Why Developing Traders Struggle

Focusing on One Strategy for Better Results

Take 1 dimly lit curry house, 2 pints of lager, 3 friends with a combined 50+ years of trading experience, and ask the question…
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​“Why do most traders struggle? What’s the one thing that most get wrong.”
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​Several poppadoms later we all finally agreed…
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​Strategy hopping.
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​Now, sure, discipline matters, sticking to rules, correct risk management, etc etc. We all agreed that was a given, and there were certain ingredients you just had to have to make the cake…
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But, the one mistake all developing traders seem to make is moving around from strategy to strategy.
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And the one thing that forces a breakthrough is a relentless focus on one or two specific strategies only.
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Here’s how it usually goes:

  1. You discover a trading strategy and it works for a while. “Things are looking good.”
  2. Then the strategy starts to hit a losing streak. “Urgh, I thought I’d cracked it.”
  3. Eventually, you get disheartened and abandon that strategy for another.
  4. And this cycle continues until it’s broken or you give up.

This happens to almost all traders BTW, (me included in circa 2003) it’s human nature.
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​(Especially if you’re doing it on your own with no idea if the strategy you are using even has mileage.)
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​But, at some point, if you’re still in the game a breakthrough happens, and a light bulb goes off.
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​“No strategy is going to work 100% of the time, so I may as well focus on the strategy I like the most, and become the best I can at it.”
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​A mental shift occurs and you realise that most strategies will work given the right conditions.
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​And your job as a trader is to get very good at identifying the right conditions for your strategy.
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When the market is not in the right regime, you sit on your hands.
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Whether that’s for a few hours if you are a day trader, or a week if you are a swing trader.
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​Playing when the odds are in your favour is the ONLY way to win.
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​Strategy hopping almost always has you behind the curve.
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Pick your weapon…
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Then become a master at wielding that weapon…
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That’s how you break the cycle and move to the next level in this game.