Step Five - Unconscious Competence
Now were cooking - just like driving a car, every day you get in your seat and trade
- you do everything now on an unconscious level. You are running on autopilot. You
start to pick the really big trades and getting 200 pips in a day doesnt make you any
more excited that getting 1 pips.
You see the newbies in the forum shouting 'go dollar go' as if they are urging on a
horse to win in the grand national and you see yourself - but many years ago now.
This is trading utopia - you have mastered your emotions and you are now a trader
with a rapidly growing account.
You're a star in the trading chat room and people listen to what you say. You
recognise yourself in their questions from about two years ago. You pass on your
advice but you know most of it is futile because they're teenagers - some of them
will get to where you are - some will do it fast and others will be slower - literally
dozens and dozens will never get past stage two, but a few will.
Trading is no longer exciting - in fact it's probably boring you to bits - like everything
in life when you get good at it or do it for your job - it gets boring - you're doing
your job and that's that.
Finally you grow out of the chat rooms and find a few choice people who you
converse with about the markets without being influenced at all.
All the time you are honing your methods to extract the maximum profit from the
market without increasing risk. Your method of trading doesnt change - it just gets
better - you now have what women call 'intuition'
You can now say with your head held high "I'm a currency trader" but to be honest
you dont even bother telling anyone - it's a job like any other.
I hope youve enjoyed reading this journey into a traders mind and that hopefully
youve identified with some points in here.
Remember that only 5% will actually make it - but the reason for that isnt ability, its
staying power and the ability to change your perceptions and paradigms as new
information comes available.
The losers are those who wanted to 'get rich quick' but approached the market and
within 6 months put on a pair of blinkers so they couldnt see the obvious - a kind of
"this is the way i see it and thats that" scenario - refusing to assimilate new
information that changes that perception.
Im happy to tell you that the reason i started trading was because of the 'get rich
quick' mindset. Just that now i see it as 'get rich slow'
If youre thinking about giving up i have one piece of advice for you ....
Ask yourself the question "how many years would you go to college if you knew for a
fact that there was a million dollars a year job at the end of it?
Take care and good trading to you all.
I left of the name of the author of this piece by mistake. If anyone knows
the name of the true author, please let me know and I'll add it here. Thanks
and sorry for the confusion.
A MUST READ BY ALL BEGINNERS ; 38 Steps Of Becoming A Trader
5 Steps To Becoming A Stock Market Guru By Larry Holmes