In my years in trading, I’ve been approached by the new and semi-experienced traders for help and advice, and that's how it's supposed to be. Those that «have become» help those aspiring ones.
Then I thought that tens of thousands of people are joining tradingview every day, and most of them are beginners and inexperienced traders, So I decided to share some knowledge here with you today. Condensed wisdom of years in trading. 🦉
You see, trading is unique in that it is accessible to people of all walks of life. Your previous education, social status, and other barriers, that might prevent you from entering some industries are completely absent in trading. The only tool you need is your brain, as trading is essentially an exercise in pattern recognition and our cognition is based on pattern recognition and the endless chain of association.🧠
So the CORE is your ability to learn and recognize patterns, and everything else gets added like pearls on the string. Master these KEY points below, and the Gods of trading might smile at you!
✏️🗒️ MAKE A TRADING PLAN - Develop a strategy!
This bit seems obvious, yet so many traders arrive to this idea only after losing their first account. Don’t be like that, and you will lose your first account much slower. Research all the main strategies that are out there, and dive deep into the one you found appealing(for any reason). This step might take a year or even more, yet, trust me, this will be time well spent. I would advise simple multi-timeframe top-down technical analysis. I might be biased, as that’s the strategy I use myself, but learning it will give you the basics that you will NEED ANYWAY, whichever strategy you will end up using later. Also, I would choose it because it is intuitive and simple to use. You will be able to identify key levels on the chart after a week of staring at the charts and then work your way up, polishing entries, adding indicators if you like.
🔁 Review your plan after every trading session!
After you started trading, even on a demo, DO YOUR HOMEWORK, or else all the trading that you do is in vain, and you will NEVER LEARN. Start your day by reviewing the previous day’s trades, as you will have a fresh perspective that isn’t clouded by emotions of the moment. This WORKS WONDERS! Have a diary with trades, write down your thought process of how you arrived at the particular trade. Then write down your assessment of the next day nearby. Several months' worth of a journal like that is a GOLD MINE, where you can mine data, looking at what works, what does not, etc…
⚠️ DON’T RISK MORE THAN YOU CAN AFFORD TO LOSE - Protect your positions!
USE STOP LOSS and place it the moment you entered the trade. Don’t let your mind play tricks on you. As your inner voice will tell you «Why SL? I will close that trade manually, If I see that I was wrong» Nah, you won’t. You are kidding yourself. So DO use SL, don’t give your money to the market makers!
💯 Don’t risk more than 5% of the account!
Now that we know we need to use SL, I strongly advise you to never risk more than 5% of your account in one trade. In fact, I do not risk more than 1% per each trade myself. Use a lot calculator to help you determine how much you are risking in dollar value per trade. It is a bit boring, but will save you a ton of money!
And who said trading needs to be fun, huh? You are a grownup and it's your job!
😌 BE DISCRETE AND DISCIPLINED -Once you have the system, don’t overthink it!
After you mastered your system, backtested it on multiple pairs and begin trading on demo, stop worrying about whether the strategy is good or bad. You chose it, it showed results on the backtest, now get out and test it on the market. Time will show if your choice was correct.
📜 Follow the rules and reflect on the results later!
Once the system is chosen, make the rules that are as simple and clear as possible so that you could approach each trade with a ready-made algorithm. This will take a lot of stress off your mind.
💢 CONTROL YOUR EMOTIONS - Too much anger or excitement alike hurt your trading!
Having a strict algorithm helps massively, and when trading you need to learn to abstract yourself from the monetary values on the screen. These are just numbers, and you are playing a game of probability, so there will be winning and losing streaks. Learn to treat both with indifference.
🌁 Play it cool!
Trading is a battle of wills. Whoever has the hardest balls wins. So be cool!
⌛️ BE PATIENT - Keep your eyes on the big picture!
When even considering trading as a potential career, please accept the simple fact that there will be losses, a lot of them, all the time. You will NOT be making money for quite some time. Accept it as part of the game and it will be much easier for you physiologically. If you come with the make easy money fast mindset, you will lose!
🏅 Winning takes time!
I’ll stress it again, learning trading will take a lot of time, and there are some hard times ahead of you, so prepare for this beforehand, and no, you are NOT unique or special, so you will have to go through the same trial and error ordeal as others. There are no shortcuts.
✔️ ACCEPT YOUR LOSSES AND MOVE ON - Remember that you are in this for the long haul!
When feeling down because each trade this week was a losing one, imagine yourself free from the location, from your job, from all the constraints that usual people have, and remind yourself, that that’s exactly what you are working towards, because the moment you can make stable returns, you can multiply your income by a factor of x10 overnight. It might be a factor of an x100, it just depends on how big your balls are. So whenever you want to quit, think of what life could have been like if you persisted!
🚫 A loss is a part of the learning process!
You will lose multiple accounts. There is no way around it! This is your way of learning, and no one has created a different one so far. You might be as good as a God on demo, but the moment you enter the real world emotions kick in and you will have to learn a lot again. So when entering trading, be prepared to pay the market a fair price for educating you. And remember that the reward is much greater still!
📰 READ THE NEWS - Current events can affect the markets!
This one is certainly not for beginners! If you start doing that from the start, it will be too much info for you and you will get lost in the constant swirl of hot air that surrounds the markets. But once your strategy is good enough and you are beginning to be profitable, you might want to start paying attention to the key events and dates that might have an effect on your trading. I never actively trade fundamentals myself, but who said that you shouldn't?
🤏 Keep in mind big political events that can cause big moves!
This! If the FOMC meeting is tomorrow, you better close all your positions today, because whatever analysis you made might get invalidated by what the FED minutes bring to the market. We are playing probabilities that we can predict based on past experience, but whoever is trying to predict the FED and the market's reaction to it is fooling themselves, so once such a whale enters the room our ability to predict rationally vanished, thus we need not trade that day at all. And the FOMC is just an obvious example. Important statistical data such as CPI, jobs, etc might affect the pair you are trying to trade, and you better know about it. As a famous trader’s saying goes «Not being in the Market Is a position too»
🆕 UPDATE YOUR TECHNOLOGY - Slow internet connection or an old computer might make you miss your trade!
There is a side note yet do not neglect your workstation. Don't let it be dirty or messy, and make sure your equipment, i.e. a computer or a smartphone work properly. Missing a trade because of a bug is SUCH a pain! You don’t want that, right?
📈And not trading update charts is even worse as some level breakouts can happen in seconds.
That one is less relevant today thanks to tradingview charts being awesome, yet always make sure that the data on the chart is given to you without a delay. Trading a setup that ain’t there anymore is not good…
🦉📚 These are the «words of wisdom» that came to my head today, and I really hope I helped some of you get back on track, or begin your path as a trader with a slightly better understanding of what is ahead of you.
❗️JUST REMEMBER: IT IS POSSIBLE! But it will take time, money, and effort, so brace yourselves, and may the odds be always in your favor!
💖Adios, Amigos! Give me a like and comment, if you agree with what I said!💖
