When Trading Rules Become Habits A Funny Thing Can Happen!
When I say “it clicked” I might sound like I’m telling a love story and to be honest, it is kind of comparable to our human relationships. In this case, it’s a love story about the relationship between man and trading. When you do the right things, put yourself in the right places and follow the trading lifestyle out of habit sooner or later “it”finally clicks. In the beginning, when you start trading, it’s just trial and error, browsing through strategies that won’t work, looking for the ones that do.
You know that feeling you get when you meet someone you think you like and spend precious time together only to find out you can’t stand them? But by the time you do, you already have three kids together and breakup 5 years later and you have to get a lawy… uhm, wait… I mean, then you take three losing trades, find out the strategy sucks and you ditch it. This can happen time and time again for any trader on the road to long term success. Then one day, maybe without even realizing it, you reach a mindset where your trading strategy and rules click altogether and you find yourself profitable!
Becoming One with the Market
The road to epiphany is not the clearest but that’s how it started for me and many others like myself. A strategy and technical studies are all meaningless if you don’t become one with the trading and the market itself. This means not only knowing how an indicator or system works, but understanding what makes it work at a fundamental level and being able to see it within the market. The moment you know that your favorite indicator will become overbought before it does so, or when you know that the candlesticks will touch your support line before they do – that’s an “aha moment” like I am talking about! Because you see every detail on the charts, you feel them and know what they are trying to tell you. The strategies and indicators are no longer in charge of your decisions because you can anticipate the market.
Rules Become Habits – Then it All Suddenly Clicks!
The true moment when everything clicks comes once you have turned your rules into subconscious automated habits. I am talking about the psychological part of trading, being able to control yourself and not allow emotion to drive your decisions. Emotions can force you to do bad things. You know when you can’t stop yourself from doubling up? Trading outside of preferred trading hours or avoiding your rules like neglecting that news are being released?
I used to have a checklist with all my rules that I had to keep an eye on while trading. It could be anything from checking for news pre-trading sessions, rules for my indicators and trends, money management and so on… But then, a funny thing happened. I realized one day that I didn’t need the list anymore! The “to do things before trading-list” was no longer necessary, not because they weren’t true anymore but because I had internalized them to a point they were habit, like breathing air. It wasn’t a question of following them; it’s just what I did.
Let me give you an example: remember when you first learned how to drive? You had to memorize each step, buckle up, start the car, look in the mirrors and so on. Then one day, you sat in the car, did all the steps and drove away without even thinking about it. It was all done subconsciously. In fact, your mind was probably elsewhere, focusing on the traffic and your surroundings, looking for open lanes and possible hazards. You were now a confident driver, you had become one with the car and the traffic!
Why Struggle Is Good When Learning To Trade Binary Options
Well, that’s what happened to me one day during a trading session and that’s the point I’m trying to get across. I recall my moment of confidence and epiphany. It was after my trades were executed that day that I understood I had done everything by the book and respected all my rules, but on a reflexive level, I was in a Zen moment with trading and it didn’t matter if I won or lost so long I was trading well. My mind had turned autonomous, I could focus on reading the charts, it allowed my a new perspective on the market, and that’s when I realized I had reached a goal I had been striving for. I was no longer an inexperienced newbie but an advanced trader in tune with the market. I could see it getting ready to make move, I knew when it was going to move, I knew what was going to make it move, why it was moving and how to make profits from it. Today I am in control of my trading, I see and feel the important details and signals that the market is giving away every minute.
How Do You Get There?
I hate to brag about how I became one with the markets and mastered my strategy and then not tell you how to get there. The truth is that you are actually already on your way there, it all comes down to education, practice, experience and patience. I’m pretty sure you have or are currently testing one or multiple strategies, tools and techniques, all to varying degrees of success. Keep it up, keep practicing, learn about the market, learn about the fundamentals and watch how they affect market movement.
A tip I always share with newbies is opening your own diary where you share your strategy and sets of rules. Then try sticking to them and sharing your trades so we, the experienced traders can help you. After a while and step by step, you should reach your own moment of epiphany and master the markets. Just keep in mind that the strategies and indicators you find are simply the beginning of your journey so don’t get angry when it isn’t all perfect from the start. The key-word here is practicing. For your analysis and mindset to truly click with the charts and the markets, you need to keep practicing. There are no shortcuts but there is a destination; binary options profits.
Here is another article that may help you reach your epiphany. It details how to make your own binary options strategy and includes links to other resources helpful on your quest.