Taking action

Over the years, one thing I have found is that people are very good at talking about what they want to do. Following through and putting any plan into action is a different matter, though.

Getting to the stage where you are putting your thoughts, beliefs and plans down in writing is a lot further than most ever reach. And it has been proven that doing this gives you a far better chance of achieving the aims of that plan - be it in trading or any other endeavour. Just doing that, and then reading what you have written on a regular basis, gives you a higher level of 'emotional commitment' to acting on what you have written.

But that is only half the story. Once you reach that stage, you still have to ACT.

I've spoken to a few traders who have suffered in both these areas. There are those who aim to write a clear trading plan, yet never get round to putting anything down on paper - "I'm too busy" they say.

However, these same people make sure they have plenty of time to trade in a haphazard manner, quite content to throw away their own money with poor risk management or seemingly random entries and exits.

A huge part of becoming successful as a trader is taking responsibility of your own actions. Giving yourself the excuse that you are too busy to put a proper plan in place is a cop out. No doubt those same people are also quite happy to blame others (brokers, other traders, their trading platform etc.) for their lack of success.

Then, if you DO get to the stage where you have a clear plan in place, then you have to act on whatever that plan says. But this is where things can get tricky, because it is at this point where emotions and psychological factors can start coming into play. This is where you need to work on yourself...

Some more reading from the archives:

So, what are your excuses - and will you do anything about them???

Trading and the blame game