Like many people, I came to the world of Trading hoping to make money quickly, I took some online courses, I opened a real account – which obviously loss- and so began my career in the difficult world of trading. It was not easy, many times I was about to leave, then resumed with more force and win, but it was very difficult. This was the most difficult journey of my life, that was more than six years ago, and today I see with nostalgia that time, and whenever I have a chance to talk with rookies in trading, I emphasize that the way in trading is difficult and hard, but the reward is great.
6 years ago I would have liked someone to advise me, to explain to me so much of the trading, but that was not the case. In this market are few people who tell you things as they are, they are few who will tell you the reality of the trading with words. I try to do it in these confessions, and I hope that you take note.
All people just starting in the world of trading arrive thinking about getting the “Holy Strategy” of great benefits, and leave aside certain “details”, these details end up reducing our live account to zero. What are these fundamental details? Emotional control and adequate risk management. The neophytes in trading tend to minimize these 2 components, but I say here that these two components are the most important of trading, are the foundation of success. A good strategy is ideal, but is achieved over time, technical skills are learned quickly, but learn emotional control and adequate risk management is a difficult task, it is difficult and can take years to some and others a lifetime.
My students ask me if emotional control can be taught. I tell them that emotional control is something personal and is not possible to teach it, however you can impress it, but as with many things all depends on the student, his willingness to absorb foreign experience and self-knowledge. Self-knowledge is basic. If you do not know yourself, you will never master the trading because to be successful consistently over time you should know yourself and know your strengths and weaknesses. Based on this information you must decide what kind trader wants to be and in what time frame you want to trade. It is no easy task. It cost me two years to understand this, I opened real accounts, lost my own money, I traded on charts of 1 minute, 5 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, I had trouble closing the losing trades, I could hardly take losses, I widened my stop loss, and converted losses of 30 pips in losses of 100 pips. I had the bad habit to close winning trades to soon even when my system do not indicates this, so in most cases profits of 80 pips became 40 pips only because of my anxiety.
What happened to me? Well, anxiety and fear dominated my trading, and only over time I learned to make good trading. What is good trading? Well, it is a point at which the trader does not flinch if won or lost in an operation even if he won 100 pips or lost 50 pips, because in the end it is all about probabilities. The good trader is only interested in making good trading and be disciplined with their system. Is it easy to get to this point? It is not, but it does not require investing years and thousands of dollars and you can start by educating yourself. Also, do not trust those who incite you to open live accounts quickly, you should open a real account only if you feel really safe and if you obtain consisting results after 4 to 6 months in demo accounts.
As I said, the self is the way to get to make good trading, it seems difficult, and it is. Most people entering the world of trading are motivated with the hope of winning big money. Trading attracts people who love risk and repels conservatives. Unfortunately must risk lovers know amost nothing about control their emotions and end destroying their accounts. How a risk lover can control their emotions? Here’s a great contradiction, and is one of the reasons why there are so few consistent winners traders over time. However, there are exceptions to the rule, some traders manage their emotions innately, others (most) learn to control their emotions with time and experience.
Some will say that I am very hard to speak like this but is reality I experienced in trading and I hope that you dear reader take note of my words. Please do not be swayed by advertising garbage in which they talk about yields 30%, 40%, 50% monthly, or by advertising of brokers who want you to open real accounts quickly. Remember that the only person concerned about your welfare is you and no one else, so educate yourself.
You must decide who you want to be as a trader, be a consistent loser, or go the way of good trading, properly educate and enhance the features that have been mentioned. Your success or failure in the world of trading depends on you.
