Yes, discipline and patience are extremely important in trading, no one can deny that, but as I've stressed in my own threads many times, there is something that is more important than either of these, and that is knowledge and experience, and also perhaps, ability. Most traders actually lose because their entries are poor. If their SL is too tight they are stopped out pretty quickly, and if it is too wide they suffer losses they can never compensate for because they simply do not have enough winning trades. It is pretty simple actually...if you do not know exactly what you are doing, you will lose, as sure as the sun rises in the morning.
Ability? Can all traders eventually succeed given enough time studying the markets? I used to think yes, but now I'm not so sure, because successful trading requires a pretty unique set of skills, and unless a person can bring these all together, and these include trader psychology skills as well, they are unlikely to ever make enough money to make a living out of it. All traders have to be brutally honest with themselves with regard to their aptitude and personality for trading, because, a lot of people here on ff, perhaps reading this thread, are never going to make it. Yes, one can easily carry on with the belief that they will get there in the end provided that work hard enough, but unless these people have identified their weaknesses and have made a concerted, systematic plan to eradicate them, then they are wasting their time and will most probably go on losing.
I have seen so many people over the years here on ff claiming that trading is easy, that all you need to do is follow ABC and you'll succeed. They are so wrong, trading is not easy, in fact for me it is the hardest thing I have ever attempted to do in my life, and I have had to completely change the way I was when I came into it 10 years ago. I not only had to learn about price movement, I had to learn about myself and change what needed to be changed, and none of this happened overnight, it was a pretty slow process.
Don't be in denial. Recognize the person you are, and work tirelessly towards becoming the person you need to be to win in this business. Most either are unwilling or unable to do this, but if you can, you have a real chance of succeeding.
Ability? Can all traders eventually succeed given enough time studying the markets? I used to think yes, but now I'm not so sure, because successful trading requires a pretty unique set of skills, and unless a person can bring these all together, and these include trader psychology skills as well, they are unlikely to ever make enough money to make a living out of it. All traders have to be brutally honest with themselves with regard to their aptitude and personality for trading, because, a lot of people here on ff, perhaps reading this thread, are never going to make it. Yes, one can easily carry on with the belief that they will get there in the end provided that work hard enough, but unless these people have identified their weaknesses and have made a concerted, systematic plan to eradicate them, then they are wasting their time and will most probably go on losing.
I have seen so many people over the years here on ff claiming that trading is easy, that all you need to do is follow ABC and you'll succeed. They are so wrong, trading is not easy, in fact for me it is the hardest thing I have ever attempted to do in my life, and I have had to completely change the way I was when I came into it 10 years ago. I not only had to learn about price movement, I had to learn about myself and change what needed to be changed, and none of this happened overnight, it was a pretty slow process.
Don't be in denial. Recognize the person you are, and work tirelessly towards becoming the person you need to be to win in this business. Most either are unwilling or unable to do this, but if you can, you have a real chance of succeeding.
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