Being a good trader is one of the hardest things to be. Trading is a profession that has an extremely high rate of failure, and is one that can be very demanding, stressful and painful.
On the other hand, for the few who do make it, the rewards can be tremendous in terms of financial wealth, personal freedom and the status of being a professional trader.
So What Does It Take To Be A Good Trader?
To be a good trader, you first have to know what a good trader is. How do you define a good trader? In fact, how do you define trading success?
Your definition will affect the way you arrange your activities, the way you approach trading, how you feel about your trading results, and ultimately affect if you are going to be a successful trader.
Here’s A Trading Exercise:
Take out a pen (or pencil) and a writing pad. At the top of the page, write down the following questions:
- How Would I Define A Good Trader?
- What Would Constitute Trading Success to me?
Once you’ve written down these two questions, take some time to answer it. Take as long as you like, and keep on writing until you have an answer that you’re satisfied with.
If you want a private journal that is password protected, both for your personal as well as professional journal, you might want to try this software that I use:
It has a 45 day free trial use, and I like it because it’s simple, easy to use, and has a password protection feature.
Why This Exercise Is Important
If you define trading success correctly, you will find your journey towards accomplishing trading success faster and more productive. On the other hand if your definition is way off, then you’ll spend an incredible amount of time searching for the wrong things and you’ll be off the path of what it takes to be a successful trader.
As you write down your definition of what it means to be a good trader, you might want to ask yourself why you believe that’s what it takes to be a good trader. At the same time, you might want to ask why you define trading success the way you do as well.
Is This A Useless Exercise?
If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll never know when you reach there. And if you’re lucky enough to stumble around in the dark, and eventually find the answer, you’ll realize that you could have saved yourself a tremendous amount of time, energy and money if you only knew what you were searching for in the first place.
