How I Would Start Trading in 2026 (Beginner's Blueprint)

This is how I would start trading now. After over 25 years of extensive experience in the financial markets, several world championship titles, and having mentored and trained well over 1,000 traders to find their own personal path as a trader, I can tell you one very important thing: the way most traders want to learn this profession is completely and fundamentally incorrect. What you need is, first, your own unique and personal trader avatar, You need to know exactly what kind of trading character you have. Second, the most effective strategy to be able to successfully implement your trader avatar correctly. And third, the ideal market environment that you need to trade performantly on the capital markets.

I will explain these skills to you in detail today, but before we start, a question for you: are you someone who makes decisions very quickly, or are you someone who has a more wait-and-see attitude and calmly selects What is happening right now?

That is a very specific, important decision that you have to make beforehand. Depending on exactly what you answer, the specific entry into your trading will be very different.

When you start out with trading, it is absolutely essential to know first of all which strategy suits you, how you tick, and what skills you need to bring to the table in order to really trade the market that should be assigned to you well. And that is exactly what institutional investors have always done when they scout for traders for their hedge funds, for their trading firms, or whatever the case may be. Because they need different types of people for different types of strategies. That is how it works at large trading houses, and especially with high-performance institutional players. Let us take a look together at what I mean by that. Look, if you are someone in soccer, for example, who loves to charge forward aggressively, well, then, as a trader, you will also be someone who likes to move forward very dynamically. Strikers, for instance, have only one purpose: to score goals, to get in there quickly. But if you are someone who, for example, first ensures that there is an overview, that things are distributed, that things are planned chronologically, then you bring completely different skills to the table. Or if you are the kind of individual who tends to wait much longer in a defensive position, to see what happens when a storm brews and everyone rushes toward them. Then you possess a completely unique set of characteristics again. And last but not least, imagine you are the goalkeeper who makes sure that nothing is supposed to get into his net. He has completely different traits than a striker does. Many people are not even aware of that. And that is exactly what I really want to share with you as a trader. Because one thing is important. Before you start trading, you need a very clearly assigned role based on how you tick. And this assignment is done very easily through a corresponding potential analysis. And this potential analysis immediately shows you: A) exactly how you operate and think, what specific skills you possess as a certain archetype, and what your unique characteristics are. For example, here: very assertive, very profit-oriented, very innovative, very disciplined and structured, and also quite likes to hold on to old things. But what is this person not capable of? And that is the great art of gauging things correctly. Because everything here that is in the negative range in our potential analysis shows you what subconscious patterns do you have that are preventing you from being successful. And then you can clearly see, okay, he is very disciplined, but he also has a significant struggle when other people try to impose structures and order on him.

Mhm.

Furthermore, he also has no real desire to work together with other people in harmony and unison. On top of that, he also has his own noticeable challenges when other things move toward him very quickly. These are the specific areas where you really have to carefully build a bridge. And only when you have really understood this bridge building once and for all and understand how you tick and what you actually have an aversion to, are we then in a position to immediately recognize what structure, what type of trader you actually are.

You—

And is there perhaps anything else we need to look at before you start trading? And for that, let's look at which strategies are actually effective for you. And before we get down to business, take a look at the following: markets stay in so-called ranges or sideways phases over 70% of the time. And the market spends about 70% of its time in these sideways phases. Now you have to know, why is that? Quite simply, the big heavy money needs time to position itself in the markets. It's a very simple story. Imagine you're a large pension fund and you have to place your money on the market on the first, second, or third of the month. Well, you need relatively fair prices for that. And I can tell you, in these market phases, right here, you don't have fair prices. Instead, one side is always in excess. That means either a buyer or a seller, depending on the direction. And those are trend phases. And trend phases occur about 30% of the time. And now comes the most crucial part: which models can I actually use in Phase 1 for trading? And which models take place in Phase 2, meaning in trend phases? And that's something we absolutely must distinguish between, because I can promise you one thing: In Phase 1, the balance phases, you'll find distinctly different structures than in Phase 2. This means that different setups and different context planning are decisive there. And that's exactly why it is absolutely essential for you to understand how to determine a specific context and what to trade there. So, start by carefully examining if we have a consolidation phase, a sideways phase, Phase 1, where the market tends to remain trapped 70% of the time.— or if we're currently in a strongly trending and accelerated phase, which is the specific phase where I can effectively trade breakouts. Look, there are many setups that are constantly being touted as having super high success rates. Yes, they work precisely well in this market phase right here. And these setups simply fail to perform 70% of the time. So what actually proves to be effective during that time? During that specific time, the strategy of counter-trend trading is what really works. Essentially, that means you need setups here where the market says it is too expensive at the top and much too cheap at the bottom. Too expensive at the top and too cheap at the bottom, continuing this cycle until you suddenly get proof that the market is doing the exact opposite. And it's very important to localize that first. That means Phase 2 is counter setups and Phase 1 is breakout setups. Mm-hmm. And now you have to be able to localize, how can I actually plan all of this for myself? And for that, you need expert knowledge. And this expert knowledge can be broken down very simply by stopping saying, I'm looking at a candlestick, so the market opened here, then it was up here at some point, hung around here, was down here, and then it closed here. No, I'll take a much more detailed look into that, and this is exactly what I am going to do. I'm looking at what volume of trades actually took place during this specific time period right here that I'm using. Let's assume this is one day. Then what I see is, all right, high volumes, no volumes, high volumes, and then no volumes. As we just saw, the market environment generally finds acceptance in areas where many significant trades have taken place. That means in the next step, I can specifically localize— Okay, let's just assume this is my high-volume market phase with large trades, and I'll just claim that This is our main area of interest for today. The market felt comfortable there because the big institutions could conduct their business in peace. Up here, the market didn't feel comfortable, and down here it didn't either. Why? Because the prices there simply weren't characterized by high acceptance. Very low volume means the market will first try to come back down here during these phases if it trades here because it wants to do business. But why does it want that? And that is the all-important question. If I now simply look at the trades that were handled in great detail within this specific market phase, both on the bid and on the ask, meaning on the buy and sell side, then I have a much more detailed set of information. And this information tells me exactly where the market made the largest volume of trades, namely right here. And when I see that, but also see, okay, the market made the largest trades here, but had the longest duration here, and also in total volume overall, perhaps made more trades, then that is a piece of information. And even if the overall picture looks negative, there's a high probability the market will see if it can aggregate more trades at these higher price levels, because there seems to have been a major player involved there. Furthermore, it tells me that up here is a so-called finished auction. That means that was the end of the line for the time being. Down here, the market gives me the information: unfinished auction, unfinished auction, because there was information on both the bid and the ask. Essentially, this means the following for me: I have the valuable insight and can utilize it to clearly see where I am currently in terms of trade volume in balance or not in balance, where the markets are unfair. Secondly, I know that roughly 70% of the time, the market will try to continue to aggregate and extend its duration within this balance phase so it can do its fair and efficient business here, because that's where supply and demand are in equilibrium. But if it suddenly breaks out of the range and accepts the markets above or below, then I know it's now moving into a phase of prices that are considered fundamentally unfair. And I have clear and undeniable evidence that it accepts them, simply because a significant market shift is actively taking place right now. And what does that mean for me? It's quite simple for me to pinpoint the location now. I have a solid idea of what's happening, but I still lack the proof needed of that idea. Every idea is worthless. And that means for me, when I look at it on my trading desk, what does it all look like? For example, I'm using market profiling here now, and I see here is where the market is currently, and I know, all right, here the market is in balance, and above here it's in imbalance, and below here it's also in imbalance. My trade opening is right in the middle. And what do I do now? Now I'm gathering the necessary proof whether it actually makes sense to do a counter trade here. If the market moves over there. Now I'm looking at the volume here, and I see, all right, acceptance is being formed up here. But what does it look like at the top? Do I have unfinished auctions there, or do I have finished auctions, meaning completed options? I transfer that to my chart, and presto, I know immediately the probability, if it moves up there now, for example, is high for me at first, that it will move down here. What else do I have? It offers a clear, plannable path forward, as I know it will likely trade through the balance. Now I can also, as I said, 70% of the time this game takes place. But now it could be that the market breaks below here and suddenly has acceptance. Then I can also take a closer look at this area and see if it demonstrates to me right then that liquidity is being played exactly as I need it for my setup. Therefore, I really need to know which specific market is currently most effective and profitable for my strategies. What do I mean by that? Markets have distinct sets of operational parameters. Markets have vastly different and unique ranges of fluctuation. Markets thus have their own specific and essential key figures. And if I'm someone who trades very dynamically, for example, then I know this market is great for me, this market is great for me,, and then I know, for instance, this market is great for me. But if I'm the kind of person who prefers balanced trading because they're very calm and composed, then I know this market is great for me. These markets are readily available to me, and this specific market is perfect for me. But why is that? Because these markets have specifications. And I know exactly which specific markets bring which particular specifications. So that the whole process is highly effective for me, ensuring that my unique trading character, along with the different strategies that perfectly suit me, can find its full application there. For you, this essentially means that you know: which strategies are effective for your unique trading character. You know, I was really wondering which specific strategies I could actually use for myself. And you know, see which specific markets are the ones that will give me a positive expected value because they fit both A and B. And that's just incredibly and exceptionally valuable. Think about whether that could make the real difference in being able to establish your own strategies much better in the market over the very long term. I've really enjoyed being able to show you this approach, how we think, and how many large market participants think who recruit traders for their teams. And this is exactly the path you should think through very carefully. Enjoy it.