Deciding to trade full time for a living is making the decision to open your own business. Here are 7 keys to making it successful:
1. Do your homework. The stock market is an arena of abundance, make sure you join the arena with a written plan.
2. Set aside at least 3-6 months to learn how to first not lose money, then to learn how to make money. All the trading books and seminars in the world are not nearly as valuable as "screen time."
3. You must be properly capitalized. The money you fund your trading account with must be RISK capital. If it is money you will need in two months to pay your rent, you will have a hard time trading to win, you will be trading scared.
4. Know what type of market conditions you are going to trade. Are you going to be a trend follower or a scalper? Trend following takes patience and can have significant draw downs, scalping requires making many trades and usually has a 1-1 risk reward ratio. Profits and losses will be small.
5. Truly understand you are trading to make money, you are not trading to be correct. Most new traders think you need to know what's going to happen next to make money, you don't. You need discipline to follow your plan; nobody knows what is going to happen next. The sooner you can get over the desire to "be right" on your trades the sooner you will turn the corner to profitability.
6. Learn how to keep your focus positive. Trading can be a very trying journey, soak in good motivational books. They are as important as any trading book you will every buy.
7. Learn from your mistakes. You MUST keep a journal. It is your personal history of what you do well and what you need to work on. You are paying for those lessons in the form of trading losses, take the lessons home.
If you need help working on your trading plan send us an email with your current trading plan and we will be more than happy to make some suggestions! info@keystonetradinggroup.com
http://keystonetradinggroup.com/trading.htm