The 2nd Characteristic of the Winning Trader

This is the second in a series entitled, ‘Six Characteristics of Winning Traders.’The second psychological characteristic common to all winning traders is an ABSOLUTE DEDICATION to their success.

The key is the word ‘absolute.’ This word is usually attributed to a power higher than that of humans because it means, ‘no exception – ever!’

It’s almost part of the definition of being human to make mistakes, to go back on our word and, for we traders, to make exceptions to our trading or portfolio rules whenever we’re under pressure.

Thus the word infers that we need some outside help, some intervention.

Could this be the reason that so few traders make it REALLY BIG?

Recall the Laws of Probability, slightly re-worded to read:
a. Each trade must be done in ABSOLUTE consistency
b. We must do an ABSOLUTELY huge number of trades
c. We must ABSOLUTELY keep our hands off a trade and allow it TIME for the laws to take effect

We traders have a big enemy when it comes to DEDICATING ourselves to our work: Distraction.

Distractions are of two types: Inner and outer. Outer are those that come from other people, from events and from things pulling at our time and energy. The inner ones are much more insidious because they come from within our own minds and emotions.

Another way of looking at distractions is that they come in the form of GOOD ideas and BAD ideas. The challenge is not to cut out the bad ideas. What distinguishes the winner trader from the crowd is the cutting out of GOOD ideas and placing them in the ‘delayed gratification’ bin.

That’s right. Ideas and thoughts that are GOOD must also be set aside because they’re not connected to trading! That’s the tough part as we truly give our work an ‘absolute dedication.’

Speaking of dedication, that’s another word for ‘commitment.’ I have mentioned before that to commit means to ‘lay down in front of.’ What it refers to is that we must lay down or give up any and all CONTROL over a person, thing or outcome of events (like a trade).

This trader, then, turns his back on many, many distractions, whether from within or without, even if they are, in themselves, good things, so as to FOCUS his complete time, talents and treasures toward mastering only ONE THING — BECOMING A SUCCESSFUL TRADER.

This is the characteristic we dedicated students of trading must choose.

Next, we’ll look at the next characteristic of the winning trader….