A Strategical Approach to Success in Trading

Day trading can be quite the challenge. Not only it is the hardest job on Earth, it is not easy to get into. Mostly because there was never a clear path to follow. You just had to jump into it and figure it out as you go.

If you listen to the Words of Rizdom Podcast, you will find that a trader's journey vastly differs from person to person. As someone who struggled a lot, I had to design the most efficient way to get any newcomer to their objective of wealth and freedom. This article is a straightforward guide you can actually follow. By simply reading it, you'll be that much closer to your final goal!

Your career path can be divided between 5 different phases :

• Novice
• Student
• Analyst
• Unaccomplished Trader
• Money Printer

I will go into great details for each of those different phases. I strongly suggest you to take notes, for this the best way I've found to become a professional trader. Do not expect it to be fast, and do not expect it to be easy. Lasting success and mastery requires going through pain.

Novice : The Origin

At this stage, you barely have TradingView installed yet, and you are not sure what leverage is. You have probably heard of trading Forex via this friend who joined a sketchy program that focuses more on recruiting than actually trading, or from a YouTube ad promising a Rolls-Royce in the next 12 hours.

The point is you have either never entered a trade or lost money by listening to that old friend who promised you that you are all going to become rich off Safemoon.

However, it is during this phase that you are going to make the most important decision of your career! And if you want to be efficient, you want to make this decision definitive. Phase 1 is the phase you choose where you are going to get your EDUCATION from.

Listen... you cannot learn the craft on your own. People will always try to glorify themselves by telling you made up stories about how they were raised in the jungle by monkeys and learned how to trade on their own in the span of a month and became multi-millionaire.

Do not trust those people. You cannot learn a skill this complex on your own in less than a lifetime. That's why you won't find any early trading books written by 20 years old traders. You cannot even afford to spend a few minutes a week meditating, where are you going to find a whole lifetime to learn trading?

Luckily, smart people have made it easier for us and information is readily available on the internet. However, the information comes in different forms, and they all have their pros and cons. Here is a quick list of the way you can learn :

• YouTube surfing
• Paid courses
• Books
• In person apprenticeships
• Online one-on-one training

Let's dive deeper into each and see which one is worth the time and/or money!

YouTube Surfing

If you're exploring YouTube looking for free content, just stop it... That's not cost effective. "How can it not be since it is free?" you may ask, well you are ultimately paying with your time, and, more importantly, your mental bandwidth.

I'll end your search for free content right here right now : The Inner Circle Trader. This YouTube channel has everything you need to know about trading. Michael teaches you how the market really moves. I would never be where I am without him.

If you want to go down this route, I will soon release a full guide on the most effective way to learn ICT concepts. Make sure you're subscribed to the newsletter to not miss it!

Paid Courses

Simply put, 99% of them are complete garbage. If the "mentor" is only selling a course, it's 100% of the time not worth your money. You need more than that. You want :

• Quality Access to the Mentor
• Homework & Practice Drills
• Accountability System
• Course Release Over Time

Selling courses is an easy business model even failed traders can make money of. The easiest part of trading is acquiring the knowledge, and that is all they need to put together a simple $499 course. I would avoid courses altogether.

Books

They are useless at this stage of the journey. All the technical analysis and "trading strategies" books are respectfully not useful, unless it's about quantitative trading, or long-term investing, in which case they can be beneficial. There are great books on the psychological aspect of trading and on trade management strategies, but they will come in handy at a later stage!

In-Person Apprenticeships

This is, in my opinion, the best way to learn any craft. Think about how blacksmiths had to learn the art of working with metal. They went to the local blacksmith and studied directly under him for a few years, until they became good enough to craft by themselves.

The same applies to trading. If you can find someone local to your city through social media, and learn under him, you'll have the highest chance of success. It's going to be a little bit more expensive, but totally worth the money.

Online One-on-One Training

If you cannot afford apprenticeships or cannot find someone (I don't know maybe you live in a small farmer's village), your best bet is going to be online one-on-one trading. It can also be small groups, which are usually less expensive.

You want to make the most out of your sessions, and learn as efficiently as possible. Lessons need to be live, not per-recorded, and you should have constant access to your mentor.

Student : The Growing Tree

First, I want to congratulate you! Most people will not read up to phase 2, and few of you will actually properly complete it.

As a new student, your job is to commit to an education medium and stick to it until the end. If you keep changing mentors, YouTube channel, trading strategy, or course, all you're doing is regressing. You are never actually progressing or getting better.

The student phase is the phase almost all traders do incorrectly, but it seems like they just can't help themselves.

YOU DO NOT WANT TO TRADE DURING THIS PHASE. NOT EVEN PAPER TRADING!

Most of you will not listen to this, hence why most of you will fail. Drop your ego, delete your trading platform off your devices, and focus on learning. You essentially want to learn there is about trading. It's not much of an action-based phase.

This phase should last anywhere from 3 to 4 months. Less than that and you're not being serious about this business. If you finished the whole mentorship you were taking in less that 3 months, you've been scammed. If you are 4 months in and are not done learning yet, that is not a bad thing, but you can do phase 3 simultaneously.

Do not forget that learning is not simply about watching a course. You want to take as many notes as you humanly can, they are going to be useful later on. Every time to learn a new concept, you need to "experience" it inside the charts. Go look for it, practice it. That's why I always give practice drills to students.

Analyst : The Witness

Good job! You have reached the most important step : training the eye, and building your strategy. At this point you should have a stockpile of notes, and a pretty good understanding of the markets.

This is a 3 part phase :

• Observation
• Conception
• Validation

Observation

From the day you enter phase 3, you want to spend at least 2 months reviewing your notes and applying them to your charts. You want to get your eyes used to the concepts you've been learning.

During this phase, you should still not be trading. You're only a market witness. Tape reading is all you should focus on. Do not take live or paper trades yet. That's only going to build bad habits.

Remember that trading during phase 2 and 3 is the reason most people fail. They want to succeed way too early. All they end up doing is losing money, which leads to them wanting to make it back, which leads to them losing even more money, which.... until they quit.

Whatever timeline you have for success right now, double it.

You should hold a trading journal, where you log your market observations, and note down the relation between what you see and what you've learned. This will enhance your pattern recognition ability, and ultimately boost your analysis skills. The trading journal is the most important tool a trader has, and is, in my opinion, indispensable for the conception phase.

Conception

If your mentor did not go over the conception of a trading plan in his lessons, you got scammed once again. You basically want to take the concepts you've learned and the experience you acquired to build a simple trading plan.

Go over your trading journal, look at the notes you've taken, the patterns and phenomenon that you've been able to clearly identify and distinguish, and conceive a methodology to anticipate the phenomenon in the future. This is going to be your trading model. A few practical trade and risk management rules, and you have yourself a full trading plan.

I cannot stress this enough : S-I-M-P-L-E

The more complex and elaborate your plan is, the harder it is going to be to follow. As a new student, you cannot afford to have complex plans yet. That day will come, but for now, focus on the most important.

I have released one of my own trading model here. If you're an ICT trading and find it hard to conceive your own original trading plan, you can use it as your own.

Validation

This phase consists of taking your plan to the testing ground. You're not trading yet! You want to take your fresh trading plan and hop on a backtesting platform.

Backtesting simply means to test your strategy against old market data to see if it holds a candle. You should also test your strategy in the live markets. Open a paper trading account, get comfortable with the platform and the different ways to open a trade.

The most important step here is to track your trades, this is going to be necessary for phase 4. The testing part should not take you less than 3 months. You should focus on building good habits and confidence in your method.

The goal you should aim for is 500 to 1000 recorded trades, tracked in a spreadsheet. DO NOT ASCEND TO THE NEXT PHASE UNTIL YOU SEE PROFITABILITY.

Unaccomplished Trader : The Greenhorn

Great! You're almost there! You are not a professional yet, but you can start risking a little bit of money! You should not aim for more than a FEW DOLLARS per trade. Your time will come when you will make 4 to 5 figures per trade, don't worry.

This phase is meant to take your skills to the actual playfield, where emotions are going to get involved. This is the full market experience.

I defend you from risking more than $10 per trade, you do not deserve that luxury yet. Even this might be a little too much for a new trader. Remember that at this stage, you're probably not a good trader yet. The market does not care about your background, your IQ test result or about how much money you have already. Everyone is equally bad in the markets.

Whether you are a 17 years old farmer who only made contact with the internet last year or a 40 years old Harvard grad who is also CEO of a media company, you still risk no more than $10 per trade.

Load $1,000 into a trading account and start trading with a $5-10 risk.

"Oh but I don't have $1,000 to start, what should I do?"

Well, if you're in a first world country and can't manage to save $1,000, trading is not a business meant for you. Get a job, work a second one if needed, deliver food on your bike, etc. You don't even need to be creative. If you're from a country where the wage makes it impossible to make that amount, start with whatever fits your lifestyle, or the equivalent in terms of buying power.

Psychological Warfare

The main goal of this phase is for you to start mapping your psychological flaws, biases and illusions that cause your emotional reactions. You want to work on solving those issues, which are the main things that will hinder you from becoming profitable.

It is only at this stage that I recommend you start reading trading books. I have two solid recommendations:

• Trading in the Zone, by Mark Douglas
• The Mental Game of Trading, by Jared Tendler

Those two books alone will give you both the theory, and framework you need to become a better thinker, and less susceptible to emotions when you're trading. If needed, I even advise you seek help with a professional trading coach. This phase can take a while. Some people have more conflicting beliefs than others, and it takes more time for them to reverse their thinking in a way that can coexist with their consistent trading identity.

After 2 months of profitability, you can raise it to $20 per trade, and after 6 months, raise the risk to 0.5 to 1% of whatever balance you have. Rapid growth only leads to bad habits. You want to take things slowly.

Do not forget to track ALL your trades. You need proof to ascend to the next level.

"I think I'm ready to ..."

Why do you think that? Do you have proof?

Money Printer : The Coin Forge

Time to throw a party! You have survived the harsh journey across Mordor! You are now a professional trader. You have lived through the struggles I intentionally left out in this article, and have done what 95% of people would not even attempt.

You have a proven record of profitability, no one holds the power to discredit you. There are multiple avenues for you to make money. You can either :

• Trade your own capital
• Sign up for proprietary trading firms
• Start a signal service
• Start your own private fund
• Teach
• Etc.

Trading is very flexible career indeed!

Understand that very few will make it to this phase, simply because very few will follow the instructions I laid out here. This article could very well change your life. If you've been unsuccessful trading before, start again from phase one.

Take those months seriously! I don't care if you made 4000% in your first month, you will still risk $10 the next month. You finished your course in a first week? Well you still got 11 weeks to go, so you better find more study material.

Like my mentor always says :

Submit to the time...

Will You Take Action?

Now that you have the literal blueprint, will you take action? Will you start now? Alex Hormozi, a 9 figure businessman always says that the velocity with which one goes from idea to action is what sets successful people apart.

You better start now!

end.

If you're a serious student and value your time, apply for my complete one-on-one coaching program here. We will explore the different ways I can personally help you.