Any New Business Needs Long Term Planning

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Updated 9 years ago

I trade stocks for a living. This is a very difficult thing to do. Anyone can trade, but fewer than 5% make any profit at it over the long term. As far as making a comfortable living, I'll bet that's more like 1%. Why?

Most people that try to start a new business fail because they do not plan adequately. You must have short-term, medium-term, and long-term plans. You must follow your plan as you map it out, but at the same time, you must be flexible enough to change something that is not working.

My business is trading. I've made a trading plan that has gone through at least 50 iterations since I first started trading in 2006. Here's one thing I've learned: don't change horses in midstream just because one thing didn't work. Be patient and wait a few times to see if that particular way of trading doesn't work for at least three times before you try something else.

Besides a solid trading plan, you need a money management plan. How much of your equity will you put towards each trade? How much will you allow yourself to lose before you sell at a loss? How about profit? How long will you let things ride in the right direction before you take money off the table?

To be a good trader, you have to keep a rein on your emotions. You have to be cool, calm, and collected at all times. You need to remember that the markets don't know you or care about you. You need to not take any losses personally and "get mad" at the markets.

There's much more to this and there are a lot of good books to read if any of you are interested in trading. It doesn't matter if you want to trade futures, options, stocks or bonds. Let me know if you want help to learn how to trade to win!