Do you know the one reason why traders fail? Here’s the deal: power comes to us from each other. It’s a well-known fact that two brains are better than one. When a group of minds work together and function with the same goal – making money trading stocks – the increased energy created through the group becomes available to every individual in the group.
With this in mind, it is easy to see the one reason why traders fail. By trying to do everything by themselves, they miss out on vital feedback from everyone in the group.
The One Reason Why Traders Fail
Stock market trading is much harder than we realize. Especially when we’re new and just beginning. We see the larger-than-life, shiny lifestyle being promoted to us.
Hence, this is one reason why traders fail. They get caught up in the dream being promoted. However, trading isn’t a get-rich-quick scheme. Think of Tom Brady. When you think of him now, you can’t deny his greatness. However, in Michigan, he couldn’t get on the field and was often the one to bail the team out of the mistakes of the other quarterback. Then it looked like he wasn’t going to get drafted.
The New England Patriots took him in the 6th round. However, when he got there, he was 4th on the QB depth chart. He only became the starter due to a Bledsoe injury.
But when you look at him today, his success is amazing considering where he came from. If you’re wondering why Tom Brady’s story would have anything to do with the one reason why traders fail, let me clear it up for you.
He weathered the storm. He prepared and trained like he was starting, even when he wasn’t. Apply that to your trading. Weather the losses. Use paper trading like real trading.
A Real Life Example
Price action on the one-minute chart was surging upward; a lot was happening on the chart. Matt looked at it carefully and blew a big sigh because he was in a short position.
All prompted by a pre-market surge with no catalyst to justify the jump (rookie mistake). To make matters worse, the last three candles closed above VWAP, and the 9 EMA just crossed above the 20 EMA. His stop was just above the pre-market high, and volume was increasing.
He had faith in his trading plan, but price action seemed to tell another story. He was dangerously close to being stopped out, which reminded him of all the times he’d been stopped out only to have the chart retrace and hit his target level.
Aghhhh, the fear and panic were flooding him like a torrential rainfall, bringing back painful memories of rushing out of a trade only to miss profits.
Control Your Emotions
Not being able to control emotions is the one reason why traders fail. “If you cannot control your emotions, you cannot control your money.” Warren Buffett
Now, this is where Matt takes a page out of Warren Buffett’s book; he takes a deep breath and calls his trading buddy Sam.
As fate would have it, they were in the same mastermind group together and did quite well, trading some of the same instruments.
Based on mutual support from each other and the community they had behind them, they agreed to be each other’s sounding board.
Sam could see that the call was from Matt and quickly answered his phone. Matt let Sam know what was happening in the trade, and Sam asked Matt one crucial question:
“What matters most in this trade, following your trading plan and rules or giving in to your emotions and throwing your rule book out of the window?” With that simple question, it only took Matt a moment to strengthen his resolve and focus on what was most important at the moment – following his rules. Matt thanked Sam and said goodbye.
With his emotions in check, Matt was able to push through his discomfort. Moments later, price action hit his stop, and he was out of the trade.
Despite being stopped out, Matt was not sad and depressed over the losing trade. Matt viewed it as a “win” because he followed his trading plan and held his ground; he did not give in to his emotions and the urge to run.
In short, he was grateful for the support and relationship he formed in his learning community.
The One Reason Why Traders Fail and Is This You?
You have a desire to quit your job. Great. You set a goal to day trade for a living. Great. But you don’t know a thing about stocks. Okay. How are you going to learn?
You write a plan of attack. Great. But a plan is useless without power or the right knowledge behind it. Power, in this sense, is referred to as organized effort and intelligently directed knowledge.
If you’ve been paying attention, I’m talking about a mastermind group. In your case, it may be an organized effort of two or more people who work towards the same end goal (i.e., to earn enough money to quit their boring 9-5 job).
One of the most powerful tools successful people use is the mastermind group. The definition of a Mastermind trading group is simple; it is made up of people who come together regularly – daily, weekly, or monthly—to share trading ideas, strategies, plans, thoughts, information, feedback, contacts, and resources.
To get the perspective, knowledge, experience, and resources of others in the group, not only can you greatly expand on your own (limited) view of the trading world, but you can also drastically decrease your learning curve.
Final Thoughts
Being part of a mastermind group can be a real powerhouse for your trading. Trading is a 90-95% mental game, and that is one reason why traders fail.
If you have a caring, reliable, capable, and committed support community behind you and you behind them, success is inevitable. And the one reason why traders fail is that they don’t have this group behind them.
At the end of the day, it’s about doing what it takes to develop your A-Game and bringing your A-Game to the table and keeping it there during the trading session.
