From Beginner to Pro - The Evolution of a Trader
Hey traders,
In this educational article, we will discuss 3 stages of the evolution of a trader .
Stage 1 - Unprofitable trader 😞
The unprofitable trader has very typical characteristics:
-total absence of trading skills
Most of the time, people open a live account simply after completing some beginners course like on babypips website.
Being sure that the obtained knowledge are completely enough to start trading, they quickly face the tough reality.
-no trading plan
Having just basic knowledge, of course, they do not have a trading plan. Why the hell to have it if everything is so simple?!
All their actions on the market is just gambling. They open the positions randomly most of the time, simply relying on intuition.
-poor risk management
In 99% percent of the time, the unprofitable trader does not even think about risk management. The position sizing, stop placement and target selection are completely neglected.
Trading performance of the unprofitable traders is characterized by small wins and substantial losses and negatively trending equity.
Stage 2 - Boom and bust trader 😶
Usually, traders reach boom and bust stage after 1-2 years of unprofitable trading. At some moment, winning trades start to compensate losing trades, brining non-trending equity.
Such traders have very common traits:
-not polished trading plan
Being unprofitable for so long, traders start to realize the significance of a trading plan.
Sticking to the set of rules, they notice positive changes in their trading performance.
However, trading plan requires to be polished and modified. It takes many years for a trader to identify all its drawbacks before it starts bringing net profits.
-lack of confidence
When one starts following a trading system, confidence plays a substantial role.
The fact is that even the best trading strategy in the world occasionally produces negative results. In order to not give up and keep following such a system, one needs to build trust in that.
The confidence that after a series of losing trades, the strategy will manage to recover.
Such a trust can be built after many years of trading that strategy.
Stage 3 - Profitable trader ☺️
That is the final destination.
After many years of a struggling trading, one finally sees positively-trending equity. Winning trades start to outperform losing ones, leading to consistent account growth.
Profitable trader is characterized by iron discipline, confidence and consistency.
He knows what he is trading, when and why. His trading plan is polished, he fully controls his emotions.
He never stops learning and constantly develops his strategy.
Knowing the 3 stages of the evolution of a trader, one can easily identify at what stage he currently is. That will help to identify the things to be focused on to move to the next stage.
At what stages are you at the moment?
Howtotrader
Learn the ONLY REASON Why You Should Try on RETEST!Hey traders,
Being breakout traders we have two options for trade entries:
when the breakout is confirmed, we can either open a trading position aggressively once the candle closes above/below the structure, or we can be conservative and wait for a retest of the broken structure first.
What is peculiar about the second option is the fact that the majority of pro traders prefer the retest entries. In this article, we will discuss the pros and cons of retest trading.
✔️First, let's discuss whether the retest is guaranteed. NO. How often do we see that? Around 50-55% of the time. Does it mean that 45-50% of breakout trades
will be missed? YES.
The main disadvantage of retest trading is that a lot of trading opportunities will be missed. Occasionally the breakout triggers a strong market rally, not letting the price return back to the broken structure.
Take a look at that triangle pattern on Bitcoin. The price broke its support BUT did not retest it, so trading only the retest, the opportunity would be missed.
So what is the point to wait for a retest then? Why let the market go without us in case if there is no retest?
✔️Most of the time the breakout candle closes quite far from a broken level. Opening the trading position once the candle closes and setting a stop loss below/above the broken structure, one can get a very big stop loss. Such a big stop that its pip value exceeds or equals the potential return.
🖼In the picture, I drew a classic channel breakout trade.
The aggressive trader opened a long position as the candle closed above the channel's resistance.
His stop loss is lying below the lower low of the channel.
Analyzing his risk to reward ratio, we can see that his reward equals his risk.
On the right side is the position of the conservative trader.
His stop loss in lying on the same level.
However, instead of opening a trading position on a breakout candle, he decided to wait for a retest of the broken resistance of the channel. Just a slight adjustment of his entry-level gives him a completely different risk to reward ratio.
❗️Patience pays in trading. Missing some trades a retest trader will outperform the aggressive trader in the long run.
Trading is about weighting your potential gains & losses. Paying commissions and swaps for every trade, it is much better for us to trade less but pick the setups that give us a decent potential reward.
What type of trading do you prefer?
Let me know, traders, what do you want to learn in the next educational post?
The Evolution of a Trader | 3 Milestones 📈
Hey traders,
In this educational article, we will discuss 3 stages of the evolution of a trader.
Stage 1 - Unprofitable trader 😞
The unprofitable trader has very typical characteristics:
-total absence of trading skills
Most of the time, people open a live account simply after completing some beginners course like on babypips website.
Being sure that the obtained knowledge are completely enough to start trading, they quickly face the tough reality.
-no trading plan
Having just basic knowledge, of course, they do not have a trading plan. Why the hell to have it if everything is so simple?!
All their actions on the market is just gambling. They open the positions randomly most of the time, simply relying on intuition.
-poor risk management
In 99% percent of the time, the unprofitable trader does not even think about risk management. The position sizing, stop placement and target selection are completely neglected.
Trading performance of the unprofitable traders is characterized by small wins and substantial losses and negatively trending equity.
Stage 2 - Boom and bust trader 😶
Usually, traders reach boom and bust stage after 1-2 years of unprofitable trading. At some moment, winning trades start to compensate losing trades, brining non-trending equity.
Such traders have very common traits:
-not polished trading plan
Being unprofitable for so long, traders start to realize the significance of a trading plan.
Sticking to the set of rules, they notice positive changes in their trading performance.
However, trading plan requires to be polished and modified. It takes many years for a trader to identify all its drawbacks before it starts bringing net profits.
-lack of confidence
When one starts following a trading system, confidence plays a substantial role.
The fact is that even the best trading strategy in the world occasionally produces negative results. In order to not give up and keep following such a system, one needs to build trust in that.
The confidence that after a series of losing trades, the strategy will manage to recover.
Such a trust can be built after many years of trading that strategy.
Stage 3 - Profitable trader ☺️
That is the final destination.
After many years of a struggling trading, one finally sees positively-trending equity. Winning trades start to outperform losing ones, leading to consistent account growth.
Profitable trader is characterized by iron discipline, confidence and consistency.
He knows what he is trading, when and why. His trading plan is polished, he fully controls his emotions.
He never stops learning and constantly develops his strategy.
Knowing the 3 stages of the evolution of a trader, one can easily identify at what stage he currently is. That will help to identify the things to be focused on to move to the next stage.
At what stages are you at the moment?
❤️If you have any questions, please, ask me in the comment section.
Please, support my work with like, thank you!❤️
HOW TO SET STOP LOSS | 3 STRATEGIES EXPLAINED 📚
Hey traders,
In this post, we will discuss 3 classic trading strategies and stop placement rules.
1️⃣The first trading strategy is a trend line strategy.
The technique implies buying/selling the touch of strong trend lines, expecting a strong bullish/bearish reaction from that.
If you are buying a trend line, you should identify the previous low.
Your stop loss should lie strictly below that.
If you are selling a trend line, you should identify the previous high.
Your stop loss should lie strictly above that.
2️⃣The second trading strategy is a breakout trading strategy.
The technique implies buying/selling the breakout of a structure,
expecting a further bullish/bearish continuation.
If you are buying a breakout of a resistance, you should identify the previous low. Your stop loss should lie strictly below that.
If you are selling a breakout of a support, you should identify the previous high. Your stop loss should lie strictly above that.
3️⃣The third trading strategy is a range trading strategy.
The technique implies buying/selling the boundaries of horizontal ranges, expecting bullish/bearish reaction from them.
If you are buying the support of the range, your stop loss should strictly lie below the lowest point of support.
If you are selling the resistance of the range, your stop loss should strictly lie above the highest point of resistance.
As you can see, these stop placement techniques are very simple. Following them, you will avoid a lot of stop hunts and manipulations.
How do you set stop loss?
❤️If you have any questions, please, ask me in the comment section.
Please, support my work with like, thank you!❤️
The Iceberg Illusion of Success in Trading 🏔️
When people see a consistently profitable trader they do not consider all the costs a successful trader has paid overtime (below the surface) to get to what they see (above the surface).
So many things happen below the surface that nobody can see.
Here are some of the below the surface things that compose the top of the iceberg that everyone sees:
🔰Dedication – you need to be loyal to your dream of becoming a pro trader. Your belief must be that strong so no one could dissuade you. You need an iron discipline to make it happen.
🔰Hard work – you should work day after day not letting yourself give up. Charts must be in front of you as much as it is possible. Trading terminal must become your best friend.
🔰Good habits – follow your trading plan, do not break your rules of risk management, avoid FOMO, etc. This is the set of habits that will be your satellite in your trading journey. Do them consistently and they will become a natural part of your life.
🔰Disappointment – it does not matter how hard you try. Occasionally things will fall apart anyway: you will face losing streaks and a strategy will refuse to work. It will hurt. "Stand up straight with your shoulders back". Treat disappointments as temporary things.
🔰Sacrifice – to become a consistently profitable trader you should pay the price. Losses, time, nerves. Your prosperous future will have a tremendous cost.
🔰Failure – while you are learning how to trade you will inevitably blow a couple of trading accounts, you will spend time on strategies and techniques that do not work. Occasionally you will fall. If so, stand up and keep going.
🔰Persistence – keep doing what you are doing no matter what. Do not let others persuade you that you can't make it. Even if things get tough, stay strong.
🔰Focus – always know what is your end goal, know where are you going, and what is your end destination.
🔰Flexibility – be prepared for sudden changes in the environment. Keep your focus on the goals that you set learning to adjust to the changing circumstances.
🔰Consistency – you will not get the desired results immediately. Be ready to do the same again and again, hundred times until the goal is achieved.
Overnight success does not exist. If you want to become a consistently profitable trade be prepared for years of struggling and pain. And do not be afraid, it is worth it.
❤️Please, support this idea with like and comment!❤️
PSYCHOLOGY OF A TRADER | MASTER EMOTIONS & MASTER THE MARKET
The market is driven by people.
The crowds are always behind strong market rallies.
What the majority fails to recognize is the fact, that being chaotics in its nature, the markets are always trading in predictable patterns.
Believe it or now, but the market participants are driven by the same emotional impulses. It does not really depend on how wealthy is the person.
With the core motive being to make a ton of money with a little risk possible, we can derive a universal archetype.
Every asset, every financial instrument has an element of a "potential value". Being 100% subjective, an attempt to calculate the future value drives the market.
Depending on the current expectation of the crowd and its emotions it is necessary for a professional trader to learn to play with its behavior.
With many years of constant observations, the cyclic psychological curve was derived to explain the relationships between our emotions and market cycles.
On the chart, I have drawn 9 main stages of trader's psychology:
😶INDIFFERENCE - No opportunities are spotted, searching for the right pick.
🙂OPTIMISM – Positive outlook leading us to buy a certain asset
😃EXCITEMENT – Being initially right in our pick, we feel excited as bulls push the market to the new highs
The moment of happiness and feeling of being "a true investor"
🤑GREED – Being thrilled we start to ignore warning signs and add more and more cash to the market believing that the market will never stop.
😕ANXIETY – The market starts taking our gains back. Being biased and nihilistic we keep holding the position, thinking that it is just a pullback.
😩PANIC – Tremor. We are frozen. Emotions are draining our power. We are clueless and helpless. We totally lose the sense of control.
😭DEPRESSION – Position is closed. Money is lost. Considering trading & investment industry to be a scam.
🤔HOPE – The dawn. The market returns back to its normal state. Aspiration & desire to start again.
😆RELIEF – Again we start to believe in our strength. We return and the cycle repeats.
Do you recognize yourself in these stages?
Please, support our work with like and comment. It really helps.