Ways to Improve Your Trading Mindset

Of course, we all trade better when we win, but we should strive to maintain an emotional balance regardless of any gains or losses. The first reason why traders lose may seem obvious, but in reality it stems from long-term social conditioning: Loss generates powerful emotions such as fear, uncertainty, apprehension, and self-doubt, especially with men. Men are socially conditioned to succeed from the moment they enter the world. They are brought up to become achievers. Influenced by family, friends, education, and career environment, they are encouraged to seek professions as doctors, lawyers, and bankers.

Striving to be right, number one, the breadwinner, and the best, always seeking perfectionism. Men are socially conditioned to be family providers. Moreover, various cultural pressures and demands add up to this, and as a result men have an intrinsic fundamental obligation to succeed. The solution is to take a reality check. Losing is part of the game. The possibility to lose is always there.

The how much and how often is what distinguishes great traders from those who will always struggle. You can learn how to accept losses by re-defining the meaning of loss. If you equate it with failure, it will sooner or later take its toll, but re-defining it will help you move forward, improve your trades and cope with possible losses.

Consider losing as positive in the sense that it will improve your next trades. He keeps making the same mistake when trading. When asked to describe the mistake, he will do so in detail. He keeps repeating it and as a result, repeats his losses over and over again, too. It is critical to notice when the pattern is happening and to never let it take hold. Dealing with the loss immediately will help you to achieve this. Emotions will cloud judgment, block clear thinking, and therefore prevent the trader from being creative. To sum up, emotions override logical thinking.

Our emotional strengths and peak mindset are shaped by how and what we think. If we generate bad thoughts, they will affect the overall thinking process — but if we input positive thoughts, the output will also be good. The best way to exclude emotions is to ask the mind a good question.

Such questions force the mind to release emotion, as it shifts to finding the answer to that particular question. In such cases, you will need additional help to release it. In trading, your biggest enemy is within yourself. Success will only come when you have learned to control your emotions. Human nature being what it is, most traders and investors ignore these rules when they start out for the first time.

It can be an expensive lesson, though. Control your emotions and avoid being swept along with the crowd. Make consistent decisions based on sound technical analysis. Markets change, new opportunities arise and the old ones fade away.


  • Accountability and enjoying the fruits of trading.
  • Depresion Emocional (Spanish Edition).
  • The Maker of Universes (World of Tiers Book 1).
  • LHomme et la Matière : Evolution et techniques (Sciences daujourdhui) (French Edition);

Good traders are professional but humble people — this is why they keep learning. Speculators get paid for buying what nobody wants, when nobody wants it, and selling what everybody wants, when everybody wants it. Remember that there is no such thing as a bad trader. You will be more successful when you learn to control your emotions. These are strong words of advice first offered by trader Edwin Lefevre in his book entitled Reminiscences of a Stock Operator in This book is well worth a read to any trader. Be cautious, be cool and be patient!

Wait for the right conditions in the market before entering it. Sit tight when you are losing, do not let fear grip you, have courage in your convictions. Detach yourself from your emotions at that point and focus on your trading system. It would also help if you detach yourself from your computer screen! If you have placed your stop loss it is not necessary to be constantly watching the screen! This means that you are unsure of yourself. Do not add to a losing position! It is best to average up not down.

So add on winning positions instead of on losing ones! New opportunities will always arise. The bottom line is that having the right attitude and the right mindset will make you more successful in trading! XM uses cookies to ensure that we provide you with the best experience while visiting our website.

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Please remember that the past performance of any trading system or methodology is not necessarily indicative of future results. Mental Fortitude Mental fortitude is defined as the ability to focus on and execute solutions when in the face of uncertainty or adversity.

The winning trader mindset

Emotional discipline — If you want to succeed at trading you have to be emotionally disciplined. You have to wait, wait and wait some more for the slow, weak, easy trading prey. This is called conserving your limited risk capital for the high-quality trade setups. What does it take to be emotionally disciplined?

The winning trader mindset

Survival of the fittest? Whilst some people may have an easier time with this than others, I truly believe anyone, if they want it enough, can develop the mental tools needed to become a consistently profitable trader. To read more about becoming a consistent trader, check out my article on consistency in trading.

Money discipline — Not only do you need to be disciplined with your trading plan and trading strategy, you MUST be disciplined when it comes to money management and this means discipline in both risk and reward. To understand how to be disciplined in managing risk, check out this article on how to trade with discipline. For more info on managing rewards and profit targets, check out this lesson on the psychology of taking profits.

State of Mind Your state of mind, even when you are not in front of the charts or thinking about the markets, plays an absolutely critical role in your ability to successfully trade the markets. Typically, people who have high levels of self-control in other areas of their lives, make good traders. If you are someone who is very disorganized, physically very out of shape or otherwise lacking in major forms of self-control, you will need to fix this if you want to make money trading. You have to be this way to make money as a trader. There is no room for self-doubt and hesitation in the markets.


  1. A Cathedral Courtship.
  2. The Chinese Maze Murders: A Judge Dee Mystery (Judge Dee Mysteries).
  3. There are 10 ways to have the mindset of a successful trader:?
  4. Why We Trade?
  5. Zodiac Colours & Birthstones - Sagittarius.
  6. To learn more about this, read about the role that confidence plays in trading. This is the only way to ever get there! Be counter-intuitive — You have to train yourself to be someone who thinks counter-intuitively. B elief Systems I believe that trading should be viewed and treated as a business. Reinforcement — Whatever your trading strategy is, you need to reinforce it on a regular basis so that it becomes part of a winning traders mindset.

    This is all built into my trading plan and I go over it daily to reinforce it into my psyche. As I said earlier, there is no room for hesitation if you want to succeed long-term in the market. That said, do not get overly confident, as too much confidence in a trader is just as bad or worse than too little. Structured Daily Trading Routine What does your daily trading routine consist of currently? Routine lead to habits — The value and power of a structured daily trading routine cannot be emphasized enough.

    Read more about routines in my article on the the power of trading routines. Daily routines of winners — Winning traders think differently from you. They act differently from you. Their days are more planned and structured than yours. Winning traders are not easily distracted from their end game, from the long-term prize.

    They have long-term and short-term goals and they write them all out, the short-term goals build up and lead to the long-term goals. These things are what winning traders think about everyday. They are busy learning, staying fit, staying focused and following their trading plan with discipline. Print or write it out, tweak it as needed, just make sure you review it weekly at least, daily at best.

    This is one way you stay accountable and staying accountable helps you maintain discipline and maintaining discipline helps you forge positive trading habits and positive trading habits make you money consistently. Trading journal — Along with your trading plan, you need a trading journal in which you log your trades and the details of them. This is essentially where you will write a daily market commentary , similar to what I provide my members each day. You can do this on your computer or write it out, just make sure you do it.

    This will help you stay accountable. Instead, start implementing this approach now and start enjoying its fruits. Trade and think less about your trades and you will end up making more money in the long-run, this is a core tenet of my trading philosophy. Trading in this manner allows you to take a set and forget approach where everything is slowed down and you have time to live your life and fit trading in around your busy schedule. Real goals — You need to make each point in the above lesson small goals that you work on one by one.

    Trading success is like a puzzle and you will not complete the puzzle until you have each piece mastered and in its rightful place. Going Forward If you put two traders side by side, trader A has a million dollar account and a huge multi-monitor setup, access to the best data, etc. Checkout Nial's Professional Trading Course here. Thank you, for your time and devotion to helping others. Amos Nsobila November 5, at 4: Nial I sincerely want to thank you a lot for this article it will help me a lot in my trading journey Reply. Liston Kiwa November 2, at 2: Even my car has to be organised Reply.

    Nial article very good, strongly matevirut, after your articles there is a wish to move only in before, breaking a vseba bad emotions, thanks for your works Reply. Hilda October 21, at 8: Logeswaran October 20, at 3: Kei October 19, at Thank you so much, Nial! Roger Casabuena October 18, at 7: It is you sir that I need in this trading journey.

    Godbless you more and keepsafe always. Thobe October 16, at Nweke Michael October 16, at 7: This is really helpful, thanks a lot more sir Reply. Geoff Taylor October 16, at 4: Cheers Mate not Sir Reply. Elijah Babaniyi October 14, at 6: Thank you Sir Reply. Akeel October 12, at 4: Hi Nail Another interesting and enjoyable knowledge reading presented for keeps. Thank you Akeel Reply. Thank yuo Nial,for the great ideas and lessons you give Reply. Keep writing that kind of article. Thank you and keep up the good work. Grace October 11, at 4: Thank you for the lesson.

    I really needed it.

    Winning Trader Psychology: Looking for More Confidence & Consistency in Your Trading?

    Ekwukoma Precious October 11, at Singh October 11, at 8: Min October 11, at 5: Every time I do one of the silly things you teach not to do, I lose money. Adesoji October 11, at 4: Good one sir,really appreciate. Arek October 11, at 1: Hakan Cakir October 11, at Very inspirational article and good work Nial.

    As always motivated me. Thank you so much. Sam October 10, at 4: Clay October 10, at 1: Thank you Nial, these reminders keep us on track. Gandus October 10, at 9: Cool article, I love it.

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    Ashley October 10, at 8: Maxwell Mhaka October 10, at 7: Thanks Nial, everything begins in the mind. I must reform the mind first. Shelika Naidoo October 10, at 7: Excellent advise thank you Reply. Prebi October 10, at 5: About what I need right now. Elois October 10, at 4: So much appreciation for this post. Pathan Muhammad Sahjahan October 10, at 2: This is a great lesson ever I read. Jen October 10, at 1: Thanks nail, am learning slot from your trading nuggets Reply. Anastasis October 10, at Harpreet Hundal October 10, at