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I am a regular trader. I am proud of that fact. Are you regular in your trading? Let’s look at what being regular really is all about.
Let’s start with some examples from everyday life. We all sleep at night, regularly. We regularly go to bed at a certain time of the night and wake up regularly round about the same time weekdays and maybe a little different on weekends. If for some reason, this pattern is altered, say due to extended travel or unusual life events, one feels out of alignment, weird, weary or simply not right. It takes a while to synchronise back into a “regular pattern”. The same thing applies to other daily activities: eating, cleaning, working and relaxing.
Some of these regular activities are indeed pleasurable, for example relaxing in front of TV watching a game. Some on the other hand are not that pleasurable initially but have a positive contribution to one’s life, for example exercising. If you want to get fit, build your body strength and lose some excess weight, you need to exercise regularly. You simply can not go to the gym once or twice and expect to see the benefits. Regular may be every day, every other day or once a week. Once you get into that routine though, it is easy to keep at it. It becomes second nature, you do not think about it. As the ad says: you “Just Do It”.
Let’s apply this to your trading. What areas do you expect some regularity? Education is one very important area. Reading books, studying courses, attending seminars and workshops, getting skilled with your trading software, getting to know the markets you trade can all be regular activities. In fact they need to be regular activities. How will you get to know a market if you look at it only once in a while. How will you be on top of every move your market makes if you really do not know much about it?
Our editor, Tom Scollon, has, on more than one occasion, mentioned "being match ready" as a metaphor for trading. If you are a professional tennis player, for example, you would be match ready all the time. That requires regular practice, regular self-improvement, regular rehearsal of strategies, and regular exercise to keep yourself fit. Now apply this to trading. Are you "trade ready"? If the indicators you are watching say trade, are you ready to enter a trade. Do you know exactly what you will do to enter and what you will do to exit the trade? Remember, being trade ready does not mean you are in a trade all the time. It means you are ready to jump when the opportunity arises.
Regular activities tend to be repetitious,integrated into your life, devoid of too much emotion, and pretty ordinary. What can you do to become a regular trader? The long term rewards are waiting for you.
Believe, achieve
Sinan Koray
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