What Are the Common Traits of Successful Traders?

Those professional traders who are successful do have certain characteristics in common. One such trader, nicknamed Big A, has pinpointed 5 charactristics:

1. It is usual for successful traders to have had a mentor, even after achieving success. That is why it is a great help if you can adopt a mentor with proven success. If you can find an honest successful trader who will teach his system, as it is and as it made him successful, then you will succeed faster than by using trial and error in your trading.

2. Successful traders remain emotionally detached. Ask yourself, if you make a trade, can you forget about it until your planned exit strategy is met? It can be dangerous to watch your trading account too closely, because of the emotion of watching your account soar. Be disciplined, and his after market trading plan will eliminate 99% of emotion.

3. A successful trader will not try to lead the market and outwit is. Trying to force the market is financial suicide. The key is to be a follower, not a leader. Stick to your system at all times; it is a system that you should not tweak as you go along and try to make things happen. If you are click happy with your mouse, then make sure you do it on a demo account. Just don’t think when you get lucky a few times that it’s ok to “make things happen”. That is the whole reason for using a system and milking the slight edge it gives you.

4. Successful trades are prepared. It is vital to not only have a trading plan, but stick to it whatever the market might be doing. You need to know how to plan each trade quickly and easily. Only 5-10 minutes per evening is needed to trade in BIG A’s ETF trading system.

5. Traders who are successful actually expect to become rich. Can you visualize wealth as a part of your normal life? Successful traders have had this vision. Don’t limit yourself. Prosperity must be on the inside of you before it is on the outside. If not you will self sabotage your trading account when it starts to get too high because of a subconscious hang up that you don’t deserve to be rich. Thinking how to overcome any psychological barriers to success is imperative. Your mentor can help you with that.

Big A actually has his own ETF trend trading course, in which he teaches his own system of day trading for exchange-traded funds.