This is a YouTube video titled "Trading Psychology - Trading System Mastery and Understanding Your Evolution As A Trader" created in 2010. The content is a detailed monologue or lecture focused on the developmental stages of becoming a proficient trader, emphasizing the importance of research, discovery, and mastering trading strategies and systems. It provides guidance on the mindset and skills needed to progress from a novice to a consistent, self-sufficient trader. The speaker discusses the critical roles of a trading strategist and trading system analyst in this evolution.
Pay attention, don't dismiss it. Thinking that you already fully understand this. I'm going to share some new perspectives with you that are very meaningful. And here's why. You need to pay attention in trading. As you've come to learn, what you don't know can hurt you. And so you do need to know about some things. This is one of those things very crucial. Especially if you've been at trading for quite a while and you're still not where you want to be, this probably will help you understand why. So again, don't dismiss it, pay attention. It only takes a few minutes. Anyway, what we're talking about today is in a broader sense the evolution of going from a brand new trader to the seasoned professional who trades comfortably and consistently all the time, anytime they want to. A big mistake that a lot of traders make. And you know what I'm talking about. Trading is presented as so easy that it's real simple for anybody, even somebody who's pretty smart, as most traders are, as you are, I'm sure it's real easy to look at it and underestimate what it takes. Particularly understanding that yes, you can't just go from, no matter how smart you are, you can't just go from stage one, an absolute ranked newbie, to that level 10, just straight from one to 10. There is a developmental curve. And what a lot of traders don't recognize is especially for the trades of the developing trader. Here's what I'm talking about. So when you first start trading, you only know really enough to be dangerous. Most traders, they get in, they learn about day trading or Forex or whatever from somebody. So they learn enough to get started. And really they only know enough to be dangerous. They don't know enough to really be a competent, sufficient and low risk trader. Newbie traders are very high risk, as you know. Anyway, what I'm talking about here is in that one of the very first stages that you enter when you become a trader is that of research and discovery. And, and here's what I'm talking about. Like I said, when you very first get started, you know, this one little corner that somebody's told you about, for example day trading and the currencies, forex markets, and so that's what you know about. And then it doesn't take long and you learn, well, you know, hey, there's more to this. Of course we got stocks. I kind of wasn't paying attention to that. You got stock trading, you got options, you got commodities, you got ETFs. Wow, there's all these different things to trade. And now you begin exploring or researching the various things that are available to you. You have your different markets, it's like one of the core basic things. But then you also have the other things that you need to learn about and you begin exploring it and you get the different time frames you can trade. Once you decide what instrument, there are different strategies that you can employ. Within the scope of the strategies, you get different tools and resources and systems and signals and wow, if you really get nuts with it, it doesn't take long and bam. All of a sudden you realize, man, there's just tons of possibilities here. You've got a lot of decisions to make. And that's where the research and discovery stage is so crucial. It's part of why there are a lot of people who've been at it for a long time and they don't realize they're still stuck here in this research and discovery. Because what's happening here is you're becoming the first two people that you need to become on your way to that proficient trader. These are two roles, critical roles that you have. And if you miss them, the markets will not let you move on. They won't. You have to attend to these two roles in order to be a self sufficient trader. Here's what I'm talking about, okay? Like I said, you first learn some of the basic basics. Okay, I've got different markets I can trade, different time frames. There are different strategies that I can use. Okay? So one of the very first roles that you have to fulfill is that of becoming a trading strategist. You have to understand the different strategies and how they're supposed to work. Before you can really even effectively move on to getting a system of trading, you have to understand the strategies. So your first role is a trading strategist. Then the next thing is once you decide on a marketplace that you're going to trade and the timeframes that you're going to look at, whether it be a day trader, short term trader, long term trader, whatever. Once you decide those core things, then you choose your strategy that defines your style of trading. And within that scope. Now you become a trading system analyst. This is your second role. Because before you should ever really be trading real money, before you should really be trading $1 or if, if you're going to trade real money, anything significant, do a micro account. But you have to become the person who has the know how and the skill set to evaluate a trading system and know if it's any good. If it's worth risking money on. So your first key role is strategist, and the second one is trading system analyst, where you can take a trading system and know how good it is. Just because somebody says, I've got a profitable system. A system that makes $1 over the course of a year is not necessarily a good system. It's profitable, but it's not good. So you want to know how good a trading system is. And you have to know how to properly analyze a trading system in order to really have any confidence in it, to be able to stick to it. There are a lot of people who've acquired or run across good trading systems, systems that work, but they weren't able to have the confidence in them to stick with them long enough to develop any real confidence. They hit some losers and they start playing with it. Now they're not even trading that system anymore. You know what I'm talking about. Or if you've also experienced this, where you're jumping from one system to another and another and another, and over a year or two or three, you've acquired five or six or eight different trading systems. It's because you're still stuck in this stage. You haven't become the strategist that you need to. You haven't become the trading system analyst that you need to. Before you can ever even really start moving into the second stage, which is once you've found a strategy that suits you and a system that works for you, and you know that it works. Now you begin the second stage, which is getting good with that system and getting good with that system in different circumstances, different situations in the marketplace, different market moods, different economic climates, because you can't necessarily just trade the exact same system forevermore. There will come a time when you have to be able to adapt. There will also come time when you want to be able to expand what you can do or take what you've got and make it better. So that's the second stage, when you've already got something that works and now you're just getting good at it and getting better and becoming a more flexible and proficient trader. So you've got your two basic stages. One is research and discovery, where you're getting things figured out and figured out what works for you, what works, period, and how well it works. Then you get into the second stage, where now once you've moved through stage one and you've become that person, now you can move into stage two and become that person who's the really excellent trader who has not only Become good with that system. You also have mastery over the trading system process itself. Like I said, it's just crucial that you understand where you are within this context. This is just speaking to the role of the trader within the bigger picture of having a real trading business. We're just talking about you as a trader here. Really. This is so crucial. It's so crucial. If you don't attend to these, the markets will not let you move on. They won't. You will have to attend to these before you can become that person that enjoys the freedom and the lifestyle that you want from trading. If you say no, I just want to skip it. I just want to go to the making money part. The markets will say you got to do this. Won't let you go around the board and pass go collect $200. You have to attend to this. That's why I developed the, the trading system mastery accelerated coaching so that you have these skill sets, you have the process and you have the tools and the know how. Because you won't get this anywhere else. There's so many people out there selling systems and they're not teaching you how to become the person that you need to be in order to really be a stand on your own two feet, self sufficient kind of trader. And there are some places they'll tell you what you need to do, maybe even fewer will tell you how to do what you need to do. And almost nobody out there that I know of is walking you.
