1. Never trade with money you can not afford to lose.
It is a classic mistake that is just a recipe for disaster. If your next trade just has to be a winner or else you will not be able to pay the rent or buy food for the family then you simply can not act objectively. In general, this is referred to as “trade with scared money”. Trade with scared money will always lead to trading on emotion rather than logic.
If you then immediately stop this situation with the trade. Make sure you cover your monthly expenses and put a regular amount away for a trading fund. Only when you act again to estimated needs of your trading system to cover sufficiently.
2. Do not wait for the perfect trade.
No one enjoys a losing trade, unfortunately that is just part of the game. It is easy to sit back and demand more and more confirmations that the trade that you enter is going to be profitable. Maybe you can tune into Bloomberg and wait until the commentators agree with your opinion or wait a few days to be absolutely sure that the breakout that you looked really happening. You might ask your friends and colleagues what they think. Alternatively, some traders have a list of a dozen green indicators to show all before they press the button.
Not reckless and requires a bit of confirmation is a good thing. When taken to the extreme, but will lead to serious procrastination. If you find yourself always say: “I knew the trade would be a winner, if only I’d gotten on the earlier ‘just because you saw it or you’re starting to hunt trades long after the opportunity is gone first then you know you need to cut down on the fasteners.
Remember there are no guarantees in trading. Have faith in your system and take the trade as soon as it is detected.
3. Do not be carried away by a big winning trade.
If you trade long enough eventually you will have a ‘spectacular’. Making 50% in a week or doubling your money in a month. Suddenly you begin to feel invincible. You calculate how quickly you become a millionaire and you start browsing! The Ferrari or Aston Martin websites
The market has a nasty habit of bringing such dreams down to earth and all too often you will find your best month ever quickly followed by your worst week ever where you lose everything you made and more.
Always focus on your trading system. Do not start thinking that you can market off too smart.
4. Do not own opinion.
Your opinion means nothing to the market. You are a person against tens of thousands of other traders. If you’ve ever found yourself yelling at your trading screen that the market is wrong then you need to let go of your own mind and follow what the market is doing.
Perhaps your opinion about market direction for the long term is correct, but in the short term all the different opinions of all those tens of thousands of other traders wild swings on a given day can cause.
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