To achieve success in any field, there are certain habits that individuals have to cultivate. While people’s definition of success differs, a successful trader might be defined as a profitable and disciplined trader. By being profitable, it means the individual’s profit is greater than losses. But not all profitable traders are disciplined. It takes discipline for a trader to be successful.
For instance, risking $100,000 on a trade with over 50x leverage and getting a profit of 1,000% is profitable but might not likely be disciplined enough. If such trade goes in loss, it might tell a lot about the trader. Discipline helps any trader to be in the right mind even though the charts are red and such individuals seem to be in losses. Discipline encompasses all the habits that are needed to achieve success as a trader. There are other habits that will be highlighted in this article.
Willingness And Readiness To Learn
The first habit any trader (beginner, intermediate or expert level) should inculcate is the willingness and readiness to learn at all times. Being ready and willing to learn is the ability to accept and make use of every piece of relevant information that relates to trading regardless of who is giving the information. This might be a bit difficult to inculcate.
For instance, a trader at expert level might not want to take any piece of information or signal from a beginner or intermediate because of the individual’s wealth of experience but there’s a saying that “no one is an island of knowledge”. There is another saying that “learning never ends”; a trader at beginner level can provide a piece of information that can be an added value to an expert trader if such an individual is open minded and willing to learn. Willingness to learn also comes with the constant urge to know more about trading. Consistent learning will see constant improvement in the trading skills of an individual and increases the chances of being a successful trader.
Get Rid of Greed And Fear
Another habit that any trader that wants to be successful needs to inculcate is to eliminate greed and fear factors. Every human by nature might let greed set in at some point in time of their lives due to different reasons. For instance, a trader that has seen over 100% profit on a trade will naturally want more if the market keeps going up even though the target is 100%. But as said earlier, that is where discipline comes in. A disciplined trader would overtime deal with greed, take profit and exit the trade because such an individual might have mastered overtime that the market can change directions, dump and leave such a trader in losses.
Fear is another factor that needs to be eliminated. Every creature experiences fear at different points in their lives. Fear is a major challenge to traders; although expert traders must have mastered how to control their emotions while trading. Fear comes in when a trader who took time to analyze the chart sees the market isn’t going in the desired direction which tells trade loss. But a trader who has mastered the art will not fret. Such an individual knows the market might go south before it retraces; losses are part of trading and that with careful trading, losses will be made up for.
Patience
There’s a saying that “patience is key”. Every trader who desires success must have this virtue. Patience will save a trader a lot of mess and losses while trading. Patience is tied to some of the highlighted habits traders who want to be successful should inculcate. For instance, a patient trader will not be fearful when the market seems not to be in the proposed direction and losses are accumulating little by little. Such an individual would know the market would still retrace.
Trading without patience might result in closing trades at the slight notice of smaller losses and ending up accumulating significant losses overtime. Likewise, a trader with patience would not risk all his capital on a trade.
Such an individual would exit trades at the right time and not leave them running because of greed to accumulate more profits. A patient trader knows how to use capital and understands the technique of accumulating profits overtime and when to risk much for maximum profits.
Always Check The Bitcoin (BTC) Chart
Another important habit to be a successful trader is to always pay attention to the movements of Bitcoin (BTC). Bitcoin is the first cryptocurrency by market cap and Altcoins are usually affected by its movements. It is important to take note of the movement of Bitcoin especially while trading altcoin pairs like ETH/LTC because if after the analysis, the market is supposed to go up and Bitcoin drops in price, it might affect the altcoins and they might drop and render the technical analysis (TA) useless. Hence, successful trading requires close watch on Bitcoin while trading altcoins.
Create A Trading Journal
Finally, the last is to have a trading journal. A trading journal is a record of all trading activities. It includes the set goals of traders’ take profits, stop losses, income targets at the end of a period among others. This will help the trader to set goals as said earlier. It will also give room for self-evaluation. This will serve as a self-examination of the trading skill, goals and how well such a trader has been in the game of trading cryptocurrencies.
