Having been on Tradingview for the last few years, I’ve observed that perhaps ‘the most important’ aspect of trading is hardly ever discussed. I’m not sure why that its.

Look, this is a loser’s game. How? Read on.

Some key estimates:

1. 90% of traders will lose money consistently. .

2. 80% of trading success depends on managing individual psychology.

3. It is possible to be consistently profitable even with a 30% win rate.

I say that there is an invisible wall that affects many new and seasoned traders. How would I know? I’ve been there – and head-butted the wall!

The difficult aspects of trading:

1. Managing risk

2. Self-deception

3. Finding reasonable entry and exit points.

4. Being disciplined – staying disciplined.

5. Changing patterns of cognition

6. Changing patterns of behaviour.

7. Managing external influences.

8. Managing emotions.

Core trading skills to develop:

1. Finding trends early enough.

2. Calculating acceptable losses.

3. Exploiting trends.

4. Understanding when not to enter a trade.

How do new traders get conned?

1. They have ideas or beliefs that there is some magic formula or system of trading that will work to beat the markets.

2. They are influenced to join training programs, most of which deliver little or no strategies for coping with the difficulties.

3. They move from program to program spending on ‘hope’; losing as they go.

4. They spend on signalling services.

The difficulty is that many traders have a difficult time seeing their own psychology. Note – I’m not talking about psychology in general or the stuff you find in textbooks. So a trader could focus on all manner of trading methodology and still have a very big problem.

Dig deep fellow traders. The markets are their to punish you but also the markets are sound teachers.