But the question is, ARE YOU TRADING WELL?
There is only one way to find out…
I have seven important signs or traits, that every trader needs to see if they’re trading well.
If these seven signs are ticked then you are well on your way to be a successful trader, after the market storm calms down.
Here they are…
Sign #1: Passion to trade
First and foremost, you need to have the passion to learn how to trade and actually sit down every day and look, analyse, execute and monitor your trades.
Without passion, you’ll feel like it’s being at the rat race and you won’t enjoy the process…
Sign #2: Proper trading routine
If you find you have the passion to trade, then you’ll need to work around a consistent trading routine. For example. Each morning I:
Make coffee
Open my charting platform
Analyse the main trends and read the news on what happened over night
Look for trading setups according to my watchlist (list of markets I look at).
Plug in my trading levels and execute the trades.
Then I work on my other businesses and travel to different places where I have the time to let the market do it’s thing.
Sign #3: Strict money management trading rules
You’ll need to have certain rules to follow in order to protect your portfolio from the downside.
This way you’ll stay in the game longer without losing your shirt.
Some rules I like to follow are:
Never risk more than 2% per trade.
Never have more than 8 trades opened at any one time.
Once my portfolio is down -18%, halt my trading until the markets turn up.
Sign #4: Have a system to follow
With any trading routine, process and rules – you’ll need to have a proven and back-tested trading strategy that not only has strict rules for entry and exit but also which matches your personality.
So with any system you’ll have the rule for:
System: What trading system you’ll follow whether it’ll be with price, volume or indicators.
Entry (Where to get into your trade)
Stop loss (Where to place your risk level, in case your trade goes against you)
Take profit (Where to place your reward level, for when your trade goes for you).
Volume: How many CFDs you must buy in order to keep to your risk management.
Sign #5: You’re psychologically prepared
With trading comes not only winners and rewards but also risks and losses.
You’ll need to prepare your mind to lose and win, and to focus on not becoming too emotional with your trading.
Work on developing a neutral mind set as if you are the stock market, without any feelings.
Sign #6: Tunnel vision
Once you have your system, processes, rules, routine, time etc… make sure you don’t fall for looking at anything else.
You need to have tunnel vision so you don’t get distracted by other traders, investors, news, announcements and any hype.
Follow what you know works, proven and what suits you best.
Sign #7: Have trading goals
When you start trading, you need to see some type of game plan ahead. At the end of the day, it’s all about growing a financially consistent portfolio (with winners and losers).
When you have a trading journal that is back-tested, forward tested and real tested, you can see more or less what results have yielded over the years.
This way you can have an understanding on what kind of financial results you can expect each year.
Some trading goals you can have ready are:
How many trades will you take a year?
How many trades will be winners?
How many trades will be losers?
What is your trading win rate?
What percentage return can you expect to earn?
What is your biggest drawdown (downside) you can expect?
