What you need to succeed.....

Patience, planning, discipline, confidence, and being able to learn from your mistakes are some of the ideas that come to my mind when I conjure up images of highly successful people. These people may range from a famous chef on TV, a CEO of major tech firm, a blockbuster movie producers and in my opinion, even a trader. Why should the disciplined trader be excluded from being one of the best? Some believe that the odds are against you. That is because a trader is up against a different type of beast- that is the stock market. The stock market is a fluid, dynamic, ever-changing entity that does not discriminate + or - changes. In such a way, stocks can be up and down on market up days and also be up or down on market down days. Try to understand that unless you are included in some secret, elite circle of master traders and MM's and have access to advanced electronic market timing equipment and highly secretive insider info that would allow you to perfectly time specific stock moves, well then you are just like everyone else, like me, lol. And believe me, we all start at the bottom. We are all trying to figure out the markets next move. We are all wondering if that stock we picked the night before will be the one that is going to breakout on record volume and give us an awesome return. Sometimes we are successful with our timing and sometimes we are not. The important thing is to control your emotions and to not let a failed or bad trade negatively influence you and instill a negative bias. This will handicap you on other trades. It will make you possibly miss out on highly successful trades just because at the back of your mind, you are fearful that your new pick will end up like your previous pick and plummet 11%. The thing is, to remember and learn from your mistakes, but do not dwell on them. When I have a failed trade, I first stop and think of my situation. I try to think outside the box. I try to ask myself questions like "why did I initially by the stock", "what clues led me to believe it would break out?" then I would ask myself, "why has the stock fallen today?" "is there any news, volume, etc to support this downtrend?" then look for support levels. If you firmly believe that the stock is done for, then sell. Remember everyone takes a loss. You have to move on in order to find a better trade. The number one problem with traders is that they hold onto their losing trades too long and sell their winning trades too soon. Remember this and you will have a better chance to succeed.