Trader Mindset

Michael Martin discusses the roles of luck and skill in your trading and offers a fool-proof way to create a greater amount of luck.

All you can hope for is that you use the frustration to motivate you to find another solution to decrease the frequency of what brings forth the frustration in the first place. That is of course, unless you want to continue feeling frustrated - then keep doing what you're doing because you already have a perfect system of generating frustration.

Has this every happened to you? You're in a great trade, you have unrealized gains, and you're feeling good about your execution. You're about to add to your winner, when the market craps the bed and takes the entire market down so that your gains are wiped out in less than an hour. Worse, the market rebounds entirely over the next few days as you watch your former position rally to new highs. Do you chase it? Not a good idea. Getting back in because you're angry is another form of revenge trading. If you don't have a bona fide rule for re-entering such a trade, consider looking at reversal patterns. If your market sells off with the overall market, but rebounds, it might show up as a reversal pattern. A good one to start with is Victor Sperandeo's "2B Reversal" as depicted in his book "Methods of a Wall St. Master." You can trade this as a chart pattern or code it into your systematized rules.

You will get fired for trading in a way where you don't have a defined edge faster than you will for poor performance.

Your "leads" or potential clients are not going to understand some of the industry terms that you might use during your presentation, so they are not going to know what questions to ask. They are not going to want to look stupid, so don't expect them to ask you what a certain word means. Here's what I would do: 1) avoid jargon - don't use big words that the average person won't know 2) stay on message - answer every question in terms of how your system or trading rules would perform 3) take a breath and take your time - it's better to take a beat and put some thought into your answers, than be rapid-fire. It's not a race. 4) "I don't know" - you'll gain a lot of respect if you have to say "I don't know, but let me get back to you in X days." You might have to research something or double-check on an idea before you open your mouth. It also gives you a specific reason to follow up with them. Don't let curveballs throw you and take you off on tangents. Focus on your trading rules while your trading, and when you're marketing.

This is a brief glimpse of some of what we cover in our courses. No one wants to hear how great a trader or PM you are in a raging bull market. Everyone has it all figured out. Then something bad happens and they're equity gets hit by 10%... You enter the picture and show people how you can remain calm under pressure and capture the majority of the up moves and not capitulate at the market bottom. Position yourself as a trusted advisor who the HNW individual will hire no differently than they would an estate planner or CPA.

Live instruction from Michael Martin who is joined by Peter Borish and Brynne Kelly. Other lessons by Scott Kaminski and Tony Saliba. Plus, special guests...