What type of Trader are you? An Amateur with a hobby or a Professional with a business?

Well I’ve not written a piece under the what type of trader are you banner for a while so I figured I might as well get stuck in.

And I figured I might as well just cut to the chase with this post.  Quite simply are you an Amateur with a hobby or a Professional with a business?

 Come on, be honest, if not with me at least with yourself.

Do you like to have a bit of a play at trading?  Do you tell friends that you’re ‘playing the markets’?  Let me give you a spot of advice.  If you ‘play’ the markets then you shouldn’t be too surprised when you end up being the one that’s ‘played’.

Is your ‘investment’ nothing more than a few quid in a trading account, a trawl of trading forums and perhaps the odd book you may have picked up.  Are you going to free trading events – basically sales seminars – in the hope of finding some holy grail style revelation that will open up the treasure trove of abundance that is trading? 

Do you spend all your research time on the ‘hard-skills’ of trading?  Basically looking for new trading strategies, tips and ideas.  Do you think that the ‘soft-skills’ things like a business plan, a trading strategy plan, trading records, a trading journal and some personal development goals are a waste of time?  Do they sound much too boring to spend your time on when you could be getting excited over some new trading strategy you picked up from a friend of a friend.

On the flip-side are you a Professional with a business?  Do you have a business plan as well as a trading strategy plan?

Does that business plan cover your goals, objectives & contingency plans?  Have you done a SWOT analysis on your business…….and yourself. Do you have a financial plan? Do you understand the cost of your business in absolute terms and relative to your overall trading capital?  Does it cover your disaster recovery plan?  Does it cover allocation of resources etc?

In your trading strategy plan do you have your set-ups all written out with plenty of examples of those trades?  Do you keep a trading journal as a means of improving your performance?  Do you keep records of all your trades and use them to improve your trading?

Does it cover your daily, weekly and monthly routines?  Do you have systems in place for all aspects of your business?

Remember, most people spend money on their hobbies and make money from their business.  Is that your experience of trading?

I make no apologies if the post is perhaps a little harsh. This is ultimately a harsh business and you should not underestimate the amount of time and effort required to achieve a level of business success.

I suspect the vast majority of people if they were really honest with themselves would say that they’re an amateur with a hobby as opposed to a professional with a business.  Let’s try to be positive and say that at least raised awareness is the first step towards making better choices about your future path.

So if you have admitted that you’re presently an amateur with a hobby what one thing are you going to do tomorrow to move you towards being a professional with a business?

Until next time, trade well…….and work on becoming a professional.

FXTrader Paul