Being profitable

Yes, deciding to treat trading as a very serious business with zero tolerance for sloppiness.

  • Have you got a business plan (with all the necessary business subcomponents) to guide the whole trading business venture?

  • Do you have a trading plan with a positive trade expectancy?

  • Does your trading edge fit your own beliefs and personality?

  • Have you got discipline procedures in place?

  • Do you have an efficient daily routine in place?

  • Do you follow detailed checklists?
  • Are you doing daily debriefing?
  • Apart from trade matrix statistics, are you keeping statistics of how many mistakes you make? (mistake is not a loss, but rather not following your plan even if it’s a winning trade)

  • Do you have corrective procedures in place that you follow for overcoming your mistakes and weaknesses?

  • Do you have worst case contingency plan?

  • And so on, and on, and on . . . . . .
Or are you just staring at charts, clicking the Buy/Sell buttons, hoping that one day when you'll discover "the right" trading approach that all of the sudden money will start consistently flowing into your account?
The question that you asked is absolutely necessary for any trader to answer. The answer to these question will determine the upcoming path for any beginner trader.
 
Focus on process rather than P&L
Totally agree with this one. I remember my day #1 and back then I was only concerned with the P&L and the sadness caused by the loss disappointed me, eventually I learned that I should focus on the process ahead of me and not just the P&L.
 
After engaging in trading for an extensive period and exploring various approaches, could you pinpoint the singular action or decision that has consistently enabled you to generate profits?

I can't say 'consistently' because I only recently made this change. However, I am up majorly over two consecutive weeks for the first time in my career, so I think this may qualify.

In the past, when I would find an opportunity, I would look for a place to set my stop. If I couldn't find one, I would hesitate or pass on the opportunity, then kick myself after seeing how well it would have gone. In other situations, the "where is my stop" test would pass and I would take the trade only to see it hit my stop.
What I started doing was to separate the Buying factors from the Protecting factors and make them two separate endeavors. Now my buying decisions are base only two things (my secret) and once I buy, THEN I go back decide how to protect it. I stopped taking only the "obviously protectable" trades and started taking all qualifying setups instead.
 
Unfortunately, I think there isn't one singular action or decision that consistently leads to profits. Sometimes, even the best trading methods may experience losses—it's all part of the game.
 
I have had two revelations which turned my trading around.

One was the realisation that the entry pattern does not trump the trend. So don't buy company shares when the whole market is already in a bear trend. Don't buy an EUR-based pair when all the other EUR pairs are bearish.

The other was that most chart patterns and technical indicators are just replicating the same evidence - which comes from price action. A simple candlestick chart with two MA's will be just as effective as anything more elaborate.
 
After engaging in trading for an extensive period and exploring various approaches, could you pinpoint the singular action or decision that has consistently enabled you to generate profits?
I discovered that keeping a thorough trading log and reflecting on my prior trades greatly enhanced my trading performance.
 
yes true fact but this is really a challenging issue to keep consistence in real as well trading life. for that reason only 5% traders are profitable over the world.
 
Only your trading strategy will help you make a profit. Another thing is that the quality of strategies varies among different traders, so some make money on Forex, and some don't.
 
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