One of the biggest challenges in trading is to find a method that fits to the trader’s personality. A large percentage of traders struggle or lose because they are trying to do something that is not consistent with their beliefs and personality traits. As my favorite trading coach said:
Trading is 100% about strategy until one can’t find its own style. Then it is 100% about psychology.
Other than this, it’s worth keeping in mind that another root cause of failure in trading is that traders usually have irrealistic expectations about results. They expect to perform under any market situation, in every market/instrument consistently without thoroughly examining the trading approach they try to implement:
I am a very short term intraday scalper
Do I have the personality, the physical and mental capabilities to do this each and every day? Does my strategy tell me when to trade and when to not trade a given market? Am I trying to trade the appropriate markets based on my financial and personal situation and circumstances? Am I willing/ready to do this for years? etc.
I am a swing trader
Do I have a clear method to find trading opportunities and manage them appropriately? Do I have a plan that covers every aspect of preparation? etc.
I am a long-term position trader
Can I afford to sit on the sidelines for days, weeks, or months waiting for a trading setup to evolve? Do I have the mental/emotional skills to wait patiently? Can I tolerate longer periods (days, weeks) of draw-downs? Can I make a living from “average” yearly results? etc.
And finally: Do I have a backup plan if my method fails temporarily?
With careful planning, all of the questions above can be answered…
The Method taught at the Private Training and via 1-on-1 Mentoring is the combination of three different but very strongly related discretionary trading approaches/styles. They are related because the core of each approach is the same: the same markets are traded, the same principles and tools are used but each has its own objectives that supplement each other:
Long-term futures and commodities (“LT”) trades, based on long-term natural support/resistance and volume and price-action analysis. The goal here is to generate long-term compounded gains by spending a very limited time with the markets each day.
Intraday and multiday swing (“B-Account”) trades try to catch the dominant moves of each week or day based on the same principles (S/R, Volume, and Orderflow analysis) to back up the “LT” trades.
Short-term scalping (“Scalper”) trades based on pure orderflow/volume information of US Treasury and European futures put into the right context – trades in the direction of “B-Account” positions or against them to improve performance.
During the process of asking questions and finding answers for years, the results are synthesized into a trading plan, a rule-set that covers every aspect of trading – how to successfully combine these three types of trades.