Yesterday a 30 year market veteran, who has been a part of our trading community for years, stopped by to visit. He has been struggling with his trading and felt something was just missing. He wasn’t sure exactly what. His visit and our discussion about his struggles became so interesting to me. This retail, developing trader was struggling with the same issues on our desk, even among our successful traders.
He said three things about his trading that I hear guys on our desk say. In fact, I hear these from many guys on our desk, even our best traders. What was most interesting to me, was the three things this trader was trying to correct are three things are guys are trying to correct. But again most of them are succeeding.
What were his big three things this trader wanted to correct?
- I want to take my trading to the next level. I wrote about this yesterday in a post, Taking your trading to the next level. We have traders succeeding here who are trying to take their trading to the next level. There are seven-figure traders, trying to take their trading to the next level. Guys making 250k trying to take their trading to the next level. Traders putting up 500k trying to take their trading to the next level. And of course, traders losing that are trying to take their trading to the next level. My message to this visiting trader was: we are all working on that here as well.
- If I could just wait for my setups. The #1 frustration from traders on our desk shared in their 2017 Trading Plan was waiting. Waiting for the right moment to enter their best setups. Traders along all degrees of success were working on this. Traders not yet consistently profitable identified this as an area to improve. My message again to our visiting trader was: we are all working on that here as well.
- If I could just stop taking lesser trades. I mean it was like this guy was sitting on our desk and experiencing the same trading issues of our traders. There are multiple traders on our desk, who send me a daily review with the sole focus of eliminating their lesser traders. They produce a report card (HT @Steenbab) on this sole issue. My message again to our visiting trader was: we are all working on that here as well.
Professional traders on our desk and this developing retail trader had the same trading issues.
What will make the difference between success and failure from here for these two groups of traders?
The willingness to do the work necessary to improve.
The techniques employed to solve the issues.
Coaching and mentoring to help traders find their solution. For example, this visitor needs one-on-one mentoring, to help him overcome these issues. For example, our traders receive coaching and mentoring on these issues daily.
More specifically, the techniques we use to help traders reach the next level are different according to trader. One trader I am working with, we focus on completing a daily improvement routine. Another, we focus on eliminating mistakes. Another, we focus on trading bigger in his best setups.
As I said…..we are all working on that on our trading desk as well!
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Taking your trading to the next level
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