There is a Psychology to taking your trading business seriously.

Are you running a trading business or is it a VERY expensive hobby? I challenge you to answer this question and be HONEST with yourself. All too often I speak with other traders who have a full-time job and try to trade – and what I hear is astounding.

If I was to summarize, it is this – Most traders do not have a plan, no set method, no trading rules and sometimes no clue as to what they are trying to accomplish or where they are going with their trading. This approach IS a recipe for disaster and it seldom if ever will ever work out. Whoever heard of ANY business succeeding that did not have a solid plan in place?

Challenge #1

Time! Let’s face it, if you are trying to work full time, manage a family, and manage a trading business, it can be difficult, but not impossible. I suggest picking a few days a week that come rain or shine, is the time you devote to your trading business. If you set out to trade for three hours, three days a week you need to stick to it. You can also set your schedule around overnight news events as well.

Although I don’t advocate trading the news events, the news can and will sometimes make the markets move. One thing I like to do is look at a good economic calendar and find mornings where there will be significant news events along with their time and set those hours aside to trade.

Challenge #2

Where is my head at?  So many traders are almost starving to be full time, who wouldn’t be? Isn’t this why we are doing this in the first place? It is! Here is one thing I suggest regarding your day trading psychology: BE PATIENT!  Part of trading any hours or any instrument for that matter is patience.

I feel the best way to get started is to first make the commitment to yourself and your business as a business, then, we need to stick to our plan for our trading business that we carefully designed and put into writing. All too often I hear of traders going on small winning streaks (or losing streaks) and deviating from the commitment they made to themselves and their business.

So what am I getting at here? Take your time to learn the business, commit to what you are doing, and building not only your knowledge and discipline but your capital as well.

Challenge #3

Putting in too much time, this is a biggie. If you work all day and then spend another 8 hours a day with your trading, it may or may not make you more successful. For me, all the hours did not help. Like I said earlier: devote a set amount of time and stick to it!

Getting burned out WILL NOT yield success in trading in my opinion. I feel it only makes us tired and anxious, and I don’t know of anyone in any occupation that can succeed or make important decisions when these negative emotions are in place. Trading and life in general need to have a balance, be diligent, devoted, and true to YOURSELF and your business and success could be right around the corner.

Challenge #4

Remember: this is a business! If you choose to have it as a hobby, that’s fine. But remember, hobbies are just that: hobbies. I have hobbies for personal enjoyment, and that’s it. I treat my trading business as a business because that is what it is.  I devote “X” amount of hours a day/week to it, and they are set hours that I stick to, no exceptions. When I sit down in the wee hours of the morning to trade, I have a set plan in place, solid trading rules, and I have my goals in writing sitting in front of me.

The challenges mentioned above may not even be challenges; maybe they are just modifications that need to be made to our behavior. If you are new to trading or have been trading for some time now, I strongly suggest that if you want to get to that next level that you take your business seriously and treat you’re trading with respect. Serious business owners may not always succeed, but they do tend to get serious results along the way.