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What separates you as a trader? Part 2

Friday, 25 September 2009 11:10

I hope you have given this a lot of thought as I have for myself in the last 24 hours and I have come up with some interesting answers. I believe that what sets me apart from the average trader is

I consistently make money;
I keep the right attitude; and
I do a lot of analysis about my trading.

The one reason most people get into becoming a trader is to earn money and to be able to do this on a consistent basis, day after day and month after month is paramount from a psychological and monetary stand point. Over the last 12 months, I have calculated that I am positive money an average of 17.2 days a month and I have not had a losing month over that time frame.

Having this type of consistency will help you maintain the right attitude, but everyone goes through stretches where something gets them down and you cannot let this affect you during the trading day. I keep a very even attitude whether I am up or down on the day, never getting too high or too low. When I am done trading for the day is when I can give myself praise or berate myself for stupid mistakes. Students on the webinar will attest to my even attitude throughout the day.

I am constantly analyzing my trading, reading my journals and figuring out how I can get better. What I spend time analyzing has changed throughout my career. When I first started trading, I was concerned with almost every trade, length of time in the trade, percentage of winners and losers and how much I made on each winning trade compared to how much I lost on the losing trades.

Now I am more concerned with how I can maximize each trade making sure I have the right amount of shares and working on holding stock until I am sure the trade is about to reverse the trend. I also have learned about my weaknesses and can avoid them now that I know and understand them.

This is what I feel makes me a very good trader and separates me from the pack of traders out there. I did not rush to the conclusion on this, I gave it lots of thought and dug down deep. I look forward to hearing what things make you successful as a trader.