Followers

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Focus On The Good Trading, Not the $$$$

We all know why we are trading: We are trading to make money obviously but MONEY is not what good traders focus on. Think about what i am trying to say for a second.

Yes, experienced traders make money(some make LOTS of money) but what a good trader needs to do is focus on TRADING WELL first and foremost. If you focus on trading well and look to be truly improving on your skills, then the money will come sooner or later.

I see many traders focusing on what will i make if take this trade? Will i make $500? Will i make $10,000? Many automatically think how much money they will make without really asking themselves: How much will i lose if this trade busts?? How much am i willing to lose? What's the maximum loss i can handle and still be able to take my next trade without being overly emotional about the last trade?

Good traders do not care or think about how much they stand to make on each trade. They know once you are in a trade, ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN and it's about managing what the market is willing to give for the amount of risk you were willing to take.

Never have plans for the trades: Never say things like if the trade bounces another $1, that will make up for my loss from my precious trade and i will be breakeven. Don't be that trader who is always trying to breakeven. You will breakeven and then some once you start trading well. In trading you will have losing trades and you will have winning trades, i don't care who you are, you will go thru losses and gains. So having a breakeven mentality will only hurt you. Focus on putting on GOOD TRADES first! The other stuff will take care of itself.

Trading well requires strong discipline, strong execution skills, strong conviction in a direction of a trade, strong skills to spot trading opportunities before they become obvious, strong confidence in yourself, your system and your ability to know when a trade is not working and taking proper action, strong skills in taking profits without allowing greed to ruin the trade. These are the mechanics of trading well: Focus on these rather the $$$. If you focus on trading well, the $$$$ will follow.

I know it's not always easy to separate the money from the trades but YOU MUST DO IT, period!

hope this helps.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Newer traders should focus on the second sentence in the second paragraph, tells it all.

Stewie said...

you could not be more right. Smaller traders or new traders ONLY focus on making money and as a result end getting disappointed. Trading is a learning process which takes a long time to refine and always requires refining.

Tradejunkie said...

Very true! Words of Wisdom. Thanks Stewie

Anonymous said...

How about focusing on percentage made and lost on each trade vs. focusing on money?

Blog Archive