They say, fake it till you make it but what does that mean? Read this article and learn six winning habits of successful investors you can use to improve your trading effectiveness.
If You Trade Right, Profits Will Come
I’ve heard it many time, fake it till you make it. This little adage may sound trite, but its meaning is clear, act like a winner until you are a winner. What it doesn’t tell you is how to act like a winner and that is what I am here to help you with today. Successful traders may vary greatly in their style, risk tolerance, preferred asset and outlook on the market but when you take away personal preference and focus on what makes them tick they are all very much the same. What you will find here is a list of the six habits winning traders use to ensure and enhance their profits and manage risk..
Consistency
The number one trait of traders with high, reliable success rates is consistency. Consistency helps them take the guess work out of trading, it helps them remove emotions from their trading, it helps them maximize their profits and minimize the potential loss. What does consistency mean? In classical usage consistency means a firmness of substance as in moral character, a degree of firmness or adherence to principal, and the agreement or harmony of the parts.
When related to trading it means using a system that includes fundamental analysis, technical entry points and money management but not just using it, using it every time you trade. It takes a certain degree of moral character to adhere to a system, you can’t lie to yourself and be successful.
The Mechanics
Successful traders always start with the mechanics of trading, how a trade works, and not just how to win a trade. Without the proper understanding of how your trading platform works it is possible you will miss out on trades, enter them too late, or worse, trade too much money or use too much leverage without realizing it.
These kinds of mistakes can cost you your entire balance in a matter of minutes, if the trade goes against you. If, by dumb luck, you happen to make a killing on your first trade or before you realize how risky trading can be it’s only worse. Then you will charge ahead thinking you know what you are doing only to fail twice as bad. If you don’t know how to use the platform you can’t make a winning trade.
The Fundamentals
Successful traders know that short term trading is about the charts, but they also know the charts are about the fundamentals so that’s where they begin trade analysis. The fundamentals are the underlying conditions that make up the market. Are interest rates falling or rising? Are global economic conditions improving or deteriorating? If you don’t know the conditions, then you are likely to read the charts wrong. If you read the charts wrong, you are likely to get your trade wrong.
The Technicals
The technical analysis is why we all trade, I mean, aside from the money. Watching the charts, knowing that if you can recognize the right patterns you can make a profit. The thing to understand about technical signals is that they appear at any time within regard to trend. What I mean is this, you may see an awesome bullish continuation pattern, but it doesn’t mean what you think it means if it’s occurring in a down trend.
Successful traders are consistent because they learn to use the technicals, develop rules for entry and then follow them.
Money Management
Money management is the rule I find I enjoy following the most, oddly enough. It is a systematic, consistent, method of choosing how much to put on a trade and successful traders swear by it. The purpose is to manage the amount of losses, so no single trade will wipe out their account, while allowing the trade size to grow to maximize profits as the account grows. For most, this means using a percent rule like only trading 1%, 2% or 5% of their account although there are other methods. Remember, you can’t trade and be successful if there is no money in your account to trade.
Follow Up
Successful traders always take time to follow up on what they are doing. Are they meeting their goals, have they been able to manage their losses, are the technical rules working are all questions they want answers, do they need to change one of their rules, adjust their strategy to improve the consistency of their results? These are the questions you want to ask yourself.
