38 Steps to Becoming a Successful Trader

Have you ever felt like you were just never going to get the hang of trading for a living? Are you consistently winning or are you consistently losing? Do you hold on to losers and cut winners short?

Why is this happening? Are you still trading by emotions? If so, know that you are not alone. You are like so many other traders that don’t have a roadmap to their growth or a pathway to measure their progress.

I read a lot of books and speak with a lot of traders. I continually enjoy learning a different approach to the market or observing a new technique that may help improve my performance. I found one of the books, “The Way to Trade: Discover Your Successful Trading Personality” by John Piper, so interesting that I had to share with you his “38 Steps to Becoming a Successful Trader.”

Where are you on the list?

1. We accumulate trading information – buying books, going to seminars and researching.

2. We begin to trade with our ‘new’ knowledge.

3. We consistently ‘donate’ and then realize we may need more knowledge or information.

4. We accumulate more information.

5. We switch the commodities we are currently following.

6. We go back into the market and trade with our ‘updated’ knowledge.

7. We get ‘beat up’ again and begin to lose some of our confidence. Fear starts setting in.

8. We start to listen to ‘outside news’ & other traders.

9. We go back into the market and continue to donate.

10. We switch commodities again.

11. We search for more trading information.

12. We go back into the market and continue to donate.

13. We get ‘overconfident’ & market humbles us.

14. We start to understand that trading success fully is going to take more time and more knowledge then we anticipated.

Many Traders Will Give up at this Point as they Realize Work is Involved.

16. We get serious and start concentrating on learning a ‘real’ methodology.

17. We trade our methodology with some success, but realize that something is missing.

18. We begin to understand the need for having rules to apply our methodology.

19. We take a sabbatical from trading to develop and research our trading rules.

20. We start trading again, this time with rules and find some success, but overall we still hesitate when it comes time to execute. We start trading again, this time with rules and find some success, but overall we still hesitate when it comes time to execute.

21. We add, subtract and modify rules as we see a need to be more proficient with our rules.

22. We go back into the market and continue to donate. We go back into the market and continue to donate.

23. We start to take responsibility for our trading results as we understand that our success is in us, not the trade methodology.

24. We continue to trade and become more proficient with our methodology and our rules.

25. As we trade we still have a tendency to violate our rules and our results are erratic.

26. We know we are close.

27. We go back and research our rules.

28. We build the confidence in our rules and go back into the market and trade.

29. Our trading results are getting better, but we are still hesitating in executing our rules.

29. We now see the importance of following our rules as we see the results of our trades when we don’t follow them.

30. We begin to see that our lack of success is within us (a lack of discipline in following the rules because of some kind of fear) and we begin to work on knowing ourselves better.

31. We continue to trade and the market teaches us more and more about ourselves.

32. We master our methodology and trading rules.

33. We begin to consistently make money. We begin to consistently make money.

34. We get a little overconfident and the market humbles us.

35. We continue to learn our lessons.

36. We stop thinking and allow our rules to trade for us (trading becomes boring, but successful) and our trading account continues to grow as we increase our contract size.

37. We are making more money then we ever dreamed to be possible.

38. We go on with our lives and accomplish many of the goals we had always dreamed of.

Continue improving your knowledge base. Trade with statistics, not emotions. Be persistent and consistent. Test trade before using real money. Numbers do not lie. Make sure your simulation trading is actually providing the results you want to achieve. If you are having a challenge with sim-trading, then try joining our Coaching Program to expedite your learning curve and help streamline your efforts to improve your end results. Leave your emotions at the door. And remember to … “Trade what you see, not what you believe!”