 The Four Key Elements of Futures Trading SuccessPublished Date: 2008-05-13 15:59:22 WorkOnInternet.com
2. Discipline 3. Ability to handle loss 4. Profitable trading system 1. Self-confidence If you aren't absolutely confident that you can become a successful futures trader, you might as well pack it in now and save yourself a lot of grief. Successful futures traders are bold, aggressive and self-assured. They do not lose faith in themselves when they lose. They have the courage and self-confidence to keep trading. Futures traders are risk takers. Successful futures traders are the Mario Andrettis of the Futures Exchange. 2. Discipline If you're going to be a successful futures trader, you have to learn to take emotion out of the equation. Learn to trade like a robot. There's no room for emotion in futures trading. Futures traders learn to trust themselves and their system. If you start letting emotion rule your decisions, fear, anger and greed will undermine your carefully planned and practiced strategies. It is by persistently following your system, by dispassionately relying on what your charts tell you, by religiously following your indicators that you will succeed as a futures trader. When you trade with your emotions, it colors your judgment. You're no longer trading on your indicators, you're trading on your gut. And letting your gut rule is like "letting it ride" in Vegas. Eventually, fear or greed will compel you to make that final disastrous gamble that wipes you out. The market is an inanimate object. It has no feelings, no agenda, no emotions. If you make a bad trade, you cannot personalize the market. The market is not 'out to get you'. Start thinking this way and you toss logic and wisdom out the window. If you feel yourself getting caught up in emotion, if you feel logic slipping through your fingers, get out. Just stop trading until you can regain control. Every minute you keep trading on your emotions, you come one step closer to disaster. No matter how emotional you become, the market will just sit there. You cannot change the market, you can only react to it. If you cannot maintain self-discipline, and allow emotions to rule your decisions, you'd best take your money and run before you lose it. Successful futures traders are highly disciplined, consistent and rational. They do not allow themselves to be distracted by extraneous information. They have the ability to dispassionately evaluate their system, knowing when to stick with it and when to change what isn't working. Futures traders are cool and collected. Successful futures traders are the James Bonds of the Futures Exchange. 3. Ability to handle loss If you can't handle loss, if you are easily frustrated by loss, or if you can't afford to lose, then you'd better get out before you gamble away the mortgage money. As a futures trader, particularly in the beginning as you hone your system and skills, you will lose. Successful futures traders are not flustered by loss. They do not panic when they lose. They do not abandon their system at the first sign of loss. In futures trading, the nature of the beast is that sometimes you lose. Futures traders learn from their mistakes, build on the lessons loss teaches, remain confident in the face of loss and work to keep their losses small so that, overall, they win. Futures traders are not defeated by loss. Successful futures traders are the Lance Armstrongs of the Futures Exchange. 4. Profitable trading system If you don't have a trading system that has proven to be consistent and profitable, no amount of ability is going to make you a successful futures trader. You must have an effective conduit for that ability in order to succeed as a futures trader. An effective trading system is essential to your success as a futures trader. No matter how much self-confidence and discipline you have, no matter how well you can deal with the inevitable losses, the bottom line is that futures traders are only as good as their system. Bill McCready teaches people to make money trading. For 11 FREE futures trading lessons, and a free ebook, visit http://www.FuturesTradingSecrets.com
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