Ah, trading – why is it so easy? Yeah right! I don’t know if you’re like me or not, but this profession did not come easily to me, not easy at all. Have you ever heard the saying “You need to break a lot of eggs to make an omelet?” Well, sometimes, to achieve trading success, it seems like you have to blow up an egg delivery truck just to succeed. Why is achieving day trading success so challenging? Is it your system? Is it your money management? Or, and this is a biggie, maybe you need to ask for help from a professional trading coach.
I had these three rotten Aspen trees in my yard at my old house, where I live it gets VERY windy, and you guessed it, one of the trees came down! The tree that fell on its fell between a 3-foot space between my fence and my brand new A/C unit. Phew, I lucked out; it missed the unit by inches! “I better get those out of there.”
With the help of a friend and a chainsaw rented from a hardware store, I was ready to rid myself of those trees. Please be advised, I have NEVER used a chainsaw before let alone cut down a tree. Long story short: I decimated my A/C unit.
The guy I hired (an arborist expert) to remove the last tree (I could still take out the neighbors fence) proceeded to tell me that this happens to guys like me all the time. “If you’re going to take down a tree nearby anything, you need to have the experience he said.” I already figured this out too late. Trading success is no different than any other task/job/or challenge you take on; you need some time to learn how to use the tools to accomplish what you want and having someone teach us helps even more.
I feel that many traders are in a hurry. The other big mistake many traders make is NOT ASKING FOR HELP (coaching and support) when it is available.
Look, DTS is great; I love it! But, like any other tool (except for the chainsaw), you need to learn to use it.
I can tell you how you can make gazillions of dollars, and how fantastic ANY system is. But, until YOU believe in it, it will be useless to you.
Instead of flipping the switch on your live account right away, think about doing at least 100 live SIM trades where you have DOCUMENTED your results in a trading journal. Take a little time to learn the nuances of ANY day trading system before going live. The way I see it is if you cannot win in SIM, you’ll have a tough time with real money.
Don’t be in a hurry! If I wanted to learn to fly a plane I would take lessons, I’d practice in a simulator, and my first several flights would be supervised. Then and only then would I consider flying a plane on my own. Lack of experience could be deadly for me as well as others.
Speaking of becoming a pilot, like I said, I would learn in a simulator. Let’s say that every time I got in the simulator; I crashed the plane into a bus load of nuns just for giggles? Do you think my instructor would ever allow me to get near a real aircraft? NO! My last suggestion is to treat your simulated account as if were real; it is not a toy. If you have $5000.00 to start a trading account, that’s what your simulator should be set to. Otherwise, how else can you get a realistic result in SIM mode?
Ask for help; TRULY, the only stupid question is the one not asked! We don’t have all the experts here for their good looks – we’re here to help!
Although the expert that removed the one remaining tree (my neighbor’s fence thanked me) was not there to teach me tree removal, it made me realize how important it is to have someone that knows what they are doing and is experienced to help me when I need it.
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