What Makes SUCCESSFUL Traders Different from the Rest?

Hi, Brian Macavoy here with Inside Out Trading and got kind of a fun conversation today. Don't I have that I want to have with you? This came out of a conversation I have with one of my coaching clients. And he's kind of a cool guy. I've told him straight up, he's an anomaly even among traders. I mean, traders are kind of the exception, a very small percentage of population, you know, the type that will become traders. And even among traders, he's an anomaly. He's one of those kind of guys where he's swinging for the fences. He's looking to make his year in a handful of trades and not, you know, do, you know, tiny trades, you know, hitting for singles, maybe doubles. He's looking for home runs, and that's how he works. Now, where we're at in the conversation and where this pertains to you is as we're talking about, you know, styles of trading and comfort zones and, you know, strategies and the way a person goes about their trading, pursuits of trading. One thing, and he brought this out, and I thought it was really cool. He said, well, the way I look at it is I look at what hurts me most. He says, it doesn't bother me to lose a little bit of money. You know, if I go in on a trade and I'm wrong and I lose that, I'm fine. What really kills me is to trade too small. I don't. If it just. Just pisses me off if I'm in a trade and I got a little bitty, you know, risk put on. He says, I'm looking for a home run. I don't want a little bitty, you know, a little bitty trade or, you know, it's just gonna be a little bitty winner even if it runs. Says, man, I want to ride a big wave over there. And so his whole thing is, he said, you know, really, as far as, you know, choosing how you're going to trade, one of the questions you want to ask yourself is what hurts the most? And for him, yeah, it's not to be on a. On a winner and in big. And he's breaking some of the rules. You know, he will trade up to 5% of his account on a given trade, which most people. That would be a monstrous. No, no, like I said, he's swinging for the fences. So he's looking to make 100 grand on a trade and not trading with a million dollar account. But he likes playing the bigger time frames, and he's looking for the bigger winners and he's betting big when he trades. And so where this pertains to you is, are you playing small or you may be playing, you know, too big? Are you playing at a level and a size that's appropriate for you for some traders, and here's a perfect example. This one gal was working with years ago. We were taking a look at her system. She was struggling with it because. And she was very frustrated because she had a real high win rate, but she wasn't making any money. She was still losing money. She goes, brian, I've got like an 85 win rate and I'm not making money. What the heck? And so we got to looking at it and it was, it was really aggressive. But the thing is the way it was structured and the rules and everything, she could, you know, win 85% of her trades, but the one winner, when it came along, would wipe out just a ton of profit. And it was built into it. And so, you know, when we ran the numbers and ran the metrics on her system and I was able to walk her through it all and she's like, huh? I'm like, so do you really want to stick with this system? Because it's really going to be hard for you to, you know, get ahead with this. Every loser you hit is going to set you way back and it's. And you're going to be very dependent on that 80 to 90 win rate, you know, just to break even. And she did some reflecting on it and we talked a couple days later and she said, well, actually, Brian, even though it doesn't make sense, I'm still going to stick with it because I need the high win rate. I'll just make sure that I'm managing my position size to help control the win loss ratio or the profit to loss ratio. Like, okay, that makes sense. But she recognized in herself she needed to trade small and be, you know, conservative, guarding against the losses because she didn't like losing money. But she really just couldn't handle like a 50 or 60% win rate. She emotionally and psychologically needed that 80 to 90 win rate just to be able to trade. Otherwise, it just totally wrecked her. And that was good that she recognized that. The same thing with the client that I was talking with the other night. He was honest with himself and he's like, yeah, I couldn't do, you know, like a 1%, you know, per trade risk limit because it just doesn't work for me because I'm just gonna be sitting there, you know, watching my winter run and just Pissed off that I don't have a bigger trade on. And it's always just good to recognize where you are, what's, you know, what resonates with you and what doesn't, and then make sure that, you know, we've got together a plan of risk management and money management plan and a strategy that are really going to fit you and your objectives and how you trade that it all comes together to make you successful. Some traders, you know, they just jump into it and they're going off, you know, what they heard, you know, where it is they started, or, you know, whatever they picked up on a webinar or on a podcast and they're not necessarily filtering it with. Yeah, but does this resonate with me? Understand, Joe Blow over here is making money with it, but does that work for me? Am I going to be able to trade like that and, and not have some internal conflict where I'm going to wind up sabotaging it, or I'm just going to be fighting it all the time? Because I just like, you know, it's not a perfect fit. So really important that you're honest with yourself and you say, and just look at it. It's like, yeah, when I'm trading, what is it that really, instead of, you know, what do I want? What was cool about the question that came out of the conversation is when you're trading and things, you know, happen, whether it's winners or losers or whatever, but what is it that hurts you the most? You know, what, what really pains you the most? Is it, you know, losing money? Is it the, you know, the win loss ratio? Is it too big a trade, too small a trade, just, you know, kind of reflect on it and see where you genuinely are at when you're being honest with yourself. Sometimes, you know, trading super tiny trades is smart because you just, yeah, you got to fear losing money. I had this one guy who was trading a huge account, but he was still placing like 20 trades because he just couldn't deal with losing money. Even losing 20 bucks bothered it. So it's about being honest with yourself and then being able to structure again your trading between your risk and money management, your strategy and how you're approaching it, your hours, all that kind of stuff. A lot of details go into it, but we want to make sure that your trading is structured in a way that most resonates with you and still will accomplish your objectives, your financial goals with your trading. Because again, it is a business investment that you've made. So we want to do that. But Anyway, I hope this been helpful. You know, as far as trading, being a successful trader is the whole key to it. You want to focus on you as a trader, developing into a successful trader. When you become a proper trader and you're skilled up and you know, you've developed as a trader, you can trade however you want and you can be successful if you're just focusing on chasing strategies or ignoring, you know, the develop professional development as a trader and you just want to chase strategies and you know, discipline and hacks and cheats and that kind of stuff. It's going to be an uphill battle for you and it can go on for years. So please do focus on you and developing you as a trader. Become the professional that you know for whom trading is easy. You make money comfortably, you trade comfortably, it's enjoyable and you're making a kind of money that you want. So I hope this has been helpful. If it has, give me a like and a subscribe down below and you know, share this with your friends. As far as having a strategy that resonates with you, I've got a guide. It's called the Perfect Trading Strategy Guide and it's nine questions or criteria that you want to review whenever you're looking at, you know, a given strategy to make sure that it really does resonate with you. And there are nine different criteria so that you can look at whatever it is you're considering trading with and see does it really resonate with you? Is it going to be well aligned with you so that, yeah, you're very, very likely to be able to trade it well and not have internal conflicts with their internal resistance to it. So you can swing by inside out trading.com and pick that up again. It's called the Perfect Trading Strategy Guide. Got some other free resources for you there if you want to book all with me. Talk about what's holding you back and you know, what's the best path to move you forward going, you know, get you moving forward with your trading. Be happy to do that as well. So again, I hope this has been helpful. We'll talk to you soon. Cheers.