The idea of day trading for a living is a powerful one. Work from home. No boss telling you what to do. Make a lot of money in a short period of time and watch it grow. Financial freedom and a great lifestyle. Click here to learn more.
But anyone who’s done day trading will tell you it’s not like that at all. Sure, it can be a great way to make a living. But it’s not easy, it’s real work. And it is definitely risky. You could easily lose everything if you’re not careful and prepared.
That brings us to some simple, but important rules that must be followed. While the rules are simple, they aren’t always easy to follow. Especially the first rule which is to leave your emotions out of it.
Leaving your emotions out of financial decisions that could make you, or lose you, a lot of money is not an easy thing to do. But you must do it if you want to be successful with day trading.
Emotional day trading will lead to bad decision. You’ll buy at too high a price, sell too late (or too early) all because you’re emotionally tied to a trade. Don’t be.
This leads us into another important rule which is to have a plan. Having a plan isn’t just good in and of itself, it also helps make it easier to keep your emotions out of your trading.
If you have a plan to buy or sell when certain signals are met, such as trading volume or stock price, you can eliminate the emotion of the trade. You buy or sell based on those signals you’ve decided upon.
Having a plan, based on actual data and not perceptions, that you stick to and taking your emotions out of your day trading is what separates day trading winners (those that make money) and day trading losers (those that go broke).
If you trade emotionally, you’re really doing nothing more than gambling. Gambling is about odds, luck, and feelings. It’s a surefire way to go broke when trading.
With day trading, it’s minimizing and controlling risk as best you can, while seeking gain.
A good analogy with gambling is blackjack. A gambler will bet, double down, take a hit or stand pat based on how they feel. And they will lose money in the long term.
But a very good blackjack player can make all the decisions systematically, maybe can even count cards, thus possibly allowing them to gain a slight advantage, which helps them to make money in the long term.
Your day trading is no different. By following a plan, or trading system, based on the data, with buy and sell rules, you’ll give yourself the best possible chance of making a profit from your trades in the long term.
Before you even get into the intricacies of trading, like technical or fundamental analysis, volume trading, trend trading, or the many other trading philosophies, you need to make sure you put together an overall plan, which will help you take the emotion out of your trading.