We received this question from an SMBU reader:
Hello Mike,
I’m honored to write to you. My name is Nicolas, I live in Kiev (Ukraine). I’ve already read your book “One Good Trade“. I’m a trader with 8 month of experience and I have some difficulties with it. I would be very grateful if you could help me. I have fear in my trading. I can’t actualize my trading ideas because I’m afraid of losing money. That’s why I’ve already missed a lot of “One Good Trades”. Could you give me some advise on how I can improve confidence in myself and get rid of my trading fears. I’m working hard (min 10 hours per day), I’m trying to turn one day into ten, but I don’t see any results in trading yet. I would be very happy to receive an answer from you.
Thank you so much! Good luck!
Ways to Help Improve Your Trading Confidence
Like Nicolas, we all at some point lose confidence in our ability to trade. Some never develop trading confidence at all, never learning how good they can be as a trader. These SMB Blog posts provide some great solutions to help improve your trading confidence.
- Ways to regain your trading confidence
- Solutions to a lack of trading confidence (webinar video)
- Staying confident in your trading when you’re positive P&L
- Rebuilding your confidence after a few bad days
- The Importance of Small Wins
You can be better tomorrow than you are today!
Mike Bellafiore is the Co-Founder of SMB Capital and SMBU, which provides trading education in stocks, options, forex and futures. Bella is the author of One Good Trade and The PlayBook.
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2 Comments on “Traders Ask: How Do I Improve My Trading Confidence?”
Risk taking is an
integral part of the trading. People too much averse to risk taking do not succeed in this business.
I would say a good way to build trading confidence is to put in a ton of hours training on a realistic sim. Try to train as realistically as possible, and account for slippage, and other factors like emotions you’d be feeling. Train in different market environments. If you’re trading futures, dock yourself a few ticks on each trade, and if you can still make money consistently then start to consider going live.