Strategy. Discipline. Consistency…. Those three words are the bedrock of ANY successful trader! It's the foundation that the J. Lewis Trading Academy was built on and exactly what has led us to have one of the MOST successful Boutique Trading Academies around… YES, we’re small and selective with who we work with, and it’s for that reason our traders kill it on a consistent basis!
It’s important to remember how the math works here... the first two principles equal the third. Without a trading strategy and the discipline to trade it you will NEVER experience the type of consistency that will allow you to be free! These are the cold facts! I want to take a deep dive into the ideas behind the words :
Strategy. Discipline. Consistency
The textbook definition of strategy is:
“Strategy is an action that managers take to attain one or more of the organization's goals. Strategy can also be defined as “A general direction set for the company and its various components to achieve a desired state in the future.”
Does that sound familiar? ...This is probably one of the most powerful statements when it comes to trading: “A general direction set for the company and its various components to achieve a desired state in the future… What is a “direction set”...in our case as traders, it's the baseline approach that we take to trade the markets with the probabilities working in our favour. Taking money out of the market is no easy challenge. Most people can't do it on a regular basis or even once and a while...remember, more that 95% of people that try trading fail...WHY? No strategy! Traders must, without question, have a well tested strategy that looks at all the probabilities of the market or asset class they are trading. They need money management tools and risk parameters that they follow and they also need an entry and exit strategy...PERIOD! These are non negotiable!
The next one is arguably the most important. Its Disciple. Without discipline you are fucked with a capital “F”. I’m sorry about cursing, but I really need your attention for this one. This is the single most important part of trading. It really does start here...if you do not have discipline you will not be able to make the headway needed to survive the game. The truth is that ALL professional traders ( retail and institutional) have discipline. It is the one thing that separates the winners from the losers in this area. Disciple is defined by: the practice of making people obey rules or standards of behavior, and punishing them when they do not. ... If you refer to an activity or situation as a discipline, you mean that, in order to be successful in it, you need to behave in a strictly controlled way and obey particular rules or standards.
Part of that definition does sound a bit harsh, I know, but it's true! If we as traders DON’T behave in a specific manner we will inevitably get punished by the market. As it reads above “in order to be successful in it (trading), you need to behave in a strictly controlled way and obey particular rules or standards”... When a strict discipline is followed you will then start to see success…. When you take the time to tweak a system, trade after trade based on the feedback your P/L is giving you, you’re on the right track. When you take the time to understand the nuances of the market you're in and asset class you trade, you are then given insight into how things work. Once you have that insight, you then need to practice a high level of discipline to ensure you stay on track with what works! From there you will then achieve the Holy Grail in trading...you guessed it, Consistency!
Now… this is the bottom line… consistency, It is the byproduct of the first two parts of what we have discussed. It's all about consistency. For most traders, and people in general, this is one super elusive thing to achieve. It’s something that most fail to produce simply because they do not put in the time or effort to develop something of value. Most people are looking for the quick easy fix...it does not exist. It’s been said that “the fastest way to success is the slow way”, as in, invest in putting the time and effort into something today so you can live tomorrow the way you want!
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