A Simple Mindset Hack That Will Make You a Better Trader Almost Instantly
What if I told you that you could become a significantly better trader starting next week? Well, you can, and it’s totally within your control. All you must do is decide to change how you currently think about trading and change how you are currently behaving in the market. If you aren’t happy with your trading results right now, it’s time to change something, wouldn’t you agree?
One of the most common reasons that traders never make it to the top of the trading ‘mountain’, is that they get stuck in an insane cycle of placing trades, obsessively watching the price of the instruments they’re trading as it moves up and down, and fiddling with the trade while it’s live, typically by exiting too early or too late.
These traders instinctively know their position sizes are far too big. Trading too big of size causes most people to become addicted to the ups and downs of the market; they can’t stop thinking about a trade until they are out of that trade. Have you ever caught yourself frantically checking your phone or computer throughout the day, waking up in the middle of the night thinking about a trade and feeling like you ‘need’ to check the profit / loss?
This destructive behavior quickly becomes a VERY serious lifestyle problem that will ultimately lead to a trader’s financial and mental demise.
Why do traders fall into this destructive mental loop?
So, why do so many traders seem to fall into this destructive mental loop of worrying too much about their trades? There are three main reasons for it:
- Trading a position size that is too large, which makes the trader overly-worried about losing the money they have risked (that they can’t afford to lose).
- Many people start trading without having obtained the skills or mindset of a professional trader, so they end up acting like a gambler in the market, going all in at a ‘casino table’. Subconsciously, many traders are simply trading for entertainment (gambling) and have not yet learned to treat trading like a business.
- Trading addiction – many traders are skilled chart technicians, but they simply become bored in life and they end up watching the screens all day (and night) for entertainment and because their brains are addicted to the rush of dopamine that gets released every time they enter a trade.
As any regular reader of my posts will know, I often say that the goal of a trader should be to place a trade and not think about it obsessively. Set the trade, walk away and forget about it (set and forget trading approach), let the market do its thing. You are in the market to take advantage of price movement, so stop interfering with the movement. All you can do is pre-define your trading plan and execute it properly, but once you enter the trade your job and involvement should typically be done; watching the charts won’t help a damn thing!
4 Solutions to Cure You of This Doomed Mindset and Behavior…
If you listen to the following four points and implement them, I promise it will turn your trading around completely…
- Trade a position size that matches your trading ability and knowledge
Too often, beginning traders ‘bet the farm’ right out of the gate, quickly losing a lot of money to the market. This is a gigantic error that you need to fix or prevent before it’s too late.
I want you to be realistic with yourself; if you have only been trading for 6 months or a year, you don’t know it all yet and you should only be risking tiny amounts relative to your overall risk capital pool and net worth. Until you’re a professional trader and you don’t need to read lessons like this you’re technically still a novice, so be humble and remind yourself that a novice has no place walking out into the market and pretending they have the skill level to bet 20% of their account on one trade.
I will never understand why some people jump into the market with a 5 or 10K account and start risking $200 per trade just because some book or blog says “hey, risk 2% of your account” or whatever, it’s ridiculous. If you want to survive long enough to become a profitable trader, you must allow enough time to experience the ups and downs of trading (that will teach you real live lessons). If you want to live another day in the market, you must preserve your bankroll by making sure you only trade a position size that you can tolerate given your trading ability and mental state. Protect your bankroll and play good defense, always.
- Trade a position size that lets you sleep soundly at night
Forget about what people say about risking a certain percentage or dollar amount per trade and forget about how much money you have in your account; the only thing that matters is what you know is a comfortable amount to have at risk on any one trade… know your limits and be at peace with an amount you can go to bed at night and lose.
You need to trade a position size that you can mentally tolerate to the point where you can go to sleep at a normal time and not lay awake thinking about your trade(s).
You do this by first figuring out your real risk number – be serious and honest with yourself about this. What is your income? What is your debt? What is your overall net worth? Do the math and come up with a figure you know you can risk comfortably on one trade and live with if you lose. The best way I have found over many, many years in the markets is still a simple ‘sleep test’. If you can fall asleep as you normally do and stay asleep and not wake up thinking about your trades, you have risked an acceptable amount for YOU (this will be different for each trader).
Remember, you need to start somewhere and if you can’t make money on a smaller position size, how will you ever make money on a larger position size? The market will always be there, so get rid of any notion of ‘urgency’ or FOMO (fear of missing out) – it’s all in your head, and if you don’t control it, it will control you.
- A regime to re-build trading confidence
If you’ve fallen off the wagon regarding your trading discipline and consistency, I can get you back on it, just do something like the following…
The most important thing is to work on rebuilding your self-confidence in your trading. You need to eliminate doubt and fear from the equation, which can be a hard thing to do if you’ve gone off on an addiction-fueled trading excursion and lost a lot of money in the process.
You will need to ‘exercise’ your brain and condition it properly so that you develop the right habits and routine, this will simultaneously boost your confidence in your ability to execute your trading edge.
For example: you can try setting up 20 trades in a row with a 100% set and forget mentality. Risk a smaller size than you were before and aim for 1 to 1 risk / reward on each trade. Remember this is an exercise to train your brain to place a trade, believe in the trade, walk away and let the market do its thing. You are working on letting go and being less-involved with your trades. You set a goal of doing this for 20 straight trades and you should see wins and this should build your confidence back up and program your brain properly – so that you see the value in doing nothing.
- The best distraction
In the opening, I discussed the need for distraction and that many traders simply become bored (even good traders) and this results in trading addiction. The way you prevent this is by distractions. These distractions can take the form of many things; hobbies, family time, vacations, etc. But, perhaps the best distraction will be an unquenchable thirst for knowledge and trading skill development. Ideally, you should combine all the above. You want to find things to occupy your time, so the hours go faster so that you don’t even have time to check your trades or worry about the money you’re risking. Be productive! Sitting in front of your charts watching the markets tick by tick is NOT producing anything except poor trading results and a ton of unnecessary stress.
Conclusion
The point of today’s lesson is essentially that you need to change the way you think about trading. The simple mindset ‘hack’ I alluded to in the title is that if you want to succeed at trading, you must be realistic and stop trying to get rich fast. Trading can offer you the world, but the more you feel you ‘need’ it to work, the less likely you are to succeed. When people start feeling desperate or like they ‘need’ to make money in the market, they start doing all kinds of things that lead to their failure. They start trading too big of position sizes for their accounts and skill level, they start trading too much, and they just turn into trading addicts. Be realistic, be honest with yourself and start small and slow and work your way up as you learn, build confidence and improve your abilities.
If you apply the ideas put forward in this article dramatically reducing position size (even if temporary) and commence the mindset re-training regime I put forward above, then over time it’s going to become fair easier to look at a chart, spot a signal and pull the trigger with a stress-free and confident mindset. This is where you want to be, it’s where I am and it’s where you can be with true dedication and discipline. You may not make $1 million in the next year, but you will certainly be acting and thinking like the top 1% of traders, and that’s a great place to be, the world is then your oyster and you can build upon that foundation. Aim for one win at a time and don’t become mentally attached to your trades (be ok whether they win or lose). Get to a point where you can execute trades confidently and leave the trade alone. You need to get these things right because they are the real ‘keys’ to trading success, 16+ years trading and almost 10 years teaching traders has proven to me this is a fact.
Now I Would Really Love To Hear What You Thought Of This Lesson ? Please Leave Your Comments & Feedback Below …
If You Have Any Questions, Please Email Me Here.
Thanks Nial, i also changed my results after minimizing pososition sizing.
Position size relative to account size will help one have sound sleep.Thanks Fuller for reminding us on small position size to absorb market draw downs.
Remarkable lesson!
Thank you for the great information on how to be a great trader position sizing, distractors, etc.
I have gone through almost everything stated in this article. Although I have received technical and mindset training, until you open that live account with your own funds, you have no idea as to how your emotions will take hold. Its extremely difficult, and you are so right!
great article,keep them rolling
Great info. Thanks Nial
Nial Fullet God Bless you sir.
Eye opening.thanks.
Mr. Nial! I have read once again this article, super! it is possible to re-read several times! thanks
Mr. Nial! article is remarkable, just for me the beginner, thank you
A very great article but all in all lets protect the capital so that tomorrow we still be in the markert.
great explanations..change my trading styles
good
Great info
Thanks for the info …. great for newbie traders
Thank you Nial
What do you mean by end of day charts ?
Best trainer I couldnt of done it with out you ! Now I have tweaked my method to always win ( thank you nial ) I found all the mind hacks and have joined the feasting lol !
all true
Well said
You are right about trading independently. Your loss n gains should come from ur own analysis provided you have a successful strategy already. Be a private speculator and independent trader
This is a sedative article…
I just can say thank you Nial…
Great article. Thank you for sharing. I can so relate to everything you discuss right this minute. Definitely adopting these steps today! Thank you. …
Nial, i agree with set and go away. I trade only the daily time frames but i must watch the 4hour and 15 minute charts if there is a country attack within 4 hours to have bigger winning percentage. My entry”s are fxcking good but the first 4 hours is important. Do you experience the same
All true Nial and the only way to trade. 17 years in the market have taught me that but I learned the hard way. End of day charts are the only way to go.
too true
Great article, Nial, thanks – it feels good to start on your ” mindset re-training regime”, like building a new, rock-solid foundation to a more successful trading.
Your article is nothing but the truth.
Great teacher.may God b less you
Very useful piece of article
very enlightening and admonishig, your sincere love to truely help amatuer traders to get better really distinguishes you from the rest out there.Thanks a lot
Great word. always seems to be talking about me. love it. God bless you brother Nail
Nice piece Nial… Well Said. Ive been building up on a strategy for the past six months; taking notes and reviewing them later. It was really nice. I had started to make money. Actually by December 6 I was at 256%/month, following my strategy…So, a friend came with his analysis and convinced me to trade. I shifted to day trading (spent a week watching charts; sadly) and soon lost everything I had made… Im now closing the month at -27% #I say, seek an independent mind or trading style, coz we all have different expectations (and expect less, have less disappointments) *again thanks Nial for the post… now I know I am not the only one in this difficult journey… hahaha
Salut Nial. “Cest genial”. Wow!!! You speak as if you have been in mind or seen the way I trade. An outstanding mind-and-soul nourishing article
Getting us into right thinking is good for the year 2018.
Nice article that describe the phase that I am in now..addicted with intraday trading almost like an entertainment to kill time. Some people may daytrade just to acquire the skills and to shorten the learning curve because the more mistake one make the faster one learn . As for me I have not tried trading the daily time frame yet ….but I will give it a try next year in 2018 ….a big step for a very small account holder…..best wishes to the dedicated mentor who wants to see us succeed …sometimes I think more than we do. Merry Xmas to you Mr Fuller and have a jolly good time.
Thank you, Nial and team.
exactly on point thanks for the article some of us we need to be told by proffesionals in order to change our behaviour
This was really helpful. Thank you for sharing your knowledge
Thank you very much.
How best do we acknowledge your daily assistance in trading forex, you are a wonderful person to humanity. Thank you and remain blessed
Nial, I am not yet a part of your training but I have proven the things you talk about and you are so correct. L. Dunbar. Jamaica
KISS advice from a real pro, thank you, Nial. Happy Holiday to you and yours.
Great advice sir
Great to learn this strategy from you these my early days in trading: 1. that I can’t force money from the market; 2. that if I want to force money from the market today, I may not see that money even tomorrow; 3. that if I relax to get the money in trickles, I will most likely live to make the 1% traders that make money again and again! What an intangible but highly valued Christmas present I’m getting from you! A million thanks Nial.
This are straight to point facts that can help a loosen trade to recoup. What a generous couch like you. May God bless you the more. Marcus
Excellent article and advice Niall! !! It took me the best part of 7 years to ACCEPT MAKING A LOSS on a trade BUT also ensuring that I let my profits run so that my wins (TP target) yielded at least 2x more (if not even bigger) than my SL. To emotionally “accept losses” the key was definitely to place smaller trades. Also because I use aggressive entry techniques I found it best, specifically for MY STYLE of trading, to go in with LIMIT ORDERS. The combination of all of the aforementioned (sort of a confluence of factors) completely turned by trading results around. Thanks for all your excellent articles, training and trade tips.
Thanks Nial for your exclusive expert advice.
Could you please reply my question- How to tell in advance what next candle (trend) on Price Action is coming in? This is to prepare & take action accordingly.
Thanks.
Best Regards,
Altaf
Many thanks for the science !!!
Thats a very essential aspect of trading
A great reality check for us all. Merry Christmas Nial.
Excellent as always
Your training is slowly getting through the fog of the mind. I have tried this approach for the past 10 days. I had 3 trades on with relatively small positions and have been able to not worry about them as I normally would. This article reinforces the point perfectly. Thanks, Nial.
Thank you Nial, for sharing your wisdom.
Much appreciated
Hi Nial ,just the first paragraph says it all for me. i have struggled past months with watching my trades and basically not making any progess. Thanks for this it help me refocus
Hey Nial
thanks for this email it is very true.
Works like a charm once you shrink your position size, the stress shrinks with it and you can go about your day like a normal human being not stressing and preoccupied everytime someones trying to have a conversation with you.
Thanks again
Andrew
After months of struggling, i was able to make profit in two weeks after closely following your teachings. God bless you sir, this lesson is what every trader needs. happy holidays.
Well said
most interesting. Merry Christmas Nial
The important is not to make a Million, but to learn how to make the money consistently over the long period, otherwise, the Million you could make tomorrow, you could lose it the day after if you didnt learn how to regularly make money in the market before making it ! .. That is probably the most abstract thing to learn about trading, and thats why only the few get to think that it is worth learning and mastering ! …
I’m going to try that 20 trades and don’t look at them. I have a day job and I must admit that is a huge distraction for me. Before I had charts on my phone and I was checking charts every chance I get.
However I got stressed. Now I deleted trading from my mobile and it helps.
Excellent article as always.
I like your article, it makes sense and you have to be at a stage where you can mentally control your trade. excellent article
So which timeframe you suggest, a Weekly Charts, Daily Charts, 4 Hour Charts, or a 60 minutes Charts ?
I really needed that, Thank you and happy holidays Nial!