Stop Hiding From Your Trading Problems (Or ANY Problems)

Reading Time - 3 Minutes



So, you want to be a trader. You want to be successful. You can picture it in your mind - working from home. Sitting in your jogging trousers and sipping a latte as your trading platform spits out fistfuls of money.

Well, I hate to break it to you. But that is what every other person who sits down at their computer and opens the charts wants.

So, what separates you from them?

'I really want it!'

Yup, so does everyone else. Any time you see someone successful, there are a thousand people who want what they have. They may even buy books and go on seminars to learn how to do just that.

But most of them will fail. At online businesses, trading, whatever it may be.

I want you to separate yourself from them. I want you to look around and realise that most likely, you have allowed yourself to find a space in the comfort of the herd. You 'think' you want something and you tell yourself that you are working toward it, but you're putting in minimal effort. You avoid the hard choices and self-reflection.

Trading is a competition. So is any business venture. And in competition, there is ALWAYS someone trying to take what you have. In the trading world, that can happen very quickly. And even worse, with trading it can be all your own fault.

You want to improve and you want to succeed? Then you absolutely must start facing your problems head on. It won't be too difficult to find them. You most likely already know exactly what they are, but you turn away from them and ignore them.

I want you to take a minute. An entire sixty seconds out of your busy day. Set a timer on your phone if it helps. And then I want you to be absolutely honest with yourself. Identify exactly what it is that is causing you to fail as a trader.

It might be:

Fear causing you to miss trades.

Anger causing you to take bad trades.

Poor money management causing you to blow accounts.

Chasing fast money and instead suffering fast losses.

It was easy, right.

And now the hard part. Answer to yourself as honestly as possible, what exactly you are doing to correct those problems.

For most people, the answer is exactly zero. Or, it is a half-assed attempt at addressing them.

'I WON'T revenge trade again.'

And that's it. A statement you tell yourself over and over again. A statement you revisit monthly, because you continue to participate in the behaviours that are holding you back.

Here is the hard truth of it - If you want to be successful, you are going to have to face your problems head on. You are going to need to shine a torch on them and figure out ways to fix them. Hearing the noise your car is making and turning up the radio so you can easier ignore it isn't going to work here. Because eventually, the car will break down.

The practical steps you can take are limitless. It can be something as simple as recording your results and highlighting the revenge trading so at the end of each month you can see exactly what is going on and how much damage you are doing to yourself.

Now, the temptation is there to shine the torch on the problems and then after a few weeks slip back into the same damaging behaviours. That is when you have to decide. You can go back into the comfort of the herd, or you can start finding your own way.

I hope you've all had a great trading week.

James Orr