How to be a profitable trader?

I’d like to know how the members here become a better trader. What is that one thing that helped you achieve your trading goals?

We started lossing less wining more.
Apart from that, we work damn hard!

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Understanding enough about statistics to be able to tell reliably both whether I actually had an edge and how to work out suitable risk management for it so that my chances of losing were as low as I could get them.

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You can become a profitable trader by investing a lot of time in reading, analyzing and trying to understand the different patterns. Don’t forget demo practice which is a very important part of the learning process. Good risk management is quite necessary as well but overall as Bob mentioned - it takes hard work to succeed. Even though sometimes it seems very difficult, you should not give up but keep going until you have enough experience to start developing your own trading strategies and style which will eventually bring some profits. It won’t be easy but this business is not for people who are seeking some fast money.

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Be prepared for months or even years of constant failure and aggravation, and somehow have the willpower to keep going.

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Making Profits in Forex has never been an easy task. We have to do lots of practice to make some good profit in the Forex Market. We need to have a proper plan to deal in with Forex and we need to keep learning to survive in this risky market.

To be a profitable trader you need to look at the market in a completely different way than the majority of traders do. Instead in believing that the market is something to be afraid of, because it is the place where 95% of retail traders come to die, you should get rid of all the myths and rumors you have heard abut it and all the expectations you have and see the market about what it really is. And I can tell you that the market really is very logical, predictable and everyone is able to be successful in trading just if they ask the right questions…

[quote=“krisslocmelis, post:11, topic:106601, full:true”]To be a profitable trader you need to look at the market in a completely different way than the majority of traders do.

everyone is able to be successful in trading just if they ask the right questions[/quote]
Fair point.
So to that end, which correct questions should someone new into this game begin asking themselves? & if they’re fortunate enough to ask the correct questions, from where or whom do they obtain their answers?

When I started to trade I always had the feeling that there should be some kind of logic to all this. So my mission was to find out how the markets are made. And with years of experimenting, I can now say that I understand the language of the markets.

So in my opinion any trader should understand what the markets are saying, because charts are like language in some kind of interesting way. So how can anyone expect to be profitable if they don’t speak the language…

[quote=“krisslocmelis, post:13, topic:106601”]
So in my opinion any trader should understand what the markets are saying, because charts are like language in some kind of interesting way[/quote]
Again, a fair point which on the surface makes a lot of sense, but precisely how would you explain in simple terms to a raw novice with little or no experience how best to understand the language & interpret what the markets are saying via a chart?

Bearing in mind the success rates even within professional firms utilising an array of technical & statistical models are woefully low. So if the brightest minds are struggling to consistently understand & process the language, & apparently 95% of retailers die trying, exactly how would you advise new entrants proceed to decipher what the language of the charts are saying?

any market either its forex or stocks or commodities or indices or whatever moves in cycles. on the charts we can see these cycles as waves.

and there are numerous different versions of this idea utilized by various market pundits and investors including Robert Precher’s elliot wave theory, Harry Dent’s long wave theories and Ray Dalio’s debt cycle theories

and I have also developed my own wave theory about the markets which allows me to understand what they are saying. so the key to the markets, in my opinion, is cycles and waves, because they are letters in the alphabet in the markets language.

That’s certainly 1 language isn’t it. But like the continents of the world, trading languages often come in many different forms & that’s where the real challenges begin. Such a shame there could only be but 1. I’m sure it would solve an awful lot of heartache, frustration & disappointment.

You mentioned questions in your initial post. What would you say are the types of right or correct questions a new entrant should be asking either themselves or the market they’re interested in? because that sounds like it could be a worthwhile exercise, especially for them & particularly at such an early stage in the process.

Most traders are looking for some kind of magical system which could lead them to incredible wealth where they just have to do A when indicator B goes over C or is greater than some kind of number or whatever…

But as I said before that, in my experience and opinion, the markets don’t work like that. Charts are like language or even like a some kind of living organism which has its own personality and behaviour. And until traders won’t stop searching for these magical systems where they don’t have to do pretty much anything, nothing will ever change.

So the questions every new trader should ask is market behaviour related not money related…

Practice is the key element to achieve success and a mindset that you cannot make profit in each and every trade will also be required if you want to become a profitable trader. We need to accept loss, in order to gain in the next trades and if a trader fails to do that, he won’t be able to make profit consistently.