3 years ago I started my trading journey. I started out with little background and had no idea the journey I had started. Addicted to a challenge I pushed myself to places I thought I could never go.
Through these 3 years I have learned more than just how to trade. I have learned many things about myself and about life in general. I have learned that in order to trade well you have to figure out yourself. You have to determine what personalities you have and how you can then apply them to trading. For instance you do not want to try swing trading if you are naturally impatient. These simple discoveries have helped me on my path of becoming profitable.
I am by no means an expert and love to learn every single day. I thought that if I would become profitable I would become successful and that my problems would be solved. Little did I know that success was going to be one of the worst things that happened to me. Most traders have an edge when it comes to trading, I would say that I am a decent tape reader, but my real edge is within my work ethic. I have an insane passion for trading. I spend every waking moment of the day running ideas through my head and endless nights dreaming of charts, tape and strategies.
I would say that 80% of trading is mental and 20% is skill. When I made 20k in one month (most of it came within a few days) I thought that I was going to be ecstatic... And I know that 20k is not that much money in the grand scheme of things but starting from very little I thought that it would mean a lot to me. Yes it did at first it was a good feeling. I was more happy that I was starting to see success from the amount of work I put in. Unfortunately what I was trying to avoid started to happen. By making this amount of money in short amount of time I thought that I could recreate this easily. I gained confidence in my trading and started to size up. The few hundred to thousand per day I was making, I wanted to replicate. Anyone that is familiar with the market should know that the market does not care how much you want to make or even if you make anything. I became blinded by this and tried to replicate these returns, not noticing the change in the market environment.
I have spent some time lately churning my wheels going up and down in account value. I have lacked the discipline that one needs to pass through a plateau and plan on changing this. As I have been trading I notice that I don't have a problem with making money, I have a problem with taking losses that take away my gains. As I progress in my trading I plan to focus on what I am good at.
Sometimes success can be the worst thing that happens to someone no matter how small. Forgetting what brought you there can be your demise. I wrote this post to put my thoughts on something that I can look over. I also wrote this to help those that are going through a plateau in their trading and looking for answers. My plan is to go back to my roots. Determine what made me a profitable trader and focus on that.
Feel free to leave questions in the comments below!
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