Be warned, if you fail to implement an effective system for trade money management, it's highly unlikely that you'll achieve any noticeable success. Essentially, money management is vital to any trading business.
The skills you require for successful trading are skills you have to learn. Nobody is born a trader. Instead, together with a well tested plan, it requires a huge amount of discipline and an extremely strong will. Even one of the top trading gurus, Dr Van Tharp, states that successful trading is all about mindset and psychology.
If I told you that cutting losses and allowing profits to run is the golden rule of trading, you'd more than likely say it's obvious. Yes, while it may be obvious, it's certainly not easy to follow, especially when you're down. In fact, one could almost say that it's human nature to do the exact opposite by allowing your losses to run, in the hope that circumstances will change. It's during times like this where one truly learns about the benefits of psychology.
Being successful in trading requires you to go against the grain.
A good system doesn't revolve around favourable trade entries and other money making opportunities within the markets. Instead, a good system is built around masterful trade money management. After all, money management in trading is what protects your capital when the markets don't behave as you thought they would. Remember, no system is perfect and no system is 100% accurate. Let's face it; nobody wants to loose everything simply because of one single trade going wrong.
Considering just how critical trade money management is, I find it alarming that it's rarely even mentioned in courses. In fact, I'm yet to find a course which explains trade money management as it should be explained.
No, I'm not claiming to be the first person to discover the importance of proper trade money management. In fact, one can read story after story where traders acknowledge the fact that their success is due to trade money management. What I am saying though, is that you need to apply it, no matter what system you use. Irrespective of the markets you trade in, and irrespective of the methods you choose, there can be no exceptions.
Trust me, knowing these trade money management rules, or trading rules, is one thing, but actually applying them is a different ball game altogether. In fact, if your trading is not going quite as well as you'd hoped for, my guess is that a lack of discipline is to blame, with regards to money management in trading.
Remember, change can come about anytime, no matter where you are with your trading. In fact, it only takes a single new idea in order for losses to become profits.
It needs to be made clear that the benefit of having a proper system set up is that you'll have no need to rely on a full-service broker. Likewise, you'll no longer need the advice of gurus.
Providing you have an exit strategy in place, you'll be confident when you enter into a trade and that's what I would like most of all. Additionally, by having an exit strategy predefined, even the most hectic portfolios can be managed with a few minutes each day. Of course, what you should also realize is, you'll tend to sleep better as well because you would've tailored your risks so that they fall within your risk tolerance.
Before I end off, I just want to point out that I wrote this article essentially as an introduction to trade money management. The bottom line is; by implementing masterful trade money management, you will reach all your goals. In fact, simply following all my future articles and applying what you learn, you'll soon be able to master the markets using excellent trade money management.
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