3 (Personal) Lessons in being a Full-time Trader
It’s been 8 months since I’ve embarked on this journey of being a full-time technical chart analyst. Since the day I made the leap it has been a very educational ride. I’m in deep appreciation for all the ups and downs that I’ve gone through (which I wouldn’t have if I’m still living the employed life) and thought I should pen the top 3 down here. Lesson 1: Enjoy the process and not do it for the money When you’re a trader or thinking of being one, we usually motivated by the money this industry has to offer. However these past year I noticed that when I’m more into the process and appreciation for the art/skill of trading, I do much better because I’m in a more mentally balanced state as compared to a state where I’m very “money conscious”. When I’m focused too much on amount, I’ve taken away my focus on executing well which exposes my account to even bigger mistakes and recklessness. I’m always too eager to get to the finish line rather than actually going through each step and enjoy the journey on the way to my destination. This behaviour and mindset has taken away the joy out of the activity and leaving not much for me to appreciate about being a trader. When I’m able to focus on being a skilled trader, I’m practising behaviours that will bring me satisfaction in having this “career” in trading. This would mean much more to me and the best thing is that the money is the confirmed side-effect of being skilled. Lesson 2: Review, review, review To be honest, I thought with just having the experience, the lessons would be etched in my brain but after all these years I began to see that there’s a lot more thatI can do to sharpen my skills. I have to review more often the areas where I’m weak at, understand the movement better and simulate how I can do better in those situations. It seemed like the most obvious thing to do... but I used to think that just by looking at the past trade by itself I would understand. But with just doing that I fail to see the bigger picture and understand the whole story of what the market is doing. When I reviewed the movements more thoroughly (not just case by case basis) I’m able to understand the characteristics of market a lot better. Basically review when times are good, review even more when mistakes are made, review often anyway no matter of performance. Lesson 3: Build maturity Recently our instructor (Instructor Spitfire) from the Dubai school came down to KL. He shared that the greatest maturity is at “harvest time”.
Here’s Instructor Spitfire sharing his background with us.
He taught us that a mature trader would reap without complaint when the amount is small. The key here is not about taking the whole move but to be able to consistently take what is available no matter what the size is and appreciate the harvest. It takes skills to be able to trade successfully. When the account size is big enough, even a small percentage makes a difference. The key here is the skill; not the dollar/euro amount.
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There’s definitely a lot more that I’ve learned throughout the past 8 months however these 3 are the top ones to keep practising.
Looking forward to a solid trading career ahead!
