Often new traders think they are prepared to trade when they aren’t.  They think they have done the sufficient preparation to trade and the market truth is that they haven’t.

Traders who we have trained from scratch to consistently profitable have always met the market definition of prepared.  Those who have underperformed have met their definition of prepared but not the market’s.  They have failed to fill the gap between their beliefs and the market’s demands.

An example of this occurred yesterday on our trading desk.  Traders thought they were prepared.  And by market demands definition they weren’t.  By my definition they weren’t.  And things got heated in our classroom explaining how these traders were falling short of what the market demanded from them.

It’s not your definition of preparation that counts as a new trader.  It is the one defined by the market.  One that an experienced trader can help you to understand.  One where I as a trading coach help you fill that gap between what you think is expected and what really is demanded by Mother Market.

For more on this anecdote from our prop desk, watch the video below.

*no relevant positions

And I ask: where have you fallen short of the market’s demands in the past?