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TRADING #101 COURSE – PART II TWO: SUCCESSFUL TRADING PIE – WWW.TRADERSCOACH.COM
on your trading rules but your paper trading just took a turn for the worse and you’ve got
a 20 percent draw down in your practice account. You are feeling discouraged, and are
just about ready to quit.
This is a time when you will need to look for motivational support from either a trading
coach, a trading buddy, or a trusted family member. It is during the times when you
want to give up, that you have to step back and gain perspective. You’ve got to have the
feeling that “…failure is not an option…” and just “…work the problem...” You’ve got to
have purpose and a reason for achieving this goal of creating a set of trading rules that
are consistently profitable.
If you haven’t already seen the movie Apollo 13 about NASA’s 1970 Apollo mission
that almost did not make it home, you must see it. The remarkable teamwork of the
ground crew working together to bring the three crew members aboard the ship home
safely is a unique and miraculous true story.
“…Houston, we have a problem …” is probably the most famous line of the movie.
But, my personal favorite line of the movie occurs when Gene Kranz, the flight director,
says to his team very sternly when they are feeling discouraged, “…Gentlemen, listen
up! NASA has never lost a man in space, and I’ll not let us lose a man in space on my
watch. Failure is not an option.…”. Gene Kranz, was a motivator and had the right
mind-set to create solutions when everyone else envisioned the likelihood of failure.
That sums up in a snapshot the mind-set you must have to succeed when faced with a
challenge. You’ve got to have purpose and the will power to motivate yourself to find the
right solutions to the challenges that present themselves to you.
The Foundation of Your Trading Rules
Building a strong foundation is the first step in designing your rules. You must be able to
answer these six questions before you can effectively develop rules that will be
profitable for your situation.
1. What is my experience level?
2. What is my trading style?
3. What is my trading frequency and/or time frame?
4. What financial markets will be best for me to trade?
5. Will my rules be based on technicals, fundamentals or both?
6. What broker(s) and data feed(s) are best for my situation to use?
Use Part One: Trading Basics of this book when answering these six important
questions. These answers will be the cornerstone to your trading rules. Remember,
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