Gaining Confidence - Taking Trades / Handle Losses

Once you've developed a fruitful strategy that pays off during practice, you may still find yourself freezing when it's time to play for keeps.

Here you are presented with the next step to building confidence when trading, it is done through taking real trades and losses.

This is where one must learn to be malleable in the mind.

Instead of letting losses discourage you, let them be acknowledged as part of the plan and part of the process. Of course, this only applies to losses that occur from a Stop Loss with calculated risk management. As Igor would put it "In trading, stop losses are the cost of doing business".

Getting stopped out of a trade highlights the invalidity of your original idea and should be used to re-evaluate your perspective of the market.

For yourself as an individual, it is your duty to define healthy boundaries that make for an efficient trader. You must realise when you are trading for the purpose of doing business with the market and yourself, and you must also realise when you are trading for the sake of obsession to fulfil an emotion.

In this lesson George and Victor break down the internals of their own mindsets, to display what makes for strong behaviours and routines for the aspiring trader.

Time Stamps

6:55 – GAINING CONFIDENCE

• Come prepared, do your homework
• Trading is a skill that you need to acquire
• You need to acknowledge the possibility of losing a trade
• Confidence comes from your TA, experience and taking trades
• You need to become a profitable trader over an extended period of time
• Be strict with your rules and flexible on your ideas
• We do not control the market but we are in control of our own trades
• Never change your calculated invalidation point – you need to know how much you are willing to lose before you enter the trade not after
• Expect the unexpected
• Every moment in the market is unique. Risk management is the best way to be prepared
• You have zero control of whether the next trade will be a winning or losing trade

27:57 – HOW TO HANDLE LOSSES

• Step back, bird’s eye view
• Trading stop (10% rule) – you completely cease all trading activities, leave your trading place and stop trading for a certain period of time
• Understand why you are losing trades, JOURNAL everything
• Heal, regroup, go again
• Develop your own trading system – what works best for you

44:00 – Q&A

• Literally anyone can become a profitable trader. It takes time, patience and hard work
• Everyone has their own timing

1:04:15 – TAKE HOME MESSAGE