This November I have completed 6th year as full time trader. Had my own ups and down in this transformation from corporate life to a full time trader. Would like to share some insights which helped/helping me in these years.
Enough is discussed about capital, risk, psychology, trade management, discipline, trading systems etc. These are all basics and one should first get them right before moving further. So not going to discuss about it. Let me try to discuss about things which are less spoken. Mostly about habits and routine to manage ourselves better. Am not saying these are must but just sharing what I feel right as it helped me to steer things clearly in these 5years.
Dig deeper not wider. This is information age and tonnes of info flowing every time. It all looks great to bookmark everything but you will end up reading nothing later. Some times all looks garbage and you will miss some real gem. Better way to handle this is, choose a topic, fix a dead line and dig deeper on that till you get a grip let it be a week or a month. Search web, forums, read books only on that topic and ignore all other stuff for time being till you get a better grip on that topic. This is how I learnt most of my stuff. Lets say, If I want to learn interpreting FII stats then I track all info related to it, ask queries to who are good in that. Till I get some idea on this topic, will ignore all other stuff. This applies to smaller time frame too. Avoid distraction and focus on the job in hand is the right way to move to next step.
Record every learning. Let it be small observation from discussions or info from videos or books or anything. Make it as habit to copy and note them somewhere to refer later. My preference is always a hand written notes topic wise. Else use evernote kind of notes saver .And I used to refer them back quite often. Most of my setups/nuances finding are from such notes, then from observation in real time and refer back notes, fine tune then by finalising it. Without notes you tend to ignore observing them in real time is what I experienced.
Panic is one worst enemy. Never have a panic like world is moving and you are not making progress. What you see mostly as progress outside is mirage. One inch at a time let it be learning, earning or even in daily trades. Allow time for things to get in shape and move. There is always another day so don't rush anything due to panic. Do not focus on too many things which often triggers panic.Be calm and composed. Accept that progress should be slow and steady. Showing panic the doors and keeping company of patience in all areas is the way to move in the right direction.
Be wiser to decide as what to follow and what to ignore. Go behind content rather than flashy stuff. When you follow something for a long time let it be a system or person or anything, ask yourself “what you have gained following/spending time?”. Something has to be there for you to accept,implement and helps you to achieve something. Small or big but it should make some positive changes in you else there is no point going in that direction. Shut it down and never visit that back. We waste enough time without realising this just for the sake of that we are following it for a long time.
Go with your strength. Me not good at maths but good on creative/narrative. I tried to learn options but could not go beyond basics despite few attempts so left it for later stage. But my strength helped me to create many models with regard to SAR trading in my early stage of trading. I have back tested 100s of variation for SAR trading once and finalised one robust system. And I could pick up market profile easily just because I like narrations well. I found my soulmate there. So,go with your strength and dont fight hard on things which you cannot cope up easily despite few genuine attempts.
Avoid spending too steep. Do not spend a lot on anything to learn especially at early stage. Let it be software, training, data or whatever it is. Spend gradually. As time goes, you will come to know what is working for you and what is not working. Decide then to increase on spending.
Scared money will never stay. There should be reasonable commitment to be attached with the capital employed. If you put more pressure then it becomes scared money which gets vaporized quick.
Hard work-no alternative. Nothing is going to change in one day learning whatever best the source could be. Its our thirst to learn deeper and practicing further. Need to devise a process and be able to follow it day in and out. I started making daily trade plan on Sep’16..Till date am doing it without even missing a day. That process helped me to raise more questions and get answers. Simple process and it made whole shift in understanding market. So need to sweat a lot to learn, formalise things and then importantly to keep the process in flow.
Periodic evaluation. We used to follow some process or having a habit just for the sake of routine. Reevaluate everything periodically, it could be like some daily update of info in excel, or making some entries in journal, or browsing Twitter or whatever it could be. See if that is helping you in anyway to learn anything, to help in decision making or to improve. If no then modify it for betterment else just ditch it. Don't follow something just because you are doing that for years. Unlearning is the best way to remove burden to pick up next good thing..
Invest in yourself and take care of yourself. If body and mind not vibrant enough then it affects a lot in decision making in trading. Physical activities, healthy diet, meditation or just some idle personal time for 10mins a day, good sleeping habits etc. Keep yourself better every day.
Trading is just part of life. It should not take all your time. Keep some passion apart from trading and do spend enough time on that. That balance gets fresh ideas and thinking into trading and relieves lot of stress.
Never go all in and do in parts. It took me solid 2 years of full time trading just to understand what I should not do?. And still was/is in the process of doing good things and improving. So, it takes its own time hence always keep this in mind every time you refill your account.
Keep it simple. Last but not least, do not track too many things to make decisions. Keep things simple. All learning and experience should lead you to this only finally. But this simplicity is possible only after learning and unlearning a lot, doing lot of trail and errors. In the process its unavoidable to blow as many as accounts and waste few years. So best thing to cross this phase is invest small which is affordable at that time. Let me remind, after every phase you will get a feeling that you have arrived, which is not true. You will learn something, will start fresh but something out of blue would hit you. And pointer sets to zero and process repeats. This will happen many times.
Being trader especially full time trader is one of the toughest job on earth so before making that decision make sure you are ready for it.
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