A trader can talk about what it takes to become a good trader but that is not enough.
A trader has to be able to give himself or herself a good assessment of what he is
doing right and wrong. A trader not only needs to know how to trade his system he
needs to know how to keep his emotions and mental discipline under control. How does
a trader put the actual trading process, the emotional side of trading and the
evaluation of trading in balance so as to help his account growing?
A trader has to have a record keeping system to know how many wins and losses he has,
he must know what his win loss ration is. Not that he won a few and lost a few trades.
A trader can all have a big loss or win and not know how many smaller wins and losses
he has had. One way is to keep a trade journal. Keep track of the wins, losses, how
they felt the reason for the entry and exit of the trade. Most successful traders
review each trade after it is completed; record the results and total up the reasons
in each category as to what happened on the trade. He tracks not only the numbers but
also his feelings. Were the trading rules followed what he did right and what he did
wrong in relation to the trading rules. Another thing to keep track of is: was his
confidence stronger or weaker. By Identifying areas of strength or weakness then a trader can work on areas that will
improve his overall trading.
Something else to look at is: can I find and afford a mentoring program. Having someone
to teach, guide, and debrief you on your trades can be of great help in on your path to
successful trading. As each trader finds out early on trading can be a lonely endeavor.
At least having someone to talk to that has gone through the same things you are going
through may make the difference of making it in the trading business or not. Fifty
percent of trading is mental, so a trader needs to ask themselves what they are doing
to get control of the mental side of trading? If a trader says I don’t need that stuff
I know how to get in and out of the market then: they probably really need this kind of
help in their trading.