Wait, what? I don’t want you to read this?
Ok, let’s make an exception for the moment but here’s why you should maybe take a break from reading any trading material for a few weeks.
_________________________________________________________
We live in a hyper connected world. When you’re not trading, you’re probably reading about trading. You’re on forums, reading e-books, watching videos, because hey, knowledge is power right?
Only sometimes.
In fact, I’d go as far to say that after a certain tipping point in your trading education, you’d be far better off by not consuming any more material on trading.
Why?
Temptation. You’ve got a set of parameters for your trading plan, right? You know what the market needs to look like for you to make an entry, you know what your entry trigger is and you know why you should exit a trade. But what happens if you keep consuming more and more information?
You’ll keep second guessing yourself. You’ll read a thread on a forum that eloquently explains why the author’s entry method is superior to most others and you’ll start thinking, “Wow, that does seem really nice.” Maybe you won’t act on it straight away, but that temptation, that shiny new piece of knowledge will be in the back of your mind every time your current trading system doesn’t work.
But what if that entry is better than my current version?
It doesn’t matter. No, really, it doesn’t.
What you need to focus on as a developing trader is consistency.That should be your only goal. Not 10% per month, or doubling your equity in 20 trades, consistency. For a trader consistency is the foundation of everything.
Without consistency you’ll be swapping and changing your trading principles so often that you’ll have spent years trading poorly and nothing to show for it but a leaky micro account.
Actually, that’s not true, what you will have is this:
- No clear data as to what works.
- No way to determine how to move forward.
- An unclear idea of who or what to trust.
- A lack of clarity, direction and conviction.
- Likely failure.
With consistency, even if your current system is rubbish, you’ll have data. Beautiful data. You’ll also be more likely to find principles that resonate with you over time and principles that have an edge.
Experiment with systems and principles but do so with clear goals and clear timeframes. If you want to trade a price action system to see how it performs, great! But, make sure you:
- Track everything.
- Set a clear time frame for testing or a specific trade sample size (200 trades is good).
- Create mechanical rules that leave no room for interpretation to maintain consistency.
and for your own sanity, stop reading trading material! Test what you’ve got and test it well. In 6 months or even a year from now, you can either have a pile of great quality data and lessons as a result of quality trading, discipline and consistency or you can remain lost and confused, unsure as to why everything you try fails.
So stop reading articles and forums. Stop watching videos and courses.Start trading with one particular method and track your performance for a good amount of time. Fuck your results and losing streaks, create consistency through discipline and focus. Now is as good a time as any to begin your journey, increase your odds of success significantly by growing a set and pushing the new, shiny bullshit out of your mind and developing absolute focus.
Be better tomorrow that you were today and understand that that has nothing to do with your bottom line.
Ok, let’s make an exception for the moment but here’s why you should maybe take a break from reading any trading material for a few weeks.
_________________________________________________________
We live in a hyper connected world. When you’re not trading, you’re probably reading about trading. You’re on forums, reading e-books, watching videos, because hey, knowledge is power right?
Only sometimes.
In fact, I’d go as far to say that after a certain tipping point in your trading education, you’d be far better off by not consuming any more material on trading.
Why?
Temptation. You’ve got a set of parameters for your trading plan, right? You know what the market needs to look like for you to make an entry, you know what your entry trigger is and you know why you should exit a trade. But what happens if you keep consuming more and more information?
You’ll keep second guessing yourself. You’ll read a thread on a forum that eloquently explains why the author’s entry method is superior to most others and you’ll start thinking, “Wow, that does seem really nice.” Maybe you won’t act on it straight away, but that temptation, that shiny new piece of knowledge will be in the back of your mind every time your current trading system doesn’t work.
But what if that entry is better than my current version?
It doesn’t matter. No, really, it doesn’t.
What you need to focus on as a developing trader is consistency.That should be your only goal. Not 10% per month, or doubling your equity in 20 trades, consistency. For a trader consistency is the foundation of everything.
Without consistency you’ll be swapping and changing your trading principles so often that you’ll have spent years trading poorly and nothing to show for it but a leaky micro account.
Actually, that’s not true, what you will have is this:
- No clear data as to what works.
- No way to determine how to move forward.
- An unclear idea of who or what to trust.
- A lack of clarity, direction and conviction.
- Likely failure.
With consistency, even if your current system is rubbish, you’ll have data. Beautiful data. You’ll also be more likely to find principles that resonate with you over time and principles that have an edge.
Experiment with systems and principles but do so with clear goals and clear timeframes. If you want to trade a price action system to see how it performs, great! But, make sure you:
- Track everything.
- Set a clear time frame for testing or a specific trade sample size (200 trades is good).
- Create mechanical rules that leave no room for interpretation to maintain consistency.
and for your own sanity, stop reading trading material! Test what you’ve got and test it well. In 6 months or even a year from now, you can either have a pile of great quality data and lessons as a result of quality trading, discipline and consistency or you can remain lost and confused, unsure as to why everything you try fails.
So stop reading articles and forums. Stop watching videos and courses.Start trading with one particular method and track your performance for a good amount of time. Fuck your results and losing streaks, create consistency through discipline and focus. Now is as good a time as any to begin your journey, increase your odds of success significantly by growing a set and pushing the new, shiny bullshit out of your mind and developing absolute focus.
Be better tomorrow that you were today and understand that that has nothing to do with your bottom line.