Having worked with thousands of traders over the last 5 years... one thing is obvious...
Most traders have a good enough trading system to make money and the reason they DON'T is
that they lack solid trading discipline. The traders that succeed in trading do the following;
they follow the trading strategy, they keep a journal, they track their win-loss ratio, they
have a trading plan, and they follow their trading plan.
The successful traders are patient; they wait for the trades to come to them. They only take
trades that have a high probability of success. They usually trade on time frames larger than
the 5 minute. They trade from the 15 minute chart or larger. The only reason they use the
5 minute is to time the entry when they are day trading.
The more unsuccessful traders lose the smaller the time frame they gravitate to. The successful
traders gravitate to the larger time frames. When trading the larger time frames there are fewer
whips saw actions so you don’t get faked out as often.
The trader needs to know their trading strategy inside out. Not just go over it a couple of
times and never review it again. If you keep the trade tracker then you will know where you
need help and can go back to the trading system and study the areas you are week in.
When something goes wrong unsuccessful traders start to trade more and the more they trade the
further away from their trading plan they get. They let emotion and greed creep in. When this
happens they are just about finished as a trader.
A trader needs to know when to go back to demo trading and review the rules.
If you are not succeeding as a part-time or full-time trader, then discipline is likely your issue.