It’s instinctive to look for shortcuts in order to find trading success. It makes sense that the quicker we learn, the faster we’ll make money. In this post I explore whether taking shortcuts is worth your while. Interested? Read on.
Why We Love Looking for Shortcuts:
Success and making money goes hand in hand. So it makes sense that the faster we become successful, the quicker we can make money… and hopefully lots of it. Couple this with the the following:
- We live in a world of instant gratification.
- Technology provides us with all sorts of “hacks” to make living and our lifestyles better and easier.
- We love comparing ourselves to others. In today’s world, we can compare ourselves with not only people close to us, but also to people from anywhere in the world.
- Marketers / Influencers knows exactly who to target and what / how to sell, flaunting their lifestyles while promising instant success. With the press of a button you can get “the course” that promises to make you wealthy.
- Many don’t want to do the unpleasant (but worthwhile) tasks that’s required for success.
With the above in mind, it’s easy to see why people want to, or get influenced to take shortcuts.
Shortcuts Traders Take:
Below are some of the shortcuts traders love to take:
- Not preparing properly for the trading journey. Lots of stuff are linked to this, like not back testing, a lack of education, not having finances in order, having unrealistic expectations, etc.
- Not journaling.
- Risking too much.
- Always looking for the holy grail system.
- Subscribing to signal services.
- Overtrading (thinking the more you trade, the more money you can make).
- Revenge trading (wanting to make losses back).
- FOMO trading (not wanting to miss out on missed opportunities and profits).
- Relying on tips.
Most of these shortcuts come down to the need / desire to make money, fast.
The Drawbacks of Taking Shortcuts:
The stakes in trading is high. Taking shortcuts makes it even higher. Below are the major drawbacks to taking shortcuts:
- Not preparing properly for your trading journey will make you vulnerable. This means you will be an easy target to any snake oil salesman out there. It means they can paddle you with why their course, mentorship or signal service is the best… and chances are that you’ll fall for it. This can take you down a rabbit hole of trying different things, often wasting a lot of money.
- Right out of the gate you start practicing and reinforcing bad habits like being undisciplined and being impatient.
- You will not have a good, fundamental trading foundation from where to build from.
- If you don’t back test, you will have a hard time trusting your system. This means you’ll be more prone to do stuff like not sticking to your stops and and taking profit too soon.
- Because you don’t journal, you’ll have trouble identifying your strengths and weakness. This is vital if you want to improve.
- Chances of blowing your account will increase because you risk too much, overtrade, revenge trade and FOMO into trades.
- You will constantly be on an emotional rollercoaster of resentment, fear, greed, stress, doubt, frustration and anger.
- Chances are – ironically – that you waste your time.
Are there Any Legit Trading Shortcuts?
I think if you do your due diligence and can find the right mentor / coach, you can become successful faster.
Just remember, if to take that route, chances are that you will get homework. What kind of homework? The kind that we don’t like, but are necessary, meaning:
- Researching and finding a style / strategy that work for you.
- Back testing the strategy.
- Journaling.
- Starting small.
- Working on your discipline and patience.
You get the idea.
The best shortcut (in my opinion) to trading success is revisiting your trading expectations, making peace with the idea that becoming successful will take time, then committing to do what needs to be done.
Finally:
Many times taking shortcuts teaches as what not to do. If you stick around long enough, you will come to that realization. That’s when the “real” trading journey starts. I hope you stick around long enough.
Thanks so much for reading. I hope you found this post helpful. Goodluck with your trading.
Thanks and Regards,
Trading SOS SOS
