Stock trading success...why is it so elusive? With all
trading information, systems, trading advice and assistance available today, fact that most people who attempt to profit from trading Stocks lose money seems quite bizarre. Can you imagine millions of dollars that must have been spent by countless traders on courses and Stock analysis software, that was wasted because buyers didn't understand key principle of trading success I am about to share with you now.
We aren't going to need any charts for this lesson...just your ability to comprehend value of what I am about to share with you and your willingness to take action - right now I want to share with you ABC's of trading success.
If trading was an easy business to master and profits were freely available to all, every punter with a computer and a free charting program would be a millionaire and streets of our cities would be clogged with chauffer driven limousines.
The fact that majority of population have no idea how to make a buck from Stock Market, often after spending large amounts of money on education and trading losses, made me wonder why this is so.
I searched for answer to profitable trading for years, until I found it in an unexpected place, when I wasn't looking for it at all.
You may be able to relate to this story, or you might just be starting out and this will help you to reduce time you spend in your initial learning stages and speed up your path to profits.
Let me tell you about Jim (not his real name…of course). Jim first started trading after answering an ad in Brisbane Courier Mail for a popular trading education package that cost him around $1000.
Little did he know that fateful investment in that course would lead him into abyss of Gann analysis, and that it would eventually cost him thousands of dollars in courses and trading losses to pull himself out other side.
He read course, watched videos, read course, watched videos...you get picture.
Losses, losses, small profit, losses. He felt that because of his limited knowledge, he had to learn more and more in order to stop losses and to start profiting from market. So he spent more and more on courses - and his trading got worse and worse.
The more he learnt, less he seemed to know and worse his results became. Then, he finally learnt about A, B, C triangle of success, in trading and in every other area of life, from one of his property mentors - John Fitzgerald.
The A, B, C's stand for -
A - Awareness
B - Belief
C - Conduct
Awareness - He realised that he already did in fact know enough to become a successful trader and investor. He had studied many books and courses on trading and had everything he needed in way of practical trading information to make a profit.
He was aware of what it took to trade profitably. He could become a good, a great trader, if he could just develop second factor...
Belief - If he could bring himself to believe that he was a good trader, he would become a good trader.
He didn't need more knowledge at that time, because he had a firm grasp of basics. He simply had to believe in himself and his abilities and profits would follow.
The third leg of success triangle -
Conduct - Was were he was falling down. He would look at a chart of a Stock or market, and decide on a trading strategy using his understanding of trends – he was calm, detached and unemotional - just like his written trading plan told him to be.
His success rate was good at finding profitable trades - but his conduct was problem...
He had no trouble placing trade while market was closed. He would simply call his Broker and give him order.
Then, market would open. His calm, detached, unemotional state would turn into panic.
He would feel physically sick at times, scared in case his analysis was wrong and he lost money on trade.
He honestly believed that he couldn’t afford to lose any money (the poor mans mindset) so he focused on losing.
He got what he focused on... He watched his trades like a hawk, and at first sign of a reversal against his position, he would either call his broker and exit trade, or move his stop loss order to a place where he was virtually guaranteed of being knocked out by normal fluctuations of market.
He simply had too much leverage - he was over trading.
He was continually setting himself up to fail.
His conduct was weak link in his trading success triangle.
Because he was continually losing money on his trades, albeit only small amounts, his belief system started to falter, and he saw himself as a losing trader even more - then he started to think he had two weak sides on success triangle – conduct and belief.
He started to question system he was using, which he had painstakingly back tested, over many markets on hand drawn charts and knew was solid, but his failure to have control of his conduct or belief made it look like it wasn't a good system at all.
So, how to fix it...
He sat down and looked at his recent trading results, and noticed that on most occasions, if he had stayed in trade, he would have made a profit. His system was valid. His Awareness was enabling him to find and execute profitable trades.
His Belief system needed a gentle prod after several losing trades in a row, but because he had done so much study and work on back testing, he knew he deserved to be successful.
He started to visualise himself in his trading room, making profitable, long term trades and enjoying benefits that this type of trading would bring to himself and his family.
Then, he worked on his conduct. He again wrote out his trading plan, and decided that he would treat his plan like a shipwrecked sailor treats a life raft.
He would cling to it until he was forced out of a trade by actions of market, not by his fearful, emotional response to actions of market.
He started placing his stop loss orders in a position so that market had to change trend in order to take him out of a trade. In other words, a logically placed, technically correct stop loss position.
