Success Vs. Failure: 10 Key Rules for Winning Traders

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I firmly believe that what truly separates the 10% of winning traders from the 90% that lose is their mindset. The vast majority of traders think they want to trade until they have their first drawdown, which they can’t handle.success.mountain.win.woman
Most end up quitting entirely when the delusion of what they thought trading would be is crushed by reality. If you really have a strong enough desire to be a trader you will persevere until you develop the right method, risk management and mindset.

Winning Traders Understand How to Lose

I should know because early in my career, I was almost one of the 90% who pack it in. My ultimate success was built like many on the back of near-failure. You cannot make money unless you understand how to lose. I believe this to be an indisputable fact.
Here are some key rules for how winning traders rebound, make a comeback and become the 10%.

  1. Winning traders accept losing trades quickly but it does not define them. They learn and try again. The next trade will be better than the last one.
  2. They compartmentalize emotions by not blaming themselves but understanding the historical expectancy of their system’s returns and the randomness of any individual trade.
  3. Winning traders have a bias toward right action by constantly doing things that move them closer to their goal of being a profitable trader. (Homework, chart study, reading, being mentored, back testing.)
  4. These traders change their minds sometimes. They know when to stop doing something that does not work and move in the direction of trading success through new lessons.
  5. Winning traders prepare for things to go wrong. They prepare through risk management and proper position sizing instead of just going naively toward their goals. They are ready to make adjustments as needed.
  6. They’re comfortable with discomfort, they will accept losses and drawdowns in their method and they are willing to pay tuition to the markets to get to where they want to be.
  7. Winning traders are willing to wait. They patiently improve each day, setting themselves up for those winning trades that will be very profitable in the future.
  8. They have trading heroes that inspire them to be better than they are now and give them the hope of achieving their dreams.
  9. They have more than passion they are on a mission, their desire for success gives them the drive to not quit until they win.
  10. Winning traders know only time separates them from their goals of profitability.

They always adjust but they never quit.
 
 

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