What was the ***last*** thing you had to master before becoming profitable? Inner demons. The learning curve is steep, but not unmanageable. But then you get into the psyche. So many years... I'm not sure I would do it again, quite honestly.
Interesting. Actually, I am now really enjoying trading even more. The "technical" side now looked like a picnic compared to the psychology/"spirituality". But the psychology just makes me realise how much I can do that I never realised.
I look at in the same way. The earlier comment on "inner demons" was a good one, because trading will reveal them, and right quick. And we all have them. But honestly ... I'm appreciative for what trading has done for me as a person. Trading profitably, means for me, that in many ways I have improved as a person.
I'm enjoying it as well. Mainly because I've grown up and accepted who i am. I am able to allow success to happen rather than constantly fighting with myself and trying to make every trade profitable. Now I'm able to let profit targets get hit, and let small gains turn into a stopped out trade without it really bothering me. I think i was trying to be a rock star and trying to impress others way too much while trying to make up for past mistakes. Really quite childish, actually. Now i can just be me and go with the flow with a couple of strategies which fit my personality, while accepting the random distribution of wins and losses. I guess i would do it again. Mainly because of how much I've learned about my self. But god, what a long long road. And I'm still on it. It just keeps getting a little straighter and a little less rough year after year.
This is really a good trading outcome. I have to say that in trading, everything comes out. the "what a long road" is not finished yet
I think, for many, there is no such "the last thing" to master before becoming a profitable trader because most failed traders were already wrong in the first place such as putting their expectations too high. anyway still enjoyed this thread discussion by ignoring the word "last".
Yoda was the last thing I had to master. I was not one of those traders who has trouble getting out of a trade--I had trouble getting in. Learning to plan the trade was important. But learning to trade the plan was crucial. I put Yoda up on my screen saver and on a refrigerator magnet: DO, OR DO NOT. THERE IS NO 'TRY.' IOW, trade what you said you were going to trade--what you know will work--whether you feel good about it or not. So often the trades that seem scariest (but fulfill my criteria) work out the best.
I'm sure I've posted on this thread before. Whatever I said, I was wrong. The last thing I learned before becoming successful did not happen a year ago when I likely posted whatever I thought it was... The last thing I learned before becoming successful was a positive explanatory style and it has been changing ALL areas of my life including trading, my job, marriage, hobbies, new careers, business ventures, friendships, and more. I'll say it again..."A positive explanatory style." It's seriously the holy grail of psychology for trading and I found it in a book that has nothing to do with trading called "Learned Optimism" by Martin Seligman Ph.D. If you really knew how much the skill of learned optimism could change your whole life, it would be the only skill you try to learn for the next 3 months. Allow me to summarize... Basically, how you explain good and bad events to yourself determines your actions. Certain actions are not possible when preceded by negative explanations of bad events. For example, a swing trader place a trade expecting to be in for two or three days. 10 minutes later he's out. It' lost. Twenty minutes later, he place another trade attempting to catch the same move and it loses. Half an hour later, he place another trade, once again, trying to catch the same move. I feel most traders would not have even taken the second trade attempt, let alone the third, due to a negative internal explanation of what happened during the first one and what that means about themselves and their chances of being successful long term. But I became able to do that by first learning how to explain bad and good events to myself in a way that energizes my positive actions and limits fear and hesitation. Number 1 complaint among failing traders "can't follow my system." Right? So it makes sense that this would be the last skill I would learn before becoming successful. Anyway, I would strongly endorse that book because of that one skill I learned that empowered me to execute my system with joy regardless of the outcome instead of dread and fear which grow with a bad outcome.
In fact it is quire relative term - last thing before becoming profitable. There is no true traders who get salary from forex, profits there wavers substancially. When you explore something new that put you on some dependable level of return you believe it is a new start, but after immediate losses you understand that your search for the "last thing" need to be started from a scratch.