Here’s another chapter in my occasional series on ‘What Type of Trader are you?’
For this installment the question is; are you trading to learn or are you trading to earn?
What do I mean? It’s very simple really, are you still at the experimental, investigative stage of learning to trade or do you conduct your business in the market with expectations of income and expenses?
Have you ever asked yourself that question? Have you looked at your results? Is your frustration with trading due to unfulfilled expectations (they very often are). If you have goals of earning X amount of money from the market but are still engaging without clear Method, Mindset and Money management then I expect you are still trading to learn and probably failing to achieve your goals and therefore feeling a sense of frustration / despair / hopelessness (delete as appropriate).
By all means I endorse newbies to engage with a mindset of Trading to Learn vs Trading to Earn. However if you have expectations of earning from trading but you’re still learning then it shouldn’t come as a major shock when you fail to meet those expectations.
There comes a point whereby you’re required to commit to your trading and conduct it like a business. A time to narrow down the options, focus on what has been working for you and conduct your trading as a business.
So ask yourself honestly; have you been trading to learn or trading to earn? If you don’t know…then it’s probably the former. If you need any help then check out my earlier post on the 5 Steps to becoming a competent FX trader.
Either way you should be looking to set your goals and expectations accordingly in order to make your trading a positive experience, regardless of the outcome of trades.
Good luck and as always, trade well.
FXTraderPaul
February 23, 2010 at 9:45 am
Paul’s posts never fail to inform and inspire!
February 23, 2010 at 10:11 am
Thanks for the feedback Ken! Always appreciated.
February 25, 2010 at 6:39 am
Paul, I feel I have gone as far as I can with my trading at the moment with teaching myself. I presume you have a coach as do all the professional traders. How do you find a coach and then once you get a coach how do you decide if they are the right coach for you. I want to take the next step in my trading to really structure it and make sure what I am doing is correct. Can you offer any advice or perhaps people I could contact in terms of finding a coach for my trading, I really want to work alongside someone who can help me sort out my trading and put me on the straight and narrow – I know trading success takes time but I think sometimes I lack structure and it would be great to have someone who helped me structure my trading, give me a kick up the bum every now and again and who I can bounce ideas of. Any advice on seeking a coach would be appreciated. My email address is allison_yannakis@hotmail.com.
As always, thanks for the posts and advice on trading.
Allison
February 26, 2010 at 7:36 am
Hi Allison,
Thanks for your mail. You’re correct that I work with coaches and mentors to help improve my trading. That comes from my ‘kaizen’ principles of dedication to never-ending and continuous improvement in myself and my trading.
I can heartily recommend working with a coach to give you some direction and support. I will send an email to cover this in more depth.
Once again thanks for your feedback and posts, they’re always appreciated.
Regards
Paul