As we have mentioned previously in this blog, trading stocks is a skill. It is not luck, or chance or some type of alchemy. If you learn the skills and practice them, you can be a good trader. What do we mean when we say Trader? We mean that you are someone who can consistently extract profits from the stock market.
To do this requires you to master two sets of skills. The first is the ability to trade the stocks. This skill is a combination of learning the rules of the game and then being able to follow the rules. It also involves learning the various tools that you have at your disposal to do this. This includes learning how to read charts, examine volume indicators and get a “feel” for the market action.
The second set of skills you need are the ability to pick high probability stock plays. This skill involves more of the “heavy lifting” of trading. It involves continually monitoring multitudes of stocks. You must do your due diligence on these stocks and come up with solid reasons not only to buy them, but to buy them now. It also involves tracking the indexes that have an influence on the individual potential trades. In all, there is a tremendous amount of work that goes into being a good or even great stock picker
Here at Bulls to Bears we have a two-pronged approach to trading. We are going to try to use our blog and our newsletter to teach you how to be a good trader. It is free because the large amount of work including learning is incumbent upon you. Also, we know that if you do become a good trader, it makes our products more effective in your hands. It allows you to apply what we give you to make money for yourself and your family.
The second part of our approach is our stock recommendation service. This you do have to pay for. Why? Because this is where we must do the heavy lifting. We must do the hundreds of hours of due diligence. We must track hundreds of stocks and indexes. We have the burden of finding the high probability situations so our clients can focus on what they need to do: learning to become good traders.
If you look closely at many highly successful stock traders, they all posses similar mindsets that separates them from the rest of the herd. Below we have listed a dozen unmistakable skills-sets that the most successful traders possess, that most people don't understand. They tend to:
1. Keep Emotions in check. - good traders understand how their emotions can influence their trading performance. balance and temper thoughts and emotions.
1. Keep Emotions in check. - good traders understand how their emotions can influence their trading performance. balance and temper thoughts and emotions.
2. Being confidence - change is all around us, not just in the markets; it’s always happening and there’s no controlling it. Good traders know that and are better at adapting to change, rather than resisting it
3. Mistakes, although uncomfortable - don’t punish yourself and others for them, good traders take responsibility for their every action in the markets and their focus on optimistic growth
4. Appreciate other people’s successes - Trading is a tough profession. Losses and drawdowns are challenging periods that cause many to break. Good traders never compare their own results with others. They don’t feel as though other people’s success somehow diminishes their own achievements. Losers think like that, and in return, losses and disappointments is what they keep reaping in their lives.
5. Sticking to the rules. - Good traders make decisions with relative ease because they understand their rules and what they are trading and looking for in the markets. They do not let other people’s opinions affect their judgment. They’ve learned to trust their own - essentially catching their own fish.
6. Focus on sharpening your skills, rather than showing them off. - some people seek validation or recognition from other traders on Social Medias (especially twitter) for the trades they take, good traders are less concerned about gaining recognition. Instead, they’re intrinsically motivated to become better.
7. View trading losses as opportunities for growth. - Good traders don’t waste time feeling sorry for themselves, they make good traders grow better.
8. Practice delayed gratification. - great traders view their trading goals as a marathon, not a sprint. They’re willing to tolerate short-term pain when it can provide long-term gain.
9. Bounce back from failure - Good traders don’t view failure as the end of the road. Instead, they use potential failures as opportunities to refocus and gain new knowledge and adopt new behaviors that will increase their chances of success in the future.
10. Express gratitude - Rather than exclaim you need more, good traders take whatever the markets are offering them in the moment however small the gains are. If they followed their plan to the letter, then what should or could have been doesn’t matter.
11. Focus on what you can control - Good traders are effective in the markets for the mere reason that they devote their resources to that which they can control - and this does not include controlling the markets but their own behavior.
12. Be open to learning - Learning is a paramount and an important tool and an ongoing quest for great traders.
We stress that you don't just practice good trades, practice good trading skills! Bulls to Bears uses a developed hybrid approach of both technical and fundamental trading disciplines to come up with a majority of our stock picks. In doing so we have developed a tremendous track record. Our service is literally designed so you can earn, while you learn. Use our stocks picks to make money and at the same time you are practicing and learning the skills needed to becoming a great trader. Think of it as a work study program for Stock Trading.
If you didn’t recognize yourself in any of those 12 statements above, rest assured, you can develop these qualities in record time. For starters, I suggest getting our investment newsletter here.
In the end it will boil all down to one key quality and that is behavioral change and we can help you with that too!
