successful traders - 2nd Skies Trading

Tag Archive for: successful traders

Why Do Most New Years Resolutions Fail?

By now many of you are in full swing with the new year, and at least 6 days removed from creating your new year resolutions. Below are some interesting statistics about new years resolutions, some of which I think will not shock you.

1) About 8% of people are successful in achieving their new years resolutions (not far off from trading)
2) 25% of those who make them don’t even make it past the first week
3) 34% of those resolutions are related to money
Source: Betterment.com
Do these numbers above surprise you? My guess is if I surveyed 1000 people, the majority would not be surprised.
We’ve all made resolutions and failed to keep them (including yours truly).
Have you ever asked yourself why is that? I certainly did.

Why do so many people consistently make new years resolutions, yet fail to really nail them? Made a resolution to always fill out your trading journal each day without fail, only to a few weeks/months later finding yourself not filling it out? Why?
The reason you did not fill out your journal, or consistently risk a fixed % of equity per trade, or whatever resolution you made is the same underpinning reason all resolutions fail.
In this article, I will briefly share a far better method for making consistent change, then ask the critical question as to why most fail.

2018 trader resolutions 2ndskiesforex

A Far Better Model For Consistent Change
One of my yoga students Mark Gonzales eventually went on to become a great yoga teacher himself. In 2012 he was given the Yoga Journal’s Talent Search Winner Award, and has one of the most influential power yoga channels on youtube. He still humors me in letting me know my classes were some of his hardest ever. I appreciate that sentiment as I wanted him to push his body and mind to become more than what he thought he could do.

One brilliant insight Mark recently shared captures a far better model to consistent change. Here is what he said below;
“New Years Resolutions are for those who didn’t work hard enough or look after themselves the year before. Self improvement can start now, all year round, from this moment forward.”
Indeed, for those who are constantly working on themselves all year round, there is no need for a new year resolution. It is far easier to work on yourself month-in-month-out then to rev up the change engine once a year. If you have not been working on removing your limiting beliefs throughout the year, then a new year’s resolution is most likely to fail.
It is like not running all year, then all of sudden taking yourself out for a long run when your lungs and legs are not ready for the task. You are most likely to fail, and then imprint negatively on your self-image ‘it is not like me to make the changes I need/want to‘.
This only hinders your confidence and decreases your likelihood of making lasting change in the future. Every negative imprint from failing to keep a commitment or resolution only adds on to the difficulty of changing your trading mindset in the future.
Daily affirmations by themselves will not make lasting change, especially since most are done improperly. Their is an underlying flaw in daily affirmations most fail to see. Also making those trading resolutions at the beginning of the year creates the idea you can only change once a year. This is also a fateful idea.
It is far easier to work on smaller goals throughout the year, that eventually build up your self-image and confidence to make the big changes. When you have seen yourself do the work earlier, it becomes more ‘like you‘ to do the work later. This is a far superior model for consistent improvement and hitting your target.

Why Do Most Resolutions Fail?
Understanding this one thing would help unlock many of the critical reasons why you make the same trading mistakes, why you have a streak of winners and lose them all in one trade. It is the same reason why you follow your trading plan for a few weeks/months, but then go off the reservation.

The reason why a trader fails to make consistent change and build a successful trading mindset is the same reason why most resolutions fail.
With that being said, before I share the answer – why do you think most traders make the same mistakes over and over again? Why do you think you fail to keep your risk management? Why do you think you succumb to the same emotions you know are toxic to your trading?
Many of you are smart people and can certainly figure out most of what you are doing isn’t helpful. Yet you still do it anyways. Why do you think you continue to do things which you know will only hurt your trading performance?
Please make sure to share and comment below. Your answers will be incredibly revealing as to where you are in your trading process, how much you understand about the trading mindset, and what you have to build mentally to become a successful trader.

Featured Article, Forex Strategies, Trading Mindset & Risk Management

9 Things Successful Traders (& People) Do

Successful traders and people often do things differently than the rest of the crowd. But what they do is not magical or something unavailable to you. A successful trader mindset is always behind these people, and this is something you can build. There is very little about trading that is easy, and often times I hear of traders applying the wrong mindset to the challenges they face. Here are 9 simple things successful traders (& people) do, which you can adopt to change your compass towards success.

1. Have a Passion For the Process

Around the age of 5, Earl Woods brought his son on to a TV show to demonstrate how good his son’s golf swing was. After the young Tiger showed a glimpse of what he was to become, his dad was asked the following question;

“How many hours do you make him practice every day?”

Earl quickly responded, “Make him…I cannot get him to stop.”

You have to have a passion for trading and the process. Your passion cannot be ‘outcome dependent‘, meaning if you make x dollars in y months, then I’ll remain motivated to do the work. You must be willing to do the work, particularly in the moments when things are not working your way. It is easy to do the work when all is going well.

2. You Must Accept a Tedium of Work in Your Learning Process

There will be moments in your learning process which will seem boring, tedious, and difficult. You will often have to work on things you like the least – perhaps money management, filling out your trading journal or reviewing your trades. It is unlikely you will enjoy everything you do equally. In all great things built, there was always a tedium of work in the process – the moments where you sweat, tire and become exhausted. You must accept this tedium of work, and understand those little things build up skills and wire your brain to trade successfully.

3. Frustration Often Times is a Sign of Progress

When the brain gets to something it doesn’t understand, it often gets frustrated not having the answer. Being frustrated by something in your trading process is a communique you are dealing with things more complex than you understand, or can do efficiently now. This is a good thing. It means you are now heading into territory you are not skilled in, but need to be to become a successful trader. Be grateful those things are being pointed out – for when you work on them, growth happens.

4. You and Your Environment Imprint Upon You

The things you say to yourself before, during and after each trade have an impact. They imprint upon you, particularly the emotional quality of them. The same goes for your environment (parents, friends, co-workers). Make sure what is imprinted upon you is positive and directs you towards being successful. Learn to protect your mental capital.

5. Do Not Expect Immediate Results

Nobody who is a successful trader (or successful at anything) got there in a matter of months and expected immediate results. In a great commercial ‘Maybe It’s My Fault‘, amongst saying many brilliant things, Michael Jordan shares the following;

“Maybe I led you to believe that basketball was a god given gift, and not something I worked for – every single day of my life.“

It’s easy for us to see the success of such people. But we often fail to see all the hard work behind it. Michael had to work at his game for years, often filled with failures before he started to notice results. Real change in your trading does not come easily or quickly.

6. Do Not Look For an Easy Way Out

I have never met a successful trader or person who looked for the easy way out. You can pirate all the systems you want, but you will not have the mindset of abundance to be successful. You can try all the robots out there – none will become the ATM machine you think they will.

Do you really think Tom Brady or Peyton Manning got to being elite quarterbacks by not doing the work? Do you really think they skipped steps?

Remember, 84% of all people who win the lottery are broke inside three years. Now ask yourself who you’d rather be;

Person A – who makes $1 million in a lottery

Person B – who built up a business over three years and made $1 million?

Who will be able to repeat that success, use their skills, experience, and be most likely to do it again? Obviously Person B, while Person A by contrast has no skills, information or experience working for them. Food 4 thought, but do not look for an easy way out. There is none.

7. In The Future, I will…

I cannot tell you how many students tell me, or my partner Aruna who does the ERT training program, that they will feel confident, relaxed, or happy when they become a successful trader. Why put your happiness on hold? Why make your mindset held captive to some unknown future? Why not feel confident, relaxed and happy now?

A good friend of mine recently shared this great quote and post which said the following;

Ego says “Once everything falls into place, I will find peace.” Spirit says, “Find Peace and everything will fall into place.”

8. Take Responsibility for Your Behavior

Would you expect to be capable of finishing a marathon without running, stretching, training, proper hydration and diet? Would you expect to build strength and muscles sitting in a chair all day? Of course not. What makes you think trading is different?

Don’t fill out your journal, evaluate your trades, train properly, build your trading skill set, or a successful trading mindset – then do not expect to become a successful trader. Be honest with yourself and take responsibility for your behavior.

9. Failure is a Part of All Successful Ventures

Failure is a part of the process – an element you have to befriend. If you make it mean something about you, then it will consume you and create negative trading habits. However if you learn from failures, you will grow from them. You have overcome challenges like this in the past. When those challenges were happening, at one point you didn’t think you could get around them. This situation is no different.

Remind yourself of the challenges you have overcome to get here, and what strengths you have. They will aid you in difficult times. Peter Vesterbacka – the creator of Angry Birds, had produced 51 games prior to creating Angry Birds, and virtually ended up in bankruptcy. It has done over $6B in sales over the last few years. Failure is a part of all successful ventures. Real confidence comes in overcoming obstacles, failures and challenges.

Forex Strategies, Trading Mindset & Risk Management

The Difference In Trading Between Passion & Being ‘Interested’

Many people come to the forex market with ideas of trading successfully, visions of traveling to postcard beaches, and having all the free time they want. But many do not make it and usually give up before getting to their pot of gold.
Week in-week out I hear from developing traders who say something like, “I really want to be a successful trader, but I’m not finding consistency in my trading. I’ve taken so many courses, read many books, traded so many hours, but I don’t know what I’m doing wrong.”
Anytime I hear this, I ask the following questions;
1) Do you have a trading plan?
2) Are you filling out your journal every day?
3) Do you have set trading times?
4) Do you have a pre-game mental routine where you prepare for your trading day?
5) Using proper Risk Management?
6) Are you filling out your performance journal regularly?
In about 8, maybe 9 out of 10 cases, I usually get the following response, “No, I haven’t been doing any of that.”
For the record, your’s truly has started several things that never culminated in any sort of success, growth or happiness. A great example would be going to the gym regularly 🙂
I definitely understand this experience many of you are going through.

Recently I read a blog article by James Clear where he talks about focus when you feel bored. He had asked a coach who trained thousands of Olympic athletes about what they do differently.
The coach responded, “it comes down to who can handle the boredom of training every day and doing the same lifts over and over and over again.”
James goes on to share his take on this:
I think many people get depressed when they lose focus or motivation because they think that successful people have some unstoppable passion and willpower that they seem to be missing. But that’s exactly the opposite of what this coach was saying.
Instead, he was saying that really successful people feel the same boredom and the same lack of motivation that everyone else feels. They don’t have some magic pill that makes them feel ready and inspired every day. But the difference is that the people who stick with their goals don’t let their emotions determine their actions.
First off, James makes a crucial point here how successful people stick with their goals, regardless of the emotions they experience. They do not let their emotions dictate their work, practice, and training.
One of my students shared a great video of Floyd Mayweather Jr., and you can see the resilience in his mindset. He is a winner and sees his training, practice and work to the end.
Imagine if regardless of the successes or failures in trading, of feeling confident or doubting yourself – that you still did the work, and filled out your journal day in day out. That you still kept your risk management tight, went to bed early so you could wake up on time. That you still prepared mentally and did all the steps regardless of the losses from yesterday?
What would this do to your trading mindset?

Imagine how your performance and mindset would change around trading. You would no longer be dependent upon the next win or loss to determine your level of confidence, skill, or how you felt about yourself. This would take you off the roller-coaster rides emotions carry you on.
In all aspects, you’d likely be a different trader, and have a different experience of trading. Food 4 thought.
One thing I do feel James misses, is his assessment on passion and motivation. Yes, successful people in all fields experience some sort of boredom at one point, and they keep working regardless of this boredom.
However, the reason why they stick with their training, work and discipline, comes from their passion and motivation for the process. The coach was saying they have an unstoppable passion – it’s unstoppable because in the face of boredom and the difficult emotions, they use this passion for the process to keep moving forward, to not skip the little details in trading. This is how they don’t let their emotions determine their actions, which is the link I think he misses.

Regardless, some insightful thoughts by James.
But this is the difference between being ‘passionate’ about trading, and being ‘interested’. This is what Kevin Spacey was talking about On Being Successful. Pay attention to where he talks about desire.
People who are passionate about trading will not skip the little details, will make the adjustments over time, will move towards being uncomfortable. They will not be deterred by their emotions, nor let these emotions define them, or their experience. At the end of their trading week, they will be reviewing the tape.
However, people who are ‘interested’, will work hard when it’s easy, but will skip the little things when it gets hard. They will pass over filling out the journal, will not maintain proper risk management, and will let their emotions define their experience. And they will rationalize not doing these things.
The key to being passionate is falling in love with the process, with the challenges you face, is moving towards the areas in trading which make you feel uncomfortable. One could venture to say it’s getting excited about those challenges, realizing what lies beyond that obstacle to your growth.

Going back to our student in the beginning, they weren’t doing any of those things. Turns out they were exhausted from their business, and were trading at random times throughout their day. I asked them how could someone be a good basketball player if they never do the drills, practice free throws, passing, shooting, blocking, etc. He knew the answer, and the same goes for trading.
After making the adjustments with his business and schedule, he was able to finish the month green – his first in many.
There is one crucial point about doing all this extra work and what it does for you mentally, however, I will share this in another article.
But find out where you are on on this scale between being ‘interested’ and being ‘passionate’. This will likely tell you why you are performing the way you are, and how much you are progressing.