Trading Success is a Journey, Not a Destination
Life, they say, is a journey, not a destination. The same can be said of trading. In fact, this old aphorism will help you understand how to become a successful trader, if you let it.
How often do you feel frustrated or even angry with your trading results? You made some money in the market, then you lost it all. The feeling that can wash over you when this happens is something no one else will understand unless it’s happened to them, it borders on despair.
What if I told you that you could avoid ever feeling this way as a result of your trading performance? What if I told you there is a way to eliminate the negative emotions and feelings that often cloud your mind as you trade?
The ‘key’ lies in a mental shift you need to make. You will need to become less fixated on money and profits and more fixated on the process, the game; the ultimate mental test we call trading…
The psychological ‘trap’ of trading
Here’s the ‘big secret’ of trading that no one is going to tell you about when you’re learning how to trade: You won’t make money in trading if you’re only involved in trading to make money.
Think of it as a mental ‘trap’ of sorts.
You have got to have genuine passion and interest in trading, in the process of it, the mental tests trading brings, everything. This is how you succeed long-term in anything in life, trading is no different.
If you don’t have this passion and interest in trading, you will fall into the trap of only focusing on money and profits, and this is simply not conducive to the proper trading mindset. Think about the following points to help you understand this better…
- When you are overly focused on making money in the market, you are much more likely to trade too much. Over-trading, is the direct cause of most account blow-outs. If you let greed and the ‘need to trade’ get the best of you, you will eventually just end up gambling in the market until you lose all your money.
- Focusing too much on profits and making money as a trader will also cause you to risk too much per trade. Risking too much on a trade is a quick-route to becoming overly-emotional. By risking more than you’re comfortable with losing on a trade, you’ll be far too attached to the trade to make rational decisions as the trade unfolds. In fact, you’ll probably be so attached to the trade that you’ll be glued to your trading screen, watching every little tick for and against your position, which will cause you to fiddle with your trade too much and mess it up, rather than just leaving the market alone and coming back a day later and checking on it, without interfering.
- When you remove your focus from money and profits, you have more mental time and energy to focus on the mechanics of trading, i.e., on becoming a good trader. Doesn’t it just make logical sense that to make money in the market you need to first become a good trader? Of course it does, you’re thinking to yourself right now. Yet, why do so few traders focus on actually becoming a good trader? It’s because they’re too focused on making money! They get so blinded and excited by profits and dollar signs $$$$$, that they forget to put in the necessary time and mental effort to learning and mastering a trading strategy and practicing good money management, which is ironically the only way to make those dollar signs gravitate into your trading account.
- Remember, as I said in the introduction; Trading is a journey, not a destination. What that basically means, is that to become a consistently profitable trader, you have to focus on the process of trading, not on making money. Once you really get interested in the process of trading and your goal switches from ‘making money’ to ‘becoming a good trader’, the money will start to accumulate as a result. Focusing too much on the ‘destination’ of ‘making money trading’, is simply going to develop all the wrong trading habits in you.
Professional traders are genuinely interested in trading
Professional traders view trading as a game, a challenge, something they love, the ultimate mental test of ‘them against the world’. Trading is something that about 90% of people cannot do successfully over time; a huge challenge to tackle with deep rewards. If this challenge does not excite you, does not make you passionate and interested in becoming a good trader, then trading is not for you.
Trading is definitely not a get rich quick scheme, despite what many beginners seem to think. If you eventually become a profitable trader, it’s because you are genuinely interested in the challenge of trading and you want to get good at it. The fact that doing so happens to make you money, and potentially a lot of money, is nice, but I am telling you that the mindset you need to get into in order to make that money, is one of not caring about the money, no matter how ‘weird’ that might sound to you, it’s true.
It really is no different than any other profession or specialized skill in the world. For example, in order to become a respected and successful surgeon, you do not just focus on the money a surgeon makes, obviously…everyone would agree with that. A surgeon must focus on the process, on the education and training of become a good surgeon, for years. Then, as a result of the interest and passion that he or she had which propelled them through all the necessary training, they eventually became a successful and respected surgeon. The process of becoming a successful trader is really no different at all…
You do not just become a successful trader because you ‘want to’. You become one because you’re interested and passionate about trading and you want to put in the necessary time and effort to developing your trading skills. The fact that doing so will make you a lot of money, needs to be an afterthought, not an all-consuming goal.
Your all-consuming goal as a trader, should be to become the best damn trader you can possibly become, if you genuinely do that, and ‘ignore’ the money and profits, the money and profits will ironically begin to become attracted to your trading account more and more over time.
To get started on the path to becoming the best trader you can be, checkout my trading course and traders community for more information.
thank you very much !!!
Thank you Nial, you always make my day each time I read your lesson on forx trading
Thank you Nial.
You are a great teacher.
Rosario
Los Angeles ,California
This is another insightful article.Keep the good work my Mentor.Thanks
Am David from Kenya.
Yu’re hitting the nail on the head. You are such a brilliant story teller and you’re going to be of benefit to so many traders.
Keep it up, pal!
I believe this article is the holy grail of forex trading. It is complemented by the biblical phrase “seek ye first the kingdom of God and all other things shall be added to you”. This truth can only come from someone who does not only wants to teach(to show how much he knows) but also genuinely cares for the welfare of the learners. I applaud you Neil for your honesty and selflessness, I believe I can pay u back by succeeding and sharing the story of my success which you occupy more than 70%. Thanks once again
hai sir,
very good alphorism.this is original trader life.thank you
hello nial, experience they say is the best teacher. I am really profiting from your experience,your article depicted a frequent obstacle with a genuine solution. Really appreciate your honesty.keep up the good work.
Thanks Nial, Really a good lesson
hi dear nial
very good article
Dear Fuller,
I must say that you are a genius! how I wish that every trader will understand and accept this message. In fact it takes a man of controversy like me to understand this lesson, truly, I am already thinking in this direction and now I am convinced that I am right.
thanks once again
Thanks Nial! Very helpful trading lesson.
Hi Niall
Thank you for this insightful post. And it’s so true. I was miserable when I only focused on making money and wanting to become rich overnight instantly. It was only when I started enjoying reading up on trading and trying to understand it that things changed! Since signing up with you I now don’t itch to trade any more. I finally understand trading is about quality not quantity, and the less time I spend in front of the screen, the bigger my chances of success are. I don’t think I can thank you enough for all your trading lessons and advice.
thanks for delighting my trading work nial
Nial you are amazing. I am saying a hearty thank you!!!!
Nial, this article is really helpful and insightful. tanks a lot
Hi Nial,
Just thinking to myself today how you have helped me with the psychology of trading when i saw the new post
I am getting better by the day..a new mental shift as taken place.
thanks
Another powerful insight. Thanks.
Hi Nial,
Nice to meet you. Just want to thank you for all your articles, market analyses posts.
In my traiding plan I have one important point – Check my entries with the Nial market analyses posts, and that is big confluence point for me to enter the trades. Every morning when analysing the market, checking your website is mandatory for me.
I’m from Tajikistan, Central Asia. Maybe you even don’t know this country. But just want to let you know that even in so far countries you have your followers.
Thanks a lot
Hi Nial
These posts on the psychology of trading are invaluable to me. No other group does this in the straight forward language that I can easily understand.
Namaste
Your articles shape me to the right side of trading. A thousand thanks !
Prof Nial
The simple and comprehensible way you communicate your trading principles and methodologies in writing is one rare quality that makes you unique. This article is very timely for me. Just few days ago, i amended my trading goal by eliminating every reference to money. This is to help to constantly redirect my energy and focus to ‘trading rightly’ rather than striving to make a certain percentage profit on my account balance within a time frame. I had to do this because i got some whipping last week while trying to get my account to a certain amount. I have realized that this is the only way forward.
Thanks for your perspective-changing articles. You are a worthy mentor.
Hi Nial
To be honest I have been so demoralised by 12 years of unsuccessfully trying to trade Forex through many different coaches and strategies that I don’t think I like trading anymore; even to the point of having an aversion to it.
Your strategies and successes have inspired me again and my love for the analysis and challenge is gradually coming back.
Thanks Mate. You’re the man!
Thanks Nail
Great points on this article
Dear Nial
Thanks for your insightful articles, it is what I was doing the opposite, merely calculating how long it will take to make the first million through trading!
I hope I get on the right track where the making money will be the by-product of my profession as a successful trader.
Thanks a lot
Hey Nial,
Great article, really makes you think about your trading and the reason your trading, what you should be thinking about is becoming an expert and mastering the process first as you say before the money.
Gary
Vancouver, BC Canada
Another excellent article Nial. Since I have really truly deeply taken on the information in your website and training package it has taken me 4 years to work through my own ‘mind’ having realised the problem lay between my ears. Price Action and Patience with a strategy/plan and journal are absolutely necessary to shift the mindset from recreational trader to treating trading as a business. Focusing on process and not the profit has been my epiphany moment and as you say the money does follow. You are an exceptional mentor and I thank you and wish you and everyone else out there continued success. Cheers Niall.
Thanks Nial this is something I have always thought about but have just now started putting into practice. I had an old School Teacher say one time “spend more time studying and the good grades will come to you. Spend more time trying to make the grade and less on the studying you will always fail. Its up to you to decide which one you want to do. All I can do is just give you the information that you need to study”.
As the saying goes “Dreams are butterflies, they elude you when you chase them. Better relax and let those dreams come to you naturally.”
Nice Article Nial.
I tell you what, some times i think, Nial is looking into my Trading mind set.
He allways come alone with the rigth articles at just the right time.
Such a Master.
Good on ya Nial Fuller.
I will go all the way, Technical is the true!
Hi Nial , your Articles are very good and gives me all the time a Visual-spatial on the market. you are Educate traders to become a real traders.
Good for you for sharing your knowledge and learning you give.
benny from israel
I love trading, thanks.
Comment on this article is only bringing woods into the forest.
Simply put PERFECT !
once again thank you for your teachings, I am learning a lot from you, I believe that with your esperiencia encimantos and I can be a great trader here in Brazil.