What Really Matters in Trading

As a veteran trader with more than 20 years of experience, young traders often ask me, "What makes a successful trader?" I often reply, tongue in cheek, "If I knew that, would I be teaching?"

No matter how you want to slice it, there is no easy answer to a question like that. Asking a seasoned trader, "How do I learn to trade?" is like asking a doctor, "How do you make a sick person well?" or asking an attorney, "How do you win a lawsuit?"

There is no 2-cent answer to a million-dollar question. In fact, it is this desire by many novice traders to find a pat answer to the process of becoming a net-winning trader that prevents them from succeeding.

I believe that successful trading is a learned skill just like any other -- except that what you have to learn is not what you first think it is.
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