Many times traders enter the business because they lost a job, are looking to supplement income or think that trading is an easy way to make money. Don Dawson discusses the business of trading and provides a list of questions a good trader should ask.Being Honest With Yourself
DON DAWSON
SEPTEMBER 2009 / VOL. 5 ISSUE 9
Many times people come into trading because they lost a job, are looking to supplement
income or think that trading is an easy way to make money. Trading is much like any other business in the sense that you get back what you put into it. I feel that those who come into trading treating it
as a part-time job will struggle. In a business that has an approximate 90% failure rate in the first 6 months, you must work very hard to survive. If you decide to take this on as a part-time career, just be prepared to work as hard or harder than you would a full-time job. This is no place for slacking or taking for granted attitudes.
With that said, trading does not have as bad of a track record as it sounds compared to other worthwhile endeavors. Think about this – how many people try out for a professional sports team and actually make it to the pros? My bet is somewhere around 5% to 6%, if
the number is that high.
I bet we all know someone who went to many years of school to become a doctor, lawyer, engineer, accountant, etc., and ended up quitting because the career was more demanding than they thought. As you can see, these careers parallel trading pretty closely.
Trading, like other professional jobs, requires dedication and diligence to achieve a high level of success. Many traders fail due to inexperience. They have thrown their hard-earned money into the wind thinking this was going to be some kind of get-rich-quick scheme. I like to tell my classes, “This will be the hardest easy money you will ever make.”
The trading community is made up of all types of traders from many different backgrounds. We each bring our own unique skills to the marketplace. Since the writing of the book Market Wizards, there has been a great deal of interest in the traits of winning traders. I will discuss some of these traits later in this article.
Let’s review the questions from the students and give some answers.
“How do I know I will be a good trader?”
- A student commented that he had come from the construction industry and could tell if a person was cut out for that type of work within a week. Trading is such a unique type of career. Short of a physical or financial limitation, it is very difficult to tell if a trader will make it or not. Each of us will learn at a different pace. The other part of the equation is that people measure success in different degrees.
My experience from being around traders, both losing and winning, has shown me a few things that help with the decision of becoming a trader:
• People that learn trading from the ground up seemto have an edge over the people who jump into the markets with both feet without taking time to educate themselves or to understand the markets they are trading.
• These individuals also learn to think in terms ofprobabilities. When there is a loss they know it
is part of the trading business and their self-confidence is not shaken.
• They have studied the markets and found or put together a strategy that is tailor-made for them.
They do not take somebody else’s style of trading and try to make it work for them. Each of us has
our own risk and reward objectives. If we try and incorporate somebody else’s style, we will not be
comfortable and will not use the strategy consistently as it was intended.
• Good traders tend to be more flexible than bad traders. You will have difficulty if you come from a background where everything is black and white and try to apply these same characteristics to trading.
• People who think for themselves without havinginput from someone else when making a decision also tend to do better in trading.
• Have patience before you start trading. There is nohurry to get started. Get your education, study the markets, learn or design a strategy, learn about your strengths and weaknesses and paper trade or start with small position size until you are comfortable.
“When does one say enough is enough and quit?”
The learning curve for trading has been made much easier with Internet research, education on the markets, online trading, publications and networking with fellow traders. My general rule of thumb is 18 to 24 months on average – remember everybody learns at a different pace. After this period, you need to sit down and ask yourself some questions about your trading career.
• Have I gone through the process of learning the markets I trade and created a trading plan to follow
each day I trade?
• Do I follow my trading plan regardless of what the market is doing?
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When I place a trade am I allowing the trade to go to my exit points (stops or targets) without getting out too early?
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Have I truly accepted thefact that trading is a probability business and that two or three losing trades should not affect my self-confidence?
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Looking back over the last two years, has trading affected my personal life in a negative way?
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Do I have to abuse any substance(s) to cope with the stress of my trading?
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Is my money management plan being followed strictly?
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When I have a losing trade, do I have the patience to wait for my next set-up or do I force a trade
looking to get my lost money back?
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Do I still have the same strong passion for tradingI had when I started?
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When I started my trading business, I also created a business plan to help guide me through my career.
• Am I on course with in my business plan?
These are some of the questions that need to be asked and answered honestly. Like any other business, trading is not for everyone. Just like everyone who works for GM will not become the CEO of the company, every trader will not be successful or become a millionaire. And you know what? That is perfectly fine.
The important point is that it is no big deal, if you give it a try and find it does not work out.
Perhaps trading is not your calling. Do not take it as a personal failure. Also, do not give up on working in the financial industry. There are other jobs available that you may well be qualified for now that you have some trading experience. For example, maybe trading is not your calling, but perhaps becoming a market analyst and giving recommendations is. You will be surprised at the number of people who could not trade but can give the best trading advice in the
world.
Even the sales side in the financial industry is lucrative and with trading experience, you will be able
to relate to the end users and be more valuable to your employer.
Most of us are not quitters. Which could be good or bad?
This is a good point. As I mentioned earlier about coming into trading with a black and white background, there are some other attitudes that can be detrimental to your financial health. Ego is one of them. There is no place in the markets for ego. Ego has ruined more lives, families, trading accounts and worse. Ego will make you exit your winners early to get the good feeling that it was right and make you stay in losses way beyond your original exit point because it does
not like to lose. If you have ego issues, you will have a harder time knowing when to quit trading if you are faced with that decision.
On the other side of not being able to quit are the people who are afraid to trade because they do not
want to lose. These people end up walking through life in their sleep because they cannot pull the trigger.
Under trading is almost as bad as over trading. If you are not comfortable trading, keep your money in the bank where it is safe. Again, there is nothing wrong with this. You just do not need to be trading for a living.
At the end of your first two years of trading, you should ask yourself these questions and decide whether trading is really for you.
“What kind of person makes a good trader and what makes a bad trader?”
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A good trader needs to stay focused while heis trading. This means that if you cannot finish reading this sentence without looking out the window and saying “Oh look, a kitty,” you may be distracted a little too easily to be a good trader.
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You must be good at following rules, especially ifyou wrote the rules. If you have report cards from your second grade teacher saying you had issues with following rules, you may have a little difficulty in trading.
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Being able to survive the isolation of trading is veryimportant. This is not like an office environment where you have a cubicle buddy to share jokes with during the day. This isolation has to be dealt with or you could fall victim to placing trades because you are bored. When you are in your office alone, you may become more easily distracted. You may start to chat with friends on IM or start taking calls during the trading day. Ask any trader who has done this for a while and they will tell you of the traps you can fall into by being alone all day.
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Good traders know that the markets are forever changing and the only way to capitalize on this is to keep up with the markets they are trading as they change. This is certainly a career where continuing education is a must. This simply means do not come into trading thinking there is some kind of pinnacle you need to reach and then you can rest. Trading is more about the journey than the
destination.
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I will repeat the important fact that traders really need to understand that the markets are a probability business. Some people think trading will be easy just because they have a positive attitude. That works well when the trades are winners. After a string of losses, your self-confidence can start to waver. This can lead to all kinds of problems, such as straying from your trading plan, trading on emotion, picking and choosing your trades instead of taking them as your strategy says – this is how you begin to pick the losers and let the winners go.
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Another very important asset for a good traderis having a passion for trading. Passion is necessary to survive the ups and downs of this business. Without it, you will give up very quickly.
In summary, trading is a tough business. Just because you have acquired some funds for your account does not make you qualified to trade for a living. Spend some money on education before you trade.
The tuition you will pay if you try to learn after you start is a lot higher. Keep in mind that you must endure to succeed in this business. If you commit to learning how to trade and you allow yourself the time to absorb all the markets have to offer you in education, you will have a much better success rate. Remember, this is not a get-rich-quick scheme, but it can be a get-richslowly strategy if you follow all the rules.
Don Dawson has been trading the futures markets for 20
years. His perseverance through the ups and downs of trading,
openness to experience of others, balanced tolerance for risk
and patience to wait for his setups are a few of his strengths
as a trader.
Don obtained his Series 3 license in 1990. Soon afterward, he
registered as a Commodity Trading Advisor with the National
Futures Association and formed his company Majestic Futures.
He has been a guest speaker on Technical Analysis at Johns
Hopkins University and a guest speaker on Business of Trading
Radio Show in Washington, D.C.
He continues to actively trade his personal account on a daily
basis when not teaching for Online Trading Academy. His
teaching method has been referred to as “down to earth”. He
understands the students need for a structured environment
in the early stages of their trading education. He uses humor
to convey information in an accessible way
