Over the last 10+ years I've seen thousands, and coached hundreds, of traders navigate the markets. And if you study option trader success long enough (and geek out about it as much as I do), then you'll quickly come to realize that success is nothing more than a persistent person with great habits and a clear mind.
I encourage you to take a close look at this list we present today and see what areas you might be able to improve on moving forward. Honestly, the perspective I get from running Option Alpha continues to be one of the driving forces for me to keep pushing forward on all fronts with this platform and community, because I can quickly learn and adapt what works and what doesn't to my own trading style by watching and listening to other people. My hope is that today's show does the same for you and helps encourage you to keep pushing forward!
Key Points from Today's Show:
- When it comes to successful and profitable traders, they have similar traits.
- Successful trading involves a lot of mindset shifts, and systematic trading strategies.
Profitable Trader Traits:
1. Never Stop Playing the Game
- Really good traders never stop playing the long game.
- They recognize the longevity that is required to be in the business.
- Their perspective is so long term that they are not phased by any short term movements in the markets.
- Understand that you become more and more successful the longer you stay involved.
- Every single trade that you make gets you one step closer to solidifying that positive expected return.
- You have to have your focus on staying in the game, staying active, and making more trades.
2. Never Let Setbacks Set You Back
- Really good traders and investors never let setbacks actually set them back.
- They recognize that setbacks are part of the system and the process.
- This creates a constant forward motion; the idea that when you fall, you get back up and at least you fall forward.
- Learn from your setbacks, recognize what happened, try to make a change, or just keep moving forward.
3. Seek Constant Improvement
- Great traders still seek out ways to improve their strategies, despite their high level of understanding.
- They recognize that you are never done learning, and you can always learn from someone else.
- Markets are constantly changing, so your education as a trader never truly ends.
4. Accept What You Can't change
- Successful traders have a philosophy where they realize that there are things you cannot change.
- Black swan events are unpredictable by their nature, so it is better to accept them than to try and predict them.
- The market moves are also unpredictable, which makes it essential to stick to your strategies.
5. Build Good Habits Versus Bad Habits
- Habits can be either good or bad; your mind has no way of determining whether it is a good or bad habit.
- Your mind is programmed to reduce its own strain, so it builds habits and routines.
- You literally have to force your mind and body into the right habits long enough until they become routine.
- It takes a lot of cognitive effort to rewire and reprocess your habits.
- As a trader, you have got to build good habits so you can rely on them to do the right thing.
6. Recognize the Importance of Systems
- Good traders recognize the importance of having a system in place; that there is a reaction to every action that happens.
- Systems create a lot of efficiencies, at the risk of being perfect.
- Where systems fail is that they don't allow you to be absolutely, emphatically perfect.
- However, when you need those systems they have to be there and ready to function and move with the market.
Auto-Trading Software:
- The auto-trading software goes hand-in-hand with setting up a system for trading.
- With auto-trading software, the goal has always been to remove our own emotion from the market and make ourselves more systematic and much faster.
- The software allows you to build out your own trading system, all within one complete auto-trading bot.
- This bot can then be shared with others in the community.
