Do you dream of being a professional trader? You see the lavish lifestyle that many traders have that allow them to work from anywhere in the entire world, all at their leisure. Sounds pretty great.
It takes a lot of work to get to the pro status as a trader. There may be a tad bit of luck involved, but professional traders have gone through years of testing strategies, losing money, and dealing with the trading game’s mental fatigue.
Ready to take your trading level up a notch? The following seven points separate amateur traders from the professional ones that will take you to pro status.
Be 100% Focused on Your Trade
For professional traders, this is their job. It’s how they pay the bills and support their family. That means they cannot afford to have any distractions while trading. So, ensure that you are set up for success by removing any distractions during your trades. Remember, being off even by one second could cost you.
Uses a Reliable Platform
Your platform plays a role in your trading. If you want to be successful and trade like a pro, look at the top ECN brokers of 2020 to find the best company for you.
Some platforms offer more educational resources than others, while certain platforms offer a demo account to test your trading strategy. Take a look at this FBS trading review on another excellent example.
Create a Thoughtful Trading Strategy
All professionals will likely tell you the first step to being a successful trader is to have a strategy in place. Your trading strategy is your roadmap to success. It’s also a way to prevent you from taking on too risky a trade and telling you when it’s time to back down, so you don’t lose everything.
Keep Your Confidence In Check
Overconfidence is like kryptonite for traders. Although you need to have confidence in your abilities as a trader, being overconfident often causes you to take a risky trade, you wouldn’t normally do. Remember, just because you’re on a winning streak doesn’t mean you’re invincible of losing. Stick to your trading plan.
Treat Each Trade as New
It’s common for beginner traders to get in the mentality of trying to win it all back. They often bring their emotions from a previous trade into their new one, which ultimately ends up costing them more in the end.
Professionals will keep each trade separate to keep emotions out of it. The last thing you want to do is try and win everything back in one trade and end up losing everything.
Spend Time Prepping
Because trading for the pros is likely their career path, they put in several hours a day to get the job done. That means, just because they have done trading for the day, that doesn’t mean their work is finished. There is still lots of preparation needed for the next trading day. Going in without your research will only lead to losing money.
Know the Risk/Reward Ratio
The risk/reward ratio is a critical number to know if you want to be a professional. That number tells you how well you’re performing and if you’re on the path of making money. Understand what the risk/reward ratio means and how to implement it into your trading strategy.