Battle tested trading tips that work in life too

Advice on anything can be found anywhere. It’s human nature, we love to offer it, but discerning the good from the bad can often be confusing and difficult.

Trading attracts more than its fair share of experts, soothsayers and those who know a thing or two. For those who genuinely want to develop the skills required to trade successfully it can be a minefield. We at the Lazy Trader are not trying to offer the latest ‘hot tips’ to success. There are down to earth methods and technical approaches for trading successfully on our website. Here we high-light a much more simple and rarely considered approach to trading: Be yourself.

This may sound a bit whimsical not be the ‘hot tip’ we want to hear, but it’s arguably one of the best. We are normally more comfortable with a straightforward set of instructions such as, “to achieve y you must do x”. In this way we are putting our outcomes, our destinies even, in the hands of others and so not having to think too much ourselves, and if the outcome is not the success we want or expect then we have in a way absolved ourselves of blame (it’s not our fault we were advised to follow these sets of instructions).

The advice, ‘just be yourself’, prompts us into standing more on our own feet. Following the crowd, unless there is good reason, often amounts to no more than taking the easy option and absolving ourselves of making decisions. Human nature tends to feel more comfortable, more adventurous, when operating in a pack.

So how exactly does ‘just be yourself’ enhance your trading? Well, it integrates our trading with our personality, which is after all who we are. Most of us have rules in life that we like to try and follow, qualities that we aspire to and hopefully friends and family see reflected in us; qualities such as individuality, honesty, integrity, gratitude; the stuff that makes us a responsible and valuable part of society. Now you may be starting to think that this is all a bit far fetched, but apply the rules by which you like to, or at least try to, lead your life and you will discover that it actually enhances your trading.

For example, write your own trading plan. Don’t just follow what you believe others are doing. Be diligent: develop, test and refine your own methods and strategies. You’ll then have your own trading plan that you know and trust, a mark of your individuality.

Keep honest and objective records in your trade journal. Without that there is no chance of learning and improving our skills. We have to know why we took a trade (was it just a punt or carefully thought through) and we have to ask ourselves why it succeeded or failed. This is vitally important. Good technical set ups may fail, but we must try to understand why, and record it. Only then can we start to build an overall picture.

Greed is a dangerous and costly quality, and it will without doubt be detrimental in trading. A well-devised trading plan will tell you when to exit a trade, either one that is going well or badly. To hang on in the trade, to squeeze more out of it or in the hope of making back losses, when your trade plan says that it is now appropriate to exit, is always a mistake. 

Trading shouldn’t be hard. The technicalities of how to use the soft ware and read charts are something most people can learn with some patience and practice. More difficult is developing the right approach, but if we treat trading with the same respect and integrity with which we like to try and lead our lives, then we are certainly taking large steps towards trading successfully.