Process driven by character equals winning

Love the Process

Learning to trade the financial markets is not an easy road. Your journey starts with the single step, and no one knows how long it will take you to move from the point A to point B. Over the time you learn process driven by character equals winning on the long-term trading the forex market.

Before you start thinking about becoming a consistently profitable trader (if you are not yet) you must first learn how to “walk”. As every other successfull trader today, you need to get as much as possible of experiences, and make all kind of mistakes.

 

Only the game can teach you the game

Forget about the shortcuts. If you will never give up, and you have the passion for the markets (not trading just for the sake of money) your progress will eventually take you from losing the money (1), to break-even (2), and consistently growing your trading account (3).

Althought those 3 steps sounds easy, timespan between the each can take you months or years. Trading the forex (or any other market) is not technically though. It is all about psychology and staying on the right path. It is about focusing on the right things and ditching everything else. Only this will allows you to perform at your best, and become the best trader you can be.

 

Daily Trading Process Over Everything

To perform at your best you need to develop your own trading process. You will need strict trading rules and process for any goal you have for yourself as a trader. You need to review your trading past and journal to see what worked for you, and simply focus on this.

Ask yourself “What worked and is still working for me?”. Then focus on it 100% to become the best trader you can be. Focus on your strenghts with all your power. As Bruce Lee once said “I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.”

Forget about trying to trade all different trading setups and trying to catch every single tiny market move. Focus just on the A+ setups and become really good at it. Only once you become really good at something (edge), you can look for the ways to expand your trading focus (e.g. adding more setups).

Great traders understands they only need to focus on the few good trades to make up their trading year. Apply the sniper mentality in your trading, and learn to stay patient. Most of the time, sitting on the money without any open position is the best position. Is not only about knowing when to trade but also knowing when to stay away.

Your long-term goal may be to become great trader who successfully trades for himself, or to become a 8-figure trader managing others people money… All fine, but you can not achieve goal from the above, if you do not have the daily process.

Daily process is necessary, if you plan your trading for the next 10-20 years. Your way to consistency starts with the simple daily discipline, action you need to follow. But (very important!) you must do it with the passion every day. Gratitude plays a huge part in our trading. You can never win on the long-term, if you are not positive and grateful.nMany traders out there are angry and negative, and they think they will become happier once they become consistently profitable traders. It is wrong approach in my opinion. Happines starts within you.

Do not forget to enjoy the moment and every trading day. Worrying about the past or future will never help you. All you can control is to perform at your best in the present moment. Good trading day or week is not measured with winning or losing trade(s), but can be measured only with questioning yourself “Did I follow my trading process (plan) today?”. Great traders are always process oriented, and they never measure their trading by trades results for itself.

“How can I develop my trading process?”

Simply develop it. Do more of what is working for you. What do you need to do daily to become good at your trading. I am not talking about sitting all day in front of the charts, but knowing exactly what you need to do on daily basis. Success can be only found in your daily process.

 

Only process drives your results.

After you have developed your daily trading process, here comes the “harder” part of the trading. It is not only about having the daily process…Your proven trading process is your business “plan”, and if you are not following it, you should fire yourself. All jokes aside – I am not saying you should stop trading, but you must be always open-minded, honest, self-accountable and self-critical. If you are not able to follow your trading process, you need to ask yourself what is the problem.

It is not only about your trading process anymore, but you need to develop yourself as a trader. You need to build your trading mindset, character that will help you to always perform at your best level every trading day. Every trading day is the new beginning. You must stay humble and make sure you feel good, so you can focus on your trading process.

 

Mental Capital and Improving Yourself

In trading you can be your own worst enemy. As my mentor said once “It is all between YOU and the markets.” Your inner voice can help or ruin your trading career. Becoming the great trader is not only about having the best trading strategy and process, but as I said before, it is about developing your mindset and character that will help you on your trading journey. I believe, if you want to become and stay the best trader you can, you must invest your time and energy in yourself on the daily basis.

Working out 3-4 times per week, eating healthy, reading books (not news and gossip), socializing with positive and like-minded people… Currently I am watching the serie “Billions”, where Bobby Axelrod inspired me to become even a better trader, leader, passionate and more focused on my trading process. Do whatever it helps you to become the best version of yourself.

Try to include the activities that will improve and streghts your trading body an mind. This alone will not only help you with your health, but it will also help you to become more focused and process oriented to perform at your best.