Aspen Trading Group
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You finished reading numerous trading books, spent hours on blogs and whether you admit or not you probably also spent a weekend in Conference Room A at the Best Western by the airport listening to some schmuck tell you about red light; green light systems.
Everyone does their tour of duty, thankfully you are a bit wiser and dug into the legit stuff early on and saved yourself a ton of time and money.
However, you still have that nagging feeling, the inability to execute your plan or get in the way once you do execute a trade.
Sound familiar?
It is normal. Trust me, when I look back on my early days as an aspiring trader, I too was in the same place. A well-thought out plan but ZERO conviction to execute it. My plans to become a profitable trader were looking grim.
Given that I was day trading back then (1994) and making 20-50+ trades a day, there was no rigorous pre-trade game plan. The trades lasted on average less than 2-minutes, the only thing that was important was:
1. Identifying the momentum
2. Executing the trade without ANY hesitation
It was that pesky second component that had me hung up. Hitting the buy/sell buttons faster than the next guy. Never being afraid to lift an offer or hit a bid.
No, like most people, I needed ‘proof’ that my forecast would play out. Proof, meaning that prices started moving up or down. Well sadly that is not the way day trading worked back then, waiting for proof meant that you were left with no shares as prices ripped higher.
There were 3 elements to profitable trading back then:
1. You had to be very quick on the keyboard
2. Have tremendous conviction
3. Have the ability to change your mind in a fraction of a second
#2 was where I lacked, and for good reason. To this point, all I had done was sketch out my trading plan, observe to see if it made sense and then entered the arena.
Given that most people’s brains require some evidence/proof before doing something, I was never the first guy to be lifting offers or hitting bids – at that point it was not clear.
Why couldn’t I trust my gut and let it fly? Simple. I had no tangible evidence that my approach actually worked. It seemed like it by watching the markets, but with no meaningful increase in my trading account, I was left with ‘what if’s’.
It was not until a new trader in our office came in one day and started shooting the lights out. And guess what? He was executing the same exact set-ups I saw each day but he did it with conviction.
That was it – the proof I needed. I needed to see that someone else could make money – it was that simple. He finished the morning session with a couple extra grand in his account. I needed no further proof.
The point here is that all of us likely have some great ideas and approaches to trade the market but lack the real world evidence that it works. Back testing and demo accounts come nowhere near the actual experience or watching a fellow trader prove your ideas in real-time.
Thus in order to take your trading to the next level, you need to align yourself with a trader who is doing this day in and day out. Trust me, when you start to see how a professional trades the market, the following will happen:
1. You instantly you will see clarity and simplicity in the way they trade
2. You will see a framework that is identical for each new trade
3. You will see YOU and know that you can also make money trading
Who that person or trading service is is entirely up to you.
Nobody gets ahead professionally without mentors and guidance.
Why should trading be any different?
Everyone does their tour of duty, thankfully you are a bit wiser and dug into the legit stuff early on and saved yourself a ton of time and money.
However, you still have that nagging feeling, the inability to execute your plan or get in the way once you do execute a trade.
Sound familiar?
It is normal. Trust me, when I look back on my early days as an aspiring trader, I too was in the same place. A well-thought out plan but ZERO conviction to execute it. My plans to become a profitable trader were looking grim.
Given that I was day trading back then (1994) and making 20-50+ trades a day, there was no rigorous pre-trade game plan. The trades lasted on average less than 2-minutes, the only thing that was important was:
1. Identifying the momentum
2. Executing the trade without ANY hesitation
It was that pesky second component that had me hung up. Hitting the buy/sell buttons faster than the next guy. Never being afraid to lift an offer or hit a bid.
No, like most people, I needed ‘proof’ that my forecast would play out. Proof, meaning that prices started moving up or down. Well sadly that is not the way day trading worked back then, waiting for proof meant that you were left with no shares as prices ripped higher.
There were 3 elements to profitable trading back then:
1. You had to be very quick on the keyboard
2. Have tremendous conviction
3. Have the ability to change your mind in a fraction of a second
#2 was where I lacked, and for good reason. To this point, all I had done was sketch out my trading plan, observe to see if it made sense and then entered the arena.
Given that most people’s brains require some evidence/proof before doing something, I was never the first guy to be lifting offers or hitting bids – at that point it was not clear.
Why couldn’t I trust my gut and let it fly? Simple. I had no tangible evidence that my approach actually worked. It seemed like it by watching the markets, but with no meaningful increase in my trading account, I was left with ‘what if’s’.
It was not until a new trader in our office came in one day and started shooting the lights out. And guess what? He was executing the same exact set-ups I saw each day but he did it with conviction.
That was it – the proof I needed. I needed to see that someone else could make money – it was that simple. He finished the morning session with a couple extra grand in his account. I needed no further proof.
The point here is that all of us likely have some great ideas and approaches to trade the market but lack the real world evidence that it works. Back testing and demo accounts come nowhere near the actual experience or watching a fellow trader prove your ideas in real-time.
Thus in order to take your trading to the next level, you need to align yourself with a trader who is doing this day in and day out. Trust me, when you start to see how a professional trades the market, the following will happen:
1. You instantly you will see clarity and simplicity in the way they trade
2. You will see a framework that is identical for each new trade
3. You will see YOU and know that you can also make money trading
Who that person or trading service is is entirely up to you.
Nobody gets ahead professionally without mentors and guidance.
Why should trading be any different?
