Let’s make this short and less painful: there is no perfect trading strategy.
You’re going to have to deal with losses. Of course, there are HFT (High-Frequency Trading) outfits that love to post their wins day after day, but here’s a secret: you’re not an HFT outfit. Plus, HFTs also lose – it’s just they place a million trades in a day, so their edges play out quite quickly.
So, it’s time to stop hoping and accept the fact that you’re going to lose sometimes. A perfect trading system is one that makes money in the long run, not a system that makes money with every trade – that’s utopia. And you will really only start making money once you accept that you’re going to lose money as well. It’s an old story, but if you’re not profitable yet, this is one of the reasons.
You Have To Decide Where You Stand As A Trader
You may already have a profitable trading system in your hands, you just don’t know it because, after every losing trade, you feel you need to adjust it so the loss you took can later be avoided. However, this means changing your system opens it up to other potential losses. At one point, you have to accept your trading system will lose trades, it’s just the nature of trading. In Poker, no one would ever consider the idea of trying to win every single hand they play, it’s a ridiculous thought process. Accept that this is you, this is your trading system, including its benefits and flaws.
Founder of trading education company, Certus Trading, Matt Choi, mentors other traders to find their own unique trading style. According to Choi, dwelling on your failures is counter-productive and advises traders to move on from their losses.
“You can’t let your emotions get in the way of your success,” says Choi. “After all, Thomas Edison said, ‘Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.’”
You have to strive for excellence, not perfection
If it’s not possible to fulfill your dream of creating a magic trading system, what is left? Excellence. It’s your job to make sure to follow your system 100%. Make sure you’re always trading at the peak of your performance. Strive for excellence and make every trade count. Every trade you take outside of your system can be an insult to yourself and the time and effort you put into developing your own style.
“Most traders take a good system and destroy it by trying to make it into a perfect system,” said Robert Prechter, American financial author, and stock market analyst.
Conclusion: Never Change A Running System
What definitely holds true in the world and the world of trading is once you make it be happy with it. Once you develop an effective system, don’t question it unless you are consistently losing money. Always evaluate whether you applied your system falsely or whether the market conditions changed so much that they defeated your system. Don’t be greedy, don’t be a perfectionist. Be an excellent trader that knows losing is a part of the game.