IF TRADING AND INVESTING IN THE FINANCIAL MARKET WERE A RACE, IT WOULD BE A MARATHON

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Have you heard the quote “trading is a marathon, not a sprint?” In this article we explain what it takes to become a successful forex, futures, and stock trader.

If trading were a race, it would be a marathon

Do you know what it takes to win the Ironman Triathlon? It takes way more than an immediate outburst of energy but a steady, consistent supply of it. In case you were wondering what Ironman Triathlon means, it is a contest that involves three activities: Swimming, biking, and running. Each contestant would have to run for about 42 kilometers, bike for 180 kilometers and swim for another 4 kilometers. To even stand a chance in winning in this type of competition, you need to be extremely fit both physically and mentally. You need to have incorporated the habit of right nutrition, exercise, and have the right mentor as well.

To win this race in the global trading arena, you need first to understand that it is a marathon then prepare accordingly and allow yourself to develop the right habits and skills over time.

Our online trading academy is not going to try to dissuade you from treating trading forex, futures, and stocks as a get rich quick scheme, which in all honesty it isn’t. You have to understand that without the right knowledge, attitude, and skill, there is no way for you to win at this trading race or even complete the race. The goal at our online trading academy is to give you well-defined actionable points that will equip and enable you to win the long race ahead.

Have you ever heard of the tale of the Tortoise and the Hare?

The proverbial race between the Tortoise and the Hare is a beautiful tale to pick trading lessons from, forex, futures, and stock traders that start all fast and excited are like the Hare. The Hare was only arrogant and overconfident; he then got lazy along the way. The Tortoise however continued on the same pace being steady and consistent with his pace. The Tortoise won the race because consistency will always beat initial excitement.

In trading forex, futures, and stocks, the steady and consistent player always wins. If you start too fast and too excited, you’ll make a lot of costly mistakes and bad decisions, which invariably burn your money and resources. The slow guy, however, takes his time and gradually he passes by the overly excited but careless guy.

Of course, you have most likely heard us say this before, but the fact is we want you to be successful, not just now but in the long term. You cannot just start trading and taking extremely high risks plus trading every single day – your mental and financial resources will burn out in no time. You’ll be out of the game extremely fast, probably even quicker than the Hare.

If you discover you get extremely anxious after entering a trade, it is probably a sign you shouldn’t have entered it anyway, and you are merely getting overconfident by thinking you can win any trade without proper analysis. You should be able to enter a trade and not worry about it because you know you have carefully examined it and you are ready for whatever outcome it brings.

Pace yourself to win

Consistently having the big picture in mind will prevent you from over thinking on each trade. Keeping in mind that the result that counts is your accumulated trade over a specific period, not a single trade.

Try not to put too much emphasis on a single trade by risking too much on just one trade. Risking too much on a single trade is extremely mentally exhausting, and you tend to start feeling a bit of desperation. This is not the way to pace yourself, and you pace yourself by giving yourself room to breathe and making only calculated risks.

Here are a few tips on how to pace yourself:

  • Learn and master the skill of Supply and Demand trading
  • Create a trading plan
  • Avoid overtrading and only trade when the market is giving you the right signals
  • Preserve your risk capital
  • Make a journal and trade log of your trades and learn from it
  • Develop trading rules and follow them through

How to become an expert at anything

It is common knowledge that it takes a considerable amount of time to master any skill at all. It takes consistency and hard work to be good at anything at all. There are specific details of what it takes to become an expert trader, and we want to help you understand that.

You have probably heard of the 10,000 hours rule, which states that you need at least 10,000 hours of practice before you become an expert at anything. A group of scientists has, however, proven that to be inaccurate, as the time per person will differ based on a variety of reasons and factors.

The fact, however, is that it takes a considerable amount of time to become an expert at any field at all. Take professionals like doctors, or lawyers or professors; for example, they dedicate quite a number of years to their field before they become experts that we admire. Money only starts coming in after they have dedicated several years to studying and have started their careers, plus they never stop learning.

Steps to becoming an expert forex, futures and stock trader

It would help if you made a crucial decision before you venture into trading the forex, futures, and stock market at all. Is this for the short-term, just for an experiment, or are you planning to build on this and stay for the long haul? The simple truth is preparing your mind for the journey ahead, gives you a better shot at excelling in it.

Prioritize your learning; don’t start paying attention to minute details that do not count for anything. Learn the important stuff, like your Supply and Demand trading strategy, and focus on them. When you waste time learning the unnecessary details, you miss out the time you should use to learn valuable and crucial things like how to read a chart right to left, Supply and Demand, the psychology of trade and even money management. Pay attention to these and ignore everything else.

Take your training phase seriously because it determines a lot in the long run. Typically, you would start with a demo account before trading with actual cash. Not taking the demo account seriously can be disastrous. At our online trading academy, we advise that our students use a demo account until they reached the first milestone of consistency and then switch live but start with tiny amounts. Trading with a small account will teach you a lot and will produce a better experience.

The fastest and most reliable method to learn anything is to get a mentor — someone who can put you through and check what steps you are taking. Our Online Trading Campus trading experts can provide you with such support. The structure at our online trading academy has been made to suit that type of relationship.

Don’t be scared of evaluation; you need to be open to having your ways checked. Be ready to unlearn and relearn continuously. To grow, you have to be open to constructive criticism because you have nothing to learn from a compliment, but corrections have the capacity to teach life lessons. At our online trading academy, our experts are open to train and teach you. They would help make sure you are on the right path and making the right decisions.

Education is essential, but for a lot of new forex, futures, and stock traders, the wrong or misinformed training is the end or downfall of their trading career. A lot of education out there is either wrongfully taught or intentionally misleading. Excellent and detailed education is essential and crucial. Trading and investing in the financial market is a skill that requires to be learned diligently, to avoid getting lost in the noise and losing money to other traders at an extremely high rate.

Good teachers are those themselves who have gone through the process and are experts who know what works and what doesn’t. Trading is extremely competitive, and the moment you enter a trade, there’s someone at the other end of the trade waiting to take your money. Trading is not a fun game; it is a business of probabilities and forecasting, to be able to read charts and follow principles and strategies through. A trade always has two sides to it, and the person who has better skill and training is likely to come out winning.

Many people come into trading by merely guessing what works and what doesn’t. It has proven the fact that these types of people quickly get awoken to the rude reality that things are not as they seem. Of course, they see a whole lot of folks fall into that trap, but they think, somehow it would be different for them.

Trading and investing in the forex, futures, and the stock market is hugely tempting with the false illusion of quick money that the media has successfully propagated.

The sad thing is the fact that anybody can easily decide to open a trading account, which is just similar to going to court to argue a criminal case because you watched “Suits.” If you have, however, decided to be a self-taught trader, you need to understand what you are getting yourself into and the sacrifices it entails.

Importance of training and planning

There is no winning or succeeding at anything without proper training and preparation. You will be deluding yourself if you think you can start trading without adequate experience or practice.

People who run a marathon or who compete in the Ironman competition train and plan for years before the competition. They pay attention to every detail going as deep as what they eat or wear.

The goal is to win long-term

It is very much possible to get beginner’s luck and make some cash quite early, but it will soon run out, and you will quickly be faced with reality. When you have a goal, the wise thing to do is to break it down into small actionable sizes. It makes it easy to track your progress and know what more you have to do.

So many well-known forex, futures, and stock traders built their wealth over time, not a short-time get-rich-quick scheme. Take, for example, Warren Buffett; this is a man that has made his net worth carefully over the years

Conclusion

The level of temptation associated with trading especially for a new trader when you fund your trading account for the first time is extremely high, and it takes an equally high level of self-discipline to overcome and stay on track. From our years of experience, we do know for a fact that deviating from the right path can be greatly disastrous to any trader at all.

Are you disciplined enough to do the right thing even when no one is cheering or welcoming? All successful traders are extraordinarily self-disciplined and willing to learn. You should develop working integrity, whether you are being cheered or not.

The live trading classes and courses at our online trading academy are directed towards making you better forex, futures, and stock trader. You definitely would not like to lose all your starting capital simply because of lack of preparation or proper training. You need an expert to tell you what to do and what not to do. Having a support system of people who are experts at what you are just starting is sincerely a blessing and an eye opener.

If you want to learn more about professional trading and investing across multiple asset classes such as forex, futures, and stocks, please sign up HERE for free at our online trading academy www.onlinetradingcampus.com and get access to a free three-hour introductory course.

Happy trading!


Author Bio: Bernd Skorupinski teaches the undiluted truth about trading and investing at Online Trading Campus and takes you through what it takes to be a consistently successful trader. His favorite moment as a trading mentor is the way peoples’ eyes light up with excitement and confidence when they understand how Supply and Demand trading strategy works and how it can help win in the trading arena. He believes in building core values and discipline that ensures his students do not succumb to the pressures and temptations of the market. He very much believes in following plans and strategy through. If you want to know more about the author Bernd Skorupinski please read HERE

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Why Online Trading Campus

Online Trading Campus is for individuals who want to excel in the profession of trading and investing in financial markets.
Our online trading academy provides a complete education and training experience focusing on all aspects of trading and covering almost all trading instruments. We cover the full spectrum of trading styles and asset classes from short-term trading, swing trading, long-term investing for stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), contract for difference (CFDs), cryptocurrency, futures, and forex.

www.onlinetradingcampus.com

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