study the following subjects https://www.elitetrader.com/et/threads/dunning-kruger-traders.303402/#post-4341650 https://www.elitetrader.com/et/threads/winners-versus-losers.303364/ https://www.elitetrader.com/et/thre...-processing-information-about-a-trade.303149/ https://www.elitetrader.com/et/threads/traders-trade-emotions-they-dont-trade-methods.303238/ https://www.elitetrader.com/et/threads/trading-with-emotional-intelligence-than-emotionless.299723/ study stress responses , dealing with uncertainty ,the need to be right https://www.google.co.uk/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=stress+responses https://www.google.co.uk/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=the need to be right
Doesn't feel like sleeping on the beach for me, it feels more like a workout to me. But that's because I like to rush through the 25+ charts and get everything done in an hour. I'm not a day-trader and many times there's no action that I have confidence trading. I love taking advantage of imbalances and vulnerabilities, it has the highest success rate. Most traders lose because their goal isn't to make money, it's to make at least X amount of money or as close to X amount of money as possible. Sometimes X amount isn't a realistic or reliable goal.
Well great trading is and should be boring all about repeating your setup "X" amount of times to achieve your profit factor, but of course getting there is the hard part. You need reasonable capital, stress free environment, proper indicators (and knowing how to use them), or understanding of price action and how to read it. Could go on and on, I think that's where so many people fail, they never get past the hurdle to even have a chance of the boring part.
For a trader to be successful long-term, they must trade for a long time. That statement might seem like “theatre of the obvious”, but the best way to last for a long time as a trader is to avoid the excessive danger that comes with massive boosts in your adrenaline. The emotional ups and downs that the gambling-style trader experiences, only fosters negative trading habits. Irrational behavior such as “I need to get my money back from the market”, ( as if the market bogeyman took money from the traders account rather than the trader losing it to another faceless, but complicity market participant) starts to permeate the trader’s their behavior, their mind and subsequently their behavior. When that happens, both trading losses and trading wins become bad. The losses being bad is obvious, but gains made on bad behavior may actually be worse, because it encourages the behavior that leads you account to eventual ruin.
Another reason traders fail is because human psychology makes trading difficult. We need to think more systematically to improve our chances at success.
Main reason most traders fail because they stubbornly get involved in too efficient markets like the ES futures S and forex that were designed to benefit market makers. Michael Harris has detailed analysis in Chapter 4 (if I recall correctly) of his book <Fooled By Technical Analysis> that shows this. Traders must find markets that can provide expectancy to cover market maker demand for profits. Otherwise no chance to gain anything but lose.
That's interesting, I find ES futures one of the most efficient things to trade due to the stability and has the least amount of divergence from repeatable patterns, than anything else I've seen.