Are You a Confident Trader?
Are you a confident trader? Confidence is an underrated characteristic of a trader. While over-confidence can lead to emotional trading, these two factors should be in check before you attempt to trade the live market:
1) Your trading strategy
2) Your ability to execute your trading plan
Imagine that you have just discovered a trading strategy that makes sense to you. You’re really excited because you see the potential to start executing potentially high probability trades. But let’s assume that you brush over the trading plan, rush the education process, and skip practicing executing your trading strategy on a simulator. Basically, you prematurely start trading live before you’ve demonstrated consistent decision making and desirable results.
Here is a common scenario if you fail to develop confidence in those two key areas…
First, you take your first trade. Let’s say the trade hits your profit target and you close the trade. Feeling positive, you take the next opportunity which turns out to be a losing trade. You reaffirm your trading rules and remember that losing is just a part of trading. But when the next trade is a loss, you start second guessing yourself.
The next day you remember the 2 losing trades, and when the next trade comes around you hesitate and miss the entry. Unfortunately, this one was a big winner. Feeling left behind, you’re anxious to take a trade to make up for the “lost profit”. You see a marginal set up that doesn’t fit your rules, but remembering the “missed profit” you jump in anyway. You’re quickly stopped out of that trade.
Chances are your confidence would be at an all-time low since you broke your rules. Unless something changes, that cycle can continue over and over.
Many traders have gone through a similar scenario. And one has to face the same decision as the rest of us. Are you going to take the time necessary to develop your skill as a professional trader, or are you going to keep searching for the “easy button” that promises to pull in profit automatically without any effort on your part?
If you’d like to learn more about the Emini Academy’s trading strategies and education, feel free to call our office and speak with an Education Counselor directly at 800-788-1658.
