Trading: Is It All A Mind Game?

You must switch your mental attitude first from a normal person to that of a speculator. Almost all traders I have met, except a few successful ones who really made millions and billions trading in the market, simply waste all their time trying to learn the easiest part in perfection, like about how to read data and charts, and trying to perfect entry and exit skills, etc. Trading is a mind game and without having the right frame of mind, it is a losing game even before it starts.

Now there’s a little help from “a friend” – i.e. a piece of software that’s able to look a few hours into the future in any market conditions – it’s called an eerie name -just check it here.

Conditioning a change in mindset is the first step for any successful trading academy (mostly inhouse in big institutions) but almost all new (selfmade) traders neglect that part and that explains why more than 95% of traders are a failure in the long run.

Understandingthe market is not difficult for anyone with average brains and keen study. But it is neither the level of intelligence nor the knowledge that decides the outcome of the market operations of a trader. It is the decision making process that is so hard for most traders to overcome and that is the main reason for rise or fall for all those traders out there. Some find it easy to make decisions  and stick to them and most, I mean really most,  simply buckle.

Through studies and research, a trader faces the task of making decisions to put this knowledge and system into practice. Then, how many traders can honestly say they can commit their ranch when the trade is suggested by their own system (given that trading is just a chance game) and let the system run for weeks and months when their system tells them, and how many can manage to cut the loss as a routine process when the situation arises?

It all sounds so easy when saying it but so difficult when doing it – and affecting real money in the market. I still do not sleep well when I am running position because even if the profits are running into a few hundred dollars and the system is telling you to carry on? There is no guarantee that the profit will turn into a yard or two in a month time, and it may even turn into a loss in a day or two when something unexpected happens.

Outch – have I lost? What’s going on?. Finally, assuming one has decent trading system and market knowledge and high quality info-input, it is ultimately how disciplined and how well that trader can take the pain of making right choices at the right time that decides the outcome of the trades.

{Hence} I call trading a mind game. When I interview prospective young traders, I always look for disciplined and strong-willed persons as my first priority as long as one has decent education, but strangely in many cases, it is some kind of genius or half-genius with lots of brains with no discipline who turn up for an interview thinking only bright to brilliant people can make good traders.

In fact, I always try to pyramid while position trading medium-term once I am convinced of a new medium-term trend emerging. Like in USD/JPY position trading 135-132 as an initial position, adding in 132 and 129 areas. Same for AUD/USD and EUR/USD with similar strategies. But sitting on positions and watching the counter-rallies costing truck loads of money is not an easy job to do and causes lots of pain all the time. Most traders even among experienced ones cannot bear that pain and give up too early. There’s simply no other way and we have to bite the bullet and “sit and accumulate” as long as the medium-term trend is intact. That is why I always believe the psychological aspects of trading are far more important than anything else for success. A mind game like those bluffing a game of poker? Something similar- but I’m not the gambling type – really.
Entries and exits can never be “irrelevant” for any trader for any purpose. But indeed exits are more important than entries because any perfect or near-perfect entries are – I’m sure you agree on this-  possible only in hindsight.

Did I mention this forex robot with artificial intelligence – being able to look several hours into the future – in ANY market condition? It sure takes some of that pain away for the selfmade forex trader !