Trading Education: Should You Continue Trading?

So the question is, should you continue trading? There's a couple of different aspects to this. We're going to talk about them right now and these are really important because these impact everything about your trading. It really do. So the first part of the question is, you know, if you've been trading for more than six months and you're still not profitable or even close, should you continue trading the way you have been or is it time to maybe stop and reassess the way you've been approaching your trading? I say this because not because in six months, you know, and this is time from the time you very first start, but six months in, you should be at least a competent trader where, okay, yes, you can get at least to break even. Six months is pretty reasonable time. I mean, well, trading isn't as simple as it looks. It also doesn't require a four year degree. It doesn't require five or 10 or 20 years to get there. You can learn what you need to know to be successful, to be a profitable trader in six months. Now, if it's gone beyond six months, you really probably want to take a step back and say, well, am I going about this in the right way? Because it's not working. So here's the thing. So many traders will jump into it and they, you know, they look at trading and it's like, wow, okay, it's easy enough, I get it. There's a system out there. You know, been spending a little time in a trading room, okay, I get it. I just need to follow the strategy. But then you jump into it and it's not that easy. It's not that simple. But it's deceptive. It's deceptively simple. Trading is, you know, you just, yeah, look at the, look at the charts. However you're trading, whether it's discretionary, mechanical, you know, candlesticks, you know, whatever your method is, it doesn't matter. Six months is plenty of time to get competent. Now you're not, you know, you're not going to become a, you know, fully matured seasoned veteran in six months, but you should at least be able to get to the point where you're competent. This is really important. So the main thing is if you've been trading for more than six months and you're still struggling, you're still losing money and it's difficult and your days are more filled with anxiety and stress and kind of a, you know, a feeling of futility or, you know, at best it's just, it's rough and you're not sure, you know, it's anxious. You know, you're not sure if you're going to make money or not. Well, then you really should stop. Stop trading with real money and take a break and step back and reassess what you're doing and see if there isn't something maybe that you need to learn. Okay, now here's the other reason that you want to, you know, stop and take a look at it. It's the opportunity cost. Do you really want to continue investing time, months or years into something that may or may not ever pay off? And I say this in all sincerity. There are a lot of people, they've come to me saying, hey, Brian, I need some help. I've been struggling with this for a long time. When I ask them how long, it blows me away. How long Some people will struggle with something. And understandable, I'm not judging anybody. I've done this myself in different aspects of my life, did it for way too long than I should have with trading before I sought help. It's really easy to get caught in the trap of, of just kind of plugging along, struggling, thinking, well, you know, just somehow, somewhere, somewhat, somewhere along the way, things will magically turn around. And the thing is, they won't. You'll just continue to plod along in a subpar but not totally painful existence, and before you know it, five years have gone by. And that sucks. So the thing is, you need to be impatient to a degree. You need to be patient enough to allow things to work within a reasonable time period. But if they're not working, step back and say, okay, well, needs to change because this isn't working. Do I need to, you know, do I need to go do something else besides trading? Maybe trading isn't it. See, here's the other thing. If you're investing months and years and we're assuming you're a capable person, you know, there are other things you could do that would be making money. I mean, even if it's just your job or picking up, picking up a job, even $15 an hour job, sadly, $15 an hour is way more than a lot of traders are making. I mean, think about it. If you're trading all, you know, and at the end of the month, you've put in 30, 40, 50 hours, 60 hours, 80 hours, 100 hours, 25 hours a week, 100 hours over the month, and you haven't made any money or you've made a hundred bucks, you made a dollar an hour. That sucks. That's not what you got into this for. You want to be doing something that's actually going to be fruitful. Now again, it's going to take an investment of time and some money to get started to learn what you need to learn. But it shouldn't, it shouldn't take years. I mean, that's the last thing you want is to, you know, waste years unnecessarily on something. So again, back to the, to the time frame. Six months. You should be competent, comfortably competent. It's long enough to learn what you need to learn and practice the skills. Get good to get good at it. Now, is it again, is it going to have, you know, a fully confident, seasoned veteran pro trader? No, but that'll get you to a point of competency or at least you're breaking even more often than not and you're making some money. So it's going beyond that. Stop and take a look. Now, if you'd like to, you know, discuss this, I can help you swing by Inside Out Trading. Schedule a call with me. More than happy to discuss your situation with you. See what you've been doing, you know, see what's been missing, see what isn't working and see how we can fix it. I'm be more than happy to help you out. So anyway, again, if you've been trading for more than six months and it's still rough, if you're still losing money, stop and take a break. Give yourself a break from the stress and reassess what you got going on. Because really, it's only in your best interest. This is your life we're talking about. When trading works, it works great. When it doesn't, it can suck and it can suck the life right out of it. So anyway, let's make it a good thing. Let's make it the positive thing that you got into trading for. Hope this has been helpful. Talk to you soon. Cheers. One of the keys to being a successful trader is avoiding making mistakes. So if you'd like to find out what the top psychological mistake is that most traders make, then just check out this video right here and find out. It's from a golf perspective. So you'll like this and you'll definitely understand it and it'll definitely help you in your trading. You'll like this. Talk to you soon. Cheers.