Skills pay the bills.
When you look at what makes a successful trader versus a non-successful trader, you can break it down to a set of skills they possess over the failing crowd. You cannot be lawyer if you don’t have the skill sets and knowledge needed to defend people in court.
Successful traders over the years have acquired certain skill sets that allow them to trade the markets effectively, control their minds, and ultimately repeat the same successful process day in and day out.
Today, we are going to break down the top 7 skills all successful traders have, and how YOU can develop them yourself:
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Discipline
Discipline separates every great performer in anything in life. In trading, if you don’t have the proper discipline to take good trades, avoid bad trades, control your emotions, and follow a plan/strategy, you will never make it in this industry.
To develop proper discipline, you NEED to have a strategy. That is where groups like ours at Bulls on Wall Street come in, to help you develop those strategies and trading plans from the ground up. Without discipline, a trader is highly susceptible to negative emotions like greed and fear. You don’t stick to a routine. You don’t do what you must, even if you don’t feel like doing it.
2. Accountability
Being accountable for your own actions and removing your ego as a trader is a major key to success. If you aren’t accountable for your own positive and negative actions, like when you take a bad trade for example, you will never grow.
If you want to learn more about how you can truly become a fully self-accountable trader, Kunal filmed a great YouTube video here you can watch now that covers accountability in trading in full detail:
3. Persistence
Persistence goes hand in hand with work ethic. Traders go through emotional rollercoasters and waves of success and failure. Those who can work through those down times, figure out what they did wrong, and continue optimizing themselves and moving forward are the ones that really make it long-term. Developing a persistent mindset that says “I will succeed in the long term regardless of what happens day in and day out” will take you very far in the trading game.
4. Instincts
In trading you have to make decisions in the blink of an eye. Imagine if you were a crypto trader on the FTX exchange this week. You had to be decisive, and make BIG decisions. You need to learn how to act instinctively and trust your institution. Sometimes there is no time for in-depth analysis. Build good trading instincts by paper trading when you’re new, and trading small size with real capital. Build up aptitude, and scale up your size as you start to find success.
5. Risk Management
Another HUGE one. As traders, we are professional risk managers. Every trade has some sort of risk, regardless of how great it lines up with your strategy. Understanding how to manage risk, and accepting that it is even there will allow you to remove fear from the equation on every trade.
This video lesson will show you how to manage risk correctly in the current market conditions, where are seeing huge volatility:
6. Focus
Being an expert on a specific market, whether it is currencies, commodities, futures, options, or stocks is crucial, especially for new traders. A jack-of-all-trades doesn’t make it in trading. Hyper-focusing on one market and truly mastering it will lead to more success than dividing your attention into too many asset classes. Find ONE strategy, and make it your bread and butter.
7. Analytical
The best traders are very analytical. Now, that doesn’t mean that they are great at math and statistics. What it means is they can remove the emotions within their trading process, and analyze their own stats and mistakes. They can view their losses as lessons, rather than punishments and grow from them. Keeping a journal updated every day like TraderVue will help a lot with this.
If you need help building these skillsets and getting a road map to successful full-time or part-time trading, make sure to apply to our next LIVE trading boot camp around the corner!
Early-Bird Pricing Ends TOMORROW For Our Next Live Trading Boot Camp
