This episode of MarketLife looks at some of the things that stand between beginning traders and success. What can you do to make your chances better? What are the challenges you are likely to face? What mistakes do most people make? Why do so many fail and, more importantly, what can you do to put the odds in your favor?
Why do you want to trade?
Some important initial choices:
- What markets will you trade?
- How frequently will you trade?
- How will you find trading opportunities? What methodologies will you use?
- What will your style be?
What do you need to give yourself the best chances of success?
- Realistic expectations
- How long will the learning curve be?
- What will it look like? (Hint: not a straight line!)
- How much will you make when you’ve “made it”?
- Time
- For growth 3-5 years
- For market activities
- For study and self improvement
- Sufficient money to learn
- You will lose while you are learning
- You can’t do this if you’re undercapitalized!
Continued next week…
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Enjoy the show:
Thanks for the super honest post. You are one of the very few who says it like it is.
Thank you!
Love the podcast and this episode specifically. The things mentioned in the podcast are really golden knowledge! I was too inspired by a couple of extraordinary success stories at first. At that time everything seemed very straightforward – just study some DVDs that those successful traders recommend and I’ll be ready to trade. Then, a few months later the reality hit – I learned how the success stories were exaggerated or simply lied about (though they did sound VERY legitimate when I first heard them!) Then the material I was studying began to fall apart as I continued to confirm that it has no edge. After going through all that, the real test began – being able to psychologically handle taking a look at your account bleeding money for months and months, and admitting to yourself that you are starting from the beginning again. This is exactly what you talk about in this episode! Not to make my story sound too depressing, I’ll say that it did make a turn in the right direction. Just being able to weed through all of the misinformation is a HUGE step forward in this endeavor.
Thank you Oleg,
Your story is one that most people learning to trade share… some of those missteps and mistakes will eventually just be steps on your path to success! Keep up the good work and I’m glad to hear you have turned in the right direction.
Thank you all for your kind words. If you are so inclined, a quick review here https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/adam-h-grimes-podcast/id976989624 would be very helpful as more people see rankings/reviews on iTunes!
Thank you.
After trading full time for just over a year I really relate to the ‘hero’s journey’ metaphor. This podcast and your work really (in general) helps me to marshal my inner reserves and to continue the quest. Thank you Adam.
Hi Adam: I could not find a way to comment on the most recent podcast, hence putting my comment here. In many of your writings as well as the most recent podcast, you have mentioned looking at charts prior to going to bed. Given that the stock market closes much earlier in the evening, can you please elaborate on some of the benefits and what is happening if we look at charts before going to bed? Thank you and have a good rest of the weekend,