How to Adjust Your Mindset to Succeed in Your Trading Career

The goal of every trader is to achieve greater success. They want more consistency, more profit, and more time to enjoy life. These goals are very valuable, but few traders achieve them. are you referring to

Every day, week, month or year, you set profit goals (I earn “x” amounts of profit), you set rules (I follow my trading strategy to the last detail) and you set wishes (I win). I don’t let emotions cloud my judgment) but somehow you never seem to achieve those goals. Even with the best of intentions and the best trading strategy, eventually you find a way to lose your mental stability and your plan goes out the window. It’s like living in a movie Groundhog Day – You experience the same things over and over again.

Also see: Increase your wealth by mastering trading techniques

Why this?

Well, the reason is that “we cannot solve problems using the same kind of thinking that we used to create them”. You’ve probably heard this quote before – it’s from the great Albert Einstein. Another variation of this is, “What got you here won’t get you there.” And that makes perfect sense when you think about it. How can you expect to be successful in trading if you remain the same person who is achieving the results you are currently achieving? I’m not suggesting that you need to become a completely different person, but at least some things need to change – your trading psychology!

The next level in your trading will come with the next level in your mindset. What do I mean? Well, you have to look inward and search within yourself to examine the beliefs, stories, and patterns that make you who you are today that are not serving you in trading.

I’m talking about things like:

1. The stubborn clinging to the certainty: The reality of trading is that it doesn’t give you the kind of security that a time clock stamp job gives you. The market doesn’t hand out paychecks on time, it delivers bonuses and rewards to those skilled in strategic risk-taking.

2. The fear of failure: Failure is a crucial part of any successful life, because that’s where you grow. So if you’re afraid of failing, you won’t be able to reach your full potential.

3. The inability to see one’s own prejudices: As a trader, you need a greater ability and willingness to see through your own illusions and delusions and correct yourself immediately.

See also: How Mindfulness Can Help Traders Succeed

Ask yourself these questions

There are other belief systems and behavioral tendencies one can discover about oneself, but these are the most important, I would say. Here are some questions you can ask yourself to find out what’s holding you back:

• What are my biggest fears and doubts when it comes to trading and investing?

• Am I too conservative or too risky in my approach to trading? Why?

• What are my strengths and weaknesses as a trader, but more generally as a person?

• What limiting beliefs do I have about myself, the market, or trading in general that might be holding me back?

• What external factors, such as market conditions or economic events, am I using as an excuse for not meeting my trading goals?

• What can I change? what is not

• What steps can I take to improve my trading psychology and technical skills?

• Am I setting realistic and achievable trading goals?

• What annoys me so much about losses? Why? What would happen if I wasn’t so afraid of losing?

• Am I consistent in my trading approach or am I constantly changing strategies?

• What personal or life factors are affecting my ability to focus on trading and make informed decisions?

It’s important to think about these questions and be honest with yourself. Your answers will help you identify beliefs, excuses, patterns, and stories that are not conducive to market success. And thinking about these answers will trigger real changes in your trading psychology.

From there, I invite you to ponder this next set of questions:

• What do I want to achieve in trading if I start now?

• What faith do I want to internalize starting today?

• What will I no longer tolerate in my trading?

• What are three objective and measurable action steps I can take each day, week, or month to move toward my trading goals?

• How can I go through thick and thin with these steps?

See also: Trading Psychology 101 – How traders can manage their emotions and achieve success

look inside yourself

Starting today, reject mediocrity; reject the mindless way! Most traders live on autopilot, acting out their preconditioned beliefs and patterns in the market. Once again, the next level in your trading will come with the next level in your mindset. I ask you to reject what isn’t working and to focus all of your attention, energy, and time on developing the beliefs, habits, and behaviors that work. If you are serious about trading, you must do this – you must look within yourself and take control of your own life because the status quo will not make it! It doesn’t work!

Now I understand: Looking within can be a difficult process because not everything we discover about ourselves is beautiful, shiny and polished. There are many unskillful aspects of our being; There’s also a lot of pain that resides in our minds and hearts because life isn’t exactly fair. And facing all of that takes a lot of courage because it’s uncomfortable. Ultimately, however, it is a rewarding journey as it enables us to overcome the internal obstacles that hinder our success in commerce and life. “Face your fear and the death of fear is certain.” Ever heard this saying? That’s exactly what I’m trying to express here.

Let me give you a concrete example to make things clearer. I’ve been working with a trader, a wealthy individual who trades US stocks basically the first hour after they open in New York. He has a very rudimentary trading strategy – he identifies the long term trend (weekly), zooms in on the 5 minute position and places his trade in the direction of the long term trend with a tight stop just below the first hour low.

As you can imagine, he spends his time losing money day in and day out given how tight his stop is. If he’s wrong, he’s wrong fast, but if he’s right, he can stay in this business for months, riding that git to Valhalla.

But this trader was constantly plagued by the fear of giving back his open profits, which often prompted him to exit his positions early. With a win percentage that low, small wins just aren’t enough – he needs those occasional monster wins to offset those many small losses.

So our work together was to identify his limiting beliefs and emotional triggers. And through a series of coaching sessions, I helped him redefine his mindset, debunk some unproductive beliefs he held about the market, and develop a more positive and carefree approach to trading outcomes. I’ve introduced special techniques to help him manage his emotions and reduce stress, and now he’s much more confident and disciplined amid the uncertainty.

If he had continued to act with the same behavior and mindset that got him the results, he would have stayed at the same level year after year. So this is not a platitude – the next level in your trading will come with the next level in your mindset!

What beliefs, stories and patterns do you hold onto consciously or unconsciously? Think about this and the questions above. Take some time to think and write down your answers. Take charge today because so much more is possible and so much more awaits you in terms of growth and commercial success.