The problem with trading is that it’s very easy to go down the rabbit hole, and after much time is spent find out it was the wrong rabbit hole.
I can’t count how many times this has happened to me.
I’ve dived head first into a topic that I though was the key to trading successfully, learnt every little nuance of it, and then found out it was not actually that important. In fact, most of the time I found it was totally irrelevant as a success factor.
How do you know something is not a success factor? You look at the best. You study what master traders do, and learn from the common elements. Find the things that all top traders have, and focus on those.
The problem with going down the wrong rabbit hole is time. These detours can take months, if not years. You might spend countless hours poring over charts, learning every aspect of technical analysis, only to find out you really didn’t need it.
Of course, there is nothing to say these little red herrings and diversions are not useful. I find technical analysis very helpful. It’s just that I spent far too much time on it, thinking it was the Holy Grail, rather than simply a tool to help me implement my trades better.
I would have been much better off learning how to do the things that are common across all successful traders. For instance, sizing trades according to my conviction level, learning to let go of my ego, defining my objectives, and scenario planning – some of the things that are common across all successful traders.
So before you, like Alice, stumble down a rabbit hole that you may never find your way out of, think – is what you are about to learn one of the common elements of trading success, or it is just an interesting sideshow?
About the Author
Sam Eder is a currency trader and author of the Definitive Guide to Developing a Winning Forex Trading System and the Advanced Forex Course for Smart Traders (get free access). He is a co-owner of Forex Signal Provider www.fxrenew.com. If you like Sam’s writing you can subscribe to his newsletter.
Don’t forget to check out Sams excellent posts at FX Insights as well!
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