Learn to Trade

Successful Traders: Do You Have What it Takes?

By Rob on November 22, 2013

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Successful traders are made. They are not born. You do not need to be academically gifted to make a success of trading. You do not need to be good at maths, physics or have a doctorate in finance. In fact you do not need any of that. If I can do it without any of this, you certainly can.

But I shall tell you this much: an essential component of successful trading is simply having “right attitude”. It sounds almost too easy doesn’t it? But this is something that many amateur traders who decided to learn “the hard way,” have done. Unfortunately not before nursing our battle wounds from the market! This is something I do not want you to have to go through as it is painful and costly.

For successful traders, having a profitable trading strategy is one thing. But contrary to what you may expect, having the mindset of a successful trader and their attitude towards the market is everything. For experienced and successful traders, the latter is far more important for your success.

Successful Traders: Do You Have What it Takes?

If you are prepared to be patient and disciplined, you will be head and shoulders above many. This means you will only trade opportunities when they meet your rules for entry. Few follows these rules to their detriment.

Patience and discipline are two core attributes embraced by experienced, successful traders. They certainly made me as a trader. I had to go through a lot of pain to realise this. After all, they do not come naturally to my personality as I’ve always been fairly rebellious. Naturally this had an adverse affect on my trading. I jumped into trades which simply were not there and went from strategy to strategy. I cursed the market and everyone else in it…and all of this was on a good day!

That was then, this is now

From simply staying true to sticking to several higher timeframe strategies has transformed my trading for good. I only trade when the rules tell me to and nothing else.

Even if by nature you do not consider yourself a patient or disciplined person, this is all the more important. This applies if you are the more compulsive and excitable type who likes always being in the action.. All is not lost. You can definitely still make a success of trading.

From simply having an awareness of this will help to transform your prospects. Appreciate that you need to impose a patience and disciplined state of mind for long-term success in the markets. Otherwise, the market has a funny habit of punishing people who do differently.

How You Do Something is How You Do Everything

Consider this; are you trying to give something up but just can’t? Perhaps you’re a smoker who is struggling to kick the habit despite your best intentions.

If that sounds about right then I have news for you. Ever heard the old adage: How you do something is how you do everything? If you are unable to demonstrate discipline in kicking the habit then that personality trait could rear its ugly head in your trading in the form of rule breaking. I’m not saying that if you are trying to give something up and can’t that you are doomed to failure as a trader – but as long as you have an awareness of it and are able to pre-empt this then you will certainly be one step ahead in the game! The third trait is simply having a respect for the market. It can do anything at anytime! It doesn’t owe you or me a living, care about whether you’re from, what you do or what strategy you follow…it will do its thing regardless, leaving us to play with the probabilities.

Conclusion

So, there you have it: patience, discipline and a respect for the market. Those three alone will set you apart from the crowd and transform your trading.