The key to success is your belief system. Right beliefs about markets, setups, risk management, timeframe, types of instruments lead to profitable trading
What exactly do you need to do to improve your trading.
First starting point if you want to improve your trading is by examining your beliefs
You can only trade what you believe in.
Your beliefs drive your behavior.
If you believe only way to trade is using mechanical methods ( that is a belief) and discretionary trading is too vague (that is a belief) as a result all your behavior will flow from it.
If you believe one should only trade triple etf and not waste time on individual stocks (that is a belief) and as a result all your behavior will flow from it.
If you believe that only way to trade is with big risk (that is a belief) and as a result all your behavior will flow from it.
If you believe market will crash (it is a belief) you will spend time shorting .
If you believe reading options is the path to big success (that is a belief) you will spend time trading options.
If you believe momentum stock offer best opportunities you will trade that.
If you believe growth stocks offer biggest opportunities to profit from the growth you will build methods around your belief..
If you believe growth investors are fools buying expensive companies you will become value investor.
If you believe stocks move in momentum burst of 3 to 5 days you will find ways to exploit that phenomenon.
If you believe working people can not trade then you will find hundred reason to justify your belief.
If you believe working people like you can still profitably trade , then you will find creative ways to find time for trading .
Every trade has deeply held beliefs like these. The bundle of deeply held beliefs drive what kind of setup they will trade, what kind of timeframe they will trade and also all elements of trade like entry, exit , risk, and number of positions held.
Beliefs are not necessarily based on science or logic. In trading there are many beliefs based on to others pseudoscience .
Personally I would never trade based on Elliott Waves or Fibs or moon phases , because it is not in line with my belief system.
I believe it is not scientific and hocus focus. But there are traders who build their entire trading around it.
Your beliefs drive your trading actions.
If you want better results in your trading you start by examining your beliefs about market, how they operate and about your trading and beliefs behind those trading decisions. A critical study of them might show you where you need to fix things.
It is difficult to change beliefs. Contrary to what self help books and many motivational authors and speakers will tell you it is not easy to change beliefs.
Beliefs persist for lifetime in some people. So much of human behavior is driven by beliefs.
But psychologists who have studied beliefs know it is difficult to change deeply ingrained beliefs.
There are no magical technique or method which will change your beliefs overnight.
To change beliefs you need to educate yourself , expose yourself to new way of thinking, get rewarded for new beliefs.
To change belief expose yourself to sunshine . New ideas. New information, New people. New places. New ways of doing things. new rules.
When you are kid you have many simple beliefs, like monster exist or eating sweets will lead to cavities, or my parents are going to be forever, but as you grow and get exposed to science your beliefs change. You grow out of those beliefs.
Same things happen to successful traders. They change their belief as they gain better market and setup understanding . They change their belief when exposed to methods of other traders.
Interacting with other traders is one of the best way to change your beliefs because it shows you possibilities. The Stockbee Advance Bootcamp changed beliefs of some of those who attended it, because they got to met some extremely successful traders and interact them intimately for 3 days. I still get emails from many of those who attended it , saying it changed their trading .
What really happened is it opened up new belief system for some attendees and as a result they changed their beliefs or developed new beliefs. They saw possibilities they had not thought about before.
New knowledge and new discovery leads to change of beliefs.
Same thing with markets and and trading. More you educate yourself and expose yourself to different beliefs you will reexamine some of your deeply held beliefs and start changing them.
Your surroundings and people you interact with also helps to change or reinforce your beliefs. If you want to change beliefs change your surroundings, friends, family and incentive structure.
For traders same thing applies. If you hang around with traders who all the time whine and "believe" market is manipulated, you will also imbibe same beliefs, you will get rewarded in that setting for those beliefs.
If you change that start interacting with a highly motivated traders , your beliefs will change. In that setting you will not be rewarded for your beliefs about manipulation.
First starting point if you want to improve your psychology is by examining your beliefs
Align your beliefs with market structure by educating yourself about how markets work.
Align your belief with what has shown to have worked in the market based on history and statistics.
Align your belief with a style of investing growth, value, contrarian investing.
Align your belief with time frame (day trade , swing, position).
Align your belief with right kind of market paradigm
Lot of time people claim they have discipline problem, but the basic problem is wrong beliefs and as a result wrong behavior.
If you fix the beliefs discipline is comparatively easy.
True believers are extremely motivated....
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