From "I Know Better" to Trading Success: The Real 5-Stage Process

This is the first step you take when you first start trading. You think it’s a good way to make money because you’ve read a lot of positive things about it and you’ve heard many times that someone you know is making tons of money trading. You look at the charts: the price is moving up and down – what’s so hard – go for it!

Unfortunately, when you open your first positions, you have no idea what you are trying to do. You open multiple orders and take disproportionate risks. When you open a position and the price goes against you, you open the opposite order, then the opposite order again, and again, and again.

You can get lucky, and that only makes it worse – your brain starts thinking that it’s all very easy, and you start risking more and more money on each trade.

You try to cover your losses by doubling the lot in each new trade. Sometimes this works, but more often than not it leads to even bigger losses. You absolutely lose to your incompetence in trading.

This stage may last a week or two, but then you start to realize that “something is missing” and move on to the next level.

About 60% of new traders quit in the first 3 months – they give up and that’s a good thing – think about it, if trading was that easy, we’d all be millionaires. Another 20% continue trading for about a year and then in desperation they open huge positions and lose their deposit…

What may surprise you is that the remaining 20% will last about 3 years and only 5-10% of the remaining will continue trading and start earning consistently.

Gradually, you’ll start to move into the third stage. You may have already spent more money and time than you ever thought you would before you started trading. You’ve already lost a few deposits, you’ve given up a couple times, but you’re still hanging in there.

One day – in a split second, you move to the third stage.

Level Three: “Eureka!”

Even at the end of stage two, you start to realize that it’s not about the system. You realize that you can make profits using just one moving average and nothing else, if you manage to control your emotions and manage your risks properly. You start reading books on trading psychology, identify yourself with the characters described in these books, and finally the “Eureka!” moment comes.

After that moment, it’s like a new vision appears in your head and you suddenly realize that neither you nor anyone else can predict what will happen in the market in the next 10 seconds, let alone 20 minutes.

Thanks to this revelation, you stop looking at who thinks what – what all kinds of analysts write, etc. You become an individual with your own trading method.

You start to work with only one system that suits your trading style. You are clearly happier and have defined your risk threshold.

You open every position that you think has a higher probability of profit. If the market goes against your order, you don’t get angry or nervous, you just calmly close the position. The next trade, or the one after that, or another one after that, will have a greater chance of success because you are confident that your system is working.

You stop looking at the results of trading from deal to deal, and you evaluate the results of a week, a month. Because you realize that one bad trade doesn’t mean anything.

You realized that all trading depends on the consistency of your outlook and the discipline to take all the trades in the system, because you know that the preponderance of probability is on your side.

You’ve studied money control and risk management from the ground up, and now you feel how important it is, looking back with a smile at the advice of others that you dismissed a year ago. After all, they were right. The “Eureka” moment comes when you fully realize that you can’t predict the market. You are about to move on to the next stage of becoming a trader.

Level Four: Conscious Competence

You open trades every time your system gives signals. You close losing orders as easily as you close profitable ones. Now you let your profitable trades grow until you get an exit signal, fully accepting the risk and knowing that your system makes more money than it loses.

You’re now at the point where you’re at breakeven most of the time – day by day, you’ll have weeks where you’ve made 100 pips and weeks where you’ve lost 100 pips – generally you’ve stopped losing money and understand the rules of the game. You still have to think about your trades and do a lot of observation, but you’re already starting to consistently make more money than you lose.

Your day may start with a 20 pips win, then you take a 35 pips loss and you don’t feel that you have given 20 pips back, because you know that they will come back to you. You start to make a steady profit, week after week, sometimes more, sometimes less.

This stage lasts about half a year.

Level Five: Unconscious Competence

You trade as if you were brushing your teeth or riding a bicycle - without thinking. It is as if you are on autopilot, placing trades on a subconscious level. You begin to make really large profits, and 200 pips a day do not excite you any more than 1 pip a day.

You look at the newbies on the forums yelling “Drop the dollar, drop the dollar!” and you remember yourself from years ago.

You’ve mastered your emotions and your account is steadily growing.

Trading turns into a routine – you just do the day-to-day work.

You’re constantly putting the finishing touches on your trading system to extract more profit from the market without increasing your risk. Your trading method hasn’t changed – it’s just gotten better, you now understand what is called intuition in trading.

Now you can proudly proclaim “I’m a currency trader”, but honestly, you’re not in a hurry to shout it on every corner, because for you it’s just a regular job like any other.

Remember that only 5% become successful traders and make it to the last level, but the reason is not about ability, it’s about staying strong and being able to change your paradigms and views when new information comes along.

The losers are those who want to get rich quick and are unable to change their “I know better” mindset.

If you are failing now and are ready to give up, ask yourself one simple question: “How many years are you ready to go to university, knowing that at the end of your studies you will have a job with a salary of a million dollars a year?“.

Thank you for your attention, I wish you success in trading.

Chto vas mozhet udivit, tak eto to, chto ostavshiesya 20% protyanut okolo 3 let i tolko 5-10% ot ostavshikhsya prodolzhat torgovli i stanut stabilno zarabatyvat.

Postepenno ty nachnesh perekhodit k tretemu etapu. Vozmozhno ty uzhe potratil bolshe deneg i vremeni, chem kogda libo dumal, pered tem kak nachat torgovlyu. Ty uzhe proigral neskolko depozitov, paru raz opuskal ruki, no vse eshche derzhishsya.

V odin prekrasnyy den - v kakuyu-to sekundu, ty perekhodish na tretiy etap.

Eshche v kontse vtorogo etapa ty nachinaesh osoznavat, chto ne v sisteme delo. Ty ponimaesh, chto mozhno poluchat pribyl, ispolzuya vsego odnu skolzyashchuyu srednyuyu i bolshe nichego, esli ty sumeesh sovladat so svoimi emotsiyami i osushchestvlyaesh gramotnoe upravlenie riskami. Ty nachinaesh chitat knigi po psikhologii treydinga, otozhdestvlyaesh sebya s personazhami, opisannymi v etikh knigakh, i nakonets nastupaet moment "Evrika!".

Psole etogo momenta, slovno novoe videnie poyavlyaetsya v tvoey golove i ty neozhidanno ponimaesh, chto ni ty, ni kto-libo eshche ne mozhet predskazat, chto proizoydet na rynke v sleduyushchie 10 sekund, ne govorya uzhe o 20 minutakh.

Blagodarya etomu otkroveniyu, ty perestaesh smotret kto chto dumaet - chto pishut vsyakie analitiki i t.p. Ty stal individualom so svoim sobstvennym metodom torgovli.

Ty nachinaesh rabotat tolko po odnoy sisteme, kotoraya podkhodit tvoemu stilyu torgovli. Ty yavno stal schastlivee i opredelil svoy porog riska.

Ty otkryvaesh kazhduyu pozitsiyu, kotoraya na tvoy vzglyad imeet bolshuyu veroyatnost pribyli. Esli rynok idet protiv tvoego ordera, ty ne nachinaesh serditsya ili nervnichat, ty prosto spokoyno zakryvaesh pozitsiyu. Sleduyushchaya sdelka ili posle nee, ili eshche cherez odnu, budet imet bolshie shansy na  uspekh, potomu chto ty uveren v tom, chto tvoya sistema rabotaet.

Ty perestaesh smotret na rezultaty torgovli ot sdelki k sdelke, a otsenivaesh rezultaty nedeli, mesyatsa. Potomu chto ty ponimaesh, chto odna neudachnaya sdelka ne govorit ni o chem.

Ty osoznal, chto vsya torgovlya zavisit ot postoyanstva tvoikh vzglyadov i distsipliny, chtoby brat vse sdelki po sisteme, potomu chto ty znaesh, chto pereves veroyatnosti na tvoey storone.

Ty ot i do izuchil kontrol nad kapitalom i upravlenie riskami, i teper chuvstvuesh naskolko eto vazhno, s ulybkoy vspominaya sovety drugikh, ot kotorykh ty otmakhivalsya god nazad. Ved oni byli pravy. Moment "Evrika" prikhodit togda, kogda ty polnostyu osoznaesh chto ne mozhesh predskazat rynok. Ty vot-vot pereydesh na sleduyushchiy etap stanovleniya treydera.

Ty otkryvaesh sdelki, kazhdyy raz, kogda  tvoya sistema daet signaly. Ty zakryvaesh ubytochnye ordera tak zhe legko, kak i pribylnye. Teper ty pozvolyaesh svoim pribylnym sdelkam rasti, poka ne poyavitsya signal k vykhodu, polnostyu prinimaya risk i znaya, chto tvoya sistema prinosit bolshe deneg chem teryaet.

Seychas ty v tochke, gde ty chashche vsego v bezubytke - den za dnem, u tebya budut nedeli, kogda ty zarabotal 100 punktov i nedeli kogda ty proigral 100 punktov - v tselom ty perestal teryat dengi i ponyal pravila igry. Tebe eshche predstoit obdumat svoi sdelki i provesti mnogo nablyudeniy, no ty uzhe nachinaesh stabilno zarabatyvat bolshe deneg, chem teryaesh.

Tvoy den mozhet nachatsya s vyigrysha v 20 punktov, zatem ty beresh 35 punktov ubytka i ne chuvstvuesh, chto otdal 20 punktov obratno, t.k. znaesh chto oni k tebe vernutsya.Ty nachinaesh poluchat stabilnuyu pribyl, nedelya za nedeley, inogda bolshe, inogda menshe.

Etot  etap prodolzhaetsya okolo polugoda.

Ty torguesh tak, slovno chistish zuby ili edesh na velosipede - ne zadumyvayas. Ty slovno na avtopilote, ty sovershaesh sdelki na bessoznatelnom urovne. Ty nachinaesh poluchat deystvitelno bolshie pribyli i 200 punktov v den ne delayut tebya bolee vzbudorazhennym chem 1 punkt za den.

Ty smotrish na novichkov na forumakh, krichashchikh "Paday dollar, paday!"  i vspominaesh sebya mnogo let nazad.

Ty ovladel svoimi emotsiyami i tvoy schet stabilno rastet.

Treyding prevrashchaetsya v rutinu, - ty prosto vypolnyaesh kazhdodnevnuyu rabotu.

Ty postoyanno nanosish poslednie shtrikhi k svoey torgovoy sisteme, chtoby izvlech bolshe pribyli iz rynka, ne uvelichivaya risk. Tvoy metod torgovli ne izmenilsya - on prosto stal luchshe, teper ty ponimaesh, chto nazyvayut intuitsiey v torgovle.

Teper ty mozhesh zayavit s gordo podnyatoy golovoy "Ya valyutnyy treyder", no chestno govorya, ty ne toropishsya krichat ob etom na kazhdom uglu, ved dlya tebya eto obychnaya rabota, kak lyubaya drugaya.

Pomnite, chto tolko 5 % stanovyatsya uspeshnymi treyderami i dokhodyat do poslednego urovnya, no prichina ne v sposobnostyakh, a v tom, chtoby ostavatsya silnym i byt sposobnym izmenyat svoi paradigm i vzglyady s prikhodom novoy informatsii.

Proigryvayut te, kto khochet bystro razbogatet i ne sposoben pomenyat svoe "ya luchshe znayu".

Esli seychas u vas nichego ne poluchaetsya i vy gotovy sdatsya, zadayte sebe odin prostoy vopros: "Skolko let vy gotovy khodit v VUZ, znaya chto v kontse obucheniya vas zhdet rabota s zarplatoy million dollarov v god?"

Spasibo za vnimanie, zhelayu vam uspekhov v torgovle.