The Critical Element For Winning At Stock Trading

If you’re spending your time researching the latest trading methods and buying the most highly advertised blackbox trading system then there is a good chance you’re setting yourself up to lose big in the market.

Why?…

Because that’s what most aspiring traders and guess what? Almost all of them are losers at this game.

That’s not meant to be critical but to present the reality of the situation.

Most traders spend their time trying to find the best trading method that has the most wins, the least losses, and makes the highest profit per trade. This is what is meant by searching for the “Holy Grail” in the trading world.

If this is you then just do yourself and stop chasing the Holy Grail because it doesn’t exist. At least, not where you think it does.

Yes, it does exist but how to find it is counter-intuitive. This is a good thing because if everyone knew where it was then there would be alot more competition.

In fact, it is so well-hidden that it has remained a mystery for most aspiring traders. Fortunes have been spent trying to find it but has just been beyond their reach.

Curious? I’ll reveal what this critical element is to your success but let me share something important with you first.

To be a successful trader, you must know yourself deeply.

Above all, know yourself if you want to succeed at the highest levels.

Know yourself, focus on emotional control and discipline.

Sun Tzu wrote that, “You must know your enemy to defeat him but to know yourself then you can never be defeated in a 1,000 battles.” This bit of insight applies to life, not just war, and even greater, to trading itself.

Your most important task at the beginning of your trading endeavors is to know yourself at a deep level. Knowing your belief systems, understanding your beliefs about the markets, understanding your motivations, your desired outcomes, your behaviors, your reactions in certain conditions, your preferences on how to trade, your values, your plan of action, and more. You must become your biggest fan and observer of everything you think, feel, and act upon.

This is the foundation to your success.

Then, building the structure on it, your trading strategy, comes next.

Most traders get this turned around. They do what everyone else is doing but everyone else is usually struggling to make it in trading. More than that, without this critical information they wind up losing more money than they are making. Worse, they often don’t know why causing them a lot of frustration and grief.

Seems simple, right? But, how many people actually do it?

Almost none.

Think about two of the most successful money managers in the world: Warren Buffett and George Soros.

Both are billionaires who have generated billions of dollars in returns. Each have spectacular investments across a broad spectrum of industries. But, each of them have completely different investment approaches.

Buffett generated his wealth by selective stock picking of companies which were undervalued but possessed a durable competitive advantage to help mitigate his risk.

Soros developed his Theory of Reflexivity that guided his investment decisions helping him win big over and over again. One of his single biggest trades included his shorting the British Pound which almost broke the Bank of England. That one trade earned him over 1 billion dollars in a single day!

Now, imagine that you forced each of these men to switch their investment styles and then trade the other’s trading method. How do you think that would perform? More than likely, it would be a disaster and cause billions of dollars of losses.

internal friction

Why? Because each of their trading approaches reflect their own personality and what they believe to be true about the market itself.

And, I’d add that each of them understand their own individual personalities and psyche to such a degree that their trading approaches are a natural extension of that understanding. This is why both of them can trade positions so large and take losses at times that would crush mere mortals. But, they can do it because at a fundamental level they are both comfortable and confident in their trading approaches.

They are not bothered by the pettiness of taking losses at times because they know themselves and their trading approaches since they are one in the same.

To have long-term success at this game you will need to spend time understanding yourself – beliefs, actions, motivations, desired outcomes, etc. This is the foundation of successful trading.

Then, you have to spend an equal amount of time tailoring your trading approach to match your personality.  Only then will you have a winning combination that gives you a true edge to succeed in winning at trading the market.

Billy Williams
 

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