For a trader, starting a career can be a real challenge. It’s very difficult to find your own path of development, knowing a huge number of principles, strategies, and concepts. It will be even more difficult to adhere to them in the future.

Financial trading can bring both the joy of winning and the uncertainty with the fear of losing. These emotions can change very often and it’s important to remain objective and not succumb to temporary failures or victories.

A good trader can always shield themselves from emotions, they will not have a significant influence on them. Such a trader will return to the market even after several unsuccessful trades.

But these skills are not innate. They are acquired through discipline, education, and practice.

How to Become a Successful Trader

Trading for beginners is very difficult, but you are not the first or the last one to walk this path.

Let’s consider how to simplify the learning process in trading.

Mastering trading strategies

For example, a concert pianist, before performing complex pieces, refines the basics of playing for a long time. Similarly, a good trader constantly practices and learns in order to earn well.

But trading differs from other activities in that during practice and learning from your own mistakes, a decent amount of money is at risk. This is very hard in terms of finances and psychology.

Therefore, trading on demo accounts will be mandatory for a beginner. This will give them the opportunity to try different methods and strategies in market conditions, but without risking their own money.

Transition to trading real money

When you master trading strategies and know how to manage your own positions, you move to the next stage of learning. This is emotion control.

In a sense, trading on a demo account can cause the same emotions as trading real money. But you can fully feel the impact of emotions only during trading with real funds.

If you previously trained on demo accounts, then you are in a better position and can learn to control your emotions faster, as decision making is almost automatic for you. All that remains is to focus on emotion control.

Learn gradually

Experienced traders apply fundamental and technical analysis, manage risks, and may adhere to strict market entry/exit rules in every trade.

It has long been a fact that, using these techniques constantly, a trader achieves considerable heights over time. But if they miss even one of the elements described above, they can ruin the whole plan and incur massive losses.

If you’re starting to trade, you might get confused trying to learn everything all at once in a short amount of time.

So don’t think about mastering a trading strategy in 1-2 sessions.

On the contrary – you need to continually work on each of the specified elements until they all allow you to trade successfully.

For example, you can immediately start learning and experimenting with different capital management methods until they all become familiar to you. Then, for instance, you can move on to market entry levels.

If you structure your learning in this way, you will understand the direction to move in and can effectively use your time for trading.

Surely, you’ll encounter unsuccessful trades, but if you always strictly adhere to the rules, you will overcome any loss and achieve success.

Emotion Control

When trading in the financial market, it’s extremely important to stick to long-term views.

Many traders begin their careers because trading gives them a flexible schedule. Others simply want to achieve financial freedom.

You should always remember why you’re trading. First, you need to describe your goal and then follow it. Therefore, while you’re learning to control your emotions, you can constantly refer to what attracted you to trading.

For instance, if you remember that your main goal is to spend time with your family, you will assess your failures more objectively if they occur.

Also, you can recall how much money you could have made simply by trading. This will distract you from unsuccessful trades, and you will switch your attention to the market.

Keep your emotions under control

During trading, you need to be confident that you’re acting logically. Emotions should not affect you during trading; you need to focus on the current deal, and only after it can you return to your initial tasks.

The reason for this rule implies that the influence of emotions on the course of deals is unacceptable. If during an unsuccessful deal you were thinking about how much money you could have made, then your goal will seem distant and elusive. This can cause you to incur new unwarranted losses.

After this, expectations can become distorted, and a new series of losses can begin.

The best solution to counteract this is to write down trade parameters in advance. You will record the entry level, stop-loss, and take-profit in a journal. After that, you’ll be able to think logically and focus on trades, not on expectations from them. This will help reduce the influence of emotions on your decisions.

This is business!

If you perceive trading as a business, you can improve control over your own emotions.

You can create a business plan that will describe the strategy, goals, and principles.

The plan should clearly reflect your market entry criteria, which will be applied at each conclusion of a deal. After describing these criteria, you will resist the temptation to make decisions based on emotions.

If you perceive your business plan as an entrepreneur, you will quickly find reasons why you trade this way and not otherwise. In addition, you may discover some shortcomings and correct them sooner.