousands of readers!
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I was asked to offer something educational as a guest blogger and I was trying to think of what could I write about, to have the greatest impact. How can I get through to the readers what it is like to trade for a living? How can I explain what the one, most important ingredient in trading is? What is the one common thing that all traders need to do well, to get solid results overall. And how do I help them understand it? And then how can I teach them to do it? Then I thought: Man that is no small task.
If anyone could do that well on a consistent basis people would be knocking down their door. Let’s face it, trading for a living isn’t all that easy. Well, let me rephrase that statement. The average person can learn to trade. That is, most of us with a little effort and time, can learn all the basic concepts of trading and develop a reasonable system to apply to trading. So how come more people aren’t successful? More importantly: how come you’re not?
Simple; Learning to trade and ‘Executing Trades’ are two very different things. Learning the techniques is not what is difficult. Learning the ability to execute well, is!
You see, what separate the few good traders from the many mediocre ones is the real commitment of doing what it takes to be successful as a trader. I said earlier in the article that I wanted to try to explain the one thing that would be common to everyone who trades. Well that one thing is: You. Each one of us is what makes the difference in our trading. Not the next system, not a better market, but simply our own ability to find the discipline of executing our system well.
When I got this about my trading, my first reaction was that all I needed to do was be consistent as to when I trade and how I trade. Boy was that ever easier said that done. I had to really force myself to set the proper priorities of what to do, how to do it and when to do it. Frankly, it is still the greatest thing I am challenged with everyday. You see it takes time and repetition to reinforce good habits and shed old ones. And some of our old habits may never disappear entirely.
So I say, stop looking for the next system that you believe will beat the market and work with a simple system you can easily apply, and then; apply it well and consistently. That’s when you will see your trading improve.
Pierre Charlebois
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Please be sure and check out Pierre and what the team at Trading Post Financial has to offer!
Well as someone said before, I have seen the enemy and the enemy is us. If you can't control your emotions you can't be a trader. I think a system is useful but sometimes when you know things are going well you can take a risk and choose not to exit too early. Likewise if things are going not so well, you need to make a quick decision on whether or not to exit. Ultimately it's all about risk management and being in control of oneself.
This is a difficult topic, Pierre touch on some good points, and I agree with the execution. The fear of losing money was a big obstacle with me, and I'm sure for most, but when I learned to get in the fray and deal with the losses; and get past the fear of a dwindling account, I was able to be more relaxed and concentrate on my systematic approach, rather than the "panic" of losing money. Learning to lose properly really helped, and what I mean by that is, cutting losses quickly, eliminate the hope it will come back syndrome and to react and decision make quickly.
Interesting, but nothing Earth Shattering. Discipline n hardwork and commitment as in all other pursuits whether brick laying or rocket science. RS