Rob Spain Trading

I wished my English was a little better but I give it a try.

People are frequently asking me how to become a (more) consistent trader ?
Well, I could redirect you to the million books which have been written about this subject but apparently they are not helping the mass because 90-95% of all traders fail.

In my onion there is little to gain from all those books, yes I know what I am talking about because I also have read many books in my search years ago. The real key lies within yourself.
What forces are at work when you have prepared yourself to buy the 02/24 low @ 1292.50 ?
Why didn’t you take it ? What did change your mindset ?

The answer is FEAR -Fear of ruin your account.

Most starting traders are in a constant struggle to keep their account alive because they are trading 5-10k accounts or even 3k . Small accounts can’t take frequent losses – your mind can’t take them either because lack of confidence and scare of loosing make you a too cautious trader.
so what you do ?
You take small 3-4 tick profits because it “feels” good. But 1 loser takes a away 3 or 4 good trades and your account took another hit. I can’t tell you what will work for you but I can tell you mine.

I began in 1987 as stock and options trader and I think it is about 10-12 years ago when I was trading futures for the first time. I had a 25k account which I ruined making the same mistakes all traders do. Although I researched and read everything I could lay my hands on it didn’t work. In theory I knew “everything” and yet I failed with another 10k.
I wanted it so badly and not willing to quit, quitting is not in my vocabulary I had to succeed in my endeavor as a Trader. I decided to give it one more try with a 15k account what would make my total loss 50k
I didn’t care about that money anymore, it wasn’t mine anymore so to speak.
In other words I was not emotional attached to that money anymore and I now believe that is why I made it in this business. I did tons of homework, pre-defined my levels and executed according to plan. The hell with it – if I lose it ok I lose it and I’ll know.

Not that my demons were gone, absolutely not but I had no other choice than to confront those beasts.
I can see some similarities with the poker game – you enter at the flop the boys try to freak you out on the Turn with their 2-tick suckerstop and if market moves up they try to stab you again on the river with a weak pullback to the lows.

People are asking me how long will it take to become consistent ?
I think if you have the money, the experience and the right mindset it can be done in about 6-9 months.
Before trading real money you need to rehearse your skills over and over on SIM so that you can rely on your experience and the setups “that work for you” .
During those SIM sessions you need to visualize trading for real and not that it doesn’t matter because its SIM.
You should mentally feel the fear of stopping out and rehearse it again and again so when changing to real you have been in that state already, you know how it feels.

Trade what you see instead of what you think. Trade according to your plan knowing where/when you are wrong and hide the P&L on your DOM.