How can we transform ourselves from a casual to a trader mindset?

<p id="isPasted">Moving from thinking of trading casually to thinking of it like a serious trader in forex involves changing how you approach trading. First, you need to learn about how trading works, like different strategies and how to analyze the market. Setting clear goals, like how much money you want to make or what strategy you want to master, helps you stay focused.</p><p>You should treat trading like a job, with a regular schedule for researching, analyzing, and making trades. It's important to manage the risks by deciding how much money you're willing to use for each trade and using tools to limit losses. Creating a plan for when to enter and exit trades and how much to risk is really important. And even when things go well or not so well, sticking to your plan and not letting emotions control your decisions is key.</p><p>Learning should be ongoing, as the market is always changing. Keeping up with news and learning from others helps you improve. Writing down your trades and thoughts in a journal can help you learn from your mistakes and successes.</p>

<p id="isPasted">To transform yourself from a casual to a trader mindset, you need to make a number of changes to your attitude and approach to trading. Here are some tips:</p><ul><li>Become a student of the market. The more you know about the market and how it works, the better equipped you will be to make informed trading decisions. Read books and articles about trading, watch educational videos, and take trading courses.</li><li>Develop a trading plan. A trading plan is a set of rules that you will follow when trading. It should include your entry and exit criteria, risk management rules, and position sizing guidelines. Having a trading plan will help you stay disciplined and avoid making impulsive decisions.</li><li>Be patient and disciplined. Trading is a marathon, not a sprint. It takes time and discipline to become a successful trader. Don't expect to get rich quickly. Instead, focus on learning and improving your skills over time.</li><li>Accept that you will lose. No trader wins all the time. Even the best traders have losing trades. It is important to accept that losses are a part of trading and not let them discourage you.</li></ul><p><br></p>

<p id="isPasted">“A good trader feels great when he has a good trade. A great trader feels nothing when he has a good trade”. Bobby Axelrod, Billions</p><p>My objective, my goal, my ambition, my mission, and my dream have always been to have this emotional signature: “Bake the bread”.</p><p>Since I am pretty far from that, let’s be honest: “I do not trust myself”. I most certainly would never invest more than a subway ticket with someone who says they completely trust themselves either. I have worked with enough discretionary dudes to trust any black box a lot more than their grey (matter) box</p><p>That is the reason why I like algorithms. These days, Forex algo still does its thing but for various reasons, I have come back to trading manually again, hopefully for a short time. It works, but I hate it. I do. Here are a few ones that are worth practicing:</p><ul type="disc"><li style="font-weight: bold;"><p><strong>Outer game</strong></p></li></ul><ol><li><p>Plan exit first: the only soldiers who do not consider an exit strategy are called kamikaze. spend more time thinking about the exit than the entry</p><ol type="a"><li><p>Within the exit are hedging strategies along the way, the color of borrow, intendance, and logistics</p></li><li><p>Stop loss: allegedly the most important question</p></li></ol></li><li><p>Position size: see previous posts</p></li></ol><p>Once you have done the hard part comes the hardest part</p><ul type="disc"><li style="font-weight: bold;"><p><strong>Inner game</strong></p></li></ul><ol><li><p>Pre-mortem:&nbsp;there is a reason marriage contracts are called pre-nuptials. Pre-mortem is the vaccine against overconfidence. before taking any trade, expect it to fail and take a stop loss. Feel it in your body, on your dry tongue, in your gut, wherever you feel a loss. feel the feelings: disgust, loser, etc. Now what are You going to do?</p><ol type="a"><li><p>if you expect it to fail, you will size small. You will think of risk instead of dreaming of your [small penis complex expensive toy…]</p></li><li><p>you will pre-package your grief. Very few people are surgical with their stop losses. They grieve their losses. Premortem pre-packages grief</p></li></ol></li><li><p>Planning off-market hours: since I am emotional, all trades are planned off-market hours. Off-hour planning means no spur-of-the-moment decision: I am not going shopping, I am trading. The game is just about execution</p></li><li><p>Pauses: mindful breaks of 2 minutes to calm down when necessary. Focus on the space between inhalation and exhalation, not just the breath. It switches para-sympathetic to the sympathetic autonomous nervous system</p></li><li><p>If… Then: mental rehearsal with IF&nbsp;this happens&nbsp;THEN&nbsp;do this.&nbsp;Visualization is not about seeing yourself with a Ferrari and a sexy trophy in the passenger seat. Visualization is about the mental rehearsal of doing the unpleasant stuff with a smile</p></li><li><p>Included in the IF… THEN is walking away when: anger, frustration, impatience, exhilaration, chase. Just walk away, I do not have emotions, emotions have me. This is just another trade and I want to live for the next thousand trades ahead</p></li></ol><p>It may sound super emotional, but in practice, it is boring most of the time. Trading should be boring and all the techniques are meant to make it boring. <strong>Boring is good</strong></p>